This essay deals with ways to focus on the strengths and gifts of communities, and especially children, in war and other adversity. It comes out of the many years that I worked in the field of child health and rights.

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Dirty Old Town

(Ewan MacColl)

My inspiration was the Pogues. We played with the arrangement to make something new, and I think we did bring out some primal loneliness with Teilhard’s bodhran and the Ansgar’s harp solo.

Millworker

(James Taylor)

Like John Prine’s ballad “Angels from Montgomery” this song is about suffering and regret written by a man in a woman’s persona. Full of defiance, it cuts to the heart of a factory worker’s boredom and a poor single mother’s desperation. Yet in her dreams she soars toward the light. This is probably the first time Francis Cabrel’s French version has been mixed with James Taylor’s lyrics.

Saint James Infirmary

(traditional)

When I came across the lyrics to this song in a book, it conjured up a long-dormant memory. I must have heard Louis Armstrong’s recording of it when I was a kid, so this arrangement grew out of that fragment of melody. This song has the alchemical power to take a singer deep down inside where that paradox of the blues happens, where sadness becomes energy, where grief is transmuted into joy.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

(Robbie Robertson)

This one reminds me of my dad, Ben Hugh Lowry (1919-1992). Like Virgil Cane, he had a particularly Southern sense of betrayal in his blood, and a fierce courage. When I was very small he had a wonderfully aromatic cigarette lighter with a Confederate flag on it. One of my earliest, fondest memories is the magic of that lighter, because when you flipped the lid open it played Dixie and burst into flame.

Ecotone is currently developing new documentary projects. Keep an eye on the site for details.

The 4th annual Brewers Plate April 6 at the Wychwood Barns was a sold-out success.
For Info and tickets for April 2012 click here.

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Ecotone produces events for advocacy, public education and fundraising. Read more

Update from Chris Lowry (March 2010):

In March I gave a guest lecture to Dror Etzion’s MBA class at McGill University, for the second time, by Skype, on a laptop in my Toronto office, on the subject of local living economies and green business. A virtuous carbon footprint, to be sure, but I would have loved a trip to Montreal!

My new article on energetic responses to ‘peak everything’ featuring conversations with Jeff Rubin, Richard Heinberg and James Lovelock, is in the Spring issue of Alternatives Journal.
//www.alternativesjournal.ca/articles/greener-pastures

Whenever I see an interesting texture… I like to capture it. Check out this Flickr gallery of some of my recent pics.

Here is a clip from an award winning film I produced in 1981-82:  a biography of the Canadian painter Jack Chambers.  I worked with director/cinematographer John Walker and Altantis Films.  

“… a fascinating and invaluable portrait.”
J. Hoberman, THE VILLAGE VOICE (New York)

“One of Canada’s most
important artists… a painter
of fierce dedication and uncompromising vision.”
David MacFarlane, MACLEANS MAGAZINE

Shot on location in Spain and Canada, this visually lyrical film provides a carefully constructed narrative of the artist’s complex, inspired life. As a young art student Chambers left the provincial town of London, Ontario in the early 1950’s and sailed to Naples. In Spain he broke into Picasso’s house to ask him for advice, and ended up enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He lived in Spain for nine years, and when he came back to Canada he brought with him an artistic discipline as sharp as Spanish steel, a sophisticated Argentinean wife, and a new religion—Catholicism. The film includes the full range of Chambers’ work up until his death at the age of 47 including oil paintings, drawings and experimental films. His effort to integrate the influences of photography and to reconcile abstract art with the conservative technical tradition that he embraced in Spain reflects the central conflicts that have defined artistic expression in the 20th century. For the last nine years of his life, Chambers struggled with leukemia, traveling as far as India in search of a cure, yet during his last years he produced much of his most radiant work.

“…reveals the heightened perception and transcendence
that comes after terrible inner struggle. Exquisite…”
Joyce Nelson, CINEMA CANADA

“Strong, precise, romantic and real…
a moving picture of Jack Chambers… an acknowledged art hero.”
ARTMAGAZINE

Tracks and Gestures includes penetrating interviews with Jungian analyst and writer Marion Woodman, critic and scholar Ross Woodman, multimedia artist and co-founder of Canadian Artists Representation (CAR) Kim Ondaatje, and the great Spanish realist painter Antonio Lopez. It also includes original footage of masterpieces by Goya, El Greco, Velazquez, and Rembrandt from the Prado Museum in Madrid. The film has a delightful original musical score, and is narrated by two of Canada’s finest actors, Ted Johns and Cedric Smith.

I also wrote about a short review essay about the 2012 Jack Chambers exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario in The Mark News.

WINNER OF SEVEN INTERNATIONAL FILM AWARDS

BEST DOCUMENTARY over 30 minutes,
CFTA (GENIE) Awards, 1982
BEST DOCUMENTARY CINEMATOGRAPHY,
Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards, 1983
BEST DOCUMENTARY EDITING,
Canadian Film Editors Awards, 1983
BEST FILM OF THE FESTIVAL, Yorkton Film Festival, 1983
BEST HUMAN CONDITION FILM, Yorkton Film Festival, 1983
BRONZE MEDAL, Houston International Film Festival, 1983
BLUE RIBBON for Best Documentary,
American Film Festival, New York 1984

The 56 minute film can be purchased on DVD at the Art Gallery of Ontario, or directly from Ecotone.