April 22 - 28
- Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
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THEATRE
April 29 - May 5
- Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
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CINEMA
ALL UPCOMING EVENTS
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CINEMA
Maker of Monsters: The Extraordinary Life of Beau Dick
Wednesday April 25, 7:00p–8:32p
Presented by Fundy Cinema
▶ Show DetailsCost: $9
In Maker of Monsters: The Extraordinary Life of Beau Dick, co-directors Natalie Boll and LaTiesha Fazakas give an intimate look into the life of one of Canada’s greatest artists. Beau Dick worked within an ancient tradition and rose to the ranks of international success within the white cube world of contemporary art while never forgetting his roots. This film strives to capture the essence of Beau Dick and his mysterious enigma as an artist who symbolized Canada’s history with the First Nations and the ethical dilemmas faced in reconciling with that colonialist history. Beau was able to use his celebrity to call attention to the injustices done to his people and the environment.
Even in his activism, Beau relied on his culture to inform him how to be political. He did not simply stage protests; he enacted ancient ceremonies, creating a public display infused with spirituality. He challenged the Canadian government, chief-to-chief, on his own terms and by using traditional Kwakwaka’wakw political protocol, with minor adjustments for the contemporary situation. He carried out the ceremonial act of breaking a Copper and shaming the Canadian government on two occasions. First, on the steps of the Parliament Building in Victoria, BC, and then one year later on the steps of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The Copper Breaking Ceremony is a spiritual and political act that had not been performed in over 100 years.
In reaching into his past, the stories of the Kwakwaka’wakw nations are also brought to the forefront; their rich history, their dramatic mythology, and the deep scars left by colonialism. Weaving together the personal and cultural until both become inseparable, Maker of Monsters presents an artist who succeeded in reconciling the two.
Maker of Monsters strives to unearth the factors that made Beau who he was—his deep connection to identity, family, and community, his struggle with addiction—and like a carver chipping away at a block of wood, his story brings truth and understanding out of the woodwork. Maker of Monsters illuminates a man whose art and life continue to transcend expectations and boundaries.
"A loving tribute to [a] remarkable man." (David C. Jones, Vancouver Presents)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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THEATRE
Standup Comedy with Jay Malone
Thursday April 26, 8:00p–9:30p
Presented by Jay Malone
▶ Show DetailsCost: $10
Come on down for a night of laughs with the Annapolis Valley's own Jay Malone and his hilarious wife Jeannette Choueiri!
Fresh off a Just for Laughs showcase and just a few days before he performs at his sixth Halifax Comedy Festival Jay returns to the stage in Wolfville to perform his latest material including his first encounter with an Osteopath, why he thinks his two year old daughter is feral, and how he passed out the time his wife needed him most!
Contact: mouthyprimate@icloud.com | 9028442875
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Cost: $9
A specialist in black humour whose television and film work includes the scathing political satires The Thick of It, Veep, and the Oscar-nominated In the Loop, Armando Iannucci is in his element with this acerbic send-up of the Soviet Supremo and his band of scheming bootlicks. Deploying a wide range of English-speaking actors with an assortment of accents—Cockney, Brooklyn, Liverpool—Iannucci sends a not-so-subtle message that Stalin and his inner circle were a bunch of arrivistes who wound up at the helm of a Cold War superpower.
The year is 1953. Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) seems in hale (albeit paranoid) condition, terrorizing everyone, summarily killing off any suspected dissenters, and keeping even his cronies on edge. That comes to an abrupt halt one morning when the dictator is found belly-up on the floor of his office following a stroke. What follows is Iannucci's version of hijinks: the plotting and jostling for power by a group of connivers who cowered under their boss. All of the top lackeys are in contention—milquetoast Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), wiseguy Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi, Norman), bewildered Molotov (Michael Palin), thuggish Zhukov (Jason Isaacs), and depraved Beria (Simon Russell Beale, My Week with Marilyn), with Stalin's drunken son Vasily (Rupert Friend; The Young Victoria, Chéri) and jaded daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough; Birdman, Made in Dagenham) off to the side. They move with the clumsiness of aspirants not up to the job but desperate for it anyway.
Within the burlesque of The Death of Stalin is a timely allegory about venal, unfit leaders and corrupt governance—the kind of comedy that is Iannucci's specialty. It is not hard to imagine similar, if less bloody, events unfolding in a different capital today.
