On the Road

This chapter explores the trajectories of Canadian filmmakers through the discourses, events, and infrastructures of cinema outside of their national borders. As Canadian cinema travels the world, it is promoted and interpreted in a variety of ways: as a product seeking foreign markets, as an ambassadorial cultural form representing Canada, and as a distinctive authorial voice often nurtured by the international circuit of film festivals and the networks these have helped create. The chapter focuses on Canadian cinema’s particular susceptibility to the international scene and the latter’s key role both in the fostering of Canadian auteurs and in the eclipsing, at times, of their very Canadianness.

Iassy – Sourse of Local, National and International Talents

The city of Iaşi, one of the most important visual art centers in the country, is one with an extraordinary creative potential, this being the reason why in this paper we mentioned local artistic personalities of national and international value. In this context, we will present among the most relevant exhibiting events that are constantly organized in Iaşi and which bring together local, national and international creative values. We would like to mention the ArtIS Salons, the Drawing Salon, the Iasi Identity Exhibitions, the Visual Arts Exhibitions of the International Festival of Education, the Visual Arts Exhibitions of Euroinvent, Inventica, the International Triennial Texpoart, the International Biennale of Contemporary Engraving, as well as visual artists who have already integrated into the international circuit, being rewarded with numerous awards and distinctions among the most honored. Thus, local artistic life is in a continuous creative effervescence, supported by the numerous exhibitions of consecrated and young artists who come to the audience with a great variety of styles.

“We are Indigenous and We Want to be Literate in Our Own Language”

The Ogiek of Mariashoni living in the Mau Forest of Kenya are a group of hunters and gatherers, who in the last 30 years have been facing a progressive process of habitat and climate change which obliged them to settle down and leave their semi-nomadic way of life. The major characteristic of the Ogiek has always been a very high degree of adaptability to their social and environmental context, which allowed them to develop what we can now call a fluid identity. Recently they have come into contact with new social (and economic) movements promoted and supported by national and international ngos working in the field of human rights and for the safeguard of indigenous peoples, which gave them the possibility to enter the international circuit of aid for cooperation and development. In a socio-linguistic perspective one of the most interesting aspects of this new situation is the speakers’ changed attitude towards their own language and its promotion. This paper contains an accurate description of a project aimed at the definition of a good orthographic system for the Ogiek language and the production of didactic materials for primary schools. The project, which ended up as a failure due to the lack of participation and funding from the local Kenyan official institutions, was promoted by the University of Trieste in the framework of the ATrA project.

Globalisation of Cultural Circuits. The Case of International Awards for Fiction

In the international circuit of fictional texts from the last fifty years (perhaps even one hundred years, in some cases), several independent international organizations, academic and editorial platforms of critique and debate have been established. They have been organizing international contests, fine authorities of critical appreciation, evaluation and awarding of most prolific authors and most successful fictional texts: novels, short stories, stories or utopian and dystopian fictions. The allotment on cultural corridors, the geographical identification of both author and title dynamics which have been nominated at the most prestigious international awards for fiction demonstrates an increased emergence of several zones where wide international circulation texts were seldom, fifty years ago. In this paper, we suggest a reinterpretation and a comprehension of the political context from the contemporary fiction, by regrouping in one category, the three classical genres (historic novel, social novel, political novel) and also the universal fiction which implies characters and relations of power. Thus, we create a category which is known as „political fiction”. The increased individualization of this literary macro-genre called „political fiction” is also a creative answer to the high speed of circulation and at the general international amplitude with which contemporary socio-political novels are distributed.

Nutrition Considerations for Open-Water Swimming

Open-water swimming (OWS) is a rapidly developing discipline. Events of 5–25 km are featured at FINA World Championships, and the international circuit includes races of 5–88 km. The Olympic OWS event, introduced in 2008, is contested over 10 km. Differing venues present changing environmental conditions, including water and ambient temperatures, humidity, solar radiation, and unpredictable tides. Furthermore, the duration of most OWS events (1–6 hr) creates unique physiological challenges to thermoregulation, hydration status, and muscle fuel stores. Current nutrition recommendations for open-water training and competition are either an extension of recommendations from pool swimming or are extrapolated from other athletic populations with similar physiological requirements. Competition nutrition should focus on optimizing prerace hydration and glycogen stores. Although swimmers should rely on self-supplied fuel and fluid sources for shorter events, for races of 10 km or greater, fluid and fuel replacement can occur from feeding pontoons when tactically appropriate. Over the longer races, feeding pontoons should be used to achieve desirable targets of up to 90 g/hr of carbohydrates from multitransportable sources. Exposure to variable water and ambient temperatures will play a significant role in determining race nutrition strategies. For example, in extreme environments, thermoregulation may be assisted by manipulating the temperature of the ingested fluids. Swimmers are encouraged to work with nutrition experts to develop effective and efficient strategies that enhance performance through appropriate in-competition nutrition.

Letter to an Editor: the Yesterday and Today of Poland's Teatr Ósmego Dnia

Teatro Ósmego Dnia, the Theatre of the Eighth Day, has for forty years flourished in Poland, never as part of the established theatre, but as one of what Eugenio Barba calls the ‘floating islands’ – those companies which live as much as make theatre, and form part of an informal international circuit of like-minded though distinct and individual groups. Ian Watson here shapes his own memories of the group in the form of a letter to one of NTQ's co-editors, with whom he has shared experiences of Polish theatre, and in particular the work of Eighth Day, relating their history to the changing political and economic environment in Poland, and the company's relationship with the outside world. Ian Watson, who is a Contributing Editor of New Theatre Quarterly, teaches at Rutgers University, Newark, where he is the Acting Chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. He is author of Towards a Third Theatre: Eugenio Barba and the Odin Teatret (Routledge, 1993) and of Negotiating Cultures: Eugenio Barba and the Intercultural Debate (Manchester University Press, 2002). He edited Performer Training across Cultures (Routledge, 2001), and has published numerous articles on theatre in scholarly journals.