Gradient is the latest album by the Jesse Dietschi Trio. The album is an opportunity to travel along a continuum between modern jazz and contemporary classical chamber music, adjusting position as they navigate compositions that blend these styles.
Mark Tewarson is a film composer living in Los Angeles. In 2023 his music will be heard on two upcoming films, Assassin (Bruce Willis, Andy Allo) and Iceman (documentary of NBA star George Gervin).
Gigi Saul Guerrero is a Mexican filmmaker and actress. She graduated with Honors with a B.A. in Motion Picture Production from Capilano University. Her career started early with several short films including, Dia De Los Muertos, Madre de Dios, and Bestia.
Gigi is also the co-founder of Luchagore Productions, which allowed her to work on projects that were passion projects and hone in her filmmaking style. She gained recognition for creating and directing the 2017 horror web series, La Quinceañera.
Coal Mine Theatre recently held the Toronto premiere of the award-winning DETROIT by Lisa D’Amour. With direction by Jill Harper, this production concludes the company’s exciting seventh season and runs in-person.
This production is headlined by a distinguished ensemble of exceptional performers including Diana Bentley, Sergio Di Zio, Craig Lauzon, Tommie-Amber Pirie, and the legendary Eric Peterson. The backstage creative team includes celebrated designers Ken MacDonald (set), Kimberly Purtell(lighting), Melanie McNeill (costumes), and Tim Lindsay (sound).
Coal Mine’s Co-Founder and Actor Diana Bentley took time from the show’s current run to take part in my 5 Questions With… series. Here is what she shared with me.
Born and raised in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Luis Ramirez is a Mexican-Canadian composer and musician. He often incorporate elements of Mexican folklore with a cinematographic approach to his musical storytelling.
Mexican Tzotzil director Xun Sero‘s first documentary feature, MAMÁ (MOTHER), premiered at Hot Docs last month to great reviews. In the film, Xun creates an open dialogue with his mother, Hilda, which allows them to confront their past with honesty while also finding a sense of understanding and forgiveness.
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.
Those of us in Toronto can finally enjoy live/musical theatre again! The new Canadian musical BLACKOUT opens at High Park Amphitheatre as part of Canadian Stage’s Dream in High Park 2021 programming this week. The Musical Stage Company (MSC) has supported the development of this in-development production over the past year.
BLACKOUT is set on the evening of the blackout of 2003 and while this happened nearly 20 years ago, a musical about how Torontonians came together and found connection in the dark feels quite relevant today when the city is slowly coming out of the darkness of the pandemic and trying to reconnect.
Director, art director, animator, and script writer of animated films Bára Anna Stejskalová has a specialization on stop-motion animated films.
In her latest film Love Is Just a Death Away (Jsme si o smrt blíž), love comes to worms in an animated short from the Czech Republic. Brutal and dark, yet whimsical amid the dystopia of its setting. I was truly captivated by this charming story about finding love even amid utter decay.
Stejskalová was gracious enough to take part in my 5 Questions With… series after the film’s premiere at SXSW.
Emily Wilson‘s Danny’s Girl had its World Premiere in the ‘Midnight Shorts Program’ at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
The film follows the first in-real-life meeting of Danny and Cleo, who have had an intimate online realtionship for some time. Per chance, Danny accidentally discovers something utterly shocking in Cleo’s luggage. When Cleo realizes this, tension and chaos ensue. Amidst the chaos, their mutual vulnerability and desire to connect wins.
Wilson was able to answer a few questions post premiere of her short film at Sundance.
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