90 Years of Memories

On February 19, 2022, about 60 people and I celebrated my 90th birthday ONLINE!

My wife and our daughters arranged the event which featured prerecorded video messages, phone calls, and some sent an email or letter. Thank you all.

In early February my daughter Tamara and her husband John, and Kristina with her daughter Milena, decided to arrange a virtual party. They invited many people to submit short video messages at a website, or any way the guests would like. About 60 people participated resulting in a 1.5 hour video and more than a dozen emails, cards and letters.

Kristina wanted to create a photo album of my life, and we selected about 50 photos which became a slide show presentation of my '90 Years of Memories'.

See everything here:

• Videos submitted (1.5 hours) — Link to be added.
• Slide show of my life — Link to be added.
• Emails received

During the planning process, I began to reflect on my 90 years and listed these highlights of my life so far, a short version of my biography and 50 Years of Doukhobor Studies.

1. Born in 1932 in this farm house to parents and grandparents who came from Russian Doukhobor roots. Believed that hospitality, love and nonkilling are the way to a world without wars.
   
   
2. Met Tyrus R. Cobb world famous baseball pioneer. Invited for tryout in 1953 to Pittsburgh Pirates in California. Did not make it, but exercises that I learned from Lloyd Percival of CBC Sports College of the Air persist today 70 years later.
   
   
3. At the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where I took my BA in Arts and Sciences in the 1950s, I produced 50 monthly journals of The Inquirer at my grandparent's attic next door, which led me to become a journalist, photographer, scholar, and peace activist.
   
   
4. After attending the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957 in Moscow, this led me to make 12 additional trips to the Soviet Union and Russia as a bridge-building effort between the East and the West (1957, 1964, 1980, 1991, etc, ). The wisdom of getting to know the stranger persists today as one of key steps to help the people and the planet to survive.
   
   
5. In the early 1960s, at UBC in Vancouver, I was privileged to get my MA in Anthropology and Sociology, with my thesis on 'A Study of Russian Organizations in the Greater Vancouver Area' (PDF, 15 GB). The Cold War, I discovered, was the critical element in what brings people together and what splits them apart.
   
   
6. In 1964, as a Russian and English speaking grad of UBC, I was invited to the International Ethnological Congress in Moscow where I met anthropologists Margaret Mead and Sol Tax.
   
   
7. In 1980, as guest Doukhobor peacemaker and photo journalist, I reported on the Summer Olympics in Moscow as a Slavic representative for North and South America. What an awesome responsibility!
   
   
8. Over the past 60 years I have organized a number of scholarly ethnographic studies and exchanges across North America (including a 1990 3-month North American Ethnographic Expedition with Russian scholar Svetlana Inikova), the Soviet Union and Russia on my ancestors the Doukhobors and East-West understanding. Together with my work in the provincial and federal governments as social scientists, this led me to publish over 25 books and 50 articles; the gifting to the Saskatchewan Archives and BC Archives major collections of textual materials and photographs on Doukhobors, rural development, Native Indians, and ethnography; the creation of a Spirit Wrestlers website and blog with Arizona scholar Andrei Conovaloff.
   
   
9. In November 2007, I presented a paper on 'Tolstoy and the Doukhobors' at the First Leadership Forum in Hawaii where the Center for Global Nonkilling formed; and served as reporter and photographer for 13 Ottawa Peace Festivals.
   
   
10. In 1982 co-organized with Community Doukhobors, the First International Intergroup Symposium of Doukhobors, Molokans, Mennonites and Quakers, held in Castlegar, British Columbia, with many prominent people including the great grandson of Lev N. Tolstoy, a major world writer and proponent of nonkilling. The meeting endorsed a letter to the UN on disarmament and getting rid of wars.
    
    
11. With distinguished Doukhobor lawyer Peter G. Makaroff (the first non-Anglo-Saxon grad in Western Canada with a law degree in 1918), and participating Doukhobor, Quaker and Mennonite reps, in 1964 and 1965, I coordinated and helped organize four major peace manifestations in Western Canada urging the government to cease research and production of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and work towards the survival of our human species.
    
    
12. Between 1996 and 1998, served as guest co-Curator with Dr. Robert Klymasz on 'The Doukhobors: Spirit Wrestlers' exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, commemorating the centenaries of the  Doukhobor destruction of weapons in 1895 in Russia and the January 1899 arrival of the first Doukhobors to Canada.
    
