If a picture is worth  a thousand words, then you won’t want to miss the wealth of information and inspiration conveyed through “CP+S On Location”. This series of five-minute video spotlights, peppered throughout the conference schedule, illustrates and animates collaborations from coast to coast. Read on to find out more about the video spotlights featured in the 2009 conference.:

The Centre for Applied Genomics

Mars Horodyski, Independent Filmmaker on location in Toronto, Ontario
At the Centre for Applied Genomics a team of clinical geneticists, genetic counselors, paedeatricians, ethicists, epidemiologists and psychologists come together to provide an interdisciplinary, comprehensive approach to Autism research. Through their weekly roundtable discussions they discover connections in their work, by examining breakthroughs and questions in each other’s research.

Nerd Jam

Moira Simpson, Independent Filmmaker on location in Vancouver, British Columbia
Vancouver’s Design Nerds, through interdisciplinary collaboration and open-source resourcefulness, are creating pedal-powered contraptions to be deployed on Vancouver’s disused railway lines. This spotlight will explore their creative process as they brainstorm or “Nerd Jam” in a highly energized and supportive environment. Their retroromantic project is a celebration of the energy resident in the human body and spirit shared through the physical experience of pedaling their fantastical contraptions.

The Melbourne Laneways

Eleni Arbus, Independent Filmmaker on location in Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne's laneways have experienced something of a renaissance over the last 10 years. So much so, that other Councils around the country are trying to replicate the activation formula by developing strategies to regenerate laneways in their own cities. But is this something easily emulated or is it the unique history of the laneways and Melbournian's relationship to them that is the real reason behind their success?

The Transformation of Montreal

Luigi Ferrara, Director, School of Design at George Brown College on location in Toronto, Ontario
This spotlight will showcase how communities came together to transform the city of Montreal into an innovative and collaborative city for the 21st century. Highlights include how the the design community brought the world design headquarters to Montreal, and how the urban design and development community revitalized Montreal through creating the international & multimedia district (Quartier Spectacle).

The Toronto Sports Leadership Program

Melissa Gomez, Independent Filmmaker on location in Toronto, Ontario
This spotlight will profile the issues, challenges and successes of a unique community collaboration that has taken place in the city of Toronto: the Toronto Sports Leadership Program. Told through the voices of five partners in the program, the film will show how the Toronto community came together and provided an answer to 2005’s “Summer of the Gun”.

The Transformation of Prince Edward County

Trevor Crowe of Crowe Productions, on location in Prince Edward County, Ontario
Videographer Trevor Crowe investigates the emerging creative rural economy in PrinceEdwardCounty. Having grown up in ‘The County’ farming, Trevor, like many others, left, seeking education and a career away from his declining hometown. Upon returning, what he finds is an economic rural renaissance, started by artists, small-scale entrepreneurs, and even some locals too.

The 21C Learning Community Toolkit Collaboration

Jason Lapeyre, Independent Filmmaker on location in Toronto, Ontario and Bigstone Cree Nation, Alberta

For over 100 years, the federal government of Canada oversaw the residential school system, under which aboriginal children were separated from their families, forbidden from speaking their indigenous languages, and taught that their culture was inferior to Western European culture. Nora Yellowknee of Bigstone Cree Nation in Northern Alberta attempts to repair the damage done by this legislated cultural genocide by collaborating with educators and organizations from mainstream Canadian culture. Yellowknee and her collaborators explain how they found an educational tool that respects the value system of aboriginal life.

In the late seventies, The Rising Tide Theatre was founded in St. John’s. It based its very existence on the rich cultural history of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Thirty years later, the fountainhead of that history still provides a creative energy that sustains a vibrant and original acting troop.

Now based in Trinity, Donna Butt’s Rising Tide Theatre was and still is a centrepiece of diverse and supportive entities which come together to highlight the uniqueness of Canada as a nation. And this nation, through the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, has a lot to offer in the way of original entertainment based on a past that is exciting, tragic and riveting.