"Ianucci's brand of political satire is applied to one of the darkest chapters in modern history, with sensational results. The Lives Of Others with laughs, it's farcical, frightening and a timely reminder that things could always be worse." (Nick de Semlyen, Empire)
"Like Orwell on helium, this reimaging of Stalin's demise and the subsequent ideological gymnastics of his scheming acolytes is daring, quick-fire and appallingly funny." (Phil de Semlyen, Time Out London)
"The Death of Stalin is superbly cast, and acted with icy and ruthless force by an A-list lineup. There are no weak links. Each has a plum role; each squeezes every gorgeous horrible drop." (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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Cost: $9
A specialist in black humour whose television and film work includes the scathing political satires The Thick of It, Veep, and the Oscar-nominated In the Loop, Armando Iannucci is in his element with this acerbic send-up of the Soviet Supremo and his band of scheming bootlicks. Deploying a wide range of English-speaking actors with an assortment of accents—Cockney, Brooklyn, Liverpool—Iannucci sends a not-so-subtle message that Stalin and his inner circle were a bunch of arrivistes who wound up at the helm of a Cold War superpower.
The year is 1953. Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) seems in hale (albeit paranoid) condition, terrorizing everyone, summarily killing off any suspected dissenters, and keeping even his cronies on edge. That comes to an abrupt halt one morning when the dictator is found belly-up on the floor of his office following a stroke. What follows is Iannucci's version of hijinks: the plotting and jostling for power by a group of connivers who cowered under their boss. All of the top lackeys are in contention—milquetoast Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), wiseguy Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi, Norman), bewildered Molotov (Michael Palin), thuggish Zhukov (Jason Isaacs), and depraved Beria (Simon Russell Beale, My Week with Marilyn), with Stalin's drunken son Vasily (Rupert Friend; The Young Victoria, Chéri) and jaded daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough; Birdman, Made in Dagenham) off to the side. They move with the clumsiness of aspirants not up to the job but desperate for it anyway.
Within the burlesque of The Death of Stalin is a timely allegory about venal, unfit leaders and corrupt governance—the kind of comedy that is Iannucci's specialty. It is not hard to imagine similar, if less bloody, events unfolding in a different capital today.
"Ianucci's brand of political satire is applied to one of the darkest chapters in modern history, with sensational results. The Lives Of Others with laughs, it's farcical, frightening and a timely reminder that things could always be worse." (Nick de Semlyen, Empire)
"Like Orwell on helium, this reimaging of Stalin's demise and the subsequent ideological gymnastics of his scheming acolytes is daring, quick-fire and appallingly funny." (Phil de Semlyen, Time Out London)
"The Death of Stalin is superbly cast, and acted with icy and ruthless force by an A-list lineup. There are no weak links. Each has a plum role; each squeezes every gorgeous horrible drop." (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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CINEMA
Les gardiennes (The Guardians)
Sunday May 6, 7:00p–9:18p
Presented by Fundy Cinema
▶ Show DetailsCost: $9
As the centenary of the First World War is being observed, a number of very fine films have set out to understand this period in modern history, a period that shook apart the world and moved us into a new era of mechanized death. Xavier Beauvois' (Of Gods and Men) beautifully rendered Les gardiennes (The Guardians) concentrates on a family of French farmers as an example of how the war impacted his own country.
The year is 1916, the year of Verdun, perhaps the most important year for the French of the entire war. The women of the Paridier farm, under the deft hand of the family's matriarch, Hortense (Nathalie Baye), must grapple with the workload while the men, including two sons, are off at the front.
When a young outsider to the area arrives, her help is initially welcomed; Francine (Iris Bry) is a good worker, honest and upright. But when the sons return on leave, emotions are stirred, in turn ruffling local sensibilities—and prompting a powerful narrative pivot.
Based on Ernest Perochon's 1924 novel, Les gardiennes takes a contemplative, slow-paced look at the Great War from the perspective of those whose stories are seldom told. Cannes Grand Prix winner Beauvois, offers a simply told and beautifully conveyed account of the devastating events which will eventually lead the way to the emancipation of women throughout Europe. Basing most of the action away from the battleground, the director offers an alternative war movie, one where the fight takes place at home rather than on the battlefield.
