Geoff Pevere (born October 1957) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

lecturer, author, broadcaster, teacher, arts and media critic, currently the program director of the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival in Toronto.John Semley, "Can we play with madness?: Toronto's Rendezvous with Madness festival chips away at the lingering stigmas surrounding mental health". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', November 3, 2016. He is a former film critic, book columnist and cultural journalist for the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', where he worked from 1998 to 2011. His writing has appeared in several newspapers, magazines and arts journals, and he has worked as a broadcaster for both radio and television. He has lectured widely on cultural and media topics, and taught courses at several Canadian universities and colleges. In 2012, he contributed weekly pop culture columns to CBC Radio Syndication, which were heard in nearly twenty markets across Canada. He has also been a movie columnist and regular freelance contributor with ''

''.

Early life

Born in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, Ontario, Pevere grew up in a variety of locations including

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

.Angela Murphy, "Maybe it was the water: Mr. Mondo Canuck could owe his quirkiness to Niagara roots". ''

St. Catharines Standard The ''St. Catharines Standard'' is a daily newspaper of the city of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. the publication was owned by Torstar but on May 26, 2020, the company agreed to be acquired by NordStar Capital, a private investment firm. The ...

'', November 30, 1996. He graduated in 1982 from the film studies program at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

, where he was also a writer for the student newspaper '' The Charlatan'' and a contributor to CKCU-FM. He was subsequently a film reviewer for the city's

CHEZ-FM CHEZ-FM (106.1 MHz, ''CHEZ 106'') is a Canadian radio station broadcasting a mainstream rock format in Ottawa, Ontario. The station is owned by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media. CHEZ's studios are located at the intersection of ...

. In 1986 he was named the first program coordinator of the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

's Perspective Canada program, which introduced the work of

Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan (; ; born July 19, 1960) is an Armenian Canadians, Armenian-Canadian filmmaker. One of the most preeminent directors of the Toronto New Wave, he emerged during the 1980s and made his career breakthrough with ''Exotica (film), Exotica ...

, Bruce McDonald and

Guy Maddin Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, film editor and installation artist. He is known for his fascination with lost Silent film, Silent-era films and for incorporating their aestheti ...

, among others, during his tenure.

Broadcasting

From 1986 to 1988 he contributed to CBC Radio's ''State of the Arts'' program, and in 1988 started a twelve-year stint as the movie reviewer on CTV's '' Canada AM''. From 1989 to 1993, Pevere hosted ''

Prime Time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

'', a groundbreaking nightly pop culture magazine series on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

."Prime Time clicks with a new age of radio". ''

'', December 29, 1990. In 1993, after the death of Jay Scott, he was the host of ''Film International'' on

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

. From 2003 to 2008 he was the co-host, with Richard Crouse, of Rogers Television's '' Reel to Real''."Rogers cancels Reel to Real"
'' Playback'', July 10, 2008.

Writing

He co-wrote the book ''Mondo Canuck'' (1996), a bestselling critical evaluation of Canadian pop culture. He is also the author of ''Team Spirit: A Field Guide to Roots Culture'' (1998), ''Toronto on Film'' (2009) and ''Donald Shebib's Goin' Down the Road'' (2012). In 2014, he published ''Gods of the Hammer: The Teenage Head Story'', a history of the influential Canadian punk rock band Teenage Head, for Coach House Books.Ian McGillis, "Getting punked in the Hammer; Geoff Pevere's new Teenage Head biography pays tribute to one of Canada's greatest rock bands". ''

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'', June 21, 2014. In 2012, he launched a network of encyclopedic critical pop cultural websites called "The Blessed Diversions Network". "Mean Justice" is devoted to western movies and TV shows; "The Big Shadow" is dedicated to the movie and TV culture of crime; "Riff Free or Die" covers the visual history of rock music; and "The Directory of Intemperate Enthusiasms" covers cult movies and TV.

Rendezvous with Madness

November 2015 saw Pevere's first stint as program director of the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival, an annual event dedicated to showcasing the best in current cinema addressing issues of mental health, addiction and recovery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pevere, Geoff Canadian columnists Canadian television hosts Canadian film critics Canadian literary critics CBC Radio hosts Canadian male non-fiction writers Living people 1957 births Writers from Ottawa Carleton University alumni