    
13. We all know that it takes a village to raise members of a family. My grandparents and parents along with my newly acquired families and offspring deserve praise for their support. Son Lev is professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland where he is modeling the last Ice Age and is searching the major parameters of climate change. Daughter Tamara, now retired as a museum professional, recently spent the last three years working in Nunavut as Project Manager, Wrecks HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site. Their spouses, Dorothee Bienzle is an accomplished researcher and doctor, and John Pinkerton is a retired international manager for Parks Canada. Their children Jaspar and Katya along with Tamara and John's offspring (Nicholas and Elena) are outstanding students, athletes and outdoors people like their parents. I always marvel at being so lucky to be part of their family circle. 
    
    
14. As well, I marvel at the challenge of keeping alive my 30-year marriage with Kristina Kristova, a pioneering journalist who once served for 24 years as anchor person with the Bulgarian National Television. Her daughter Milena is a music teacher in Ottawa, while son Orlin is in Sofia, Bulgaria, as a professional keyboard composer / musician. Kristina introduced me to her most fascinating Bulgarian community who have given me the title of 'Honourary Member' although I have not learned much Bulgarian language.
    
    
15. In the 90 years of my life, this family along with all the people that I have met around the world (in person, in books and in the media), I consider all of you remarkable and many are friends and wisdom people. Bolshoe spasibo! Thank you very much! You have taught me so much. I wish all of you to live at least to 90 with good health, joy, peace and happiness.
    
    
16. Personally, I look forward to many more years of productive life. In my work, I never got rich in money, but rich in ideas, in friendship, and in the vision of my ancestors for a peaceful world without wars.

Ancient Ritual of Kurban

It’s been 3 years since my Bulgarian-born wife Kristina Kristova suffered a stroke in July 2017. Her recovery progressed well so far. She is walking and continues to get stronger from daily exercises. Periodical dizziness remains. She thanks the Divine (God) for her healing.

To ensure that this forward progress continues, she thanks the friends who helped in her recovery, and needed to make kurban soup. Kristina says that in Bulgaria, this traditional thick soup was made when people want to wish someone good health, especially after a person suffers from an accident and needs time to recover, or to pray for good harvest, fertility of the animals and good clean nature.

Photos from: Classic Kurban Soup, TastyCraze.com; and
Simple Bulgarian Banista, Recipe by mis liz, Food.com.

She prepared a large pot of kurban soup — with many pieces of lamb and fresh veggies which I cut up (carrots, tomatoes, green onions, peppers, parsley). She also made banitsa, a Bulgarian filo pastry baked with cheese, which she baked rectangular on a large cake pan.

We prepared kurban gifts for 4 Bulgarian couples who are close friends, and delivered to each a quart of soup, several banista, and nice handwritten thank you card of love and good will.

After the last delivery, Kristina invited me to a nice restaurant for seafood to thank me for my help as her caregiver and to celebrate her recovery. This was our first visit to a restaurant since the mid-March closure of all restaurants in Ottawa due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Stage 3 of Ontario's COVID-19 regional reopening plan began July 17. As we enjoyed our food, we talked about the kurban soup and its meaning and history.

From Kristina’s understanding, kurban is an ancient ritual going back to paegan times, when the people looked for ways to thank the Gods for giving life to humanity, for healing, and for good fortune. As village people got together to eat and celebrate, an elder or priest would bless the food before the meal began. Today this could take place without a priest, as we have done.

For an extensive history, see: Kurban in the Balkans (Курбан на Балкану), editors: B. Sikimić and P. Hristov, 2007, Belgrade : Institut for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. 302 pages.

I learned that ‘Kurban’, kourbania in Greek, korban in Hebrew, and Qurban in Arabic, all refer to ‘ritual animal sacrifice … to bring man back to God, or rather to facilitate this approach.’ Some use it to venerate Saints, and it evolved into secular traditions, as Kristina was inspired.

For me, kurban is a kind of superstition of hope, an opportunity to give thanks to the powers that be, to bring people together to commemorate and honour and pray for improvement in their lives.

Twice in my younger life I witnessed ceremonies and traditions similar to kurban.

In the mid-1950s in Saskatchewan, during my field work as an anthropologist for a couple of years, I studied the local Native Canadians in 4 reserves. After their rain dances and sweat lodges they held communal feasts, with meat dishes and rice as a staple.

In the 1980s in Azerbaijan, during a trip with the USSR-Canada Friendship Society our group was hosted by locals. They honoured us with a surprise feast of a barbecue lamb slaughtered and roasting as we arrived, but did not know that most of our group were vegetarians. It was an embarrassing experience for all. Upon understanding their custom, we expressed grateful appreciation to our hosts.

I grew up among nonkilling Canadian Doukhobors who abandoned any animal sacrifice rituals in Russia. I learned that it continues in forms today, around the world in many other cultures to celebrate health, appreciation, a religious holiday, the fall harvest, friendship, peace, blessings, etc.

My webmaster, Andrei Conovaloff in Arizona, USA, grew up with the tradition of animal sacrifice among Spiritual Christian Dukh-i-zhizniki. He says in Russian they call it zhertva (жертва: sacrifice, offering), similar to ‘sacrifice in Judaism’ (жертвоприношения в иудаизме), and ‘korban’ in Hebrew.

His family lived on a farm west of Phoenix colonized in the 1910s by his grandfather's generation of immigrants from the Caucasus. They raised and butchered their own animals for home consumption, and for communal (obshchiy) meals at their rural congregation when it was their turn to prepare the feast. 

Their religious communal meals are 4-course traditional Russian feasts with large bread loafs, tea (chai) with vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, lemon squeezed), borshch (soup) or lapsha (egg noodle soup), roasted meat and boiled eggs, and fresh fruit in season. The eggs are for the very few vegetarians, who also get postni borshch, without animal broth. Besides cube sugar for chai, other sweets could be dates, raisins, pastries, and whatever else the severs provide.      

Hymns are sung between each course, and speakers lecture while congregants eat. Doukhobor meals in Canada are similar, but much shorter in time without meat, or continuous singing and speaking.

The Dukh-i-zhiznik meat offering is preferably a lamb, slaughtered similar to Jewish kosher and Muslim halal. Urban Dukh-i-zhizniki typically pay select community butchers to do the task for them. For large gatherings, beef is cheaper. Since the 1970s, concerns about cholesterol and cost allowed offering meat to be chicken or fish. When the meat offering course is served, often the most zealous elder(s) will be ritually ‘seized by the Holy Spirit’, jump with both hands raised to the end of the song, and sometimes deliver a message from God in Russian. Since the Holy Spirit is always present, jumping and prophesy can be expressed anytime during meetings, most often when fast loud spiritual songs are sung.

The Dukh-i-zhiznik communal meal is typically closed to outsiders, leftovers must be given only to Christened members, to their homebound elderly, to their own animals to be eaten (chickens, sheep), and discarded animal fat and bones buried. Nothing is fed to non-kosher pets (dogs, cats). People not Christened in the faith should not eat their zhertva food. Some zealots in the faiths may chase outsiders away as unclean pork-eaters. A few liberal congregations tolerate outsiders (ne nashi), particularly at large weddings and funerals.

In 1985 the practice of burying zhertva bones in the city created a media frenzy for a few weeks in a suburb of Los Angeles which scared most of the Dukh-i-zhizniki in Southern California to this day. Neighborhood kids who saw bones being buried outside a meeting house after meals imagined that the strange people were eating human babies. See: Borshch Bones NOT Human Sacrifice.

Year-end Newsletter 2013

From Kristina Kristova and Koozma J. Tarasoff

Dear Friends,

2013 was for us an interesting and busy year of organizing events, doing photography, much writing, travelling, and unforgettable celebrations and meetings with friends.

In mid-March, with great enthusiasm, Koozma enrolled in a documentary film-making course under the masterwork of Peter Biesterfeld. Following the workshops, the Doc Team of Ken, Diane, Patricia and Koozma created their projects. Koozma's project featured the life of Kristina and the Bulgarian cuisine -- making delicious Banitsa.

In June the Canadian War Museum invited Koozma to be part of its 2nd Human Library Project of 25 'Books'. The 25 participants, with significant life experiences, were invited to be 'books' which the 'readers' can order for 20-minute interviews. The conversation revealed the wisdom and the interesting personal stories of each book-author. As a long term peace activist, Koozma talked about the challenges of creating a peace culture in our society. He was also part of a short promotional video clip at the Peace Exhibition. This novel public educational format was first used in Denmark in 2000 to focus attention on anti-violence, to encourage dialogue and build relations. It has grown in popularity with over 30 countries participating. The Museum exhibition on peace opened in May and continued on for the rest of the year.

Throughout the year, Koozma has been busy as volunteer photographer and writer in the peace movement in Ottawa. His major effort has been the 7th Annual 12-day Ottawa Peace Festival in September, which his colleague Bill Bhaneja has described as 'the longest peace festival in the world'. With hundreds of images and interesting summaries of the events, he gave participants and readers of his website colorful pictures and interpretations of the growing peace festival in Ottawa.

'The Evolution of the Doukhobor Movement' was the title of Koozma's lecture presented with great success at the University of Ottawa in November. The 'thank you' letters received as a response showed that students and professors were impressed and intrigued by his illustrated lecture with slides and film.

