Media Releases

Back from Egypt: Filmmaker/activist John Greyson and Cecilia Greyson to speak at OISE

March 11, 2014

TORONTO, ON – The Ontario Insti­tute for Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to presents activist/filmmaker John Greyson and his sis­ter Cecil­ia Greyson in an exclu­sive Toron­to engage­ment: Arrest­ed in Cairo: Reflec­tions on Repres­sion and Sol­i­dar­i­ty, a con­ver­sa­tion and film screen­ing on Fri­day, March 21, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

Cana­di­an film­mak­er and activist John Greyson, along with emer­gency room doc­tor Tarek Loubani, was arrest­ed in Egypt in August 2013 while try­ing to access Gaza on a human­i­tar­i­an mis­sion. They were beat­en and held with­out charges in a Cairo prison for sev­en weeks. An inter­na­tion­al cam­paign ulti­mate­ly helped to secure the release of the two Cana­di­ans, but fel­low jour­nal­ist Mohamed Fah­my, incar­cer­at­ed in the same jail, remains behind. Through­out the ordeal, John’s sis­ter Cecil­ia act­ed as media spokesper­son. Now reunit­ed, the sib­lings will share expe­ri­ences about the cri­sis from both sides, reflect­ing on the pol­i­tics of inter­na­tion­al jus­tice and the impli­ca­tions of their expe­ri­ences for social jus­tice edu­ca­tion.

John Greyson is one of Canada’s most pro­lif­ic and high­ly hon­oured media artists, and an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor in the film depart­ment at York Uni­ver­si­ty, Toron­to. He has pro­duced over 50 films and videos, which have screened at over 500 inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals and won scores of awards. He is a recip­i­ent of the Toron­to Arts Award for Media Art (2000) and the Bell Cana­da Award (2007), the high­est nation­al recog­ni­tion for out­stand­ing life­time achieve­ment in video art.  His 1996 Lilies won four Genie awards, includ­ing best motion pic­ture.

Cecil­ia Greyson is a writer and artist based in Hal­i­fax, Cana­da. As a com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er and activist, she has worked for over a decade pro­duc­ing large-scale, par­tic­i­pa­to­ry arts fes­ti­vals. In 2011, she com­plet­ed a Mas­ter of Jour­nal­ism degree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia, and has received awards for her writ­ing from CTV Globe­me­dia, BC Arts Fes­ti­val, and the Jack Web­ster Foun­da­tion.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHAT:     Arrest­ed in Cairo: Reflec­tions on Repres­sion and Sol­i­dar­i­ty, con­ver­sa­tion and film with John Greyson and Cecil­ia Greyson, with mod­er­a­tor Dania Majid

WHEN:     Fri­day, March 21 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

WHERE:  Ontario Insti­tute for Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to,

252 Bloor Street West, OISE Audi­to­ri­um, Ground floor (St. George Sub­way).

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
s.sinclair@utoronto.ca or OISE Media Rela­tions at 416–978-1123