THE DOC PROJECT
DOCUMENTARY: PADDLE OF THE CENTURY
Don Starkell wasn't the kind of guy to shy away from improbable odds. So when people told him his dream of paddling a canoe from Winnipeg to the Amazon was impossible, it fuelled his determination to do it.
But Don didn't plan to make the trip alone. For a decade一since they were young kids一he had been preparing his teenage sons, Don and Dana to join him on the epic adventure.
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The world-record-breaking trip would stretch nearly 20,000 kilometres, through 13 countries, and would include life-threatening tropical storms, fierce waves and a near-execution in Honduras.
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THE DOC PROJECT
DOCUMENTARY:
THE LIBRARIANS AND THE DRAG QUEENS
When two librarians in Kelowna B.C. decide to hold Drag Queen Story Hour for kids, they inadvertently unleash an ideological tempest on the city of Kelowna—engulfing librarians, activists, parents and politicians. A pitched battle ensues, to define what exactly the role of a library is一who is it for? And who gets to decide?
IDEAS
DOCUMENTARY:THE MATTER OF MEAT
Eating meat: some say we've evolved to do it. It's in our DNA. It's how we got our big brains. Yet others, as far back as Pythagoras, have argued that eating meat is bad for our bodies, cruel to animals, and toxic to the planet. Now—perhaps more than ever—when it comes to the matter of meat, clear-cut answers can be hard to come by.
TAPESTRY
FEATURE:
KEEPING THE FAITH AMID WAR
Reverend Ivan Rusyn was forced to flee his home in Bucha shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. A month into the war, Russian missiles hit the Kyiv seminary he heads一just days after he and the rest of the faculty were evacuated.
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Tapestry host Mary Hynes called this one of her most memorable interviews with the show.
TAPESTRY
MINI-DOC:
CELESTIAL WAYFARING, DENE-STYLE
Fred Sangris learned from his father and grandfather how to navigate and mark the days with nothing more than the stars and the moon to guide him.
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He's an elder of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and the chief of the community of Ndilǫ, North West Territories.
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His grandfather told him the legend of Yamoòzha, a traveller suspended in the stars with an arrow in his back. Then his father told him to burn his calendar and throw away his watch.
TAPESTRY
PERSONAL ESSAY:
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT HOW WE TALK ABOUT DEATH
My dad died of cancer in 2009. A few months before his death, he penned his own obituary.He wrote: "Because his cancer likewise did not survive, Roger declared the duel a draw."
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Funny because it's true, I guess. Yet we've been deluged over the years with the phrase "lost their battle with cancer." But there must be a better way to talk about death. Right?
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