CURRENT MISSION

Finish the third documentary in the END of SUBURBIA trilogy. In our new doc I'm travelling to cities asking the question: How can cities save the world?. I have a feeling i'll be staying on a lot of couches...

ABOUT ME

I've been a member of a live/work artist's loft community in Liberty Village, Toronto, for 15 years. I love to share the experience with friends and fellow travelers. Check out the photos

PHILOSOPHY

I hate end of the world movies! The last thing we need right now is movies about the end of the world. Otherwise I believe in challenging convention whenever possible. I'm a cat person (as opposed to a "dog person"?) if that makes any sense. I'm also not very good about describing myself, if that isn't already clear...

Here is my current favourite quote:

I loved you, so I drew these tides of
Men into my hands
And wrote my will across the
Sky and stars
To earn you freedom, the seven
Pillared worthy house,
That your eyes might be
Shining for me
When I came

T.E.Lawrence, from Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm new to CS, but looking forward to hosting travelers and showing the hospitality i've received so often in other parts of the world. CS brings big-hearted, smart people together from all over the world.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

AWESOME.

Interests

I'm a news junkie. I love documentaries (and speculative fiction) when i'm not watching Al Jazeera or France24. Or now with my ipad app I can geek out to NASA HD (or Pentagon HD, or BikiniTV..)
I love cities! I'm convinced that deeply understanding the cities around us, and the communities we live in, is one of the keys to thriving in the future.

• cats
• dogs
• architecture
• photography
• documentaries
• film making
• news
• movies
• traveling

Music, Movies, and Books

I'm re-reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy when i'm not reading up on resilient cities for my new documentary. Robinson's novel The Years of Rice and Salt is also one of my recent favourites. I'm almost finished Cloud Atlas and look forward to seeing Halle Berry in the disco 70's in the movie adaptation in late 2012...
I'm also reading Simon Sebag Montefior's awesome two-part biography of Stalin.
Movies: My favourite film is probably Mikhailkov's Burnt by the Sun; British humour and recently Portlandia (if you too have lived on the West Coast with passive-aggressive hipsters, you will love it)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Our documentary The END of SUBURBIA became Canada's all-time biggest indie-doc and helped catalyze the growing community resilience and Transition Towns movements. Cool! In close second place: living in Nairobi when I was 17 and travelling through Rwanda with missionaries.

Teach, Learn, Share

filmmaking, editing, photography, resilience, urbanism, architecture, peak oil, end of suburbia

Countries I’ve Visited

Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Palestine, Portugal, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, Kenya

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