NEWS

Introducing MOSAIC 2022!

JACQUELINE LISBONA News Editor

Introducing Dawson College’s new and improved Mosaic website, Mosaic is an interactive online portal, an exhibit showcasing the diverse and thought-provoking media arts made by students. Sections include photo essays, films, podcasts & audio, interactive websites, games, scripts, project proposals, “aftereffects”, and “BLOOM”, two projects done in media lab classes.

Throughout this Winter 2022 semester at Dawson, Michael Filtz’ Integrating Activity students in the Cinema Communications program have worked on this year’s Mosaic event. This includes designing the website, deciding on a theme, and promoting the event.

Dipti Gupta, profile coordinator in the faculty of cinema and communications at Dawson said that Mosaic is a “window to the various ideas, thoughts, concepts, philosophies, and techniques being discussed in our classes through the term that culminate into amazing projects. These projects are then being collectively presented under Mosaic.”

Dipti shared that a pop-up exhibition will take place on the afternoon of Friday May 13. Submissions can include physical productions, as well as team. Meghety Sazian is one of the members of the web team in the same Integrating Activity class. Meg bluntly stated that at the start of creating the website, her team was “a bit lost due to the missing content and lack of submissions”. Meg also added that she had never heard of Mosaic before and neither did her team, which is why it was a bit more difficult to create the concept because the idea was unfamiliar to them. However, Meg explained that once her team put their heads together, they created a killer website using Google Sites, and fabricated “an inclusive environment where all submissions are welcome”.

Once Meg’s website creation team was done and waiting for submissions to start rolling in, Alexia Aiko Maldonado was working with her promotion team to get the word out to the public. Given that the instructions were essentially “free-range” according to Alexia, her team decided to create posters to hang around Dawson to get the word out. Alexia revealed that it was “fun playing with the theme and trying to come up with more elegant ways to join both horror and a more high-end aesthetic. I had a lot of fun with the color palette and the posters were really fun to make.”

In the end, Michael Filtz’s IA students should be very proud of the work they have done for Mosaic this past semester. I encourage everyone to go check out the Mosaic exhibition and Media Night on the 13th. You won’t want to miss it! p p

anything that can be exhibited digitally on an iPad or computer. They will later be posted on Dawson’s Mosaic website that can be accessed online. Submissions must be sent through a Google Doc form which can be accessed via Mio on Omnivox. The deadline for all Mosaic submissions is Monday May 9.

Some questions arise when discussing the difference between Media Night and Mosaic. While Media Night is an event that showcases films, Mosaic receives all types of submissions.

Matteo Di Giovanni, second year cin-com student at Dawson highlighted that unlike Media Night submissions, Mosaic projects aren’t “selected, they’re submitted.” He exclaimed that Mosaic is “awesome” because it is an “opportunity for all ALC students to show their work and have it showcased publicly, which is a great feeling.” This grants contributors the freedom to submit different types of creative formats and display their accomplishments they have been working on throughout the semester.

Erika Coulombe and Alicia Perrone, second year Dawson students in the ALC program added: “Mosaic is on a website with everything from films- to scripts-to art works, whereas Media Night is just movies and short films.” As part of the concept team in their Integrating Activity class, Erika and Alicia used Media Night’s Friday the 13th theme as inspiration during their creative process. However, they decided to do more of a 50s look with darker colors including lots of reds and burgundies. Another interesting point that they mentioned is that although Mosaic has been around Dawson for a few years now, this is the first year they had heard of it in their classes.

Once the concept team was finished with the color palette and theme, they tag teamed the website creation

Although Mosaic has been around Dawson for a few years now, this is the first year they had heard of it in their classes.

The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Defamation Trial

EMILY MCQUEEN Staff writer

Trigger warning: mention of domestic and sexual abuse.

If you’ve been on the internet in the past two weeks, I’m certain you’ve seen clips or news about the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial, which is being broadcasted on many TV channels. The trial is taking place because Johnny Depp is pursuing Amber Heard for defamation over a 2018 article in The Washington Post in which Heard writes about surviving domestic abuse. Although the article never mentions Depp by name, the public assumed it was about him, and there were serious consequences on his career and image. The actor is filing this 50-million-dollar lawsuit after losing a highly publicized lawsuit against The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater” in 2020.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met in 2009 while shooting The Rhum Diaries. Dating rumors started appearing in 2011. Heard explains in her testimony that Depp would take her on generous trips at the beginning of their relationship. She remembered him taking the foil off of a bottle and putting it on her ring finger, while they had only been together for days, maybe weeks. She remembers it all feeling very intense. Depp’s security guard told the courts that at the beginning of their relationship, they were loving, but as time went on Amber Heard changed and became grumpier. The couple got married in 2015 and they broke up the next year when Heard filed for a restraining order against Depp, accusing the actor of abuse. The couple finally got divorced in August 2016.

Johnny Depp has testified multiple times that he never struck Heard or any woman, and that his goal in this trial is truth. He hopes to clear his name in this trial and then move on with his life.

Heard, who has filed a countersuit against Depp, testified about

Painting VIA GETTY IMAGES

many instances of domestic and sexual abuse by Johnny, including him conducting a “cavity search” on her for cocaine. Depp allegedly told her that he would kill her once after he believed she had told his children that he was drunk while on a boat. She also testified that Depp would often pass out in his bodily fluids because of his substance abuse and that she and other staff would have to clean up after him and change him.

Many other witnesses took the stand to testify, including the couple’s marriage counselor, who stated that Heard never gave Depp the chance to speak. The counselor also mentioned a reported slap given to Heard by Depp. Johnny Depp’s security guard testified that he never saw bruises on Amber Heard but many on Johnny Depp which escalated over time. Both legal teams also had psychologists testify. The psychologist hired by Johnny Depp’s team argued that Amber Heard does not have symptoms of PTSD but of two other personality disorders: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder. In contrast, a psychologist hired by Amber Heard’s team argued that Heard does present symptoms of PTSD.

Images, recordings, and texts were all presented in court. Of the most notable was a recording of Heard admitting to hitting Depp as she calls him a baby. In another recording, Amber mockingly asks Johnny Depp if he, as a man, is a victim of domestic abuse, to which he answers he is. Texts between Johnny and a friend discussing killing and burning Amber’s body were also presented as evidence by Heard’s team, along with many images of injuries on both parties’ faces and bodies.

The trial is not over yet. Both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s lives and careers are forever changed by these accusations.

If you are a man, woman, or neither, and are a victim of domestic or sexual abuse, you can get help at (514) 491-0495, an emergency shelter hotline. If you believe your life or safety is in danger, please call 911. p