August 15, 2024 The TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) Elders have launched a billboard campaign to draw attention to the use of glyphosate in forestry. The group has been campaigning to end glyphosate-based herbicide use in Anishinaabek forests along the north shore of Lake Ontario for over a decade. Read their press release here.
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July 2024 Into the Weeds: Dewayne "Lee" Johnson vs Monsanto Company is now available to stream in The Netherlands and Belgium via That's the Spirit.
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Image by Ran Zheng
May 29, 2024 During May, Asian Heritage Month, Dreamwalker Dance Company has been sharing a collection of Firehorse & Shadow Story Poems — four short films holding some of the extraordinary People, Places and Stories that came forward over their year of Firehorse & Shadow Community Activations in Vancouver’s Historic Chinatown. All four films are now available to watch on Vimeo:
Mercury Films’ own Cameron Saville, Sarah Genge, Ran Zheng, Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier collaborated with Dreamwalker and others on the production and post-production of the films.
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May 1, 2024 RIP Paul Auster.
We worked closely with Paul on our 2009 film, Act of God. We have made the final scene available to watch here. Paul reads the story of his experience of lightning at summer camp, while Fred Frith improvises a storm.
The Canadian Premiere of Medihadirected by Hasan Oswald on Thursday, March 21 at 7 p.m.
Jen Markowitz’s Summer QamponFriday, March 22, 7 p.m.
The verité style drama Green BorderbyAgnieszka Holland on Saturday, March 23, 3 p.m.
We Are Guardians, directed by Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman, and Edivan Guajajara also on Saturday, March 23, 6 p.m.
All in person screenings are free of charge, and the films will be subsequently available across Canada to stream on the HRWFF digital platform March 24-28.
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Stills from Mediha, Summer Qamp, Green Border and We Are Guardians
March 2024 The Human Rights Watch Film Festival is returning to Hot Docs later this month with four in-theatre film screenings and online streaming.
"The Human Rights Watch Film Festival (HRWFF) bears witness to human rights violations in direct storytelling and exposé form, and creates a forum for courageous individuals on both sides of the lens to empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference."
The Holier It Gets (1999) was director Jennifer Baichwal’s second feature film and a very personal one, documenting the journey she took with her three siblings to immerse their father’s ashes in the Ganges river. The film is now available to rent or own via Vimeo On Demand.
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February 2024 This month, the British Film Institute in London will screen all three documentary features in The Anthropocene Trilogy: Manufactured Landscapes (2006), Watermark (2013), and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018). Select showings will include discussions with filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky.
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch will open the BFI Future Film Festival with a special IMAX screening.
Concurrently, Edward Burtynsky's largest exhibition to date will be on display in London at Saatchi Gallery: EXTRACTION/ABSTRACTION.
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Executive producers Jennifer and Nicholas at the premiere
February 2024 An Optimist's Guide to the Planet follows Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on a global journey to find hope in the age of climate change. The new series will be available to stream on February 8th via Crave in Canada and Bloomberg in the US.
November 2023 We have a new Italian distributor for Into the Weeds: Dewayne "Lee" Johnson vs. Monsanto Company: CG Entertainment. Watch the film in Italy here.
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November 2023 A very short film on the first integrated carcinogenicity study results from the Global Glyphosate Study. The study results arrive as lawmakers around the world are about to make decisions about the regulation of the herbicide glyphosate (the active chemical in Roundup).
On October 13th, the EU voted on whether to continue to allow the use of glyphosate there. Due to lack of a majority vote the draft regulation will be referred to the Appeal Committee in November.
In the US, a bill has been introduced to Congress that would prohibit local regulation of pesticide use. If passed as an amendment to the 2023 Farm Bill, this would overturn all local pesticide laws that go further than the federal-level pesticide restrictions. If you're in the US, you can participate in our letter campaign here.
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Photo: Brian D. Johnson
October 2023 The Colour of Ink is now available to watch for free on the NFB/ONF website. Director of Photography Nick de Pencier won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Cinematography for this film. Watch it here.
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August 2023 Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company is coming to over 600 movie theatres across the US as a special event screening on one night only: this upcoming October 3rd. The feature film will be supplemented by exclusive follow-up bonus footage featuring findings and expert testimony from scientists, doctors, policy makers, farmers, environmentalists, food safety advocates and concerned public figures.
August 14, 2023 This past weekend The Anthropocene Project opened at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. Nick de Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal and Sophie Hackett (AGO) traveled to Taiwan to help install the exhibition. The Director General of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, the Acting Director of KMFA and AGO curator Sophie Hackett made speeches at the press conference, which were followed by a ceremony of unveiling of the work. The city mayor attended the opening ceremony and also made a speech. Thank you to the KMFA team and everyone involved for this beautiful iteration of the project.
