Skydeck on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower)

Downtown Chicago, around the Loop and the Magnificent Mile

Old Town, Second City Comedy Club

“The Second City was the only [work place] where I experienced institutionalized gender nonsense. For example, a director of one of the main companies once justified cutting a scene by saying “The audience doesn’t want to see a scene between two women.” Whaaa? More on that later. [...] [The Palin/Clinton SNL sketch] easily could have been a dumb catfight between two female candidates. What Seth and Amy wrote, however, was two women speaking out together against sexism in the campaign.[...] Not that anyone noticed. You all watched a sketch about feminism and you didn’t even realize it because of all the jokes. It’s like when Jessica Seinfeld puts spinach in kids’ brownies. Suckers! [...] That night’s show was watched by ten million people, so I guess that director at The Second City who said the audience “didn’t want to see a sketch with two women” can go shit in his hat.” (Tina Fey, Bossypants, 2011)

German Chicago, Old Town and Lincoln Square

Al Capone’s Chicago, Broadway and Lawrence, Movie Palaces

Wicker Park

Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art

Hannah Arendt premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center

Ralph Lauren Restaurant Chicago

Chicago by night, Millennium Park

What does it mean to be successful in Canada and how do the education and public institutions support and cultivate talent and success in this country? These and other questions were discussed at this year’s annual conference organized by the McGill Institute of the Study of Canada and its director, Will Straw.

The opening panel “Incubation and Lift-Off” featured four panelists in various cultural and entrepreneurial spheres: Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, Co-founder and General partner, Montreal Start-Up and Real Ventures; Jennifer Heil, Olympic Athlete and Community Service Activist; Béatrice Martin (Cœur de pirate), Felix award-winning musician; and Tamy Emma Pepin, Director of content and media personality (N/A, CNN, Huffington Post, Journal de Montréal). Together they addressed the questions of how talent is spotted, what forms of support are available, and what role failure plays in the quest for success. Their discussion can be summed up as follows:

Self-motivation, discipline, and self-determination for success are the driving forces behind successful careers. Family support is essential; internet presence is vital; and 10.000 hours is indeed what is needed to nurture talent. The ability to go to the core of one’s weakness and rebuild oneself and create success is what turns failure or disadvantages into success. Failure is a chance to reinvent oneself; overcoming fear and embracing failure opens you up for best performance. Happiness is not something you achieve, but a state of mind.

The second panel “Technological Innovation” included Sean Ferguson, Dean, Schulich School of Music, McGill University; Raja Khanna, CEO, Television & Digital Groups, Blue Ant Media Inc.; Sylvie LaPerrière,  Chair, Board of Directors at NANOG/Program Manager, Network Content Distribution at Google; and Ilse Treurnicht, CEO, MaRS Discovery District. Together they addressed questions such as Canada’s success in technological innovation, how technological talent is nurtured, and the role of Canadian universities in encouraging success in the technological field.

Their main discussion ideas included: moving towards culture of technological literacy and encouragement of open-sourced technology. The integration of soft-skills into university and school curriculum is necessary. We should think of more ways in which universities can help bridge gaps between technology and humanities. The problem with technological innovation is Canada is not the lack of talent, but the lack of capital and access to infrastructure.

The Keynote Address was presented by Bertrand Cesvet, owner of  the Canadian creative powerhouse Sid Lee, Inc. He outlined the strength and weaknesses of the Canadian creative economy. According to Cesvet, attracting talent is easy, but retaining it in Montréal is hard. Thus, his agency had to expand its operations to New York, Toronto, and Amsterdam.  Cesvet explained that “Canada does not make it easy for talent to come here. If Canada wants to be a world-class competitor, we have to open it up to world-class talent from around the world. We need that diversity. Quantity and quality of talent in Canada is not the issue, but the diversity is an issue. Amsterdam and New York can attract a Brazilian copy-editor to write about soccer, but for some reason Montréal and Toronto cannot.”

To close off the day, Jim Balsillie, Retired Founder and Co-CEO of RIM and BlackBerry delivered a Special Presentation on the role of government support in Canadian business. According to Balsillie, American government is deeply engaged in supporting US businesses. In Canada, on the other hand, government support is lacking. Balsillie believes that “we need to get the public policy right in Canada if we want to talk about business innovation, so we can have more successful global companies here.”

Day Two of the conference offered more interesting discussions on Canadian culture, sports, and music. The topic of “Staying Power: Sustaining Careers in Canada“ was addressed by the first panel that includes Jennifer Jonas, Film Producer; Steve Maich, Editor, Sportsnet; Andy Nulman, President, Festivals and Television, Just for Laughs; and Kitty Scott, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Ontario; former Director, Visual Arts, Banff Centre.

The running metaphor of the panel became an elephant, after Andy Nulman’s joke about an excellent elephant hunter standing on the corner of Peel and St. Catherine in Montréal. “Either you go where the elephants are, or stop complaining that there are no elephants!” The internet offers an international platform, so young people should stay in their basements and continue to be creative! Successful Canadian artists are internationally renowned and have a great network, but Canadian museums struggle to attract the audiences London and New York do. In sports, the elephants are in the US or Europe; even at the Olympic level, Canada is a participant culture, “creating a safe space to fail,” but not creating elite talent. For that they go to the States and never come back. “We can’t create an elephant farm in Canada,” Steve Maich concluded. “But there are spin-off benefits for the country, even when the elite-talent people leave.”

The second Keynote Address was given by Georges Laraque, retired NHL player, former sports commentator (TVA), outgoing Executive Director of the Canadian Hockey League Players Association, and Green Party of Canada Deputy Leader. Laraque gave an inspiring speech about treating obstacles as motivation. “What you do on the ice doesn’t define you as a human being. So I joined the Green Party and became vegan and own the two Crudescence raw/vegan restaurants in Montréal.” He likes being a spokesperson and inspire people to care about health and environment. “In Montréal we put too much emphasis on hockey, it’s like a religion here, or like a soap opera. There are more important things in life than hockey! Enjoy life, do what matters, and help others! Do everything you do 100% and you can achieve anything you want!”

The panel on “Sports and Athletics” included Richard Pound, OC, OQ, Canadian lawyer, former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, former Chancellor Emeritus, McGill University; Ross Rebagliati, Olympic Athlete; Danièle Sauvageau, First Olympic women’s hockey gold-medal-winning coach; Madeleine Williams, Olympian and law student with a research focus on gender equity policy in elite sport.

The panel “Lifting Off and Looking Back” presented a conversation between Len Blum, Screenwriter, Film Producer and Film Composer (Heavy Metal, The Pink Panther, Howard Stern’s Private Parts) who is the husband of the current McGill Principal Heather Monroe-Blum, and Fred Einesman, Screenwriter, producer (ER, Private Practice), who graduated from McGill with a medical degree. Both men shared their experiences as filmmakers and writers in Hollywood, as well as many anecdotes from the sets of ER and about working with Bill Murray. They concluded with the idea that “You have to have a life. Your artistic work is an expression of your life, but  not your life!”

The closing panel “Culture and the Arts” included Tantoo Cardinal, CM, First Nations film and television actress; Deborah Chow, Director, screenwriter (The High Cost of Living – 2010); Jack Rabinovitch, OC, Founder of the Giller Prize; Patrick Watson, Singer and Songwriter. The panelists were asked to define success in today’s digital age. According to Patrick Watson, “success means having the freedom to do what you love. There are specific types of machines for specific dreams and you can’t be naive about it.” Tantoo Cardinal defined it as “finding people of common vision.” And Deborah Chow remarked that “what you think is failure sometimes actually works out for the best.” Jack Rabinovitch shared a few anecdotes about sitting at Grumpy’s Pub on Bishops St. with Mordecai Richler and deciding to establish the Giller Prize. Patrick Watson dispelled the myth of Justin Bieber becoming famous over night through You Tube: “That kid toured so much before he was discovered it’s almost child abuse!” In regards to his home town Montréal, Watson remarked, “When you’re building something, you should do it far away from expensive cities like LA and New York. Once you’re done building it, you can take it there and enjoy it, but while you’re still in the process of building, don’t go there, they won’t let you do it the way you want to do it.”

Tantoo Cardinal concluded with a beautiful image, when asked about cultural formulas for success, she encouraged creative people to be who they are and do what they do, especially women because in her native language the word for fire is made up of two words, woman and heart: “Fire is a woman’s heart!”

Across the broad continent of a woman’s life falls the shadow of a sword. On one side all is correct, definite, orderly; the paths are straight, the trees regular, the sun shaded; escorted by gentlemen, protected by policemen, wedded and buried by clergymen, she has only to walk demurely from cradle to grave and no one will touch a hair of her head. But on the other side all is confusion. Nothing follows a regular course. The paths wind between bogs and precipices; the trees roar and rock and fall in ruin. (Virginia Woolf, Harriette Wilson, in Collected Essays, 1925-28)

What Virginia Woolf so prophetically captured about the duality of women’s lives in the 1920s has become a daily reality for many women today: once the traditionally-prescribed roles of wife, mother, house-wife, care-giver, home-maker, etc. have been lifted, women find themselves restlessly soul-searching and constructing their own identities, their homes, their lives. They have choices, options, opportunities, and freedoms their mothers’ generation did not have. Yet all that freedom comes with completely new and also same old challenges as well, such as financial insecurity, health problems, relationship challenges, existential fears, biological clocks, etc.

