Whether you’re an avid music fan or a passive listener, Vancouver Island has no shortage of musical talent to tickle your ears. The Vancouver Island Music Awards (VIMA) has been honouring the cream of that talented crop since 2002. Although this year’s awards ceremony won’t take place until April 21, approximately 40 lucky people recently got a sneak peek of what’s in store. At the VIMA Nominee Showcase on March 24, several nominees performed and represented genres ranging from jazz to new country to progressive art rock.
In popular culture, a “Gypsy” is often portrayed as a mesmerizing, free-spirited woman dancing and shaking her hips in front of a campfire. On Feb. 8, the Victoria Film Festival screened a documentary that explains why such stereotypes exist. A People Uncounted sets the record straight about the real Roma people. Commonly known as Gypsies, the Roma are an ethnic group that have endured centuries of persecution in Europe.
When a 68-year-old alcoholic man with unresolved guilt has premonitions, it's hard to tell if he's suffering from the effects of mental strain or if he's actually gifted with the supernatural. In the Canadian psychological drama Donovan's Echo, this confusion keeps viewers guessing. The film was screened at the Victoria Film Festival.
Imagine a community without food banks. If you are 30 years old or younger, you probably can’t. On Feb. 19, over 100 people gathered at Grace Lutheran Church for a discussion forum to question the effectiveness of food banks in addressing poverty.
Consider this idea: to keep your freedom, you must lose it. It doesn’t make any sense, but according to Article 12, a documentary film that screened over the weekend at Victoria Film Festival, it describes the very society we are living in.
Article 12 is named after an item on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights that declares the right to privacy. The film warns in this age of technology, governmental organizations are finding more ways to watch our every move, all the while convincing us that it's for our own protection. And this should be of special concern to citizens of the U.S. and U.K., which were both named "endemic surveillance societies" by Privacy International, a U.K.-based watchdog non-profit organization.
In 2004, journalist Michael Parfit and filmmaker Suzanne Chisholm arrived on Vancouver Island to cover a stranded male orca’s reunification with his family. The reunion never happened; instead, a political fight over the whale named Luna escalated. Both realized the story was only beginning, but the last thing they expected was to become part of it.
Poetry, burlesque and cigars spell only one thing: sophistication. Add six of Victoria’s best male spoken-word artists to that equation, and you will have a classy affair celebrating what we love most about men.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane has it all. The production, which plays until Dec. 3 at Langham Court Theatre, is blackly captivating and tragic from the first scene to the last.
Current methods of addressing homelessness in Victoria may actually be contributing to the problem, according to a recent report. On Nov. 10, the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) held a forum for discussion of the growing problem of poverty and homelessness in Victoria, and presented their research on the issue in relation to the current policing system.
On Nov.17, the Bipolar Disorder Society of B.C. (BDSBC) will light up the often dark and confusing issue of mental health with a night of comedy, music and fashion at the Victoria Event Centre.
Considering the growing popularity of farmers’ markets in B.C., many of us aren’t foreign to the local food movement. But according to climate change and food security experts, there is growing evidence to incite us to accelerate the movement and push for the provincial government to do more than is currently being done.
May 18, 2012, 6:27 p.m.
It's not just "peaceful assemblies" under fire; Charest plans to withhold funding from student societies who don't play nice. #ggi #loi78