Sincere appreciation to Andrei Conovaloff, Koozma's friend and webmaster in Arizona. Their creative collaboration is not only a pleasure, but has great results. Koozma and Andrei continue to discover new insights into developing humanity. With Andrei's help, Koozma's Spirit-Wrestlers Website and Blog has had another successful year as an independent media source. Its themes have included the Doukhobors, the peace movement, the nonkilling paradigm, the health care system, First Nations, video production, Hippies, the myth of Biblical Christianity, and more.

Kristina has had another successful year as Site Administrator of the Saturday morning International Languages Program. In July and August she worked with the big Summer School International Languages Program in Ottawa.

On February 16th, family and friends celebrated Kristina's 70th Birthday at the Bulgarian Embassy. It was an emotional evening celebrating her life and contribution as a TV anchor person for 28 years with the Bulgarian National Television and her contribution of 22 years as a volunteer for the Bulgarian community in Ottawa. More than 80 people participated in the memorable evening with speeches, pictures, songs and tasty Bulgarian food. Kristina's daughter Milena was Master of Ceremonies. DJ was Martin Staykov. Koozma selected and digitized 200 images for an interesting Power Point presentation. On this occasion the Bulgarian Government and the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad awarded Kristina with a life-time Paisii Hilendarski Memorable Medal and Certificate of Honour for her long term activity in preserving and popularizing the Bulgarian culture in Canada. Our friend Anton Peltesky created a beautiful video documentary about the event. Sincere appreciation to all our friends who contributed their positive energy and well wishes to the success of this celebration.

As part of her 22 years of voluntary work for her compatriots, Kristina has successfully completed her second term (2011-2013) as President of the Bulgarian Community and Bulgarian Foundation in Ottawa. At the Annual General Meeting on December 2nd she officially resigned. Her Annual Report recalled many social and cultural events during this time such as the visit in Ottawa of the Bulgarian Minister of Culture with delegation, official guests from the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, many Bulgarian pop stars, actors, childrens' choir, movie evenings, etc.

The Bulgarian community recognized Koozma as an 'Honourary Member' not only for documenting with pictures every event, but also for his participation in organizing activities.

Kristina's daughter Milena continues to teach music in Ottawa as well as working as office manager for a medical doctor. Orlin, Kristina's son in Sofia, Bulgaria, continues his work as musician/composer.

In the early morning of December 22nd, Kristina and Milena left for a vacation to Halguin, Cuba. They gladly missed one week of severe weather in Ottawa. On the way home from Cuba in five hours, they experienced a change of temperature from plus 28 degrees to minus 30. Their stay in Cuba was a breath of fresh sunny air with much deserved relaxation.

Koozma's son Lev (Associate Professor in the Dept. of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland), his wife Dorothee (a full Professor at the University of Quelph) and daughter Katya from Guelph, Ontario, are on a six-month sabbatical in Auckland, New Zealand. After completing his Grade 12, son Jaspar joined them for Christmas. New Zealand has been an oasis for them. Katya has been to France and the USA as part of her soccer career, and her training schedule has kept her and her family busy.

Koozma's daughter Tamara and husband John have continued to work for Parks Canada. In summer, they and their children Nicholas and Elena took a three-week historic excursion to Western Canada including a trip to the Yukon and a five-day Chilkoot Gold Rush Trail hike. They visited Japanese, Doukhobor and Canadian historic sites including visits with relatives and friends. This was a grand way to learn Canadian history and connect with our past.

Kristina and Koozma spent several days at the resort Calabogie Peaks. As well, we visited friends Boris and Annie Michov in their beautiful house near Kingston, Ontario. We had a day-long excursion to the Jones Falls Locks on the Rideau River where we watched large and small boats go through the four locks. It is amazing that this 1830s technology is still useful and works properly after so many years. It is a unique engineering achievement.

Several times, Koozma travelled to Perth, Ontario to visit his friends Jim and Ruth Deacove of Family Pastimes Cooperative Games. For the 7th year, Jim has led monthly film screenings in town showing wonderful short and long films.

On several occasions we had the pleasure of having dinner and meeting with Alex Atamanenko, Member of Parliament for BC Southern Interior, and his wife Ann. Alex has been instrumental in tabling a Private Member's Bill for creating a Canadian Dept. of Peace.

For over one year, Mohsen Akhavannia of Iran has lived in our house during his study at Carleton University. We enjoyed his kind manner, intelligence, nice sense of humour, computer knowledge and cooking talent.

