Monthly Archives:
January 2013

Because we all need a good way to start the week, right? On Monday, January 28th come check out the JokeBox Comedy Lounge series. The night will feature funny-femme sketch duo Two Weird Ladies (Fresh Meat 2012). Since finding each other in The Second City Conservatory Program, Mandy Sellers (2011 Canadian Comedy Award nominee) and Laura Salvas (Toronto Comedy Brawl Finalist) have been delivering high-energy sketch comedy.

Individually quick-witted and fast-paced, as a duo these ladies deliver bizarre and hilarious sketches with smart, tongue-in-cheek jabs, leaving no topic untouched. Their first full-length sketch show debuted to rave reviews at the Toronto and Hamilton Fringe Festivals.

The evening will also offer the comedic styling of The Real True News (Jeff Clark and Melissa Story), a dynamic duo that takes current news headings and distorts them into hilarity; cleverly crafted long-form improv by Action Slacks (veterans of Harold Night at the Bad Dog Dimetre Alexiou, Todd Charron, Dave Cooper and Kyle Scott); as well as original stand-up comedy from bold, tell-it-like-it-is Joshua Elijah (founder of renowned comedy show, I Heart Jokes) and multi-talented, fun-loving actor and writer Steve Boleantu (The Tennessee Project Toronto, 2011 Canadian Fringe Tour, The Second City, Just for Laughs).

The host for the evening will be one of Toronto’s funny ladies, the cheeky Natalie Norman. Natalie delivers amusing reflections on life with warmth and honesty, and is quickly becoming a recognized name on the Canadian comedy circuit (Pop Comedy Podcast co-host, Comedy in the Annex co-producer).

Christy Garland’s documentary The Bastard Sing The Sweetest Song opens this Friday, January 18th at the Royal Cinema. It tells the story of Muscle. A man making a living in Georgetown, Guyana raising fighting cocks and songbirds, but he’s also trying to get his mother Mary off the booze. Mary’s a charming 75-year-old poet with a brilliant wit who loves to go for walks on the road, beg for money, and get drunk on “high wine”. Mary drinks to forget but she’s still able to recite by heart some of her lost poems to her family who listen with love and admiration. Muscle strives to lift his family out of poverty and into the middle class, but worries his mother will end up in hospital. He decides that the only way to protect her is to keep her locked her up in her room at the back of the house.

What may appear to be a story of a brutal, controlling son and a drunk, pathetic old woman, is actually the story of an incredibly courageous family fighting to rid themselves of the shackles of their past. Mary and Muscle’s efforts to live life on their own terms are comical, courageous, flawed, disturbing, loving and heart-breaking – just like many families.

I missed this film when it played at Hot Docs last year, so I’ll be sure to catch it this time around. For full scheduling and ticketing info, go to theroyal.to.

“The Canadian Screen Awards celebrate the beginning of a new era in multi-platform entertainment,” says Academy CEO Helga Stephenson. “Canadians are watching and consuming in a million different ways now, from the silver screen to the mobile screen, so we’ve updated the Academy to today’s multi-screen reality with the launch of the first ever Canadian Screen Awards.”

“We’re extremely proud to be the exclusive broadcaster of the Canadian Screen Awards,” said Julie Bristow, Executive Director of Studio and Unscripted Programming, CBC. “With an incredible collection of talented nominees across the film, television and digital industries, and the legendary Martin Short as host, the Canadian Screen Awards will be a night of celebration that Canadians won’t want to miss.”

Nominees in 116 Canadian Screen Award categories (22 film, 89 television and 5 digital media) were announced today, and webcast from simultaneous news conferences in Montreal and Toronto. Some of the nominees include…

Best Motion Picture 
L’Affaire Dumont – Nicole Robert
Inch’Allah – Luc Déry, Kim McCraw
Laurence Anyways – Lyse Lafontaine
Midnight’s Children – David Hamilton
Rebelle / War Witch – Pierre Even, Marie-Claude Poulin
Still Mine – Tamara Deverell, Jody Colero, Avi Federgreen, Michael McGowan

Best Dramatic Series 
Arctic Air – (Omni Film Productions Limited) Ian Weir, Michael Chechik, Gary Harvey, Gabriela Schonbach
Bomb Girls – (Back Alley Film Productions Ltd., Muse Entertainment Enterprises, Back Alley Films) Janis Lundman, Michael MacLennan, Adrienne Mitchell, Michael Prupas
Continuum – (Timely Productions Inc.) Simon Barry, Tom Rowe, Patrick Williams
Flashpoint – (Flashpoint Season IV Productions Inc.) Anne Marie La Traverse, Bill Mustos
King – (Indian Grove Productions Ltd.) Bernard Zukerman, Greg Spottiswood

More special Canadian Screen Awards and details of Canadian Screen Week events will be announced in coming weeks. The six-day extravaganza will end with the inaugural 2-Hour Live Broadcast Gala Sunday March 3, @ 8pm (8:30 N.T) on CBC.

When Jewish art dealer Lea Bondi fled Vienna in 1939, Portrait of Wally, Egon Schiele’s tender picture of his mistress Walburga (Wally) Neuzil, was seized by the Nazis. The painting resurfaced in 1997 while on loan to Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, sparking a thirteen-year legal battle with the owner’s heirs. Portrait Of Wally traces the history of this iconic image, from Schiele’s gesture of affection toward his young lover, through the post-war confusion and subterfuge, to its surprising reappearance and the ensuing legal battle. This is the stunning account of a painting that brought Nazi art looting into the public sphere and forced museums to search their own collections and return the “last prisoners of war” to their families.

Portrait Of Wally will screen at 6:30 pm and 9:15 pm on Wednesday, January 9, and at 6:45 pm on Thursday, January 10, at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. Director Andrew Shea will be in attendance to introduce the film and answer questions following the screenings.

Single tickets for the film are $15 and can be purchased in advance online or in person at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema box office. If advance tickets sell out, a limited number of tickets may be available at the door on the night of the screening. New this year: Hot Docs has introduced a special Doc Soup Student 6-Pack for $35 ($90 value), valid for Wednesday 9:15 p.m. screenings. Student 6-Packs can be purchased online at hotdocs.ca, in person that the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema box office, or by phone at 416-637-5150.