EIFF REVIEW: Happy Place an Emotionally Draining Film
The closing feature at the Edmonton International Film Festival is based on the personal experience of writer-actor Pamela Mala Sinha – who was violently raped after she moved to Montreal to begin theatre school. Her attacker not only physically violated her but stole her subsequent life. “I don’t fit anywhere in the world,” is one […]
EIFF REVIEW: Vegreville-filmed Drama Probes Old Ukrainian Wounds
It is Ukraine – the year is 1943 and the German army has broken through the lines and is systematically slaughtering everyone in a local village. The first images we see in Troy Ruptash’s film They Who Surround Us are fragmented and disconnected. They will come together in the mind of the film’s central character […]
EIFF REVIEW: Banksy Most Wanted Digs Deep Into Picasso of Street Art
The elusive graffiti artist Banksy may be the most famous artist in the world. His simple but affecting works have appeared mysteriously on walls, also in galleries, on trains, cars and wherever an inviting surface appears. He’s parlayed his shadowy persona and artistic genius into a fortune guessed at $50 million. His stencil of a […]
EIFF REVIEW: Jasmine Road a tear-jerker with a message: ‘They’re just like us.’
A redneck rancher unwittingly becomes the host of a family of Syrian refugees. What could possibly go wrong? Better yet: What could go right? Jasmine Road, the opening night feature at the Edmonton International Film festival, looks on the positive side of the immigration issue that has touched nearly every Canadian. Writer-director Warren Sulatycky takes […]
REVIEW: Playing With Fire a triumph at socially distant Mayfield Theatre
Edmonton’s moribund theatre scene is showing signs of life. The Mayfield Dinner Theatre (among others) is presenting full evening performances, offering many of the features that have made the venue so popular – while observing the pandemic guidelines laid down by the AHS. There have been flickers of theatrical life in the last six COVID-haunted […]
Multi-hyphenate Edmonton talent on the doorstep of Hollywood
At least one thing is true to real life in the developing sitcom Casanova. It’s “The List” – of every person the main character Cassie had sex with, male or female, doesn’t really matter. “She’s modelled after a version of myself, and earlier 20s version of myself” says filmmaker Mac Watson, who’s worked her way […]
STREAMING MUSIC: Which Twitch Will You Watch?
With a little dram of hope, but still no end in sight to the concert-less world we now live in, more and more musicians are doing a little something online. Recent live-stream luminaries include Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), such favorites as the Arkells, and everywhere in between, Cold War Kids and Dan Deacon, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Whole Lotta Streams
With virtually no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, bands and musicians continue to flock to livestreams to stay connected with their fans, and with any luck make a few dollars along the way. Some of the larger brands have also been helping out, with Bandcamp hosting a one-day event last week where 100% […]
EDMONTON THEATRE: Stuck in the House
If we are to believe the video posted on the Citadel Theatre’s website (above), it was Executive Director Chantell Ghosh’s idea to institute a series of short videos featuring local performers who suddenly found themselves out of work during the COVID-19 lockdown. From at home in her closet – “It’s the only place where I […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Stream Must Go On!
Alberta’s own Corb Lund (below, right) is still scheduled to play live and in-person at the Jubilee Auditorium on Monday, May 4. They’re still selling tickets – but like many events upcoming, no one really knows what’s happening and what’s not. Meanwhile, undaunted, our cosmic cowboy is staging a live-stream concert on Instagram Live – […]