Berlin documentary filmmaker, Beatrice Möller touched on several cultural nerves in her new film Everything We Want, which will premiere at the Achtung Berlin Film Festival in April. Born in 1979 in Düsseldorf and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, she made her first documentary in 2003, entitled Omulaule heißt Schwarz (Omulaule means black), followed by Shalom Salam (2006) and Shosholoza Express (2010), which documents a train ride through South Africa and the experience of Apartheid.

She began making this film when she was 28. Her protagonists, Claudia, Mona, and Marie-Sarah, who recently turned 30, are facing increasing restlessness as they try to balance jobs, relationships, and family. Their different paths and development along the way are presented in three parallel narratives. Along with Bea’s camera, we follow them from their jobs, to their apartments, to their parents’ houses, and on their grocery runs. We observe them as they learn to live with new challenges, overcome various fears and problems, and become the women they are.

Bea:  “Every woman in her late twenties or early thirties, after completing her degree(s) is faced with self-reflexive questions: what next? What is the blue print for my life? Do I choose career or family or both? These reflections, voices, glimpses, and developments are shown in the film.”

The film nicely shows a generational shift between the protagonists and their mothers. The mothers claim that they had no time to think about whether they were happy and what makes them happy. They were busy raising kids, getting their degrees, working, and providing for their husbands. They are amazed that with all the incredible freedoms available to their daughters, which were not available to them, that they still feel restless or unhappy, or simply don’t know what they want.

Mona: “We want to have as many open doors as possible. That’s good, but it can also make you feel trapped. You feel tied down and cannot more forward. I want to free myself from that. I want to close two doors and leave only one or two open. Eventually it means that there is only one door left, but that could also be liberating.”

This paradox of seemingly endless choices and freedoms is also picked up by Marie-Sarah in her conversation with her mother:

Marie-Sarah (to her mother): “In your time you simply lived your lives, dealing with what was there. Perhaps there were some existential things from war times. Since the possibilities were limited that meant you took the offers that were available and you felt satisfied. Today you’re surrounded by too many options, and you really have to pick out what’s yours. And I see it as a great chance to say: ok, we have so many possibilities, we can be in New York in six hours, we can buy things online, make movies with very little money, we can do everything we want. So, what do we want?”

While it is rare to see an all-female documentary film that deals with real concerns of women today, as it turns out, many men are able to identify with the portrayed struggles of the female protagonists. One male viewer from Australia commented: “Although I am a man, I can relate to many things in the film.”

Marie-Sarah: “Dealing with financial insecurity is like surfing. You just have to ride the wave for the moment.”

Themes such as financial instability, constant job searches, constantly moving around in an attempt to establish a career and to find oneself, and establishing one’s sense of self apart from one’s family of origin run throughout the film.

Marie-Sarah: “I concentrate on dancing and acting, and once my career is on track, I will be more ready for a relationship, I guess. If I keep following my path and as a result feel more complete, then I won’t have to feel the need for validation in relation to someone else, who may bring something valuable into my life. I want to build this confidence on my own first.”

Interview with Bea:

KS: Your film touches several nerves that many women around the world face in their daily lives. Questions of careers, self-knowledge, financial (in)security, health, relationships, kids, etc. all come to a boiling point in the few years between the late 20s and early- to mid-30s. Your film captures this transition in the lives of three women and in conversations with their mothers as a comparison to how things used to be for their generation. When did you first get the idea for making this film? And how did you go about conceptualizing it? 

BM: The idea of making a personal film about my generation turning 30 came when I turned 28. I myself had a really hard time in those days. I found myself jobless after studying for 6 years, I found myself in a relationship that didn’t fulfill me.  I felt like I haven’t found my place.  And then the question came up: how do my friends deal with all these questions of life, growing up and finding oneself in a world that changed a lot in many ways. We were not in our early 20s anymore, we are in our late 20s, long old enough to have our own family, but the feeling of not having arrived anywhere was much stronger. I was asking myself: where would we all be when we turn 30? Which decisions are we going to make? When will our paths separate and when will we have that feeling that we have arrived somewhere? So I started following my close friends and had many conversations with them about our lives. I was lucky. Once I got funding from a foundation (Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt) I was able to start filming. After a while I also filmed women who I were not close friends with. The circle opened and step by step I found out that I was not alone with all my doubts and questions.  And that’s how everything started.

Were there particular personal questions that you wanted to have answered for yourself while working on this project? Which ones did you manage to find answers to, and which ones still remain unanswered?  

This is a difficult question. Yes, the idea for the film was very much a personal drive. I wanted to find out why I had the feeling of not being “grown up” or not having arrived somewhere. But I also had doubts about myself and where I was supposed to be going in the future. Maybe it was the whole process that I found myself in and which I wanted to share with other women. Because sooner or later everyone will arrive at his point in life where these questions come up. Also the conversation with my mother and the other mothers were very important to me. I was amazed how different their lives were and how differently we grew up. The questions for the two generations were maybe the same, but the choices they had and the path society expected were very different. In contrast to them we have so many opportunities and suddenly we don’t know which is the right path to take. It is not that I was looking for answers. I wanted to paint an emotional picture about these women and their thinking and feeling. During that whole process of filming and working with that topic I realized that I started to feel stronger about myself.  The acceptance grew and I the feeling of having to change in order to be someone or something disappeared. I am much happier with myself and actually enjoy the freedoms that our mothers did not necessarily have. Maybe this was one of the answers I found during the 4 years it took me to make the film.

You are a documentary film-maker in your early 30s, you’ve made several successful and important films, have you figured out what it is you want out of life? Or is that a never-ending question? 

I hope it’s a never ending question. Because life is changing every day. We as people are changing and therefore our aims change too. For me it is important to be open and try to find my own flow in the world of film-making.

Could you describe your relationship with your mom? 

After some rough times in my early and mid-20s my relationship with my mom is much calmer with mostly mutual acceptance now. I am lucky to have a mom who is still very curious and who also still has lots of questions that drive her. She is very alive, and also someone  who pushes me to see and discover things. My mom is open with her personal life and we often sit together and talk about how she grew up and how society in her days influenced her life. Which was very different from how I grew up.

Your film leaves the viewer with many questions and perhaps even a desire for self-evaluation. Did you have a certain goal or aim in mind when making the film? 

Since I am part of this generation of women in modern, western cities who search for their identity, it was important for me to paint the picture of what we are dealing with today in contrast to our mothers. I also wanted to follow the main characters to show how they deal with changes and challenges of all kinds. I am very aware that these women don’t stand for a whole generation. That’s why I am careful with that term. My film portrays a certain kind of women and their thinking in a modern, educated, western world. It was not my aim to make a film about my generation. I think many women and men will find themselves somewhere in my film and reflect on their lives.

You’ve shown the differences between the generations of mothers and daughters, but  do you think this restless searching is only particular to our generation, or do you think our children will also have the same options and challenges, and questions? 

I think every generation will have more or less the same questions and challenges to deal with in their circumstances.  For example, it is amazing to see how the children who grew up with the internet deal completely differently with it. For them it is obvious. They use it in a clever way. Much more than we do. And maybe the challenges with connecting and with the globalized world are growing. The challenge is to find out what you really want is becoming more important.

How do men react to your film? Are there differences in reactions from men and from women? 

Men who saw my film said that it is not necessarily a film only for women. They also found themselves in all the questions and thoughts. Men are dealing with the same things and the reactions were similar. Men should watch this film! There was one guy my age who came up to me saying that men identify with the same problems that the protagonists face. On the other hand, there was a much older man who could not identify with the protagonist, and who believed that these are not real problems that they face. I see this as a gap between generations in general. In the film Claudia’s mother comments that her problems are not real or challenging and her dad says they should be more efficient, that’s what he taught is daughter. You can feel that there are points of misunderstanding or lack of communication between the generations.

Can you tell us what the three protagonists (Claudia, Mona, and Marie-Sarah) are up to today? 

Claudia from Leipzig resigned from her job at the Kreuzer. She is now trying to make her way as a freelance journalist in Leipzig and to built her career. She works for radio and newspapers. Fritzi her daughter is now 18 month old and goes to kindergarten. She is a happy little child.

Mona is still working as a translation manager in Berlin. Since she realized that this job doesn’t make her happy she started looking for new jobs and new challenges. She hasn’t found one yet. Health-wise she is stable and no new operations were necessary.

Marie-Sarah left her new job in Munich soon after she started. She felt it wasn’t what she expected. Now she is working in Stuttgart for a new company and also does acting again.

What are your next projects? 

I am currently working on a new film project in Eritrea as well on a TV-series that will follow people around the world who go on spiritual journeys. I am also working more and more on radio projects for German Radio.

What would be your dream project? 

All the films I am working on are dream projects If they weren’t, I would not have had enough energy to pull them through! Every film is like a new baby that wants to be delivered healthy and save.  The aim is of course to get them fully financed. It is not always possible. That’s why crowd funding for EVERYTHING WE WANT was so important!

Towards the end of 2012 a few mainstream films were released that mark a new direction in gender dynamics on-screen. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock (2012), and the HBO production of Philip Kaufman’s Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012) are all untraditional bio-pics about famous men, whose wives are presented as braver, stronger, wiser human beings, who upstage their husbands behind the scenes.

