Raw Footage

A three-second aerial shot shows the tops of shacks in a rural slum. The as yet unseen narrator tells you it is Soweto, a black township in South Africa, “the scene of so many necklacings and violence.” Violins pitch and drone eerily behind his commentary. Now you’re on the ground, about 10 metres from a… Continue reading Raw Footage

Harvesting Hope

The elevator door slides open to a ninth-floor corridor tiled in black-and-white marble in a downtown Toronto office building. A sign on the receptionist’s desk announces that this is Varity Corporation, until two years ago known as Massey Ferguson. Behind the woman, on a cabinet, a miniature fleet of Massey-Ferguson tractors looks ready to harvest… Continue reading Harvesting Hope

Monkey Business in Bestseller Land

On March 2, 1987, Carsten Stroud’s newly released book Close Pursuit: A Week in the Life of an NYPD Homicide Cop was glowingly reviewed in Maclean’s magazine. It was, said the magazine, a “compelling portrait of New York City homicide detective Eddie Kennedy.” Two weeks later, Close Pursuit was tenth on the magazine’s nonfiction bestseller… Continue reading Monkey Business in Bestseller Land

More in Anger

Suddenly in April, 1987, George Bain, dean of Canada’s political columnists, disappeared from The Globe and Mati’s editorial page. Three months earlier, he had written his last column for the Globe’s Report on Business Magazine. Although inquiring readers were sent letters to the effect that Bain had simply quit writing the columns, they never learned… Continue reading More in Anger

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