Konstantin Romanov, Professor of Canadian Studies from Moscow University, who was completing his Post Doc Studies at Carleton University, was another pleasurable and creative contact for Koozma and Kristina during his stay in Ottawa. It resulted in several interviews, a few videos of lectures, sharing contacts with friends, visits, etc.

Direct visits, emails, telephone and Skype communications have given us an opportunity to maintain contact with family and friends across the country and the world. We are grateful to be healthy and to renew our friendships as well as meet new ones. It was another great year!

We join together and wish all of you our dear friends, the best of health, love, creativity, joy and happiness in 2014!

Learn to Make Videos

For years I wanted to present my stories in video. Now I am doing it at age 81. My first short project is about my wife Kristina, then about Doukhobors.

I saw an ad for 'script-to-screen video production training for documentary makers and communication professionals.' The course offered 'hands-on' experience in making documentaries. Just what I needed. I enrolled in the first Doc-School held in Ottawa in March — Video Storytelling 101 — a flexible 10-day course.

Peter Biesterfeld

The founder of Doc-School and our teacher, Peter Biesterfeld was born in Soest, Germany. He has 35 years of experience in documentary film-making at Algonquin College, Carleton University, CBC, CTV, and in private business. He recently moved to Toronto where he is working on his current documentary: 'Anarchists and Activists'. I want to learn to do that.

I was pleased to meet three interesting classmates. We all have Eastern European roots. Ken Bilsky Billings began video in 1982; his father's ancestors came from the Crimea, Ukraine. Diana Watt is Manager of Special Programs in Education at the Ottawa University; she was born in Mission, British Columbia where she got to know the Doukhobor speaker/author John Kootnekoff ('Koots') who is a close friend of her father William Ordog (Hungarian). Patricia Palulis (Lithuanian) is Associate Professor of Education on sabbatical from the University of Ottawa.

Left to right: Diane Watt, Peter Biesterfeld (teacher), Koozma J. Tarasoff,
Kristina Kristova (in my video), Ken Billings, and Patricia Palulis

Our first lesson was to study documentaries online. I was most impressed by John Pilger, an independent journalist who speaks about complicity and compliance, censorship and citizen journalism, and the Iraq holocaust. See his Media and the War — Challenging The Consensus as well as the history of 'embedded' and independent reporting in The War You Don't See (2010).

We make videos as a team, and each must produce and edit their own 5-minute project. Ken was already writing and editing 'The Story', a profile promo of an Indian residential school survivor and writer. Diane is making 'WAM — Women, Action and the Media'. Patricia is working on 'Cinema Academica' and its interesting origins at Ottawa University. My project is 'Kristina — A Bulgarian Star in Canada'.

To stage and shoot my segments, everyone came to our residence. We shot Kristina showing how to cook banitsa, a classic Bulgarian pastry dish, and my interview with her. It took us eight hours of team work. Everyone had a chance to use professional cameras and rotate jobs.

We ended the night with home-cooked Russian Doukhobor borshch, Bulgarian banitsa and other dishes, lavished with Slavic hospitality (photo above).

Because this was the first of a series of DocSchools that Peter Biesterfeld plans to organize across Canada, I volunteered to make many photos for publicity. I support this low-cost effort to train citizen documentary filmmakers like us. See my photo album about the 10-day DocSchool Spring 2013.

DocSchool hopes graduates will form a collaborative community of serious documentary video producers. Arrange classes for yourself or a group via the website doc-school.ca. Master Peter can help you 'change the world' by creating effective documentaries that speak to the condition of the day. With professional coaching, you can learn much on your own.

Here are some of my insights from the 10-day course:

1. Most important: What story do you want to tell? What is your compelling reason?
2. Do your research, go to your passion and find your focus.
3. You cannot tell it all. Choose items that provide an interesting consistent select story with impact. The story should be a very fresh journey with highlights and low points along the way. This visual and auditory canvas should be a unique experience in our lives.
4. Your documentary is like a feature film. Think big, select effectively, edit ruthlessly and get the quality right.
5. Your documentary film is a point of view with a purpose — not a consensus. The focus helps the audience open a window to the world. However, with the powerful editing tools that we have today (such as Final Cut Pro X), there is real potential for manipulating the story to some ends. This is because as editors we become kind of master puppeteers doing the job of controlling the action and reaction. As film-makers we want to reveal human emotions and present a mood (instead of just describing an action), yet at the same time we have a responsibility to be fair and honest and tell the truth.
6. My impression is that governments do not want to tell the whole truth to the public because the truth will stop wars. Serious journalists and documentary makers believe that if they had done their jobs properly, and challenged the military about its charge that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, we would not have gone to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Propaganda and public relations people sell war by manufacturing fear of a created enemy threatening our democracy. Expose this fear!
7. Curiosity ought to be our trusted friend. When necessary, challenge the official story, especially if it comes from positions of power. Who benefits? Why don't we seek an alternative to the war solution, for example?
8. There is no one way to do a documentary. Michael Moore uses the ambush in-your-face approach. John Pilger asks hard questions with lots of visuals and archival footage. Jennifer Baichival employs the character approach. All are valid styles.
9. I learned that the basics of visual story telling includes some or all of the following: the cutaway, using variety of shots such as medium, close-up and extreme close-ups; holding the shot until the action is complete; doing 10 to 15 seconds on each shot; shooting at eye level because this connects us to the audience; using more 'nose room' in front; focusing on the eyes, before moving out; asking at least four questions for our Focus Statement; getting an Establishing Shot at the beginning to give context; Actuality provides the real power to a story; with Continuity, we need to build, build and build. Finally, give the last word to the main character.
10. Always try to tell a story through the eyes of a character — someone doing things for some compelling reason.
11. In a meeting, ask permission at the beginning: 'Do you mind if I shoot it?'
12. Think outside the box. The main character could be a place.
13. Transcribe tapes before editing and creating a Shot Log with Time Codes. Use a yellow marker to indicate items you want to use. Every edit cut requires a motivated reason.

In summary, the 10-day course highlighted the need for dedicated citizen videographers to inform others and to ensure that out society survives as a just, clean, caring, friendly and beautiful entity.

For me, the course provided the preliminary skills and confidence to pursue the video projects that Kristina and I began 20 years ago — with my Doukhobors and her Bulgarians. Thank you Peter!

Useful Resources

1. RSAnimate is a professionally clean animated video for explaining a complicated message.
2. Storify is a Social network service that lets the user create stories or timelines using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
3. Highrise in the World is an Emmy-winning, multi-media, collaborate documentary experiment by the National Film Board of Canada that explores vertical living around the world.
4. Out My Window is an interactive NFB interactive documentary, open-source film, unlike any you have seen before. Katherine Cizek, the director, put it together over the course of years. You choose where and when you want the stories (49 in total) to begin and end.
5. Transcend Media Service is a valuable free subscription service from the Johan Galtung group in Norway with weekly stories from around the world. Select videos are listed every week.
6. Videomaker Magazine is a monthly magazine which covers the use of camcorders, desktop video, editing, lighting, and audio production for novice and expert videographers.
7. Welcome to Pine Point is an interactive web documentation for the NFB Interactive about a northern town that closed in 1988, and was subsequently demolished.
8. Adobe AuthorWare7 is an interactive training course for e-learning.
9. Thoughtmaybe website is an excellent online repository of films covering topics challenging modern society, industrialized civilization and globalized culture.
10. i-Docs is an exceptional online site for people interested in interactive documentaries, where you can learn, reflect and expand your understanding of the field.
11. Peter Biesterfeld's Doc-School has helpful links to a number of interactive sites for documentary filmmakers: NFB, HotDogs Library, The Documentary Organization of Canada, Mastering documentary interviews, Chronology of Documentary History, and BBC New Technology on changing how a documentary ends.

See my photo album about the first 10-day DocSchool.

Ode to Kristina

My wife was awarded the Bulgarian Medal and Certificate of Honour!

On February 16, 2013, Kristina Kristova was officially recognised by the Bulgarian Government — the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad — with the national Paisii Hilendarski Memorable Medal and Certificate of Honour. 

See 70 event photos. [2023 broken link.]

The Certificate states: 'for her significant contribution to the preservation and promotion of the Bulgarian culture and traditions in Canada, for her dedicated work as the founder and leader of the Bulgarian Society in the Capital Region Ottawa-Gatineau, and to celebrate her 70th year jubilee'.  

Medal inscription: 'Bulgarians, know your roots and language.'

In 2000, the Bulgarian Government decreed to issue an annual state award to creators and performers whose works are connected with Bulgarian culture, history and traditions. The award was named for monk Saint Paisii Hilendarski (1722-1773), a national historic spiritual leader, peoples' revivalist and confessor, and founder of the Bulgarian Renaissance. While in monastery (1760-1762) he created the Slav-Bulgarian History — Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya — which stimulated the formation of Bulgarian national consciousness.

80 attended, with some from Montreal. Kristina's daughter Milena Krassi was honoured to be the event master of ceremonies at the Bulgarian Embassy, Ottawa, where the celebration took place. During the evening program of speeches, slide shows, and poetry, I added my poem (below). Delicious Bulgarian food was prepared by local volunteers. The first president of the Ottawa Bulgarian Community, Vasil Gatchev, called me an 'Honourary Bulgarian'. 