This may be part of a larger Hollywood trend that started with Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first female film director to receive an Oscar in 2009, and continued with this year’s Golden Globes hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and their homage to women in Hollywood.

What the three films have in common is perhaps what feminist scholars have been waiting for and calling for since Virginia Woolf’s 1929 Cambridge lectures: a type of re-writing of history and re-suturing of women’s lives, voices, point of views, perceptions, and talents into mainstream narratives. The three films show a shift away from male-centred protagonists’ point of view, and focus, at least partially, on the female experience. 

In Lincoln, Sally Field plays Mary Todd Lincoln, the president’s wife. She steals the spot-light from Daniel Day-Lewis’ brilliant portrayal of the 16th American president who is trying to simultaneously end the Civil War and pass a constitutional amendment to end slavery. In several key scenes she becomes an emotional powerhouse, pushing the boundaries of emotional honesty for both her on-screen husband and the audience. Captivating with her raw insight and humanity, as well as a strong femininity, she communicates the female experience in light of loss after the death of her son, and thus reveals the destructive dysfunctionality behind her husband’s inability to show his emotions, as well as his inability to respect hers. In a film about human rights and equality, this scene is a key example of what second-wave feminists have been trying to prove for a very long time, namely that “the personal is political!”

In Hitchcock, Helen Mirren steals the show as Alma Reville, Hitchcock’s brilliant wife, without whose care, commitment, and talent Hitchcock could not have made a single film. He is presented as an overgrown old-man-child, unable to care for himself, abusive to women, and not as capable or talented as his wife, but still single-handedly reaping all the glories of their success in the public eye. Alma is quite literally his knight-in-shining-armour, rescuing him from failure, disease, and disgrace over and over again, but remaining uncredited. The film challenges the notion of the creative genius. Creativity does not exist in a vacuum; it requires organization, discipline, kindness, communication, and insight in order to be transformed from an idea to something tangible and presentable. In the film, these are the qualities that Alma has, and Hitchcock lacks. But in a patriarchal world-order, creativity is subjected to a hierarchical cast, and women’s talents are exploited to support the myth of the self-made man.

In HBO’s Hemingway and Gellhorn, Nicole Kidman plays the war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, who falls in love and marries Ernest Hemingway, played by Clive Owen, during the Spanish Civil War. As their marriage starts to fall apart in peace time, Hemingway is revealed as an abusive brute and an insecure patriarch, in a constant power struggle with and simultaneously in awe of his courageous activist wife. Narrated from her point of view, this film differs from the others in that it is not titled and marketed to promote the lead male character, but starts and ends with a close-up of the female protagonist. Gellhorn is also shown divorcing Hemingway in the film, to preserve her own self and her identity as a war correspondent. Hemingway is portrayed as a gluttonous husband, stealing her position as a correspondent in Europe during the Allied invasion, and replacing her immediately after she leaves with a woman who looked just like her. The film’s underlying message is rather simple: to be married to a patriarch a woman cannot have any sense of self, self-worth, self-esteem, or any sense of identity of her own. And throughout history, most women were not independent and self-sufficient enough not to sacrifice themselves for patriarchal marriage. Unfortunately, there are still very few or almost no examples and role models of non-patriarchal marriages.

All three actresses were nominated for a Golden Globe for these roles, but the awards went to Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lawrence, and Julianne Moore for playing less subversive female characters. However, witnessing a new trend in the portrayal of women in popular media is a rare and exciting occasion! A small step for women or humanity, but a rather big one for Hollywood!

I don’t have kids, but I have a very cute nephew whose overall well-being and education are important to me. I also have several close friends who are expecting their first children soon and have either started or are looking to start some kind of research on that topic.

Whenever my brother shares his anecdotes, observations, concerns, or worries about his son with me, I don’t have the right answers most of the time, but grad-school and multiple book projects have taught me that there are answers for every question because there are people out there who dedicate their life’s work to conducting research on everything and compiling it for us.

One of them is Barbara Coloroso, the author of Kids Are Worth It! Raising Resilient, Responsible, Compassionate Kids (2010). Her book is a great guide to understanding all kinds of family dynamics, not only essential for future and current parents, but for anyone who ever wondered why we are the way we are, and how we pass it on from generation to generation. Here are some of her insights:

Chapter 1 – Kids Are Worth It!

“I believe that for the first time in our history we have the tools necessary to break the cycles of dysfunction, abuse, and neglect. We now have the individual and collective awareness of the damages that physical and emotional abuse can cause a child, a family, and a society.” (Barbara Coloroso, Kids Are Worth It, pp.10-11)

“If you spend your weekends in outdoor activities with your children instead of sitting in front of the TV, the chances of your children becoming couch potatoes when they grow up are slim – not nonexistent, nut slim. If you take good care of yourself, your children will probably take good care of themselves. If you make disparaging comments about people in your community because of their race, religion, gender, or physical or mental ability, you are teaching your children intolerance, bigotry, and hatred. If, in your words and your actions you demonstrate tolerance, acceptance, and kindness, your children will tend to do the same. [...]  The very words we use influence the way we treat our children. The “terrible twos” probably will be; the “terrific twos” have a chance to be something different. Our words can also influence how our children see themselves.” (p.16)

Chapter 2 – Three Kinds of Families

“There are three kinds of families: brick-wall, jellyfish, and backbone. What distinguishes them is the kind of structure that holds them together. A brick wall is a nonliving thing, designed to restrict, to keep in, and to keep out. In brick-wall families, the structure is rigid and is used for control and power, both of which are in the hands of the parents. A jellyfish had no firm parts at all and reacts to every eddy and current that comes along. In jellyfish families structures is almost nonexistent; the need for it may not even be acknowledged or understood. A backbone is a living, supple spine that gives from and movement to the whole body. In backbone families structure is present and firm and flexible and functional. [...] Brick-wall and jellyfish families, although at opposite extremes, tend to raise children who know what to think but not how to think or feel, and who lack a sense of a true self.” (p.21)

“Children need parents who model self-discipline rather than preach it. They learn from what their parents actually do; not from what they say they do…” (John Bradshaw, Homecoming)

“The backbone family provides the consistency, firmness, and fairness as well as the calm and peaceful structure needed for children to flesh out their own sense of a true self.” (p.35)

“Mistakes are viewed as opportunities to learn and grow.” (p.36)

“Discipline is handled with authority that gives life to children’s learning. Kids are shown what they have done wrong, are given ownership of the problem, and are offered ways to solve the problem. Their dignity is left intact.” (p.37)

“Children are taught how to think. They are encouraged to listen to their own intuition, to be creative in thoughts and actions, and to reason through problems. They are spoken with, now to; listened to, not ignored.” (p.38)

“The family is willing to seek help. Problems are not denied or hidden. Parents recognize when they need to seek advice from elders or trained professionals, and receive the advice with an open mind and heart. [...] If you identified yourself in the brick-wall or jellyfish family system or a patchwork of all three, remember that you cannot change everything overnight.” (p.39)

“Children growing up in an atmosphere in which love and care are lacking or given with gross inconsistency enter adulthood with no… sense of inner security. Rather, they have… a feeling of “I don’t have enough” and a sense that the world is unpredictable and ungiving, as well as a sense of themselves as being questionably lovable and valuable.” (M.Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled)

Chapter 3 – Threats, Punishment, Bribes, and Rewards

“Threats, punishments, bribes, and rewards keep control in the hands of parents and give children the message that “I, as an adult, can and will make you mind,” often with the rationale “for your own good.” The goal is instant obedience. Rather than seeing children as unique individuals with the right to express their own needs and have them respected, parents who consistently employ these tools tend to see kids as people needing to be shaped and made to behave in the way the parents want them to behave. [...] Children have a difficult time becoming responsible, resourceful, and resilient if they are controlled, manipulated, and made to mind, robbed of their autonomy and denied opportunities to make choices and mistakes. They cannot develop a sense of inner discipline if all of the control comes from the outside.” (p.43)

“The backbone parent is willing to put the long-term best interests of children ahead of short-term compliance and docile obedience.” (p.45)

“Threats and punishment discourage a child from acknowledging her actions. They deprive the child of the opportunity to understand the consequences of her actions, to fix what she did, or to emphasize with the people she may have harmed. They increase tension in the home and help children to develop a right/wrong, good/bad distorted view of reality.” (p.46)

“Control tactics, positive or negative, have as their objective to compel or prevent actions and coerce kids to behave in an adult-approved way. As a result, kids learn to do what they are told without question – not because they believe it is the right thing to do, but to get the reward or to avoid the punishment. They “do to please”; they are often submissive, obedient, and compliant. Or they spend lots of time and energy figuring out if and how they can get away with something and not get caught.” (p.49)

“Kids who are consistently bribed and rewarded are likely to grow into adults who are overly dependent on others for approval and recognition, lacking their own self-confidence and sense of responsibility.” (p.50)

“Kids are more likely to do chores willingly if they feel that we truly need and welcome their help, that we are not simply giving them chores to teach them lessons or because we don’t want to do the chores ourselves.” (p.51)

“If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, not wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself.” (Immanuel Kant, Education)

Chapter 4 – The Triangle of Influence – Encouragement, Feedback, and Discipline

“Encouragement can come at any time. It is nonjudgmental, and it emphasizes the child’s importance by expressing confidence and trust in the child. It inspires; it imparts courage and confidence; it fosters and gives support. It helps a child develop a sense of self-pride and enhances internal motivation.” (p.72)

“When children are rewarded or punished, what is often lacking is any constructive feedback on what they are doing. Without the feedback, they will find it difficult to develop a strong sense of self; they will become hyper-vigilant or hyper-critical, or self-absorbed. Feedback enables kids to look at their expression of feelings, their behaviour, and their deeds honestly and realistically.” (p.73)

“Comments are basic instructions and can help kids organize and sequence activities.[...] The key is that the comments are statements without any emotional loading or ulterior motives. They are intended to instruct, not attack. Constructive comments contain no hint of sarcasm, ridicule, or intent to embarrass.” (p.76)

Chapter 5 – Three Alternatives to No and Other Plan Bs

“Both brick-wall and jellyfish families run the risk of their children being easily led into cults or gangs where someone else does their thinking for them. Backbone parents save their no for the big issues, when there is no bend, when they mean it, intend to follow through with it, and it is in the best interest of the safety and well-being of the child. With the no they give an explanation that is meaningful. Children can then begin to develop their own internal moral structure that enables them to function responsibly and creatively in society. These are the children who will also have the spine to stand up and speak out against injustices.” (p.94)

“What kids need instead of minilectures are opportunities to solve problems they are confronted with or have created.” (p.95)

“Putdowns are generalizations and labels that reduce a child’s sense of dignity and self-worth. Kids who have been scarred by put-downs tend to use these tools against themselves.” (p.98)

“Be careful” is really a plea, directive, or a cloaked command aimed at the person spoken to. It may be a way of trying to tell your child you love her and that you are concerned. If that’s the reason you say it, just say so: “I love you and I’m concerned.” The ownership of the statement stays where it belongs, with you.” (p.99)

Chapter 6 – I Can Be Me

“Kids tend to rebel at three ages: at two, at five, and at puberty. […] Kids rebel at two against their mothers. They rebel at five against Mom and Dad. […] And at puberty kids rebel against the entire older generation.” (p.102)

“At each age of rebellion, in an attempt to establish an identity apart from their parents, kids try any number of ways to say, “I can be me.” The two-year-old insists on dressing himself, buttoning the top button in the third buttonhole, pants on backward, and shoes on the wrong feet. [...] The five-year-old takes great glee in publicly contradicting both Mom and Dad when either of them tries to relate an incident to a friend.” (p.103)

Chapter 7 – Keeping Your Cool without Putting Your Feelings on Ice

“Other people cannot make you angry. They may tease you, provoke you, or invite you to be angry, but in the end you choose your response. And you alone are responsible for that choice and for accepting the consequences that come with it.” (p.116)

“Those of us who grew up with destructive tools may never be able to rid ourselves totally of them, but we can make sure we don’t use them on our kids. [...] Children who, in anger and frustration, throw a math book across the room may not know other ways to express anger. Children who throw themselves on the floor kicking and screaming when they don’t get their own way have learned that this technique hooks the adults they are performing for. These actions are all learned. [...] It is possible to teach kids to replace these irresponsible action with more appropriate, responsible expressions of their feelings.  But first they need to know it’s all right to feel. It is all right to be happy, concerned, joyful, sad, angry, frustrated, and hurt. Feelings are motivators for growth or warning signs that something needs changing.” (p.117)

“When we are angry or hurt, our feelings are signalling our mind and body that something is not right and needs to be changed.” (p.118)

“Backbone families acknowledge their own feelings and label them. They admit that they are angry, or hurt, or afraid, then do something responsible and purposeful to address these feelings. They make assertive statements about themselves. They acknowledge their children’s feelings as real and legitimate, without passing judgement on those feelings. They teach their children to handle their own feelings assertively.” (p.123-24)

“Tantrums usually occur when kids are tired, hungry, frustrated, or all three. If parents remain calm, they can help their children by eliminating the cause or by redirecting the energy in a more responsible and productive way.” (p.125)

“For kids, being able to verbalize that they are tired, hungry, or frustrated is a skill to be learned over and over again.” (p.126)

Chapter 8 – Realities, Mistakes, and Problems

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” (Reinhold Niebuhr)

“When a brick-wall parent make a mistake, it must be someone else’s fault. [...] A jellyfish parent either tries to make the mistake seen inconsequential or sees it as proof that external forces control what happens. [...] A backbone parent admits that she made a mistake, takes full responsibility for making the mistake, avoids making excuses, figures out how to fix the problem created my making the mistake, recognizes if and how another person was affected, and figures out what to do next time so it won’t happen again.” (p.137)

“If you get all excited about your child’s performance, connecting his performance with his dignity and worth as a person, you are encouraging him to view mistakes as a negative reflection of himself; something to be denied or blamed on someone else. [...] Instead, whether the paper is an A-plus or a D-minus, simply ask your child to tell you about it.” (p.140)

“Before starting to solve a problem, it is critical to know who owns it. If you are going to solve a problem, first make sure it is yours to solve. Most of the time it does neither of you any good if you solve someone else’s problem. If you find yourself either rescuing or avoiding your kid’s problems it may be time to consider some of the old parenting tools you are still carrying around.” (p.141)

“It is usually best to allow kids to experience the consequences of their mistakes and poor choices, which are theirs to own. They learn that they have positive power in their own lives.” (p.148)

Chapter 9 – Getting Your Kid Out of Jail and Other Mega-Problems

“We can love completely without complete understanding.” (A River Runs Through It)

“Our love for our children need to be unconditional. Our likes and dislikes can be and usually are highly conditional. We don’t have to like the funny-looking hair, the earring in the nose, and the silly-looking shoes. But our live needs to go beyond all that.” (p.159)

Chapter 10 – Settling Sibling Rivalry

p.175 – Kids don’t come out of the womb knowing how to deal with conflict. It is a skill that needs to be learned. And it will be learned, one way or another. Without conscious, wise, parental care the “skills” they are likely to learn are violence and aggression or passivity and evasion. Kids need to be taught how to enter into conflict and deal with it non-violently, constructively, creatively, and responsibly.

Teaching Conflict Resolution:

“If we saw our parents run from conflict, we will probably show our children how to run as well. [...] If screaming is the only way you feel you will be heard, don’t be surprised if you hear the same volume and tone of voice coming out of the mouth of your five-year-old. [...] But if, when you are in a disagreement with your spouse or friend, you use the “fair fight” rules and your kid hears you say, “When you do that, I feel hurt,” or “What do you need from me to feel better about this situation?” you’ll notice her using similar techniques in her own conflicts. And if, when you get angry with your kid, your tell him that you are going to your room to cool off before continuing the conversation, you may discover him doing the same thing next time he’s angry.” (p.178)

“Being able to see the other person’s point of view is one of the most useful skills in resolving conflict.” (p.184)

“When we teach our children to look at more than one side of a story, come up with a plan, and speak assertive lines at home, they are better equipped to handle conflict at school and on the street.” (p.185)

“Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the embracing of conflict as a challenge and an opportunity to grow.” (p.207)

Chapter 11 – Chores, Relaxation, Recreation, and Rebellion

“Bribing kids to do chores gives them the false message that:

• All good deeds are financially rewarded.
• If it’s not rewarded, it’s not worth doing.
• The bigger the reward, the more worthy the deed.

Paying kids to do ordinary, everyday chores can give the, the message that they should expect a payoff for any accomplishment. Growing up with such bribery can result in adults who are overly dependent on others for approval and recognition, lacking self-confidence and a sense of responsibility.” (p.212)

“Backbone parents know what their values are, even if those values fly in the face of conventional wisdom  or the latest trend.” (p.241)

Chapter 12 – Money Matters

“I give children an allowance for three reasons: to learn how to handle money, to make decisions about their own money, and to set financial priorities.” (p.245)

Chapter 13 – Mealtime

“Forcing kids to eat when their bodies tell them they are full gives the message “What your body tells you doesn’t count. I know what you do and don’t need. You don’t.” When a kid trained this way is fourteen and peer pressure tells her to have sex or take drugs, she will hear the message she has always heard: “What you feel doesn’t count. I (we) know what you need. You don’t.” (p.265)

“Picky eaters, for the most part, come from panicky parents. Most kids would not have a problem with their food if we didn’t worry so much about it.” (p.268)

“Teach your kids manners, not etiquette. Manners are social graces that enable people to eat comfortably around one another; etiquette is adhering to rigid social rules and codified courtesies that often get in the way of people breaking bread together.” (p.271)

Other Good Books: 

Dan Popov, Who Are Our Children Really? (1995)

Linda Kavelin Popov, The Family Virtues Guide (1997)

Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk (2004)

After the decline of the auto-manufacturing industry in Detroit, the city has shrunk due to the massive exodus of the upper-middle class population and businesses, and has been transformed into an urban void, similar to that of Berlin in the early 1990s, shortly after the fall of the Wall. Similarly to Berlin, artists, musicians, and other creative young people began moving into the open spaces and (re)creating creative communities and subcultures in the midst of the urban ruins.

Many filmmakers have begun capturing this transformation of Detroit. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Detropia (2012) focuses more on the social and economic consequences of the gradual dismantling of the manufacturing infrastructure and loss of jobs, rather than the creation of new cultures and economies, and sends a warning call to the rest of America about the rise and fall of its great cities.

