Wandering Worldwide

Jonas Elrod / All photos courtesy of Wake Up The filmmaker and director takes time from his busy schedule to answer some burning questions about his latest documentary, Wake Up. [Note: Before you dive into this insightful interview, you may want to check out my film review of Wake Up first.] BASED IN NEW YORK CITY , Jonas Elrod has been working in film for over 10 years now, many of those in commercials and music videos. Hes worked with heavy hitters such as Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Nike, ESPN, and Spike Lee. The subject of his latest documentary, Wake Up , is himself. Jonas wakes one day to discover that hes tapped into another world. He sees visions of angels, demons, spirits, and auras. Hes checked out medically and psychologically and found to be normal, so he goes on a quest to try to figure out what is happening to him, talking to spiritual leaders, teachers, and healers of different faiths. After watching the film, I was left with a few questions. And he was kind enough to an...

Rob Chursinoff hears first-hand stories of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Fefe, 24, Law student/hotel receptionist [Editor's note: Today, 7 April 2011, is the 17th annual commemoration of the Rwandan genocide in which approximately 800,000 people lost their lives.] IT IS MY LAST NIGHT IN KIGALI. Im in a bar. I ask a man sitting next to me if he is Hutu or Tutsi. He scoffs. We are all Rwandans now. He lifts his bottle in the air, cheersing anyone who might be listening. He is drunk and my question seems to have agitated him. We are supposed to all be Rwandans, there is no more Hutu and Tutsi. He looks at me with a bleary-eyed earnestness when he says this. After gulping down the rest of his beer, he slams the bottle onto the table and peers at me for a moment. Then he whispers close to my ear, I am Tutsi. He begins karate-chopping me on the neck where it meets the shoulder and, occasionally, across the top of my head. This is how they killed us, he demonstrates. In Canada, do you know ...

Photo: GollyGForce Richard Stupart has a laugh at his own expense as he recollects the different roles he played while abroad. COMPARING TRAVEL NOTES with a friend over lunch recently, the conversation ended up devolving into laughter and snorting soft drinks through our noses as we exchanged stories about some of the memories of travelers we have known. The personas that people adopt the moment they leave their front doors and hit the road. Later, I realized how many times Ive assumed some of these roles myself during my travels. To differing degrees, I think they were a defense against being judged by the people I would meet. Used that way, masks can be helpful in relating to people. A way of breaking the ice or keeping enough of your shy self hidden. Taken to extremes though, we run the danger of identifying a little too closely with the mask. Jamie Catto, director of What About Me , put it well when, in this interview , he said: when you were in school, your favourite teachers were...