Possessing an artist’s grace and a Caribbean soul, the Dalí Quartet is anchored in both Venezuela’s El Sistema and American classical conservatory traditions, to offer a captivating range of traditional string quartet and Latin-American repertoire, characterized by an eclectic mix of rhythm and sound. Its performances embrace the imagination, excellence and panache of the Quartet’s namesake, the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.

El Sistema is the revolutionary music program created in Venezuela, in which a quarter million young people participate, and whose orchestra is ranked among the best in the world. Sir Simon Rattle has called El Sistema the most important development in the world for classical music.

Today, at Mooredale Concerts as part of its Canadian debut, the Dalí will perform Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op. 44 No. 1, and Quartet No. 1 by Brazil’s Heitor Villa-Lobos, along with shorter works by Spain’s Joaquín Turina and composers from Argentina, Cuba and Panama, and a rhythmic 2000 work by Venezuelan composer Efrain Amaya.

Tickets, $30, may be ordered online at mooredaleconcerts.com, or via 416-922-3714 ext. 103. A special $20 ticket is available to concert-goers under 30.

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.

Hoping you all had a great 2012; I know I did! Not only did I attend some great events in Toronto, some for a very worthy cause, but I also met some great new friends. All in all, a really good year.

Hope you continue to follow this page in 2013 for more Arts and Culture tidbits in Toronto.

Felices Fiestas! Season’s Greetings!

The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 70mm drama about a battle of wills between a ravaged war veteran and the cult leader who offers him a place at his right hand, dominated the 2012 awards of the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFC).

Anderson’s film took Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, with co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman named the year’s Best Supporting Actor. Anderson has now won Best Picture twice (previous was Magnolia 1999) and Best Director three times (previous was Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love 2002). He also shared the Best Screenplay prize with Being John Malkovich author Charlie Kaufman (1999).

The awards were voted by the TFCA at a Dec. 16 meeting. The membership also chose the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award: Bestiaire, directed by Denis Côté; Goon, directed by Michael Dowse, and Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah Polley.

The 2012 TFCA Awards will be presented at a gala dinner at Toronto’s Carlu on January 8, 2013, hosted by Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). There the TFCA will also reveal the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, which this year carries a record-setting $100,000 cash prize, now the richest arts award in the country. The runners-up will each receive $5,000. Don McKellar will present the award.

Canadian filmmakers were also honoured in the TFCA’s other awards, with Stories We Tell winning the Allan King Documentary Award and Panos Cosmatos sharing the Best First Feature prize for Beyond the Black Rainbow with Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild.

And the TFCA named Michael Haneke’s Amour the year’s Best Foreign-Language Film. Haneke’s drama, starring Jean-Louis Trintingnant and Emmanuelle Riva as an elderly couple deteriorating in their Paris apartment, won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

At the Jan. 8 gala, the TFCA will also present the Manulife Financial Student Film Award, which carries a $5,000 cash prize. It will be presented to a short film that the critics select from student entries submitted by film programs at Humber College, Ryerson University, Sheridan College and York University. Also at the gala, the TFCA will also announce the Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, sponsored by Deluxe, which will present a cheque for $5,000 and provide an equivalent value in post-production services.

Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up; as well, as bon chance to three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award!  Some of the films are still playing; check local listings for a theatre near you.

*Information courtesy of VKPR.

Filmmaker Whit Stillman will be in Toronto on December 12th and 13th thanks to a joint effort by The Seventh Art and The Royal Cinema.

Stillman will present a film each night, Metropolitan and The Last Days of Disco, and discuss his work as a whole following each screening. The event will mark the first in the newly created The Seventh Art Live Director Series presented by The Royal, which will bring important directors to Toronto to screen and discuss their films.

“We’re thrilled to kick off the series at the Royal with Whit, a great contemporary American filmmaker” said The Seventh Art co-producer Pavan Moondi. “The consistency of his films fits the series perfectly,” said fellow co-producer, Brian Robertson.

The first night, Wednesday, December 12th, will showcase Stillman’s breakout hit, Metropolitan (1990), while the next night features the cult favourite, The Last Days of Disco (1998). The filmmaker will be joined by The Seventh Art’s Christopher Heron for a conversation on the topic of each night’s film and a moderated Q&A with the audience.

“We’re overjoyed with the opportunity to host such a fabled filmmaker in Toronto and to partner with The Seventh Art” said Stacey Donen of The Royal.

The Seventh Art is an independently produced video magazine about cinema with profiles on interesting aspects of the film industry, video essays and in-depth interviews with filmmakers. The production is based in Toronto, Canada and releases an online issue once a month. Originally built in 1939, The Royal is an historic Art Moderne movie house located in the heart of Little Italy. The Royal continues to operate in the evenings as an indie/art house cinema.

Tickets will be sold in advance through The Royal’s website for $15 per screening, or $20 for both. Tickets will also be available at the door for $20 each night. Make sure to make it out to one, if not both, of these screenings. It promises to be quite an interesting set of screenings.

For our entire history we have lived and worked in rhythm with the rising and setting of the sun. But all that changed with the invention of artificial light over 100 years ago. Light fixtures, computer screens, television screens – all of these have allowed us more time to live, work, play and extend the length of our days. And shorten our nights. But at what cost? Are we actually putting ourselves at risk?

Recently scientists have been discovering that exposure to artificial light at night, even the glow of a cell phone or computer screen, can throw our internal body clock out of sync with the planet and could even be leading to serious illnesses like cancer, obesity, heart disease and certain forms of depression. Perhaps those who work in front of a computer screen or who are surrounded by screens most of the time should consider ways to reduce the impact of damaging glare and digital eye strain on their lives. One of the ways that people are doing this is by checking out products like those of Felix Gray which include blue light glasses. These can help to reduce the harmful, artificial light entering their eyes.

With nearly 20 percent of Canadians working night shifts to maintain our 24-hour world, it is now more crucial than ever to find safe and effective answers to what some scientists refer to as an “environmental insult” to our health.

Even though light at night’s effect on health is still a relatively new discovery, the clinical proof is mounting. In July 2012, a report co-authored by Dr. David Blask, Dr. Richard Stevens, Dr. Steven Lockley and Dr. George Brainard was approved by the American Medical Association, officially recognizing that light at night can effect our health and be linked to breast cancer and many common diseases.

Dir. McNamara and team filming at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto. Image courtesy of Markham Street Films Inc.

Lights Out!, the new documentary by director Michael McNamara, joins leading scientists in the lab and in the field, to discover how much harm light at night may be causing and we learn about the ground-breaking steps being taken to protect ourselves. Through the film, we check out the nightshift at the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant, go for a ride-along with 18-wheeler truckers on a cross continental run, and meet a New Orleans scientist who fights cancer by day and plays trumpet with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band by night. The film points out that danger hot spots are everywhere – from the illumination in the Hospital ICU, to the tiny screens of our mobile devices.

“Light pollution is one environmental issue that we can exercise real control over,” said Michael McNamara, “so we wanted to examine our fascination with light as well as the hidden effects it is having on us physically.”

What can we do about an environmental hazard that we just can’t seem to live without? Lights Out! ventures into the darker side of light to find answers. The film presents some very interesting scientific research but also offers some ‘food for thought’ with regards to how certain advacement can impact our overall well-being. The world broadcast premiere of this one-hour documentary is tonight, Dec 6th at 8pm EST (8:30 NT) through CBC‘s The Nature of Things.