2023 IPF | FIP SPECIAL MERIT AWARDS
AWARDS CEREMONY
A special awards presentation ceremony and concert celebrating the IPF Special Merit Awards and the FPI Awards of Merit honorees was held on Sunday, September 24, 2023 at the University Club of Toronto, at the closing ceremonies of the International Peace Festival (IPF).
2023 IPF | FIP AWARDS RECIPIENTS
DAVID SUZUKI
IPF | FIP HONOURARY ARTISTIC AWARD
It is with great pleasure that the International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix Awards Committee announces David Suzuki, a long time activist and promoter of a sustainable balance between society and the natural world, as the 2023 recipient of the IPF | FIP Honourary Artistic Award to be formally presented to Mr. Suzuki at the IPF | FIP Awards Ceremony that will be held in Toronto, Canada, on September 24, 2023. The IPF | FIP Honourary Artistic Award recognizes the specific nature of cultural and artistic work and the uniqueness of cultural and natural heritage conservation, protection and promotion as a critical contributor to peace. The award honours Mr. Suzuki’s broadcasting career and environmental activism by which he has aimed to stimulate interest in the natural world, to point out threats to human well-being and wildlife habitat, and to present alternatives to humanity for achieving a more sustainable society. Since the mid-1970s, Mr. Suzuki has been known for his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host and narrator of the popular and long-running CBC Television science program The Nature of Things, seen in over 40 countries. He is also well known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment. Mr. Suzuki began in television on January 10, 1971 with the weekly children's show Suzuki on Science. In 1974, he founded the radio program Quirks & Quarks, which he also hosted on CBC AM radio (the forerunner of CBC Radio One) from 1975 to 1979. Throughout the 1970s, he also hosted Science Magazine, a weekly program geared towards an adult audience. Since 1979, Mr. Suzuki has hosted The Nature of Things, a CBC television series that has aired in nearly fifty countries worldwide. In this program, Mr. Suzuki's aim has been to stimulate interest in the natural world, to point out threats to human well-being and wildlife habitat, and to present alternatives to humanity for achieving a more sustainable society. Mr. Suzuki has been a prominent proponent of renewable energy sources and the soft energy path. Mr. Suzuki was the host of the critically acclaimed 1993 PBS series The Secret of Life. His 1985 hit series, A Planet for the Taking, averaged more than 1.8 million viewers per episode and earned him a United Nations Environment Programme Medal. His perspective in this series is summed up in his statement: "We have both a sense of the importance of the wilderness and space in our culture and an attitude that it is limitless and therefore we needn't worry." He concludes with a call for a major "perceptual shift" in our relationship with nature and the wild. Mr. Suzuki's The Sacred Balance, a book first published in 1997 and later made into a five-hour mini-series on Canadian public television, was broadcast in 2002. Mr. Suzuki is now taking part in an advertisement campaign with the tagline "You have the power", promoting energy conservation through various household alternatives, such as the use of compact fluorescent lightbulbs. For the Discovery Channel, Mr. Suzuki also produced "Yellowstone to Yukon: The Wildlands Project" in 1997. The conservation-biology based documentary focused on Dave Foreman's Wildlands Project, which considers how to create corridors between and buffer zones around large wilderness reserves as a means to preserve biological diversity. In October 2022, Mr. Suzuki announced his retirement from The Nature of Things series in spring 2023. Mr. Suzuki is the author of more than 55 books. He holds 30 honorary degrees from universities around the world and is the recipient of numerous awards and honours among which are included the following: •Mr. Suzuki is an appointee to the Order of Canada, first as an Officer (1976), then upgraded to Companion status in (2006), the Order of British Columbia (1995), and is the recipient of UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science (1986) and a long list of Canadian and international honours. •Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977. •125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in 1992. •Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. •Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. •In 2004, Mr. Suzuki was nominated as one of the top ten "Greatest Canadians" by viewers of the CBC. In the final vote he ranked fifth, making him the greatest living Canadian. •In 2006, Mr. Suzuki was the recipient of the Bradford Washburn Award presented at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts. •In 2007, Mr. Suzuki was honoured by Global Exchange, with the International Human Rights Award. •In 2009, Mr. Suzuki was awarded the honourary Right Livelihood Award. •He was the subject of Sturla Gunnarsson's 2010 documentary film Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie. •On June 23, 2015, Mr. Suzuki was awarded the Freedom of the City by the Vancouver City Council, which entitled him to the title Freeman of the City of Vancouver. •In 2021, the BC Achievement in partnership with the Lieutenant Governor of BC awarded Mr. Suzuki the 2021 BC Reconciliation Award. A longtime activist to reverse global climate change, Mr. Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to work "to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us." The Foundation's priorities are: oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and Suzuki's Nature Challenge. The Foundation also works on ways to help protect the oceans from large oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Mr. Suzuki has also served as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982 to 1987. Our sincerest and warmest congratulations to Mr. Suzuki for using television and the broadcast medium as a tool to educate and empower citizenry around the globe to take action in their communities on the environmental challenges we collectively face and to conserve and protect the natural environment in order to create a sustainable world. The International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix is honoured to list Mr. Suzuki among its annual honourees as a testament to his perseverance and contributions in making this a better world for all.