The film follows several protagonists, artists, video bloggers, bar owners, social workers, former employees of the auto-industry, and the former mayor through the city, capturing its voids and urban decay, as well as the various transformation projects planned for the revival of Detroit. The images are stunning and captivating, while the story lines weave into a strong narrative of loss and hope, of ruin and creativity, ultimately allowing for a re-imagining of the way cities function in the age of globalization.

“… city areas with flourishing diversity sprout strange and unpredictable uses and peculiar scenes. But this is not a drawback of diversity. This is the point of it.” (Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961).

“To approach a city … as if it were [an] … architectural problem … is to make the mistake of attempting to substitute art for life…. The results … are neither life nor art. They are taxidermy.” (Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961).

“The point of cities is multiplicity of choice.” (Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961).

“There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.” (Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961).

Other Detroit films:

Detroit Lives (2012)

Requiem for Detroit

Detroit, Ruin of a City (2005)

Urban Roots (2010)

“The more successfully a city mingles everyday diversity of uses and users in its everyday streets, the more successfully, casually (and economically) its people thereby enliven and support well-located parks that can thus give back grace and delight to their neighborhoods instead of vacuity.” (Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961).

Season 1, Episode 1, ”Dr. Tom”

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” (Albert Einstein)

“We learn by doing. There is no other way.” (John Holt)

“Curiosity does no less than devotion pilgrims make.” (Abraham Kaley)

“Do not weep, do not wax, indignant, understand.” (Baruch Spinoza)

Dr. Tom: No one is ever stuck anywhere. You are where you need to be right now. And when you’re finished doing whatever it is that you’re meant to be doing, then you move on.

Dr. Tom: You didn’t fail, Erica. It’s your parents’ opinions and your friends’ opinions, of course they’re always gonna matter. They just don’t matter as much as your own.

Season 1, Episode 2, ”What I Am Is What I Am”

Erica (voice-over): Choices. Look close enough, and you can see them everywhere. But what do you do when you see your life as a series of bad choices? When you would give anything to have made different ones, the question is, if you could go back and do it all differently, would you still be you?

“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be to see them as they are.” (Samuel Johnson)

Dr. Tom: Our lives are like a house of cards. Some of the cards are cosmetic, while others are load-bearing walls. You remove one of those cards and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
Erica: Like the egg.
Dr. Tom: Like the egg. Chip away at what makes you you and you become something else. There are many ways to achieve our goals, but ignoring your inner voice is not one of them. So tell me, is this job the right job for you?

Erica (voice-over): The path you’re on, the choices you make define who you are. Choices – they’re the building blocks of our lives. They shape our past present and future. And despite all the mistakes I’ve made, every new day brings with it new choices and a whole new world of possibilities.

Season 1, Episode 3, ”Plenty of Fish”

“Sarcasm – the last refuge of modest people when the privacy of their soul is intrusively invaded.” (Feodor Dostoyevsky)

“Let your net always be cast, and in the pool which you least expect there will be a fish.”(Ovid)

Dr. Tom: There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Erica: Isn’t that from the Matrix?
Dr. Tom: Morpheus – Lawrence Fishburn, man that’s a stellar performance.

Season 1, Episode 4, ”The Secret of Now”

“You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry.” (William Bell)

Erica (voice-over): It seems that most of the time we walk around with the world on mute, but when you’re on the casp of something dramatic and maybe life-changing, it’s like a filter comes off. Suddenly everything comes alive. And even the smallest moment is imbued with magic possibility. And you think, this is the night when you drop your mask and reveal your true self. This is the night when everything is re-written.

Season 1, Episode 5, ”Adultescence”

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” (Winston Churchill)

Dr. Tom: It’s like you are in a boat. You’ve got this one or over her and it’s just rowing and rowing and rowing, furiously fuelled by everyone else’s expectations. And that’s never gonna stop but it’s got you going around in circles. But if you wanna move forward, you also have to row with the or that represents how you see yourself.

“Learn to be what you are, and learn to resign with good grace all that you are not.” (Henri Frederic Emil)

“It takes a lot of courage to grow up and be who you really are.” (e.e.cummings)

Erica (voice over): Being grown-up is simply knowing who you are and having the courage to be that person. Words and all.

Season 1, Episode 6, ”Til Death”

“The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.” (Anne Morrow-Lindberg)

“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” (Leonard Cohen)

Season 1, Episode 7, ”Such a Perfect Day”

“You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.” (Zig Ziglar)

Dr. Tom to Erica (when she goes back to a happy day with her siblings to find that it’s not that happy after all): Quantum mechanics: We can never know with any kind of certainly how an atom will behave naturally because the very instant that we look at an atom, we alter it. The very act of looking is never a passive thing, it has an effect. In fact, physicists tell us that reality at its deepest level is the response of the observer. … You know it’s kinda like you, reliving past events.

Season 1, Episode 8, ”This Be the Verse”

Erica: I have tried, for weeks, to make things right with Sam.
Dr. Tom: As the wise master from the Dagobar swamp once said: There is no try, there is only do.
Erica: Did you just quote Yoda?
Dr. Tom: Aha, you know Yoda was drawn from a lot of Eastern religions, but primarily he was drawn Buddhism. And the Buddhists they spin these prayer wheels while they recite the mantra which is inscribed along the side, which they believe inspired the spirit of compassion, and of understanding and forgiveness.

Season 1, Episode 9, ”Everything She Wants”

Dr. Tom: Jealousy – the great taboo emotion of our time. See Freud was all about uncovering feelings that people had but that they couldn’t talk about, so of course in his day it was sex. But these days it’s envy that we’ve renounced. No one talks about it and no one admits it, even to themselves.

Erica (voice-over): Feelings, so often we fool ourselves into thinking we can control them, until one day we’re ambushed, caught off guard by rage or jealousy or love. And we’re forced to face the truth. The truth is this: you can’t control how you feel.  Only what you do about it.

Season 1, Episode 11, ”She’s Lost Control”

“We create our fate every day we live.” (Henry Miller)

“There is advantage from the wisdom won from pain.” (Aeschylus)

Season 1, Episode 12, ”Erica the Vampire Slayer”

Dr. Tom: You say that you’re easy-going but not commanding, but those qualities are not mutually exclusive. Why can’t you be both?
Erica: I just keep remembering that quote you once said: “Learn to be what you are and learn to resign with good grace all that you are not” (Henri-Frederic Emil)

Season 1, Episode 13, “Leo”

“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, but to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.” (Goethe)

Erica (voice over): At the end of the day it comes down to this: the way we choose to see ourselves limits who we can be. Step outside the box, and you might learn something. Because we are more capable than we imagine. Because we all have it in us to do things we’ve never done before. Because sometimes we can surprise even ourselves.

Season 2, Episode 1, ”Being Dr. Tom”

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” (Buddhist proverb)

Season 2, Episode 2, ”Battle Royale”

Dr. Tom: Do you know that talking as a means of resolving conflict actually goes against every biological instinct that we have? We feel threatened and so we fight, or if we don’t have the stomach for that, we run. […] sometimes we fight because we are unable to tell the other person how we really feel.

Erica (voice-over): Conflict – it’s everywhere you look, it touches everything we do, every relationship we have. Isn’t it funny how at their core all fights are the same? Two people yelling or accusing or running away. Two people doing anything to avoid telling each other what they really feel. Just talk, when you wanna run. Reveal when you wanna attack, it’s so simple, so obvious, and at the same time, so incredibly hard.

Season 2, Episode 3, ”Mama Mia”

Erica (voice-over): Friendships like everything else are not immune to change. The question is how do you keep a friendship together when your lives are pulling you apart?

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: what, you too, I thought I was the only one.” (C.S. Lewis)

Erica (voice-over): When life tries to pull you apart, you have to work to stay close together, by putting yourself in each other’s shoes, by reminding each other of who you were, and who you are becoming. And by remembering that despite all the changes that come there are some things that will always remain the same.

Season 2, Episode 4, ”Cultural Revolution”

Dr. Tom: Sometimes the biggest risk of all can be the willingness to say no.

Season 2, Episode 5, ”Yes We Can”

“Nobody realizes that some people expand tremendous energy merely to be normal.”(Albert Camus)

“To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence.” (Mark Twain)

Season 2, Episode 6, ”Shhh… Don’t Tell”

“There is no shame in not knowing. The shame lies in not finding out.” (Russian proverb)

Season 2, Episode 7, ”The Unkindest Cut”

Erica: There is nothing wrong with trying to help the people you care about.
Dr. Tom: That’s true, but there is a line.
Erica: A line, what line, what are you talking about?
Dr. Tom: Imagine a parent, like a mother say, and she spends her entire life trying to protect her child from hardship. She rushes in to fix every little problem and fill in every little need. And then the child grows up and is left unable to cope.  You know, with life’s vicissitudes. And the parents’ defence is “well, we were only trying to help.”
Erica: I’m not doing that. Well, maybe a little bit, but it’s only because I want the people I care about to be happy.
Dr. Tom: I’m sure that’s true. But the thing is, what if their happiness is not your responsibility?

Erica voice-over: There is no question that when we help we feel valued, useful, and more connected to the people we care about. The question is, when is helping not helpful at all? Sometimes the way we help the most is to give others the space and support they need to help themselves.