See 70 event photos. [2023: broken link.]

My Ode to Kristina — a World Citizen

As friend, companion, husband of Kristina —
there is much to say about this interesting person.

Her Bulgarian experience as anchor person on
National TV for more than 20 years,
shows through in her personality.
In editing some of my draft writings, her comments are
appreciated for setting the logic straight,
for being concise, and for showing me
how creative words can impact the message on the public stage.
Her genius in grasping a thought, even in English,
often means rewriting what I considered to be a final draft.

As a pioneer in the local Bulgarian Community,
I have seen her selfless energy at work —
phoning, writing on the computer,
calling compatriots to preserve traditional language and culture,
and urging them to bring their best foot forward
in a multicultural Canada.

That same energy I have seen with other activities —
selling watches and jewelry to eBay customers,
working for a high-tech company,
selling designer clothes, and recently
working as Site Administrator of the International Languages Program on Saturdays.

In all of these works, quality has been her goal.
This often means a long day —
working into the early hours of the morning.
I would of course be called to help —
carry this, copy that, deliver this, take photos,
or help edit a letter in English. With her enthusiasm and good intent,
how could I not help?

Shopping for me with Kristina has been most frustrating.
Why? Because our styles differ.
I generally know what I am looking for, and I go for it;
while her approach is to look and look and look
for something ‘perfect’.
But as we all know, perfection is difficult or impossible to achieve.

In our 20-plus years together
I have seen how adaptable Kristina is.
Learning the English language from practically zero
has been a challenging task. And thanks to her she helped me with my Russian.
Unfortunately, I have not yet learned the Bulgarian language, but
have had to rely much on observation, listening, and instinct.
However, I very much appreciate and admire
the friendship of Kristina and members of the Bulgarian community in Ottawa.

Of course, I have noticed Kristina’s nostalgia for Bulgaria and Europe.
For her, Ottawa at times feels like a small village.
Periodically she reminds me that I came from Saskatchewan —
a country boy born on an isolated farm without any modern conveniences,
35 miles away from the nearest large city.

But for Kristina to be born in the centre of Sofia,
it is natural for her to see herself at the front of things.
Achieving great success in folk dancing,
Master of Ceremonies in thousands of concerts,
and as Anchor Person on TV,
this style has become her tempo in life.
Nostalgia for Kristina in an earlier active life style is normal.

Her Medal of Honour from the Bulgarian Government is long overdue.
Like the Order of Canada in this country, she deserves the respect of
her countrymen and women.
She deserves it —
because she has served well in giving generously to her mother land
just as she is contributing generously today to her adopted country.

My ode to Kristina —
a colourful person of our wonderful world community.
Obicham te!   (I love you!)

How we met

Kristina Kristova and I first met 21 years ago on Russian Christmas day in Ottawa, Canada, January 7, 1992 at a social gathering. We spoke in Russian. She was a news anchor for Bulgarian National TV who had come to Canada to sign a contract with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto. Kristina was staying in Ottawa, Canada, where her daughter Milena was getting a Bachelor's Degree in Music at the University of Ottawa, and is now a flute and piano teacher.

Kristina was born in Sofia, Bulgaria during the height of World War II. She was folk dancer with the state folklore ensemble founded and led by Fillip Kutev. During the Cold War the group performed around the world; and, in 1963 toured 25 states in the USA, including Carnegie Hall in New York, and two cities in Canada (Montreal and Ottawa).

In 1968, at the age 26, Kristina won a competition out of about 1,000 candidates which led her to a career as the Anchor Person of the Bulgarian National Television. As a representative of Bulgarian TV abroad, she went to dozens of countries, including Greece, North Korea, and Afghanistan for which she received an Order of Bravery for her interviews on the streets of Kabul. Besides news, she was the Master of Ceremonies for over 7,000 concerts and festivals all over Bulgaria. In brief, Kristina was a very busy person in that small, historically rich and beautiful country called Bulgaria.

From 1995 (when the Ottawa Bulgarian organization was registered) to the present, Kristina was a member of the Board of Directors. From 2004 to 2007 and from 2011 to 2013 she has been President of the National Capital Region Bulgarian Community as well as the Ottawa Region Bulgarian Foundation.

More Views of Kristina

Anna Tzvetkova of Montreal, who was Kristina's colleague at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, submitted this article with 4 photos to the Bulgarian language newspaper Trud [Labour]: Драги зрители, Христина Христова чукна 70! [Archived: Dear viewers, Kristina Kristova has reached 70!] (February 23, 2013). Two photos [not in archive] show her at work in Bulgaria.