JANE FONDA
IPF | FIP CELEBRITY PEACE AMBASSADOR AWARD
It is with great pleasure that the International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix Awards Committee announces Jane Fonda, American actress and political activist, as the recipient of the 2023 IPF | FIP Celebrity Peace Ambassador Award to be formally presented to Ms. Fonda at the IPF | FIP Awards Ceremony that will be held in Toronto, Canada, on September 24, 2023. The IPF | FIP Celebrity Peace Ambassador Award is given annually to a celebrity who uses their fame and influence to make a real difference in the world. The purpose of the award is to honour a man or woman of peace from the world of culture and entertainment who has stood up for human rights and for the spread of the principles of Peace and Solidarity in the world, and who has made an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace. Ms. Fonda grew from a young actor on the fringes of 1960s intellectual and social movements, to a political activist in her own right. Apart from doing her work as a traditional protester, Ms. Fonda established herself as a serious actress in socially conscious films and used her position as a performer to affect changes with her movies through the art of filmmaking. Recognized as a film icon, Ms. Fonda is the recipient of various accolades, too many to enumerate here, but which include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Honorary Palme d'Or, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Though she is best known for her opposition to the Vietnam War, she has extended her efforts to several other movements, including the fights for civil, women’s and environmental rights. Ms. Fonda has participated in some of the biggest activist movements of the last half-century of American history. Beginning in the 1960s, the Academy Award-winning actress’ journey to social consciousness carries on to this day. Still speaking out for causes close to her heart such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the environmental crisis, Ms. Fonda rebels against the establishment even in her 80s, continuing to be as committed an activist as she ever was. Ms. Fonda's philanthropic works have focused on youth and education, adolescent reproductive health, environment, human services, and the arts. Ms. Fonda has established the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential (GCAPP) in the mid-1990s and the Fonda Family Foundation in the late 1990s. In the mid-2000s, Ms. Fonda founded the Jane Fonda Foundation in 2004 with one million dollars of her own money as a charitable corporation with herself as president, chair, director and secretary; Ms. Fonda contributes 10 hours each week on its behalf. In 2017, she began selling merchandise featuring her 1970 arrest mugshot on her website, the proceeds of which benefit GCAPP. Ms. Fonda’s mission in life is to help others–to provide a platform for marginalized groups and to educate the public on climate change, sexism, and racism. As a woman of action, she will forever be known for her inimitable acting skills, timeless beauty, courageous heart, and enduring strength. The International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix credits Ms. Fonda not only for progressive cinema but also for her social conscience and for never hesitating to fight for her principles. Thank you Ms. Fonda, and congratulations for this well-deserved award.
JENNIFER BAICHWAL
IPF | FIP LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN FILM
The International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix Awards Committee is honoured to announce Jennifer Baichwal, documentary filmmaker, writer and producer, as the recipient of the 2023 IPF | FIP Lifetime Achievement Award in Film to be formally presented to Ms. Baichwal at the IPF | FIP Awards Ceremony that will be held in Toronto, Canada, on September 24, 2023. Ms Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for over 25 years. Her films have played all over the world and won multiple awards nationally and internationally, including an International Emmy, 3 Gemini Awards, and Best Cultural and Best Independent Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs, for features such as Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles, The Holier It Gets, Act of God, and Payback. She and her spouse and professional partner, cinematographer and director Nicholas de Pencier, have previously worked together on feature documentaries including Long Time Running, about the Tragically Hip’s 2016 summer tour; and an environmental trilogy made with Edward Burtynsky: Manufactured Landscapes, Watermark and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. Her films have won many awards and honours: •Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles won an International Emmy in 1999. •The Holier It Gets, a documentary filmed in Canada and India, won Best Cultural and Best Independent Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs, 2000, and won Geminis for best writing, directing, and editing in a documentary series. •Manufactured Landscapes won, among others, TIFF’s Best Canadian Film, Al Gore’s Reel Current Award, and the Toronto Film Critics Association prize for Best Canadian Film in 2006. It played theatrically in over 15 territories worldwide, and was named as one of 150 Essential Works In Canadian Cinema History by TIFF in 2016. •Act of God, about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning, opened the Hot Docs Film Festival, May 2009. •Payback, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Massey Lectures produced by Ravida Din and the National Film Board, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in Jan. 2012, released in the U.S. and Canada. •The feature documentary Watermark, made with Edward Burtynsky and Nicholas de Pencier, premiered at TIFF2013, released in Canada and won the Toronto Film Critics Association prize: Best Canadian Film in 2014. It has since been released in eleven countries. •The feature documentary film Anthropocene: The Human Epoch premiered at TIFF2018, played Sundance and the Berlinale, was released in Canada and the U.S. in Sept. 2019, among other territories around the world. The film won the Toronto FilmCritics Association prize for Best Canadian Film in 2018. Ms. Baichwal sits on the board of Swim Drink Fish Canada, and is a member of the Ryerson University School of Image Arts Advisory Council. As a Director of the Board of the Toronto International Film Festival (2016-2022), she was a passionate ambassador of their Share Her Journey campaign, a five-year commitment to increasing participation, skills, and opportunities for women behind and in front of the camera. Her new initiatives revolve around BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of colour] voices. Indeed, through film she has used one medium of enquiry – art – trying to illuminate another – science. She is committed to making a difference and her films reflect this commitment by engaging the viewer and promoting "experiential understanding"; that is, taking people to places they are connected to but would never normally see, and allowing them to experience these contexts without judging or telling them what to think. Her philosophy has given her a lens through which to look at the world, and strengthened her resolve in our ability to bring about change whether through small individual acts or bigger gestures such as engaging with activist groups and collectives that are doing the vital work of challenging our government and political systems or fighting against corporate lobbying and influencing, driven by profit and greed. Studies have shown that only 3.5 per cent of a population is necessary to create change. Ms. Baichwal believes we can manage that! We live in a world of influence and social change - and as a filmmaker, Ms. Baichwal wants to contribute to a better world. She challenges the conventions of film and its ability to effect change in the world. Both as an artistic expression and a medium, Ms. Baichwal's films prove to be a powerful mechanism of communication to pursue social change and engage with the communities at large. The International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix applauds and supports Ms. Baichwal's initiative to inspire social change through cinema and to tell untold stories that matter to catalyse change, empower communities, engage and positively impact the public, inclusive and equitable society. Thank you Ms. Baichwal and congratulations!
MYKOLA ZHURAVEL
IPF | FIP LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN ART
It is with great honour that the International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix Awards Committee announces the recipient of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts to be conferred on contemporary artist Mykola Zhuravel at the IPF | FIP Awards Ceremony to be held in Toronto, Canada, on September 24, 2023. Mr. Mykola Zhuravel is a distinguished Ukrainian/Canadian painter and sculptor whose works have been exhibited internationally, including in the Ukraine, Canada, China, Japan, USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Mr. Zhuravel was born in the Ukraine and graduated from the prestigious Kyiv State Arts Institute (now the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture of Ukraine). He was awarded the Zolotyi Peretyn Prize and Artist of the Year title (1996), the First Place, Ukrainian Painting Triennale (1998), and the Worpswede Art Prize, Berlin (2016), and was nominated for the Shevchenko Prize, Kyiv (2011) and the Pan-Ukrainian Painting Triennial First Prize (2016). He is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and the Kyiv-based Art Association BG-ART and was granted the title of Academician of the Academy of Contemporary Art of Rome (2009). Combining classic artistic traditions, an international worldview and a deeply personal sensation of life and peace, he creates works that search for compatibility between mankind and earth while pointedly making reference to the obstacles that human beings have placed in the way of a harmonious existence. Additionally seeking to break down boundaries between painting and sculpture, performance and installation art, Mr. Zhuravel's resulting pieces appear vibrant, multi-faceted and inventive. His ambitious style results in a remarkable series of living images of a visionary utopia. By using levkas, a traditional primer employed by icon painters, Mr. Zhuravel unites the legacies of Byzantine icon painting with his contemporary painterly technique, resulting in richly vibrant and inventive contemporary works that emerge as modern-day icons. He masterfully composes his works without violating the harmony and unity of the created image. His creations emerge as the subjects and means for analyzing art itself with innovative suggestions in actualizing forgotten events and traditions, and providing for their development and restoring their contents. Mr. Zhuravel’s work gives more depth and moves the viewer into another dimension. In bestowing the Lifetime Achievement Award in Art to Mr. Mykola Zhuravel, the International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix Awards Committee honours and celebrates Mr. Zhuravel’s exceptional artistic achievements in using his talents to communicate and give expression to messages of peace, unity, and understanding. We take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Zhuravel on his nomination and for his outstanding work and contribution in important artistic themes and symbols that explore and give solace and inspiration in the timeless message of peace that transcends time and space.