"A sober, quietly affecting wartime drama. This femme-centric drama proves that Beauvois still masters his uniquely classical brand of filmmaking, coaxing strong performances out of veteran Nathalie Baye and newbie Iris Bry, who makes an impressive screen debut." (Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter)
"Meditative in its pacing, painterly in composition, quietly devastating in its low-key drama, the latest film from Xavier Beauvois is a picture which embraces the gentle rhythms of a simple lifestyle, set against a backdrop of fundamental and permanent change. This a strikingly beautiful work." (Wendy Ide, Screen Daily)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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Cost: $9
"Good music and good company make Itzhak a pleasure, though those seeking a methodical career overview should look elsewhere than this genial personality sketch of the world-famous violinist. Alison Chernick's documentary captures the Manhattan-dwelling subject at home and on tour around the globe, hobnobbing with classical colleagues as well as the likes of close friend Alan Alda and Barrack Obama.
Itzhak Perlamn was born in 1945 Tel Aviv to Polish émigré parents who were non-musical, though they quickly sussed their prodigy son’s talent. Others did not, if only because they thought he couldn’t get far on the leg braces that polio forced on him at age 4. Nonetheless, at 13 he was both enrolled at Juilliard and making his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
We get just glimpses of his meteoric subsequent rise in archival performance and interview clips. Instead, Chernick’s main focus is on the subject’s everyday life as he enters his eighth decade. Perlman is a garrulous personality who seems comfortable in almost any setting. Yet he appears to take a conversational back seat around wife Toby, who’s also a violinist and a perfect soul mate in seemingly every additional respect. Their busy, curious, affectionately meddling dynamic sets the general tone here, making much of Itzhak play like an invitation to spend the weekend with a family of acquaintances who just happen to include one international celebrity.
It’s intimate enough that we grasp how important Jewish identity, culture and ritual is in their lives, and casual enough that such matters never require formal 'talking head' explanation." (Dennis Harvey, Variety)
"It's less concerned with covering the totality of his life than evoking his life force, which is good-humored, earthy and inspiring. A joyous film about a joyous man." (Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com)
"Think of Itzhak as a revealing scrapbook of Perlman's favorite stories." (Simon Abrams, Village Voice)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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MUSIC
Like Coming Home CD Release
Saturday May 12, 8:00p–11:00p
Presented by Rubythroated Records
▶ Show DetailsCost: $15 advanced sales, $20 at the door
$15 for Students & Seniors (+65)Tickets: The Box Of Delights Book Store, Wolfville, NS
Join Kimberly Matheson, Ellen Torrie, Rebecca Fairless and Sarah McInnis as they release their collaborative album, "Like Coming Home". With Scott Hupman on bass, Ryan Hupman on guitar, and Mike Caroll on drums, these four women will share their original music, each with a unique approach to the craft of songwriting.
Contact: rubythroatedrecords@gmail.com | (902) 791-1588
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MUSIC
Dance ConXion Competitive Showcase
Sunday May 13, 1:00p–2:00p
Presented by Dance ConXion
▶ Show DetailsCost: Tickets are $10 each and all money raised will go toward the Dancers Against Cancer Relay for Life Team.
Tickets: DC Boutique - 7088 Highway 1, Coldbrook
Competitive Dancers from Dance ConXion are putting on a recital including all of their teams routines from the 2017/2018 season.
Contact: danceconxion@gmail.com | 9023657300
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MUSIC
Dance ConXion Competitive Showcase
Sunday May 13, 3:00p–4:00p
Presented by Dance ConXion
▶ Show DetailsCost: Tickets are $10 each and all money raised will go toward the Dancers Against Cancer Relay for Life Team.
Tickets: DC Boutique - 7088 Highway 1, Coldbrook
Competitive Dancers from Dance ConXion are putting on a recital including all of their teams routines from the 2017/2018 season.
Contact: danceconxion@gmail.com | 9023657300
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Cost: $9
After her hard-won ascent to the position of Shadow Health Minister, Janet’s (Kristin Scott Thomas; Suite Francaise, The Invisible Woman) plans for a quiet celebratory dinner with her close friends are dashed when unsavoury secrets and escalating emotional outbursts unveil long-held resentments and leave everyone’s future uncertain.
Fielding a barrage of congratulatory (and a few illicitly romantic) phone calls and preparing for the arrival of her guests, Janet is caught up in the celebration of her new position and the promise of her bright political future. As her guests begin to arrive and her partner, Bill (Timothy Spall; Finding Your Feet, Mr Turner), seems unable to rouse himself from his near-catatonic state to do much more than put on a new record, the festive mood falters before the champagne has even been popped.
First to arrive is Janet’s long-time friend and former sister-in-arms April (Patricia Clarkson; One Day, Cairo Time) who can hardly contain her conflicting emotions, declaring democracy "finished" while also sincerely wishing her friend well and sneering disdainfully at her simultaneously new-age and old-fashioned partner Gottfried (Bruno Ganz, The Reader).
Meanwhile, Martha’s (Cherry Jones) arrival—and her ambivalence following her newly pregnant wife Jinny’s (Emily Mortimer; The Sense of an Ending, Hugo) announcement that the couple is expecting triplets—is quickly eclipsed by Tom’s (Cillian Murphy) erratic behaviour and conspicuously tardy wife, MaryAnn.
Tightly scripted and acerbically funny, maestro director Sally Potter (Ginger and Rosa, Orlando) flexes a new side of her auteurial prowess in creating a veritable pressure-cooker comedy showcase for a stellar international ensemble cast.
"The Party is a short, sharp, funny shock of a movie; a theatrical drawing-room comedy which plays out in real time with elegance and dispatch, cantering up to a cheeky punch-line twist which leaves you laughing over the final credits." (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
"It's a film about pettiness couched in maturity, and a brilliantly merciless take on the comedy of manners." (Andrew Crump, Paste Magazine)
"The Party is breathlessly well shot—and, even better, in lustrous black and white. The look conveys an unspoken message: Even playing fools, these actors are pure class." (David Edelstein, New York Magazine)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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MUSIC
Matt Andersen, Stories and Songs
Tuesday May 15, 7:30p
Presented by Matt Andersen
▶ Show DetailsCost: $50 General Admission
Tickets: Cochrane’s Pharmasave 442 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Matt Andersen presents an evening of Stories and Songs with special guests, Ian Janes, Cory Tetford and Adam Baldwin at the Al Whittle Theatre. A show to raise funds for The Prescott Group www.prescottgroup.ca
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MUSIC
Laura Roy with Jeff Goodspeed & Friends
Thursday May 17, 8:00p–10:00p
Presented by Laura Roy
▶ Show DetailsCost: $20
Tickets: Box of Delights, Wolfville
About Laura Roy and Jeff Goodspeed
Since 2010, Laura has performed with Jeff in various Jazz/Latin bands at the Halifax Jazz Festival, Stayner's Sunday Jazz and other venues all over Nova Scotia. She has worked with Jeff as a background vocalist for Cuban singer Augusto Enriquez as well as Jeff’s Latin ensemble Los Primos.
LAURA ROY BIO: Canadian R&B/pop artist Laura Roy is a captivating songwriter and vocalist. Laura is currently based in London, UK writing and recording her second EP set for release spring 2018.
Born and raised in the small village of Canning, Nova Scotia, she began singing, writing poems and composing music around the age of 10. She performed at talent shows and festivals around the province of Nova Scotia. Laura’s music is known for her unique, smooth and sultry R&B vocals combined with infectiously catchy pop hooks.
An avid songwriter, Laura is a four-year attendee of the prestigious Gordie Sampson Songcamp, put on by the Grammy-winning writer and she has also been actively involved with The Songwriter's Association of Canada, attending song writing camps across the country.
Laura became well known for her versatility as a songwriter, writing everything from folk-pop to R&B/hip hop, in particular, her collaborations and co-writes with Canadian Juno Winner Classified and Quake Matthews.
Laura has travelled and collaborated with writers in Nashville, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and London, UK. Her debut EP (released July 2016) containing 6 songs infused with slick, synth-pop, 90's R&B vibes, soulful melodies, anthemic hooks and was written and recorded in Toronto and New York City with producers Adam King, Joel Stouffer (Dragonette) and Ari Leff (LAUV). Her release of the pop song “Pitbull” in January 2017 in collaboration with Stanton Project charted on National Canadian Radio and was placed in the Canadian Radio Bell Media's iHeart Top 20 countdown.
LAURA ROY
Website: https://www.lauraroy.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lauraroymusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraroymusic
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lauraroymusic
Listen to Laura Roy’s music:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/laura-roy/531987583
Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/kg/artist/laura-roy/531987583
Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/lauraeroymusic
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/lauraroymusic
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5QPrSgtPwMPMdDNWQyQDXR
JEFF GOODSPEED BIO: Jeff Goodspeed’s resilience is almost as impressive as his resume – he has worked with Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Bob Hope, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Aretha Franklin and many others.
Born in Truro, NS, Jeff's musical education includes Berklee College of Music in Boston, Acadia University and Toronto's Humber College of Music. He has followed a career as a freelance musician and teacher, spending 3 years in the RCMP band and 2 years with Roger Whittaker. In Toronto for 10 years he had the opportunity to perform with The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and The Guido Basso Orchestra, and was in the pit bands for Cats, Crazy For You and other shows. Since returning to NS in '92 he has been very busy with Jazz Education and leading his own groups. In 1996, he and Dave Staples won the East Coast Music Award for best Jazz recording for their CD entitled 'Eastern Passage'.
He is the founder of the Los Primos cultural exchange between music students in NS and Cuba and has created a professional jazz band with musicians from Havana and Halifax. This group, HavanaFax, won the ECMA for best Jazz recording in 2004. Currently, Jeff stays busy as director of the new Music Arts program at the Waterfront Campus of the NSCC, teaching jazz clinics and playing with the many talented Maritime musicians.Contact: james.roy.ns@gmail.com | 9026983849
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MUSIC
The LYNNeS (Lynn Miles and Lynne Hanson)
Friday May 18, 8:00p
Presented by Deep Roots Music Co-op
▶ Show DetailsCost: $20 in advance plus HST and fees and $23 at the door.
Tickets: Ticketpro and Ticketpro Outlets. Cochrane's & Wilson's Pharmasaves and Windsor Home Hardware.
The LYNNeS are Juno award winning songwriter Lynn Miles and award-winning songwriter Lynne Hanson. The two Canadian heartbreak poets are multi-instrumentalists (piano, acoustic, electric guitar, mandolin), fusing tight vocal harmonies with hauntingly gritty lyrics. Individually they have toured North America and Europe, and their debut album Heartbreak Song For The Radio was released on February 2, 2018.
Lynn Miles is one of Canada’s most accomplished singer/songwriters, with fourteen albums to her credit, the winner of four Canadian Folk Music awards (including 2011 English Songwriter of the Year), and a 2003 Juno award for Roots and Traditional Solo Album of the Year. Her song “Black Flowers” appeared on Claire Lynch’s Grammy nominated album “North By South.” “Lynn Miles makes being forlorn feel like a state of grace” - John Pareles, NY Times
Lynne Hanson has been playing her brand of “porch music with a little red dirt” for the past 10 years, has released 6 albums, won the Colleen Peterson Award for songwriting, and been nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award. “Lynne seems headed for that record territory inhabited by seasoned songwriters such as Nancy Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mary Gauthier and Lucinda Williams” - Barry Hammond, Penguin Eggs
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Cost: $9
Among the snowy high-rises of modern Moscow live stocky salesman Boris (Aleksey Rozin, Leviathan) and Zhenya (Maryana Spivak), a youthful salon owner. Having migrated to shiny new partners, the couple's relationship is coming to a bitter end and the fate of their 12-year-old son Alyosha (Matvey Novikov) is the last thing on their minds. When Alyosha goes missing without a trace, his parents can barely grieve in unison.
Loveless is a story about a heartless marriage on the verge of collapse faced with tragedy. It also illuminates multilayered dichotomies embedded in Russian society. Battles between old and new beliefs, public and private institutions, post-Soviet infrastructures and nouveau riche establishments linger throughout.
Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan) is the master of crafting a drama with the cinematic tropes of a thriller. Moreover, he is an expert at exposing his world for what it has become. We watch as the director's countrymen ruthlessly step all over each other in order to claw to the top. As Vladimir Putin flexes his muscles and expands westward, Loveless—which was made without the strings of state funding and won the Jury Prize at Cannes—may at first appear to be about a specifically Russian phenomenon, but it is not. Lovelessness is universal.
"Andrei Zvyagintsev's Loveless is a stark, mysterious and terrifying story of spiritual catastrophe: a drama with the ostensible form of a procedural crime thriller. It has a hypnotic intensity and unbearable ambiguity which is maintained until the very end." (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
"The dramatic aesthetic of a movie like Loveless—rock-solid yet leisurely in its observance, grounded yet metaphorical—makes it a quietly commanding film." (Owen Gleiberman, Variety)
"With his devastating, finely layered new drama Loveless, Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev once again demonstrates his remarkable gift for creating perfectly formed dramatic microcosms that illustrate the bred-in-the-bone pathologies of Russian society." (Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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Cost: $9
As the newly minted "Lady" Abbot, Sandra (Imelda Staunton; Pride, Another Year) is on top of the world and looking forward to enjoying the rest of her life with her husband of 40 years, Mike (John Sessions; Florence Foster Jenkins, Mr. Holmes, The Iron Lady). However, when Sandra discovers Mike embracing her best friend and uncovers their years-long affair, her plans for their idyllic retirement dissolve before her eyes.
With her picture-perfect, but stuffy aristocratic life crumbling around her, Sandra moves in with her eccentric sister, Bif (Celia Imrie) and embarks on a journey to find herself and reconnect with her decidedly less posh roots.
As her patience for her sister’s self-pity wears thin, Bif hopes to snap Sandra out of her funk by inviting her to join her dance class and meet her friends Charlie (Timothy Spall; The Party, Mr. Turner), Jackie (Joanna Lumley) and Ted (David Hayman; The Boy in the Striped Pajamas). Surrounded by new friends and reviving her longstanding love for dance, Sandra comes to enjoy her new life with her sister, but she cannot avoid her past for long.
Featuring an all-star cast, Finding Your Feet proves it is never too late to start again and reconnect with the people you love.
"Finding Your Feet hits its romantic-comedy beats with an old-timer's clockwork efficiency." (Guy Lodge, Variety)
"A simple, touching story that is sweetly, undemandingly entertaining. It would be very easy to pick holes in it but it doesn't give you much reason to want to." (Olly Richards, Time Out)
"Finding Your Feet does what it says on the tin, and does it expertly." (Harry Windsor, The Hollywood Reporter)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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Cost: $9
Samuel Maoz's debut feature, Lebanon (winner of the Golden Lion at the 2009 Venice Film Festival), was set during the 1982 Lebanon War, and shot almost entirely inside of a tank. Foxtrot, his second feature, steps away from that fevered claustrophobia to tell another maddening story of war and conflict, but this one on a much broader canvas.
Michael (Lior Ashkenazi; Norman, Footnote) and Dafna (Sarah Adler) experience gut-wrenching grief when army officials show up at their home to announce the death of their son, Jonathan (Yonathan Shiray). Unable to find any solace in the well-meaning—if hollowly effusive—condolences of their extended family or in the empty patriotic platitudes of bureaucrats, Michael spirals into anger only to subsequently experience one of life's unfathomable twists—a twist that can only be rivaled by the surreal military experiences of his son.
Foxtrot examines both the strength and the absurdity of military service from several points of view. Moving from the grieving parents' apartment to the remote military post where Jonathan was stationed, Maoz shows us precisely how much damage can ensue when young soldiers, barely able to tell their toe from a trigger, experience boredom, privation and loneliness.
Although there is a terrible tragedy at the heart of the film, Foxtrot contains many moments laced with mordant humour, irony and sincere emotional connection. Maoz once again brings us a powerful story, beautifully photographed and composed, about the lunacy of war, and its most immediate, as well as its most far-reaching impacts.
"An intricate, dazzling cinematic dance, Foxtrot goes both deeper in and further out than standard-issue cinema. It's profound and moving and wild and crazy at the same time, simultaneously telling a specific story and offering an emotional snapshot of a country whose very soul seems to be at risk." (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)
"Brilliantly constructed with a visual audacity that serves the subject rather than the other way around, this is award-winning filmmaking on a fearless level." (Jay Weissberg, Variety)
"It's a film that can swing between absurdist humor and brutal gut-punch sadness in a way that's rare and, at times, truly profound." (Oliver Lyttelton, The Playlist)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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MUSIC
Nasr & Thorpe CD Release
Saturday June 9, 8:00p–10:00p
Presented by Ariana Nasr
▶ Show DetailsCost: TBA
Tickets: TBA
Ariana Nasr and Curtis Thorpe will be releasing a CD of well-known songs from France, Eastern Europe, South America and the US.
Contact: ariana@ariananasr.com
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Cost: $9
Stepping behind the camera for the first time in a decade, writer-director Stanley Tucci (The Children Act, Spotlight) mines the complexities of the artistic process through an intimate study of the uneven relationship between artist and subject in Final Portrait.
Famed Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush; The Daughter, The King’s Speech) invited his old friend, American author and art critic James Lord (Armie Hammer; Call Me by Your Name), to pose for a portrait over the course of two weeks in 1964. In the artist’s ramshackle studio, a cramped nook tucked away in a back alley in Paris, the portrait session is initially supposed to take "only a few hours;" however, as the perfectionist Giacometti agonizes over detail and form, the young Lord must return day after day, postponing his return to New York.
The two men could not be more different; Lord remains fondly curious and courteous, polite and scholarly even in the face of inconvenience and delay, while Giacometti is wild, at once exuberant and despondent in his out-of-control creative fervour. Giacometti’s relationship with his wife and former muse (Sylvie Testud, La vie en rose) is similarly tumultuous, as she watches her husband fawn over a young Parisian sex worker (Clémence Poésy, In Bruges) who has become his new source of creative inspiration. Yet, the bond between husband and wife is not so easily broken after decades of shared life and artistic exploration.
Bringing the grandiose struggle of the artist to an impressively intimate level, Final Portrait frames the relationship between creator and subject as the most vital framework through which to understand the art and the artist, the ethereal works of beauty and the deeply human experiences which inspire them.
"In Final Portrait, Stanley Tucci takes the biopic to an even more exquisitely homespun level of miniature close-up. Rush and Tucci create a captivating portrait of an artist who's at once elated, haunted, and utterly possessed." (Owen Gleiberman, Variety)
"It's a highly entertaining portrait of the two men, and Tucci's own directorial brush strokes are bold and invigorating." (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
"A stellar performance from Geoffrey Rush centres this diverting glimpse into the chaotic life of a great artist." (Phillip Kemp, Total Film)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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Cost: $9
Desire is an elusive thing. And in Oh Lucy!, the debut feature film by Atsuko Hirayanagi, a Tokyo office worker has her desires awakened in the quirkiest way.
Lonely chain-smoker Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima) is a single woman whose youth and vitality have been lost to the bleak routine of life, points underscored by Setsuko's garbage-filled home and the near-daily spectacle of suicides witnessed en route to work. Pushed by her niece Mika (Shioli Kutsuna) to take English classes, Setsuko finds herself faced with John (Josh Hartnett), a handsome foreign teacher.
John gives Setsuko a blond wig, a new identity, and an American alter ego: Lucy. When he suddenly disappears—taking away the warmth and light that had illuminated Setsuko's recent days—Setsuko/Lucy sets out to find John in Southern California. There, she finally frees herself by coming to terms with her desires while discovering that neither she nor John is quite what she believed.
Terajima, who won the Silver Bear at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in the Japanese drama Caterpillar, is irresistible as Setsuko, supported in her charming performance by a dazzling Hartnett and an impeccable—as always—Kôji Yakusho (Tokyo Sonata, Babel), as a fellow English student.
Oh Lucy! combines bittersweet comedy with an unsettling darker narrative, great acting, and remarkable visual aesthetics. It is a work not to be missed.
"A movie in which the human comedy is by turns tender, plaintive, heartfelt and joyful." (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times)
"Oh Lucy! is a tense, observant, and heartfelt accomplishement." (Inkoo Kang, TheWrap)
"There's pleasingly little sentimentality and much honesty to be found in Hirayanagi's screenplay, particularly in its acknowledgement that new experiences can make you lose, as much as broaden, your mind." (Nikki Baughan, Screen International)Contact: info@fundycinema.ca | (902) 542-1050
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THEATRE
Broken Leg Theatre - Sister Sister
Saturday June 30, 7:00p–9:00p
Presented by Donna Holmes
▶ Show DetailsCost: $10
Tickets: At the Door or by contacting Donna at donnaholmes712@gmail.com
On three of my sisters' birthdays (yes, three!) and the day before Canada Day, come enjoy our amazing local artists performing comedy sketches, jazz dance routines, monologues, musical theatre acts, ghost stories, and more!!!
Broken Leg Theatre is a variety show that often features The Dead Sheep Scrolls, DanceConXion, the Ukulele Ladies, Valley Ghost Walks, and so many other incredible performance artists, three times a year. Every show is simply amazing!! Don't miss it!
If you'd like to be involved in Broken Leg theatre (on the stage or behind the scenes), or if you would like to reserve a ticket, please contact Donna Holmes at donnaholmes712@gmail.com or check out our Facebook page at https://facebook.com/brokenlegtheatre. :O)Contact: donnaholmes712@gmail.com
