Sin La Habana is a film about destiny, power dynamics, and prophecy through the eyes of its three main characters. Leonardo (Yonah Acosta) and Sara (Evelyn O’Farrill), a young Afro-Cuban couple, are desperate to leave the island.
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The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) makes its long-awaited return to the concert hall, with Gustavo Gimeno’s highly-anticipated in-person début as Music Director. November’s concerts promise to be emotional experiences as audiences return to Roy Thomson Hall (RTH) for the first time since March 2020.
After many months away from RTH, I am very much looking forward to spending more time enjoying the TSO’s in-person concerts again!
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The importance of mental health awareness has been a focus for Workman Arts for years. This year is no different, especially with their linup for the 29th edition of the Rendezvous With Madness Festival (RWM). This is one of the largest and longest-running arts festival in the world dedicated to the intersection of mental health and artistic expression.
Since many of us are still feeling the emotional effects of months of isolation, income precarity, and anxiety over what the future holds, the Rendezvous With Madness Festival offers a unique opportunity to come together in reflection and discussion.
I have attended RWF for many years, and highly recommend you join in this year if you are able to. The list here includes my personal recommendations for films and other events that have piqued my interest.
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My gal pal Donna G of The More the Merrier asked me to pick a few ‘Halloween’ / horror / scary movies to share with her, and in turn, with you too.
The list below includes recommendations as well as personal favourite movies that I think are available to stream, rent online or at your local DVD shop across Canada and elsewhere.
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It is nice to see live events returning to Toronto!
October is my favourite month and this year, it looks like it is gearing up for a fun time In the City. Below I have compiled a personal list of relevant events happening now and coming up the rest of the month.
A new immersive dance work for two dancers created for Gallery 2 of the Lighthouse Arts Space by dancer/choreographer Guillaume Côté, with the artists of Côté Danse, in collaboration with Thomas Payette of Hub Studio.
Fusing projections with live dance, TOUCH is an interactive performance, creating a dialogue between audience, performers and multimedia within this 360-projection space. The aim of TOUCH is to explore the relationship between two people and their various states of interaction.
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The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) opted for a hybrid model this year offering many in-person screenings with the option of digital screenings as well.
As accredited media and a cinephile, I was happy to return to the theatre to watch variou cinematic films at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall, and the Princess of Wales Theatre (Visa Screening Room). It almost felt like the ‘before times’. I also liked having the option of staying home to watch films in a more relaxed manner.
My TIFF coverage was somewhat more focused this year to include the following categories, themes and types of films: Documentary; Emerging Filmmakers; Black, Indigenous and people of colour stories on screen; Women in Film; and Horror. Below I give you my Top 5 films and the full list of films I was able to screen at TIFF this year.
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Written & directed by Justin Lerner (Girlfriend), CADEJO BLANCO is the story of Sarita (Karen Martínez), a working-class girl from Guatemala City, who travels to the seaside town of Puerto Barrios to infiltrate a group of young gang members. She risks her life to find out what happened to her missing sister, Bea (Pamela Martínez). In the process, Sarita becomes involved with her sister’s dangerous ex, Andrés (Rudy Rodríguez) and slowly gets closer to the truth about what happened to her.
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The year 2021 marks the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. To commemorate the historical occasion, director Rodrigo Reyes offers a poignant hybrid-cinema experience to explore the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico.
Through the eyes of a ghostly conquistador (played by newcomer Eduardo San Juan Breña), Reyes recreates Hernán Cortez’s epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City. As this fictional character is forced to interact with real victims and subjects of Mexico’s failed drug wars, Reyes portrays the country’s current humanitarian crisis as part of a vicious and unfinished colonial project, still in motion, nearly five-hundred years later.
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Summer in Toronto is never complete for me without attending SummerWorks Festival. This year’s festival is a free, public-facing programming across multiple platforms throughout the month of August.
For the rest of the month, you can enjoy online public sharings, engage with artists through social media, as well as join explorations of public access to artistic process, from performance in storefront windows to communal walks through the park.
Below I list some of the various offerings that have caught my attention at SummerWorks this year. Plenty of local artists to support from home or in-person!
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