IDEAS in the Afternoon for March 2025
* Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Monday, March 3
THE MANY LIVES OF MARIA CHAPDELAINE
The novel Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hémon was a global sensation when it was published in the early 20th century. It's since become a cornerstone of Quebec culture. In fact, the Musée Louis Hémon is the only literary museum in Quebec, and was reopened in the summer of 2024 at a cost of six million dollars. Yet Louis Hémon himself was actually from France, and was killed in a train accident before the novel was ever published. It's since been translated into over 20 languages, has inspired four film versions, several plays, an opera — even a pop song. And Maria the character has been painted, sculpted, and featured on a stamp. There's even a rue Maria Chapdelaine in Montreal — not bad for a fictional character. Yet today, the book remains far less known in English Canada and the English-speaking world. This documentary by contributor Catherine Annau examines the many lives that Maria Chapdelaine has lived, and continues to live.
Monday, March 10
NORTH ON NORTH
Inhabit Media is the only independent publishing company in the Canadian Arctic. Since 2006, it's been working to ensure Arctic voices are heard across Canada. They're at the forefront of a new era of Inuit literature, film and TV. From Iqaluit, IDEAS producer Pauline Holdsworth speaks with Lousie Flaherty, Ashley Qilavaq-Savard and Jamesie Fournier about telling the stories of their home, finding creativity and inspiration from the land, and the relationship between writing and education.
Monday, March 17
SAY YES: IMPROVISATION IN ART AND LIFE
For many people, the thought of speaking in public is horrifying. Imagine trying to make people laugh. Without a script. And just making it up as you go along. This documentary by Peter Brown shows how improv can be both exhilarating and liberating — and maybe, just maybe, a force for good.
Monday, March 24
NAMING OF LIFE: THE RACE TO CLASSIFY UNIDENTIFIED SPECIES
In a time of unprecedented biodiversity loss — what's in a name? In 2023, scientists announced a startling discovery in the Pacific Ocean — in a site proposed for deep sea mining, the seafloor was not a barren wasteland, but a rich underwater garden, bustling with life — in fact, thousands of undiscovered life forms. The discovery of so many species unknown to science raised concerns about unintended impacts of ocean mining, but it also highlighted an unsettling fact about our relationship to the natural world: 86 per cent of land species and 91 per cent of marine species remain undiscovered. With an unprecedented change to the natural world underway, are we running out of time to classify the life around us — and what is lost if we don't?
Monday, March 31
TBD
