Antimatter Film Festival Oct 9 to 17

Antimatter Film Festival starts tomorrow night!

Antimatter Film festival

The Antimatter Film Festival kicked off with Small World on Friday, Oct 9 at Open Space (510 Fort Street). The excellent opening feature was a multi-media excursion through disney. Artists and local musicians interpreted Disney classics with assistance of shopping carts, painted acoustic guitars, accordions, smoke machines, quirky costumes, tinfoil, and pretty lights. A very fun night to kick off Thanks Giving weekend!

Antimatter continues through Oct 17 with screenings, performances and video installations. Short features are organized into themes including “warming trend: environmentalism alarm bells pealing out for hope; “O’er the land”; “Ju suis une bombe: aesthetic actions promulgate gender confusion/diffusion…”

Full schedule and info at http://www.antimatter.ws or pick up a program guide at any south island Serious Coffee location.

Shop the wild festival Oct 3&4

Market open 10 am to 4 pm each day

For the last two years I’ve wanted to attend the shop the wild festival but for one reason or another I’ve missed it. This year we are going as I’m going to be out there picking apples in the morning. The shop the wild festival is a free event (always nice!) and according to the website there are over 35 exhibitors who will be providing “wild mushrooms, jams and syrups, alder smoked salmon, natural body care products, eco-furniture, native plants, artisan wood products” and more! There will be a interesting lunch (see menu) available from 11.30 to 3pm both days. There will also be talks on mushroom identification, Forest Herbal Walks with Folk herbalist Sheila Wray who will be taking people through the forest at Royal Roads University. For more details check out the website: http://buybcwild.com/2009-exhibitors

Salt Spring Island Fall Fair

Cake decorating

Fall vegetables

Fall fair chicken wings

Last weekend we checked out the Sooke Fall fair. It took me back to my childhood years living in the country. There was the baking and the knitting, some of it beautiful but much of it in colours and styles that, well let me just say I would never pick. There were pale yellow cardigans, patchwork jackets in all shades of purple and mauve, and pale pink acrylic adult toques. Um. Then there was the pumpkins and zucchinis which were fascinating in their shapes and sizes.  And of course there was music and chickens, and preserves and music. This coming weekend we are checking out the Salt Spring Fall Fair which I’ve been told is a lot of fun. Apparently there is: “a Zucchini race; pies are lined up with little bites taken out of them (jury reports); and pigs are running around with prizes attached to their bums.” Who could miss that?! For all the details see:

http://www.saltspringmarket.com/salt_spring_island/fallfair.htm

Fringe festival: until 6 Sep

The Fringe is in full swing. There is SO much to see. I saw some great shows last year and am looking forward to checking out some shows this weekend. We went to see Fall Fair but it was sold out so we ended up seeing Uncalled for presents: Today is All Your Birthdays. I completely recommend that you go and see it. This sketch comedy piece is an incredibly well written, hilarious, dizzying ride through time and space. The two person cast displayed an impressive physicality and rapport with the audience. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Go see it!

See it at:

Venue #4 – St. Andrews School Gymnasium 1002 Pandora, Victoria, BC,

Show Times: Fri, August 28th – 5:45pm Sat, August 29th – 10:00pm Sun, August 30th – 7:15pm

Thu, September 3rd – 7:30pm Sat, September 5th – 5:45pm Sun, September 6th – 9:15pm

Some friends have recommended The Power of Ignorance a satirical comedy about motivational speakers.  It’s received rave reviews: http://www.tjdawe.com/works/ignorance/index.php Check it out at:

Venue #7 – Victoria College of Art + Design UCW (950 Kings near Quadra)

SHOW TIMES  •  Sat, Aug 29 2:15 PM  •  Sun, Aug 30 7:30 PM  •  Fri, Sep 04 6:00 PM  •  Sat, Sep 05 7:45 PM  •  Sun, Sep 06 1:30 PM

One of the shows which we haven’t seen but which is getting great reviews is:

Pretty Little Instincts
SNAFU Dance Theatre
Victoria BC
Dance • 60 minutes
Adults: $9 • Seniors/Students: $9
Parental Guidance: Nudity

From the creators of BLiNK — Pick-of-the-Fringe Best Dance/Physical Show 2007: Renegade outdoor dance theatre. High society tea crumbles into a display of primal instincts as eight women, painted an eerie chalk white, unravel their raw intuition. “Fresh, daring, evocative… SNAFU is one to watch out for.” 4.5 Stars – Monday Magazine. Free tea and cookies.
Point Ellice Webpage
Sponsored by: Point Ellice Heritage Society, Earle Clarke House, The Salvation Army, Discovery Coffee
A portion of ticket sales will be donated to the Victoria Women’s Transition House.
DIRECTIONS: Point Ellice Heritage House is a garden oasis sandwiched between a mountain of crushed cars and gravel pit at 2616 Pleasant Street. 20 minute walk (4 minute drive) from downtown: Follow Douglas North towards Mayfair Mall, Left on Bay, Right on Pleasant.
AUDIENCE ADVICE: Dress warmly.