Year-end Newsletter 2012

From Koozma J. Tarasoff and Kristina Kristova

Dear Friends,

Like last year at this time, Ottawa had only a trace of snow and seasonal temperature. With warmth again we are glad to greet you with the best of the holiday season and wish you and your family good health, happiness, joy, and peace throughout the New Year 2013.

Kristina has again been busy Saturday mornings working as a Site Administrator of the International Languages Program in one of Ottawa’s schools. She supervises 14 teachers and classes in Traditional Mandarin, Dutch and Tigrinya. In July she was very busy as Site Administrator of the 5-week Chinese Summer School.

As volunteer, Kristina has continued to be active with the cultural health of the greater Ottawa Bulgarian Community, in the capacity of President of the Bulgarian Association and the Bulgarian Foundation. In October and November, she spent seven weeks in Sofia, Bulgaria, visiting her son Orlin and helping him renovate his apartment. She met many of her friends from her 27 years as a professional TV anchor person for the National TV as she enjoyed cultural life in the European city. Her daughter Milena (a flute and piano teacher in Ottawa, and Manager of a doctor’s office) had earlier spent two months in Europe visiting friends and exploring new places.

With Kristina away, Koozma renovated his study and that of Kristina’s with a subtle suggestion to his partner and friend to get on with her biography. Otherwise, as he did throughout the year, Koozma was active writing on his website Spirit-Wrestlers.com and blog. Some of the themes that brought interest across the miles were the Canadian Department of Peace Initiative, the 6th Ottawa Peace Festival, the nonkilling paradigm, media and democracy, the Cold War, book reviews, and internal debates amongst those in his Doukhobor-Tolstoyan heritage.

With his webmaster Andrei Conovaloff in Arizona USA, Koozma has continued to explore hidden parallels between Doukhobors and Pryguny, especially how minority zealots in each branch have hijacked the identity of the majority. When Koozma’s co-publisher Legas had no room for his major book (Spirit-Wrestlers: Doukhobor Pioneers’ Strategies of Living, 2002) Andrei purchased most of the remaining inventory as gifts for supporters of his project: Spiritual Christians Around the World.

In February the Bulgarian community in Ottawa along with friends celebrated Koozma’s 80th birthday with messages from home and abroad. A new Sony digital camera was one of the gifts which he now proudly uses in documenting stories of peace, ethnicity, and human interest around him. For his volunteer work, Koozma — the photographer, writer, and bridge-builder — was honoured in September by Ian Prattis’s organization with a Friends of Peace Award at Ottawa’s City Hall.

Koozma’s son Lev is a glaciologist and professor at Memorial University in St. John’s Newfoundland. Earlier this year he was honoured for his work by being provided with a budget for five more years as head of a Science Chair in Glacial Dynamics Modelling. In July he astonished all of us with his 650 km. gruelling trip along the north Atlantic coast, in a kayak, with a team of two other men. (Seakayaking Adventure in Northern Labrador)

Dorothee Bienzle (Lev’s wife) continues to be busy as professor and researcher at Guelph, University. Their children, Jaspar (aged 17) and Katya (aged 13) are good students active in sports. Katya has just earned a place on the U14 provincial team in Soccer.

Koozma’s daughter Tamara, her husband John, and children Nicholas (aged 15) and Elena (aged 11) are all well and active in sports and in their community. Besides being good students in school in a bilingual program (English and French), Nicholas is especially active in hockey. In his work, John this year has made trips to St. Petersburg, Russia, Korea and India. Tamara has shown how democracy works by actively helping to organize the local Wakefield, Quebec community to overturn a political decision that would pollute the pristine Gatineau River. It took three years, many meetings and 134 blog postings to make this happen. (Tamara Tarasoff Awarded for Volunteerism)

Kristina and I had several occasions during the year to host visitors from Canada and abroad. One of these was a delightful visit in June by Nona Kucher and Tammy Verigin-Burk of the interior of British Columbia. They are daughter’s of friends Elmer and Marilyn Verigin of Castlegar. In September, Konstantin Romanov, the young Russian professor from Moscow, stayed with us for three weeks as he got ready to begin his one year post-doc work in Canadian Studies at Carleton University.

The email, telephone and Skype continue to be the common mode of communications with friends and relatives across the country and abroad. However, we are always aware that there is no substitute for face-to-face contact. We therefore strive to meet with relatives and friends directly whenever we can.

As the old year ends and the New Year begins, we join together to wish all of you our friends the best of health, creativity, joy and good works in 2013.