Season 2, Episode 8, ”Under My Thumb”

Erica (voice-over): Most of us think we know ourselves pretty well. Our hopes, dreams, desires. We cling so tightly to the stories we tell ourselves. Not realizing that what we really should do is let go. Let go of the belief that we are invincible. Let go of the idea that we can’t do it on our own. Let go of the fairy-tale. Because if we don’t let go, how can we move forward?

Season 2, Episode 9, ”A River Runs Through It… It Being Egypt”

Erica (voice-over): They say the truth will set you free. But no one bothers to mention that the truth can be a tricky thing. The fact is that getting to the truth is not easily done. Too often it gets buried, misplaced, or tucked away where no one can find it. The real question is, if one day you stumble upon the truth, would you even know it, would you recognize it for what it was?

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered. The point is to discover.”(Galileo)

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a while, but it ain’t going away.” (Elvis Presley)

Dr. Tom: It’s so much easier to live in denial. We do it to protect ourselves from the things that we don’t want to acknowledge.
Erica: But if we do that, then we’re just living a lie. No matter what we tell ourselves.

Erica (voice-over): They say that the truth will set you free, but I’m more interested in what they don’t say. And that is that the truth hurts. That it can be dangerous. Revealing the truth is like lighting a match. It can bring more light, help you see more clearly, or it can set your world on fire.

Season 2, Episode 10, ”Papa Can You Hear Me?”

Erica (voice-over): Relationships, they feel so permanent, so solid, so why are we always surprised that we find out that like everything else, they are not immune to change.

“Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.” (Bob Dylan)

Dr. Tom: They say: change or dye. Well, you know, that’s the same for relationships too. If we don’t allow them to change, then we run the risk of destroying them.

Erica (voice-over): Change is inevitable and the only constant is that nothing is constant. And our best defence is to change how we deal with that.

Season 2, Episode 11, ”What Goes Up Must Come Down”

“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” (Coco Chanel)

Barb (to Erica): But things don’t always turn out the way you imagine. Life deals you a hand, and no matter what cards you’re holding, you have to play them. And honey, it’s hard. And it never stops being hard. But you learn and you change and you grow, and even in my darkest moments I remind myself, it’s the reason we are all here. So you got fired, so you’re back down at the bottom again, it could be worse. So get back up. And keep fighting.

Erica (to Dr. Tom): All those hard years, all that struggle to find my way it made me different. It made me better.
Dr. Tom: Where would we be without struggle? Without hardship and pain. It’s easy to forget how much these moments teach and shape us. How different we would be without them.
Erica: I guess it’s hard to look at a setback as a gift.
Dr. Tom: Why? And that’s exactly what it is. “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart.” (Albert Camus)

Erica (voice-over): Setbacks – we face them every day. Some cause us to stumble. Others bring us to our knees. And along with pain and heart ache each setback brings the opportunity to rise up. To be stronger and better, and braver than before. But no sooner have we conquered a setback, we’ll find another. Just waiting to take its place.

Season 2 Episode 12, ”The Importance of Being Erica”

“Every wall is a door.” (Emerson)

“This above else: to thine own self be true.” (Shakespeare)

“We can’t teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves.”(Galileo)

Season 3, Episode 1, ”The Rabbit Hole”

Erica (voice-over): From the first moment we come into this world we feel pain and joy and fear and rage. We learn to hide the feelings that frighten us. First from others, then from ourselves. Many of us live our lives distant from our deepest feelings, and never stop to wonder, what would happen if we allowed ourselves to feel them fully, to express and share them with the world?

Season 3, Episode 2, ”Moving On Up”

Erica (voice-over): They say losing a lover is hard. Losing a friend is harder. And losing both is the hardest of all. What do you do when a piece of your life is suddenly missing? We know we’re supposed to move on, but how? How do you move on when there is a hole in your life that nothing can fill?

“Learning is finding out what you already know.” (Richard Bach)

Erica: You know, ten years ago in Claire’s shoes I might have made the same mistake – marrying the wrong person out of fear.
Dr. Tom: And what is it you think that Claire was afraid of?
Erica: Pain. How much it’d hurt to be without him. Breaking up with someone that you love, even if it is for the right reasons, it’s so incredibly hard. It was painful enough to make me reconsider my decision, which is crazy because I know that we’re not right together.
Dr. Tom: Claire thought that by marrying Ethan she could avoid the pain. Of course all she ended up doing was delaying it. She suffered through years of marriage and a difficult divorce rather than do the one thing that she should have done. The one thing that you have to do.
Erica: Which is?
Dr. Tom: Nothing.
Erica: I’m running around like a crazy woman, I’m crank-calling Ethan, I’m seducing juice guy, and all I had to do was nothing, I mean, come on, that sounds a little bit easy.
Dr. Tom: But no, Erica, it’s not easy at all. No. You hurt, and you hurt, and you live with it, and you sit in it, and you suffer until it stops. Until time takes it away.

Erica (voice-over): Sometimes the only way to move forward is to stop moving, to stand still, and to decide that no matter what happens, no matter how much it hurts, you’re exactly where you want to be.

Season 3, Episode 3, ”Two Wrongs”

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” (Ghandi)

Adam: You take one step into that direction, it’s still a step. It opens the door to more. Violence is violence, whether it’s physical or not.
Dr. Tom: You do violence, to Jordan, to Brent, it might solve one problem but it creates a far more serious one. And acting counter to your own values will do more than just change your circumstances, it will change you. And you may not like what you’ll become.

Erica (voice-over): Some things are true, whether we want them to be or not. Thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, habits become character. And character becomes destiny. It’s a hard thing to look deep down and examine our character. Will we do the right thing, even when no one is looking? When it’s not convenient? When it’s really hard? Will we do the right things simply because we have to? Because it’s who we are. Because it’s right.

Season 3, Episode 4, ”Wash, Rinse, REPEAT”

Kai: Living in the past is exhausting. And I needed to get to a point where I needed to accept that the past is the past. And if I’m gonna get anywhere at all, I got to focus on the present.
Erica: It’s so hard.
Kai: What?
Erica: Being in the present.
Kai: Yeah, it’s really hard, cause your mind wants to live anywhere else, anywhere, everywhere, but here. Which is the only place that you’re supposed to be.

Dr. Tom: You get what everyone else gets, Erica, you get one life. and it’s not about how long or short it is.
Erica: It’s what you do with it.

Season 3, Episode 5, ”Being Adam”

Erica (voice-over): Choices, they are life’s constant. The choice to be brave and push forward, to turn back and retreat, the choice to stand still and watch the world pass you by. Sometimes we tell ourselves that there is no choice when, in fact, the exact opposite is true. There is always a choice.

Season 3, Episode 6, ”Bear Breasts”

“Running away will never make you free.” (Kenny Logins)

Dr.Tom: The Id lives in our subconscious. It is the force that drives our most primitive impulses.
Erica: And the Ego is the self, and the Superego keeps the Id in check.
Dr. Tom: Exactly. You see, we spend most of our lives stopping ourselves from doing what we really want to do. Which makes sense, obviously, if everyone did whatever they wanted, my God, there’d be chaos.
Erica: You’re not gonna ask me walk down Yonge Street naked, are you?
Dr.Tom: No, unless you want to.
Erica: No.
Dr.Tom: But, what I am gonna ask you to do is let today be your own personal inversion ritual. Today I want you to follow all of your impulses. No matter how uncomfortable they may make you.
Erica: Sounds terrifying.
Dr. Tom: Yeah, that’s the idea.

Cassidy (to Erica): When you go after what you want, sometimes it works out, and sometimes it ends up with an ice penis being smashed to smithereens.

Erica (voice-over): Desire, it is the most powerful force on earth. The seed from which everything begins. It uplands the best-laid plans. It challenges who we are. It defies what we think we need.

Season 3, Episode 7, ”Jenny from the Block”

Erica (voice-over): Friendship – two people choose each other through some mysterious mix of alchemy and circumstance. On the surface the reason for our choice seems obvious: they share our interests, they make us laugh. But is there more to it than that? And do we even stop and wonder, why this person and not another?

Erica (voice-over): Friendship – it begins when two people choose each other. But what happens when we outgrow the choice? When little by little our paths diverge, our needs change, and one day we wake up and realize that we need to choose something different.

Season 3, Episode 10, ”The Tribe Has Spoken”

Erica: Look, Adam, here is the reality, things between us have been weird, ever since I kissed you. I’m over it, so why aren’t you?
Adam: And calling me a coward is you being over it?
Erica: No, I called you a coward because you kept saying one thing and then acting the complete opposite. You said that you don’t think about me that way, that’s fine, I get it. But you have to respect there are limits on our relationship that you put there, so don’t show up on my front doorstep to start a conversation about who I should and shouldn’t sleep with.

Dr. Tom: The map is within you and your feelings are the guideposts. They tell you when to go left and when to go right. Often we tend not to listen because it’s hard, it’s scary. And we forget that there is no other path to happiness except for the one that we create for ourselves.

Season 3, Episode 11, ”Adam’s Family”

Dr. Tom (to Adam): Garbage – you can put it out and some stranger comes along and tosses it into the back of a truck and takes it away. But even though it’s out of sight, and out of mind, it never actually disappears, does it? It just keeps building up.