Details of all the shows/tickets prices/ venues/ at:

http://www.intrepidtheatre.com/fringe2009/

Celebrate the ‘velo’

Did you know Victoria was the biking capital of Canada? Apparently it is. Coming up later this August there is a festival to celebrate biking culture. Check out all the details: http://www.velovictoria.com/what.html

Earth day film festival 21-22 April

Tomorrow is earth day. Open cinema, VIDEA and the Sierra Club of BC
are presenting the Annual EARTH DAY FILM FESTIVAL FRIEND & FUNDRAISER. Entry is free. For more details see:

http://www.harbourliving.ca/event/open-cinema-presents-2nd-annual-earth-day-film-festival

Belfry theatre: Spark festival March 9-22

The Spark Festival is starting next week. Tickets for events are between $10-20. For those with constrained budgets there are also FREE events. You can check out all the details on their website. It has lots of details on all the acts as well as links to video clips and reviews. Check it out:

http://www.belfry.bc.ca/Shows/05-spark_festival.htm

Salt Spring Social Justice Film Festival: March 6-8, 2009

Lots of new films about social movements and issues of social justice will be screening at this festival this weekend.

Our Island Our World
10th Anniversary Film Festival
March 6-8, 2009

http://www.saltspringfilmfestival.com/

Tea festival 14/15 Feb

According to SWPL “It is a known fact that white people consume, on average 25 different teas in a given year.” If you are behind on your recommended annual intake don’t fret you have the chance to catch up at the 3rd Annual Victoria Tea Festival – February 14th & 15th, 2009!

Victoria Film Festival

The Victoria Film festival is finishing the weekend. There is some interesting stuff on including

Apology Of An Economic Hitman

John Perkins is a self-confessed economic hit man, reformed and repentant. From 1971 to 1981 he was employed as an economist by consulting firm, Chas T Main. His job‾ To structure huge international loans to Third World countries (in Perkins’ case: Indonesia, Panama and Saudi Arabia), loans to Third World countries for massive construction projects that would funnel the money back to U.S. contractors, enriching the ruling elite at the cost of national self-sufficiency and independence.  By this means, Perkins asserts, the US has turned the World Bank and the International Monetary fund into tools of Empire.  Perkins premise is that Economics – not inteligence – is where the real cloak and dagger stuff happens.

For details of all festival events and films see:

http://www.victoriafilmfestival.com/

For a humorous take on film festivals see SWPL: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/18/3-film-festivals/

UPDATE:

The Irish film hunger took first prize at the Victoria Film festival

Hunger

World Perspective

(UK, 2008, 100 mins)

35mm

Directed By: Steve McQueen

Producers: Laura Hastuings-Smith, Robin Gultch
Screenwriter: Edna Walsh, Steve McQueen
Cast: Michael Fassbender
<!–

Produced By: Small Producer, Other Producer

–>

<!–
Online Resources:
Film Trailer
Film Title on IMDB
Film Website http://www.myspace.com/filmname
Film Title on MySpace

–>

If nothing else, Hunger is a film that is both brutal and breathtakingly beautiful in a way you probably never thought a film could be. It plunges viewers into the world of the early 1980s H-Blocks uprising and of republican prisoner Bobby Sands (played with formidable force by Michael Fassbender), who died 66 days into a hunger strike. In 1981, the UK was in the thick of the Margaret Thatcher years and in Belfast’s Maze prison, the IRA prisoners had started a blankets and no-washing strike, refusing to conform to the prison rules until they were recognized as political prisoners and not criminals. Davey Gillen, a new prisoner, has come in at the height of this protest and fallen in line with his cellmates including Bobby Sands, H-block’s leader. What should be just passive resistance takes on a terrifying tone as the brutality of the IRA outside the prison through several well coordinated executions soon makes the guards realize that no one is safe. As it seems that the strike can’t get any worse, in walks a priest with a few words for Bobby.