Manufacturing the Threat returns with hard look at homemade-bomb caper in B.C., at VIFF Centre October 15 to 20
In its first return here since DOXA. documentary raises troubling questions about entrapment, national security, and democracy
Accused in 2013 plot to plant bombs at the B.C. Legislature, John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, seen in the new documentary Manufacturing the Threat, were freed after a B.C. Supreme Court judge found police had entrapped them.
Manufacturing the Threat screens at VIFF Centre from October 15 to 20
ON ONE LEVEL, Amy Miller’s Manufacturing the Threat is a deeply disturbing documentary that traces the infamous 2013 case of John Nuttall and his wife Amanda Korody, both converts to Islam (taking the names Omar and Ana). The couple spent three years in prison for planning a terrorist bombing before the courts found they’d been entrapped by undercover law enforcement.
But it turns out their story is not an isolated case: the film uses their pathetic case as a launching pad to reveal the ways Canada's policing and national security agencies, granted additional powers after 9/11, break laws with little accountability or oversight.
If you missed the film when it debuted at DOXA fest last spring, here's your chance to catch it again—and face the fact that anti-terrorism measures may be running as rampant here as they are south of the border. As Miller told Stir last spring during DOXA: "I think the film’s argument is that there’s a lot of money to be made, there are a lot of people vested in maintaining this methodology and this notion of national security because they benefit. It’s a big industry and it’s spent the last 20 years saying the fight is terrorism."
Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.
Related Articles
Nettie Wild’s projected and VR-headset works include a mesmerizing three-channel ode to herring migration, the salmon-run-themed Uninterrupted, and “moving paintings”
When an alien invasion threatens a remote town in Nunavut, three teenage girls must save the day
In series at The Cinematheque, vintage home-movie glow of Kyuka: Before Summer’s End and hallucinatory shades of Harvest reveal tension and crisis beneath domestic and communal surfaces
Diane Kurys’s gossipy, subtly performed biopic portrays the last years of a legendary relationship rife with destructive compulsions
Drawing major buzz for the way it plays with genre, the story of a misguided superfan boasts maximalist visual touches, hits of dark humour, and a considerable amount of heart
Vancouver-based Tristin Greyeyes finds inspiration in her grandmother’s story in documentary at GEMFest
Views and feats to inspire, from a Women Mountaineers program at The Cinematheque to the Everest tales of adventure filmmaker Elia Saikaly
At the Rendez-Vous French Film Festival, filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau and star Malia Baker confront anxiety and mortality in the deep freeze of the Prairies
Keeper, Tuner, and Forward join Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie in prizes for Canada’s top movies of the year
Gourou, Dalloway, and a flick inspired by Liliane Bettencourt of the L'Oréal dynasty help launch 32nd annual fest
Offerings span basketball documentary Saints and Warriors, identity-focused short “One Day This Kid”, and beyond
At VIFF Centre, new Velcrow Ripper and Nova Ami documentary finds women leading residents out of wildfire and flood catastrophes, in Lytton, Yarrow, and beyond
Offerings include features Sirât and Mr. Nobody Against Putin, plus programs for Live Action, Animated, and Documentary shorts
Matt Johnson is back with a chaotic, unabashedly Canadian followup to the cult web series
Visions Ouest and Alliance Française present poignant documentary about a woman retracing her roots to a vibrant but deeply troubled country
Classic film scholar Michael van den Bos hosts evening that mixes vintage film clips with the jazz sounds of the Laura Crema Sextet
Artists like Dee Daniels, Brandon Thornhill, and Krystle Dos Santos are performing around the city this February
In a short documentary, the Vietnamese Canadian queen reflects on becoming the country’s first drag artist-in-residence
Oscar-shortlisted film takes a sweeping, humanistic look at the toll of decades of violence
Retrospective closes with the Japanese director’s melancholic final picture, Scattered Clouds
Visions Ouest screens raucous tale of women ousted from their Quebec rink and ready for revenge, at Alliance Française
Event hosted by Michael van den Bos features Hollywood film projections and live music by the Laura Crema Sextet
Zacharias Kunuk’s latest epic tells a meditative, mystical story of two young lovers separated by fate
Ralph Fiennes plays a choir director in 1916, tasked with performing Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius
A historical adventure about Cervantes and documentaries about a flamenco guitarist and a matador are among the must-sees at the expanded event at the VIFF Centre
Screening at Alliance Française and co-presented by Visions Ouest, the documentary of the folk-rockers’ rip-roaring 2023 show was shot less than a year before lead singer’s death
At the Cinematheque, Bi Gan creates five chapters, told in vastly different visual styles—from silent-film Expressionism to shadowy noir to neon-lit contemporary
Four relatives converge on an old house, discovering the story of an ancestor who journeyed to the City of Light during the Impressionist era
The Leading Ladies bring to life Duke Ellington’s swingy twist on Tchaikovsky score at December 14 screening
Legendary director’s groundbreaking movies and TV work create a visual language that reflects on some of film history’s most sinister figures—and mushroom clouds
