CAFÉ EX PRESENTs SCOUTS ARE CANCELLED, a PORTRAIT OF CANADIAN POET JOHN STILES

In association with SAW Video, the CFI is pleased to begin its tenth season of Café EX @ Club SAW with filmmaker John D. Scott’s, SCOUTS ARE CANCELLED (2007, 72 min.), a portrait of east coast poet and novelist John Stiles. Stiles was recently featured as one of twenty New Canadian poets in New American Writing (Oink! Press, CA. USA). SCOUTS ARE CANCELLED recently won a number of awards, including the Rex Tasker Documentary Award for Best Atlantic Canadian Documentary at the Atlantic Film Festival. It was also featured at the prestigious Hot Docs film festival. John D. Scott will attend the screening to introduce and discuss his work. He will be joined by his wife and collaborator, Karen Rodriguez.

SCOUTS ARE CANCELLED, taking its name from a collection of Stiles’ poetry, is a moving portrait of a significant voice on the Canadian literary scene. The film potently captures the distinct style, tone and fluidity of Stile’s craft. Stiles, who writes about his experiences growing up in the maritimes, expresses a nostalgia for a different time and emphasizes the necessity for creative renewal in the face of loss. Formally, Stiles combines the vernacular and slang of his small town upbringing with a modernist sensibility that brings to mind Pound and Williams. Stiles’ poetry is rooted in the details of everyday life, but ultimately its themes resonate on a universal level. One part “portrait of the artist as a thirtysomething”, the other a meditation on friendship and community, SCOUTS ARE CANCELLED details the travails of Stiles: his move to Toronto in the late 90s; the necessity or inevitability of mundane jobs; his hard-fought battle with the Toronto literary scene ultimately gaining him a cult following. To effectively document Stiles’ particular, idiosyncratic and brilliant style and method, the filmmaker Scott combines documentary, experimental and fiction forms.

SCOUTS ARE CANCELLED is being screened on Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm at Café Ex @ Club SAW, along with John D. Scott’s short, DEAR PAM (2003, 25 min.).

Café Ex is located at 67 Nicholas.
Admission is pay-as-you-can.

For more information, please consult the Canadian Film Institute website: http://www.cfi-icf.ca/ or telephone (613) 232-6727.