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August 10, 2023 The latest stop on The Anthropocene Project's world tour: Taiwan! The exhibition will open this week on Saturday, August 12th at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, and run until December 3rd. Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier along with Sophie Hackett (Curator of Photography at the AGO) will present a lecture at 2pm on Saturday at the gallery auditorium.
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July 24, 2023 Just announced! The feature documentary Swan Song will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September 2023. Swan Song is directed by Chelsea McMullan, who wrote the film with producer Sean O’Neill. Executive producers include Nicholas de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal of Mercury Films, and Canadian actress Neve Campbell.
The film follows members of the National Ballet of Canada as they mount a new production of “Swan Lake” directed by ballet icon Karen Kain on the eve of her retirement.
Showtimes for the screening at TIFF will be announced August 15 here.
The documentary will be released theatrically in Canada on September 22. The project was developed with CBC and will air as a four-part limited series on CBC Gem and CBC TV, premiering November 22.
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July 1, 2023 An exhibition of watercolours by the painter Ann MacIntosh Duff opens today at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. We have made a short film to accompany the show and attempt to capture Ann's charm and singular talent. Watch it in the first-floor theatre at the gallery, or online here.
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April 11, 2023 Nick de Pencier has won a Canadian Screen Award! Congratulations to him and the whole The Colour of Ink team.
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February 22, 2023 We are pleased to announce some very exciting Canadian Screen Award nominations:
Summit 72 has been nominated for Best History Documentary Program or Series!
And Nick de Pencier has been nominated for Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Documentary for The Colour of Ink.
We are so proud of our wonderful team.
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January 10, 2023 We're thrilled to announce that our four-part docuseries on the legendary '72 Summit Series is now available worldwide on Blu-ray/DVD combo boxed set, featuring several hours of extras!
January 2023 Into the Weeds: Dewayne "Lee" Johnson vs. Monsanto Company is now available to stream for free on CBC Gem. Also coming soon to the U.S. - stay tuned for updates.
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December 11, 2022 The National Film Board in Montreal screened Into The Weeds as a side event for The U.N. Environmental Programme's #COP15. The NFB and Telefilm Canada partnered with COP15 for a green stopover, an initiative presented in partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the director and special guests: Jennifer Baichwal, Director of Into The Weeds, Antonious Petro, executive director of Regeneration Canada, Lorraine Rekmans, Former Executive Director, National Aboriginal Forestry Association, Troy Woodhouse, Impact Assessment Coordinator for Mushkegowuk Tribal Council, Dr. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, Board Member, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Mariann Bassey Orovwuje, Deputy Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria and an introduction with special guest, Mayor of Verdun, Marie-Andrée Mauger.
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September 2022 SUMMIT 72: Produced by Mercury Films and Impossible Objects, this timely documentary series premiered September 14, 2022 on CBC. It tells the definitive story of the legendary 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series of Hockey upon its 50th anniversary, and through a modern lens explores its legacy and lasting influence on Canadian national identity, framing it against the political and cultural climate of the times in both countries, and around the world. With never-before-seen 16mm archival footage restored in stunning 4k, and exclusive interviews with key players, SUMMIT 72 brings an unforgettable moment in Canadian history to life on screen as never seen before. Audiences will relive—or experience for the first time—the adrenaline-fuelled, edge-of-your-seat drama of one of the most monumental cultural proxy battles of the Cold War, and trace its many reverberations in the zeitgeist right up to the present day.
June 1st, 2022 INTO THE WEEDS IS NOW PLAYING IN THEATRES See the list of theatres here and stay connected with us on social for additional screening info Instagram
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May 20, 2022 Into The Weeds opens in theatres today! The film tells the powerful story of Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, a former Bay Area groundskeeper who takes on a multinational agrochemical corporation after a terminal cancer diagnosis. THE GLOBE & MAIL CRITIC’S PICK “Jennifer Baichwal’s Into the Weeds is terrifying, tremendous courtroom drama” > Read full review on Globe & Mail "Margaret Atwood on getting into the weeds with Jennifer Baichwal, Canada’s fiercest filmmaker" > Read more on Globe & Mail
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March 30, 2022 We are thrilled to announce that our film, INTO THE WEEDS will open this year's Hot Docs Festival on April 28th.
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July 2021 Mercury Films had the honour of creating the visuals for "Torn Again" by Daniel Lanois (feat. Leonard Cohen). Video by Roland Schlimme, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. Pedal steel and lap steel performance by Daniel Lanois and Rocco DeLuca.