TANYA TAGAQ
IPF | FIP LIFETIME
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN MUSIC
The International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix Awards Committee is honoured to announce the recipient of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award in Music to be conferred on Canadian Inuk throat singer, songwriter, Tanya Tagaq CM (Inuktitut syllabics: ᑕᓐᔭ ᑕᒐᖅ) at the IPF | FIP Awards Ceremony to be held in Toronto, Canada, on September 24, 2023. Tanya Tagaq is a Polaris Prize and Juno-winning Inuk singer from Cambridge Bay (Ikaluk-tuutiak), Nunavut, Canada, on the south coast of Victoria Island. Her music mixes traditional Inuit throat singing with modern pop and alternative sounds. Over the years she has developed her own solo form of Inuit throat singing, which is normally done by two women. She is known for delivering fearsome, elemental performances that are visceral and physical, heaving and breathing and alive. Ms. Tagaq’s singing is haunting both in breath-taking beautiful and completely terrifying manners, switching almost instantaneously and at times rapidly between high-octave almost-operatic melodies and guttural yelps. Her albums make for complex listening, but her string of Juno nominations attests to her ability to make difficult music speak a universal tongue. Her album, Animism won the 2014 Polaris Prize, a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The album also won the Juno Award for Aboriginal Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2015, and was nominated for Alternative Album of the Year. In 2005, her CD entitled Sinaa (Inuktitut for “edge”) was nominated for five awards at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. At the ceremony on 25 October 2005, the CD won awards for best Producer/Engineer, Best Album Design and Ms. Tagaq herself won the Best Female Artist award. Sinaa was nominated for the 2006 Juno Awards as the best Aboriginal Recording. In 2012, her work also landed in the world of television when Ms. Tagaq performed the theme music for the CBC Television show, Arctic Air. Although she has become a popular performer at Canadian folk festivals, such as Folk on the Rocks in 2005, she is best known both in Canada and internationally for her collaborations with Björk, including concert tours and the 2004 album Medulla. She has also performed with the Kronos Quartet and Shooglenifty and featured on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Her awards and recognition include: •2006 Juno Awards, nominee: Aboriginal Recording of the Year, Sinaa •2009 Juno Awards, nominee: Aboriginal Recording of the Year and Instrumental Album of the Year, Auk/Blood •2014 Polaris Music Prize, winner: Animism •2014 Canadian Folk Music Pushing the Boundaries Award •2015 Juno Awards, nominee: Alternative Album of the Year, Animism •2015 Juno Awards, winner: Aboriginal Recording of the Year, Animism •2015 Western Canadian Music Award, winner: Aboriginal Recording of the Year, Spiritual Recording of the Year and World Recording of the Year. •December 2016, Member of the Order of Canada recipient. •2017 Juno Awards, winner: Classical Album of the Year - Large Ensemble, Going Home Star •2019 Indigenous Voices Award for prose published in English, "Split Tooth" We take this opportunity to honour and praise Ms. Tagaq not only for her musical achievements but also for her artistry and activism. She has consistently fought to expose hard truths about systemic racism in governments, missing and murdered Indigenous women and has proudly supported the practices and preservation of her culture. In 2020 she provided narration in the music video for "End of the Road", a protest song about the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women by the rock band Crown Lands. Congratulations Ms. Tagaq for a well-deserved award! The International Peace Festival | Festival International de la Paix is proud to acknowledge your many achievements and contributions to peacebuilding, reconciliation and conflict-prevention processes through your numerous and cultural engagements. Bravo!