B-Side Community

Scouts are Cancelled is an intriguing documentary on the life of Nova Scotia-born writer and poet John Stiles. Stiles once worked as a telemarketer in Toronto and used colorful voices and accents while speaking to customers on the phone. He later used those voice characters in his open-mike readings and garnered a cult following, which led to two published books. This film, from director John Scott, was chosen as a "Hot Pick" at both the Hot Docs Documentary Festival and the Atlantic Film Festival and was a critiques choice for the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Now Magazine, InfoMonkey.com and Eyewear. So far it has won two documentary awards and played at six festival and event screenings. The Atlantic Film Festival called it "... one of the best contemporary literary documentaries of the last decade."