Festival Updates and News
News about Ottawa Festivals and our Member festivals, special events and fairs.
Music for Silenced Voices
Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets with Wendy Lesser and the Arthur-Leblanc Quartet
[Source: Music and Beyond press release]
This Sunday, a very special event celebrating Shostakovich’s remarkable cycle of string quartets will take place at Knox Presbyterian Church on Elgin Street. This event is presented by the Ottawa International Writers Festival in partnership with Music and Beyond. It will feature Canada’s Arthur-Leblanc String Quartet (who are about to release the first-ever complete set of Shostakovich string quartets by a Canadian ensemble) along with writer Wendy Lesser who has just written a new book on the Shostakovich quartets. It promises to be a fascinating evening filled with wonderful music. While it starts at 8:30 p.m., it will run for 90 minutes straight and will be finished by 10:00 p.m.
Film festival takes fresh look at what we eat
The Ottawa Citizen
Two films that examine where our food comes from will be shown this week as part of the the Reel Food Film Festival. On Thursday, Oct. 20, Our Daily Bread, a non-narrated film, will highlight how industrial our food production has become (note: some scenes are difficult to watch). On Thursday, Oct. 27 Fresh: The Movie explores and celebrates farmers, writers and entrepreneurs who are re-inventing their food systems, from the way they farm to what items are sold in grocery stores. Both screenings are at the Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch, 120 Metcalfe St. along with other short films. Films begin at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, although a donation of $5 is appreciated to help cover costs. For more info and to see trailers, go to www.reelfoodfilmfestival.ca/
Ottawa Race Weekend finds title sponsor
CBC News
Source: CBC News
Ottawa’s annual race weekend has a new title sponsor after going three years without.
Ottawa-based home builder Tamarack Homes will be the new title sponsor, event officials announced Wednesday, signing a five-year contract. The last sponsor agreement with Dutch insurance company ING ended in 2008.
The seven-race weekend, which bills itself as Canada’s largest running festival, attracted 40,000 runners last year.
Volunteer group Run Ottawa organizes it and often receives volunteer assistance from those working for the title sponsor.
“Having secured a title sponsor provides us with the long-term financial footing that will allow us to make the weekend even more enjoyable for our 40,000 runners,” said race director Jim Robinson.
Read more on the CBC website: Ottawa Race Weekend finds title sponsor
Call to Artists: Show your Northern Passion
OttawaStart
The National Capital Commission (NCC) is seeking work by Canadian professional artists for Northern Passion, an outdoor group exhibit to be held in Confederation Park, in the heart of Canada’s Capital Region, during Winterlude 2012.
From February 3 to 20, 2012, Confederation Park will again be an official site for the Capital’s winter celebration. Every year between 300,000 and 400,000 people visit this hub of Winterlude activity, making it an exceptional place for public presentation of works by Canadian artists.
Read more on the OttawaStart website: Call to Artists: Show your Northern Passion
Each one changes Canada a little
You don’t have to be a Vietnamese boat person or a Chilean fleeing Pinochet or a child from the Holocaust to realize that Canada has the space to absorb you and not only that, to transform you, writes Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Clarkson, The Ottawa Citizen
believe there is room for all of us in Canada because so many of us share the same kind of experiences. These experiences have been so powerful that they have become our background – our shared background. Whether we are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, black or white, if we lost everything and then were taken in and became citizens of Canada, we have found that this country has the space for us all. And by “space,” I don’t mean just physical space; I mean the space in the collective consciousness of every Canadian.
When I was growing up in Ottawa in the ’40s and ’50s, it was a small city of fewer than 100,000 people. There were a half a dozen public schools and a half a dozen high schools. It was really a small town. We had a familiarity with the people we lived among, and although our family, the Poys, came out of the blue into the cold Ottawa winter of 1942, we too became part of this small city.
It was a time of war, rationing, and limited housing as the city swelled with the bureaucracy necessary to guide a government in a wartime situation. I remember the temporary buildings that covered the grounds where the National Gallery now stands and around the Supreme Court. There was always a feeling that somehow this little city was able to cope with everything; and our family benefitted from that.
One World filmfest focuses on protest and revolt
The Ottawa Citizen
Eleven new feature documentaries will premiere in Ottawa this week as the 22nd annual One World Film Festival gets underway. The four-day event will also include previews of new work by local media artists, an opportunity to meet filmmakers from the U.K. and the U.S., and attend workshops on crowd funding and female child soldiers.