Erica (voice-over): Life, they say, can turn on a dime. And in a world that constantly shifts beneath our feet, the only thing we can know for certain is how we feel. The love we have, the fear we hide from, the pain we push away, give it a voice. And the rewards are peace of mind and a peaceful heart.

Season 3, Episode 12, “Erica, Interrupted”

Leo (to Erica who is standing on a bridge): You know that friend you have,  the one that seems to have it all figured out, she’s got the great job, great guy, great life. Well, you’re not that girl. That’s what you keep telling yourself. That is what you fear is true. You’re afraid that you made up this other, this better you, and now all you’re left with is this. If this is all you are, Erica, all you’ll ever be, then you’re asking yourself, what’s the point.
Erica: Dr. Tom would say: “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Even if it’s not real. Even if everything that I’ve experienced wasn’t real, I’ve been changed by it. And that’s real. I remember it all, Leo, every lesson, good and bad, every victory, every defeat, and I can’t just throw it away I can’t throw my life away. I would rather live, and try, and fail, than give up.

Dr. Tom: Now that you have passed you get to move on, to help in the same way that you yourself were helped.
Erica: What if I had failed?
Dr. Tom: Each phase builds in the last, Erica, you cannot enter group until you’re ready, and the same is true for doctor training, and that’s why we do the test. So that we can be sure that you have a solid foundation. And you proved back there that you do. Because you were able to hold on to yourself. When everything else was ripped away from you.

Season 3, Episode 13, “Fa La Erica”

“Christmas is a time when you get homesick, even when you’re home.” (Carol Nelson)

Dr. Tom (to Erica): Giuseppe Martini said that “family is the country of the heart.” We spend so much of our lives in exile, but on the holidays we make the pilgrimage home to the nation of our heart, where-ever that may be.

Season 4, Episode 1, “Doctor Who?”

Dr. Tom: You are a doctor in training and your first assignment is to help Josh to move on with his life.
Erica: Move on to what? How do I even do that?
Dr. Tom: You figure it out.
Erica: I feel like you’re setting me up to fail.
Dr. Tom: Well, “Failure is nature’s way to prepare you for great responsibilities.”(Napoleon Hill) And I think you should prepare to fail repeatedly. This process is not going to be easy. And it’s not meant to be.

“Life is too short to blend in.” (Paris Hilton)

Dr. Tom (to Erica): You place Josh down here, and you place yourself up here. And you say, I could never be like that. That person is other, is undeserving, a monster. It’s an old story, It’s how wars begin, it’s how people turn on each other. And you know, it starts so simply too. I am not you. I am nothing like you. And it is each time a lie. Because underneath all the layers of fear and protection we are at our core the same. We have the same needs, and we carry the same capacity for good and evil.

Erica: You are your patient.
Dr. Tom: You are every patient you will ever have. And every person you will ever meet. And until you acknowledge that you have the capacity not just for kindness and compassion, but also for heartlessness and cruelty, you will never be able to start from here (showing equal levels with both hands).

Josh: Erica, do you still feel trapped?
Erica: No.
Josh: What changed?
Erica: I did. I spent years holding on to regrets and wishing that things would have turned out differently. And once I let that go, things got a lot better.

Erica (voice-over): Have you ever felt at home in a crowd? Like you were part of something bigger? And you felt this amazing energy that happens when people come together. How despite the superficial differences you know that deep down we’re all the same. We have the same secret needs and the same wild dreams. We walk around thinking our secret pain, our secret joy is so unique, when really, we all just want the same things: to be happy, to be safe, to be loved.

Season 4, Episode 2, ”Osso Barko”

Dr. Tom (to Erica): Feelings rarely make any rational sense until we understand why we have them.

Erica (voice-over): Insecurity. It’s in all of us. That voice inside us that tells us we can’t do something, that we’re not good enough, that we shouldn’t even try. And when we listen to that voice, we hold ourselves back in ways we don’t even realize. All because we’re scared. To take a chance. To face our fears. To see what we’re really capable of.

Season 4, Episode 3, ”Baby Mama”

Erica (to her mother): It’s not the mistakes that define us. It’s how we deal with them.

Season 4, Episode 6, ”If I Could Turn Back Time”

Dr. Tom: Relationships are difficult. You know we know this and yet we hope that with each new person that the honeymoon will last forever. But it doesn’t. It’s not supposed to be endlessly easy. “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” (Thomas Payne) Relationships challenge us in ways that we don’t want to be challenged. Force us to see things that we don’t want to see. About our partner and about ourselves.

Erica (voice-over): With great power comes great responsibility. Why? Because power is an illusion. The desire to yield that is weakness and exercise of ego. And the fact is that all you really hold when you hold power, is all the rope you need to hang yourself.

Season 4, Episode 9, ”Erica’s Adventures in Wonderland”

Erica: I know that there is no such thing as the perfect guy, and you didn’t have to send me to an alternate universe to figure that out.
Dr. Tom: So then, what are you looking for?
Erica: I think that I found what I’m looking for and I screwed it up. Really badly.
Dr. Tom: “We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see and imperfect person perfectly.” (Sam Keen)
Erica: So, what do I do, Dr. Tom?
Dr. Tom: You do the one thing you can do, surrender.

Season 4, Episode 10, “Purim”

Erica: You can’t expect people to be like you. you are not your patient. It seems so obvious now.
Dr. Tom: It is obvious, but not withstanding that it has been one of the toughest lessons for me to learn.
Erica: For you?
Dr. Tom: We tend, Erica, all of us to see the world through the prism of our own reflection.  And we assume without even thinking that people are just like us. [...] When the people that we care about let us down, when they disappoint us, we have trouble seeing that we are holding them to an impossible standard.
Erica: You are not your patient. But at the same time…
Dr. Tom: You are your patient.
Erica: The lessons they are two sides of the same coin. It’s about finding the balance.

Season 4, Episode 11, “Dr. Erica”

Dr. Naadiah: What happens when we don’t allow ourselves to change? [...] When we resist the change that wants to happen, that needs to happen, we do more damage than we realize. We violate the natural order of life.
Erica: There is no constant but change.

Saint Laurent River

“Space is a configuration of multiplicity of trajectories. [...] Space is the co-constitutive product with relations/interactions you are also helping to produce.” (Doreen Massey, “Travelling Thoughts,” 2000)

Old Port

“We can no more go back in space, return to whence we came, than we are able to go back in time. What we can do is meet up again; catch up with where another’s history has got to ‘now’; interlace again with another of those multiple trajectories.” (Doreen Massey, “Travelling Thoughts,” 2000)

Chinatown

“You are not travelling across space; you are altering it a little, moving it on, producing it.[...] To imagine space in this way, of course, means thinking time and space together and thinking both of them as the product of interrelations. [...] Time may be irreversible but so may be space. Or, rather, it is better not to separate them in this way.” (Doreen Massey, “Travelling Thoughts,” 2000)

Quartier Latin

“Places change; they go on without you.” (Doreen Massey, “Travelling Thoughts,” 2000)

Square St. Louis

“Places, in fact, are always constructed out of articulations of social relations (trading connections, the unequal links of colonialism, thoughts of home) which are not only internal to that locale but which link them to elsewhere. Their ‘local uniqueness’ is always already a product of wider contacts; the local is always already a product in part of ‘global’ forces, where global in this context refers not necessarily to the planetary scale, but to the geographical beyond the place itself.” (Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Avenue du Parc

“In all these cases ‘the past’ is seen in some sense to embody the real character of the place. …talking of other places as ‘unspoilt’ (by which we usually mean: it is as we have imagined it to have been in some distant past).” (Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Mont-Royal

“These kinds of (implicitly or explicitly) internalist and essentialist constructions of the character of places, then not only fail to recognize the long history of interconnectedness with elsewhere (the history of the global construction of the local), they also presuppose a particular relationship between the assumed identity of a place and its history.” (Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Rue Rachel

“The identity of a place is thus not to be seen as inevitably to be destroyed by new importations. On this alternative reading that identity is always, and always has been, in process of formation: it is in a sense forever unachieved.” (Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Train Tracks and Overpass between Mile End and Park Ex

“The identity of places is very much bound up with the histories which are told of them, how those histories are told, and which history turns out to be dominant.”(Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Avenue Hutchison

“The identity of places, indeed the very identification of places as particular places, is always in that sense temporary, uncertain, and in process.” (Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Boulevard de l’Acadie

“The description, definition and identification of a place is thus always inevitably an intervention not only into geography but also, at least implicitly, into the (re)telling of the historical constitution of the present.” (Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Boulevard St. Laurent

“Perhaps a really ‘radical’ history of a place would be one which did not try to present either simple temporal continuity or only spatial simultaneity with no sense of historical depth. A way of understanding which, in the end, did not try to seal a place up into one neat and tidy ‘envelope of space-time’ but which recognized that what has come together, in this place, now, is a conjunction of many histories and many spaces.” (Doreen Massey, “Places and Their Pasts,” 1995)

Montréal prides itself on its vibrant and diverse fashion scene and fashion production industry. Montréal designers usually get all the spotlight and coverage, but what about the other people who contribute to the creation and vibrancy of this scene? Here are some of the people who have a lot to do with making this city fashionable:

1. How long have you been working in the fashion industry in Montreal? 

Mélanie Brisson (Stylist): I’ve been a stylist for the past 4 years.

Mathieu de Latour (PR Specialist): I’m commencing my 4th year in this career and I still love it so much. I think I love the energy and the dynamism of it!

Lolitta Dandoy (Fashion Journalist, Blogger): I started at Journal Voir in 2006, so it’s going to be 7 years. But I’ve only had my personal blog, Fashion Is Everywhere, for 9 months.

Elsa Vecchi (Fashion Journalist at La Presse): I’ve been in Montreal for 5 years. I’ve been working for La Presse for 2 years, and I’ve been the fashion editor at Dress To Kill for 4 years.

Sébastien Roy (photographer): I’ve been working in the fashion industry for the last 4 years. I started at Montreal Fashion Week as an assistant. I worked day and night since then meeting people and taking pictures everywhere.

Anik Lacasse-Richard (fashion blogger): I started working in the fashion industry right after graduating from fashion design in 2007. I then started my own fashion blog in 2009 and have been doing it ever since.

Chantal Durivage and Jean-François Daviau (organizers of Montreal Fashion Week): We have been working in the fashion industry in Montreal for the past 12 years. In 2000, we joined forces establishing Groupe Sensation Mode and serving as co-presidents from the outset. For the past 12 years, Groupe Sensation Mode has been producing major fashion events on the Canadian and international stage. These include Montreal Fashion Weeks, Le Showroom, Fashion and Design Festivals (Montreal and Toronto), the Fashion Theatre produced in Berlin, Tokyo, New York and London as well as the Fashion & Opera show produced in Los Angeles and New York.

2. How would you describe the Montreal fashion scene?

Mélanie Brisson: Montreal has a lot of diversity and creativity. It’s an awesome melting pot of inspiration.

Mathieu de Latour: The Montreal fashion scene is quite complex… As a PR representative, you have to combine and play with both the artistic and mercantile fields. Being so creative and talented, the Montreal designers are, to me, artists just as a sculptor as well as managers strongly attached to the ongoing evolution of their business. To be honest, the money is not always present in the work of few, but the quality remain always true and their accomplishments are huge. What you see during 15 minutes on a runway can easily be translated as a contest each designers are participating to. They prepare themselves for this stressful and meaningful competition during over 6 months and, within these 15 minutes catwalk show, everything must work perfectly cause they will be judged by the critics. So much pressure for a so small amount of time! Aside from the shows, there is also the selling part that is kind of complicated here in Montreal. Unfortunately, if you want to become national or international per say, you have to travel a lot with heavy luggage and everything… See, In Canada, if you want to present your collection to Holt Renfrew or The Bay, you have to do a trip to Toronto.. If you want to be available at Saks or Barney’s, you have to go in New York. A lot of work with small effectives and budgets… It’s always challenging. But we like it like that! I’m actually preparing something with UNTTLD Let’s keep the secret a little longer. I’ll keep you in the loop when everything will be released.

Lolitta Dandoy: I think the Montreal scene is small but VERY creative. We really have incredible talent and with designers like UNTTLD, Jocelyn Picard, Anastasia Lomonova, Pedram Karimi… we are covered for a few years!

Elsa Vecchi: Alternative and very interesting!

Sébastien Roy: Eclectic, young, ambitious

Anik Lacasse-Richard: Evolving. Every season, there are great new designers coming out, Fashion Week is getting better and better and more boutiques are featuring local designers, which I find is great news for our designers.

Chantal Durivage and Jean-François Daviau: Montreal fashion is in constant evolution. Our Quebec creators are very talented and renowned internationally. For 12 years, multiple productions of Groupe Sensation Mode joined hundreds of thousands of spectators, many journalists and a crowd of designers and opinion leaders. Its fashion and design are among the most prestigious in the world. Note for example the critical success of the Fashion Theater (produced in Berlin, Tokyo, New York and London) and Opera & Fashion show presented in Los Angeles and New York. Closer to us, the Montreal Fashion Week, The Showroom and the Fashion and Design Festival (Montreal and Toronto), contribute significantly to the recognition and prestige of the creators worldwide.

3. Which Montreal designers stand out for you and why?

Mélanie Brisson: Anomal Couture has always been my favourite. She is very confident and strong in her style, has the best sewing abilities and knows her clients well.

Mathieu de Latour: I would say Rad Hourani for sure… He is managing so many things at the same time, it’s incredible. I can’t believe that in a so short time, being alone, he got this major opportunity to present his couture collection in Paris! Another one would be for sure my dear friends from UNTTLD, José-Manuel and Simon. The boys are working so hard and they are so creative and well experienced, they will surely harvest soon their amazing results… And the process already begun!

Lolitta Dandoy: This is going to seem pretty obvious, but I have to say Denis Gagnon. His creativity and talent his at an international level. I also love Tavan & Mitto, they are discreet but their work is flawless and really wearable! Finally, I think we should keep a very close eye on Jocelyn Picard and VFranz Bernil.

Elsa Vecchi: Duy is a real “couturier” , I love his glamourous touch. UNTTLD : they are “la relève”. Philippe Dubuc: l’un des piliers de la création montréalaise. Martin Lim: I love their style: very feminine and chic.

Sébastien Roy: Rad Hourani stand out in the fashion world but he never showed anything in Montreal… I really like Samuel Mercure, UNTTLD, DUY, Anastasia Lomonova, Travis Taddeo and Denis Gagnon.

Anik Lacasse-Richard: UNTTLD, I think José Manuel and Simon have amazing talents and great creative minds. Their collections just keep getting better every season and they bring something to the Montreal fashion scene that is young, edgy and different.

Chantal Durivage and Jean-François Daviau: Everyone has a unique signature! For us, all the designers stand out for their inspiration, the universe in which they lead us, the stories they tell and how they express them.

4. What is the relationship between the city of Montreal and the local fashion?

Mélanie Brisson: Montreal needs to be more proud of their own talents! We need to expand to be able to export and bring money to the local designers (I am not sure about my translation, those that make sense?)

Mathieu de Latour: It’s really complicated. I think people are yet not ready to be proud of what we have here and consume locally. I think we, as communicators, journalists and medias/pr, have a lot of work to do in giving this accent on the local market. And it’s not that expensive…

Lolitta Dandoy: I think we are very proud of our designers but unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know them very well, so we don’t encourage their work as much as we should.

Elsa Vecchi: It’s a mix of anglophone culture (sophisticated, sometimes too much) and french style (l’élégance simple à la parisienne).

Sébastien Roy: I think the city and people understand the key element of success. We have strong local designer. But Montreal is a bubble and we need to bring thing outside.

Anik Lacasse-Richard: I think there is a good relationship between the two. The Bureau de la Mode de Montréal is very involved in the local fashion scene.

Chantal Durivage and Jean-François Daviau: Buying local is increasingly part of the values of Montrealers. The fashion industry is part of our history and we feel that people make it a priority. We can be proud of initiatives such as the Bureau de la mode de Montréal which promotes local fashion with the Mode Montréal pins campaign. Also, Groupe sensation Mode participates in fashion and clothing industry consultation forums for the Ministère des Finances et de l’Économie and the Committee of the Québec Charter for a Healthy and Realistic Body Image.

5. Who are some other key figures in the Montreal fashion scene for you?

Mélanie Brisson: Anomal Couture, Lyn, Anastasia Lomonova, Unt Tld, DUY, Cluc Couture..

Mathieu de Latour: Denis Gagnon for sure. I started my career with him! Tavan & Mitto. They are, to me, Icons of quality and high-end ready-to-wear in Montreal.

Lolitta Dandoy: In the journalism field, I would definitely say Eva Friede, she is definitely a force to be reckoned with! I also think Denis Desro, from Elle Quebec. He has an amazing eye and his work is always evolving, which is not easy when you’ve been at a position for so long. He’s not as active as he used to be, but I’ve always admired François Guenet’s work for shows like “D” and “Une ville, un style”.

Elsa Vecchi: The important people: Philippe Dubuc (of course!), Denis Gagnon, Marie Saint Pierre, UNTTLD, and absolutely all the designers…. The boutique’s owners who do a lot for fashion in Montreal: Marie-Claude Gravel and Jean-François Bourque: Quai 417, Michel Brisson, Laura Gurantiano: Cahier d’Exercice,…. And of course the journalists who take time to meet the designers and write about them, the ones who really like fashion (history of fashion, evolution, style…).

Sébastien Roy: Bloggers influence a lot. Lolitta and Anik. Also Cary Tauben and Mélanie Brisson both stylist. Eva Friede from The Gazette and Denis Desro from ELLE.

Anik Lacasse-Richard: Denis Gagnon is one of our best designers and I really admire his work. Genevieve Borne is also a great supporter and spokesperson for the Montreal fashion scene.

Chantal Durivage and Jean-François Daviau: We are really impressed with the work of designers, but also artists that work around them such as stylists, photographers, make-up artists, hairdressers and even musicians with whom fashion designers often have very intimate relationships. For us, the fashion industry encompasses a wide range of key actors.

Olympic Stadium 

Old Port

Avenue Viger

Lachine Canal 

Habitat 67

Mile End

Plateau

Boulevard René-Lévesque

Port

Champlain Bridge

Boulevard St. Laurent

Rue Berri

Avenue Van Horne and Hutchison