TORONTO, May 3, 2011 ─  ‘Yes Man’ Andy Bichlbaum is the keynote presenter for Digital Activism and the Environment, the 2011 Summer Institute in Film to be held May 11 to 17 by York’s University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

Bichlbaum will present “The Yes Men Fix Canada”, a public how-to-hoax clinic, on May 11 at the Ontario College of Art & Design University Auditorium. The event is presented under the auspices of the Norman Jewison Series in York’s Department of Film, in collaboration with OCADU’s Faculty of Art.

The Yes Men are a collective of digital artists and activists, determined to culturejam the global forces of environmental evil. Brilliantly blending hilarity, surrealism and outrage, their hoaxes, pranks and 'tactical media interventions' have resulted in international headlines, award-winning exhibitions and features (including The Yes Men Fix the World Audience Choice Award at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival), and genuine social change.

Bichlbaum’s illustrated presentation will explore the tactical strategies behind some of the Yes Men's greatest triumphs, from their legendary 'identity corrections' of Dow, Enbridge, HUD, Exxon and WTO, to their punking of Environment Minister Jim Prentice in Copenhagen and their hijinks during the current federal election campaign.

The 2011 Summer Institute in Film: Digital Activism and the Environment focuses on the theory and practice of digital activism in relation to issues of environmental sustainability. Through lectures, seminars, hands-on workshops and collective projects, the institute will investigate contemporary practices of environmental media activism within a broader historical and critical context of social-change cinema.

In addition to Bichlbaum’s public clinic downtown, a highlight of the Summer Institute will be an intensive Yes Lab session – the first in Canada. The lab, presented in partnership with Greenpeace, will be held on campus with students registered in the summer institute.

Complementing the Yes Men events will be free public lectures at York’s Keele campus by two other guest presenters:

Patricia Zimmerman, a professor in the Department of Cinema, Photography & Media Arts at Ithaca College, NY will present “Open Space Documentary 2.0” on May 16.  Zimmerman is the author of Mining the Home Movie: Evacuations in History and Memory and States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies.On May 17, Megan Boler, affiliate faculty in the Knowledge Media Design Institute, Department of Theory & Policy Studies at the OISE, University of Toronto, presents a talk on “Networking Dissent: Digital Publics Taking the Streets.” Boler is editor of Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times and author of Democratic Dialogue in Education: Troubling Speech, Disturbing Silences. 

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Digital Activism & The Environment
The 2011 Summer Institute in Film – York University 

‘Yes Man’ Andy Bichlbaum: The Yes Men Fix Canada
When: May 11 at 8pm
Where: OCADU Auditorium, 100 McCaul St. [Map]
Admission: $10/sliding scale
Info: www.yorku.ca/finearts/film

Patricia Zimmerman: Open Space Documentary 2.0
When: May 16, 2pm
Where: Nat Taylor Cinema, 102 Ross Building, York University 4700 Keele Street [Map]
Admission: Free
Info: www.yorku.ca/finearts/film 

Megan Boler: Networking Dissent: Digital Publics Taking the Streets
When: May 17, 2pm
Where: Nat Taylor Cinema, 102 Ross Building, York University 4700 Keele Street [Map]
Admission: Free
Info: www.yorku.ca/finearts/film

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Media Contact:
Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
416-650-8469  |  amy.stewart@yorku.ca