This year the theme of the festival, which focuses on human rights and the environment, is “Raise Your Voice.”
“We chose this theme because of the number of very strong films in the program that depict scenes of protest and revolt,” said program manger Pixie Cram. “It also suits the motif of the individual rising up in the face of a challenge to make a difference in the community.”
The festival runs Oct. 13 to 16 at Library and Archives Auditorium, 395 Wellington St.
One World Film Festival to host visiting BBC journalist and filmmaker Ruaridh Arrow
Ruaridh Arrow will be in Ottawa on October 14th to present his documentary on
Gene Sharp, the unknown American Academic who penned numerous books on
non-violent struggle, and who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Arrow’s documentary, How to Start a Revolution, was discussed by Elizabeth
Renzetti of the Globe and Mail on page A2 of Saturday’s paper:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/elizabeth-renzetti/to-start-a-revolution-readgene-
sharps-primer-on-peaceful-protest/article2195375/ .
The timeliness of How to Start a Revolution has particular resonance for North
Americans, when one considers how quickly the Occupy Wall Street movement is
spreading its way across the continent. There is now an Ottawa chapter, with a
protest planned for Saturday October 15th.
Read more on the OttawaStart website: One World Film Festival to host visiting BBC journalist and filmmaker Ruaridh Arrow
The little festival that grew
Ottawa International Writers Festival celebrates 15 years of ‘connecting’
When Sean Wilson started knocking on doors in the mid-1990s, he was trying to spark interest in an artsy startup – a made-in-Ottawa writers’ gathering. But Wilson kept hearing the same thing.
“The initial reaction from many people was, ‘If it was a good idea, we’d already have one.’ I heard that a lot,” he says.
Wilson knew it was a good idea – his father Neil had come up with it – and they were right.
The Ottawa International Writers Festival, now in its 15th year, has become an annual marvel, with spring and fall editions featuring Canada’s A-list authors, as well as promising new writers and literary lions from around the world. As well, the organization brings in authors for one-off events.
Over coffee recently, Neil and Sean Wilson spoke to the Citizen about their love of books, the festival’s early days and its impact on the city.
The first writer ever invited to the festival was Michael Ondaatje. He said no.
Free Thinking Film Festival Brings Pro-Democracy Films to Ottawa!
[Source: Free Thinking Film Society]
| Free Thinking Film Festival Brings Pro-Democracy Films to Ottawa!
On November 11th, 2011, The Free Thinking Film Society kicks off its 2nd annual film festival to celebrate liberty, freedom and democracy. The Free Thinking Film Festival will feature three major events, two panel discussion and over 20 films, between November 11-13, 2011 at Library and Archives Canada and the Bronson Centre. There will also be a Free Thinking Alley where attendees can buy books and DVDs, and enjoy food and drink. “I love celebrating liberty, freedom and democracy,” says Free Thinking Film President Fred Litwin. “Get ready for three days of challenging films and discussions with no political-correctness.” The Festival opens at 6:30 PM November 11th with History Wars, a debate between Jack Granatstein (Historian and former director of the Canadian War Museum) and Michael Byers (Professor of Political Science at UBC) on the future of the Canadian military, moderated by Michael Bliss. This event is co-sponsored by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and will take place at the Bronson Centre. The Festival will end with “Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization”, the Canadian premiere of a documentary about the current political assault against Israel. Producer Gloria Greenfield will be in attendance. |
Ottawa Storytellers Presents New Series
[Source: Ottawa Storytellers press release]
OTTAWA STORYTELLERS present a new series, Encore! West, at Collected Works, 1242 Wellington Street
Dysfunctional Royalty, October 7, 7:00 p.m., with Gail Anglin, Anne Nagy and Phil Nagy
Enjoy stories and songs about a gaggle of kings, queens and royal children, both real and fictional. This lot never quite made it as people you’d want to sit down and have a cup of tea with but they make delightful subjects for some fascinating stories.
Moby Dick, November 4, 7:00 p.m., with Dean Verger, Storyteller
The year was 1851. A large tome had just been published portraying the whaling industry, the society of the day, and one man’s obsession. But it became the victim of unlucky timing because the year before a whale had sunk a ship, with all hands. It was not until the 20th century that Herman Melville’s, Moby Dick, found its audience. Now enjoy Dean Verger’s adaptation in an 80 minute storytelling with musical embellishment.
- 3 February:
- 17 February:
- 8 March:
- 28 March:
- 7 April:
- 26 April:
- 3 May:
- 4 May:
- 11 May:
