'Centigrade' wins Leos

I'm thrilled to share the news that a certain special film has won five Leos just a few days ago here in Vancouver. The Leo Awards honor the best in British Columbian television and film production every year. Centigrade is... [Continue Reading...]

geologic journey

        Spotting a seemingly insignificant looking rock like this one now sends me wondering about its history, its journey through millions of years. Thanks to the powerful series Geologic Journey, my view of our world, especially of Canada and... [Continue Reading...]

a low-carb diet

Thanks to an email alert from the local Finnish community, last night my husband and I enjoyed an interesting creative documentary film on CBC Newsworld's Passionate Eye : RECIPES FOR DISASTER, a Millennium Film of Finland production, directed by John... [Continue Reading...]

colours of music

"Can music have colour? David Hockney thought so, as filmmaker Maryte Kavaliauskas shows in her profile for PBS's American Masters, David Hockney: The Colors of Music".

Read more in the UPDATE.

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Power of Art series

This looks to be very exciting: Simon Schama's The Power of Art series is beginning tonight on PBS TV in North America.

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diversions

I've recently come across some great links on a couple of interesting subjects - the first an important environmental story and the second a fascinating linguistic and ethnological one. 1. At Biodynamic Farming and Gardening I found out about a... [Continue Reading...]

The Danish Poet

Torill Kove, a Norwegian-Canadian anImator with Canada's NFB (National Film Board) won an Oscar this year for Best Animated Short Film. Her film, The Danish Poet, is a "charming 15-minute meditation on life's peculiar coincidences, based loosely on a... [Continue Reading...]

Goldsworthy: Rivers & Tides

I've just finished viewing the DVD Andy Goldsworthy: Rivers and Tides. Wow! It is very beautiful, very inspiring and I want to view it over and over again. I've admired Andy Goldsworthy's work in books, magazines and online but... [Continue Reading...]

November

November is here. You can tell by the weather, the heavy heavy rainfalls, the wind, the dark and gloomy days. Indoors never felt so good. Turning inward means that my art work is continuing to develop in an interesting... [Continue Reading...]

Shanghai in films

Shanghai of the 1930's is the subject of a documentary and the background for a movie...

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Burtynsky in Vancouver

Image on invitation: Edward Burtyntsky: Recycling No.20. Cankun Aluminum. Xaimen City, Fujian Province, China 2005. Chromagenic print, 58" x 68". Courtesy of Charles Cowles Gallery, NY. I'm really looking forward to seeing the photographic works of acclaimed Canadian photographer... [Continue Reading...]

Finnish knitting lesson

(Still from The Last Knit by annekeAnna) Talk about obsessive-compulsive, this animation is extremely well-done and hilarious. Thanks to my husband for finding our evening's laugh medicine. Enjoy!... [Continue Reading...]

Jean Detheux

Back in July, I wrote about Belgian-Canadian artist Jean Detheux, who creates wondrous works entirely digitally after giving up painting for health reasons.

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McLaren again

NFB is celebrating 65 years of Animation and I discovered that we can view four of Norman McLaren's films on the Focus on Animation pages....

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Helvetica, a film

Helvetica "is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way... [Continue Reading...]

Blue Buddha

This past Monday evening 'The Nature of Things with David Suzuki' presented Blue Buddha: Lost Secrets of Tibetan Medicine. It traces the odyssey of traditional Tibetan medicine from it's roots in ancient Tibet, to a worldwide interest in it's... [Continue Reading...]

watch this!

...the PBS series How Art Made the World is beginning tonight on your local PBS channel. In Vancouver, that's KCTS 9 from Seattle at 10 pm.

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Norman McLaren

This interesting news item about the late great Canadian animator Norman McLaren (1914-1987) brings back a lot of wonderful memories for me: 'The films of National Film Board animation pioneer Norman McLaren will be the subject May 22 of the... [Continue Reading...]

Toronto's Lord of the Rings

"The much-anticipated musical theatre version of The Lord of the Rings made its formal début in a gala première in Toronto on Thursday evening, and the reactions of the audience suggested that the massive production would not be leaving... [Continue Reading...]

The Tommy Douglas Story

Wow - we've just finished viewing a very moving film Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, a two-part drama on CBC-TV. It's a fascinating biography of the man who became a long time premier of Saskatchewan and then the first... [Continue Reading...]

Isabel Bayrakdarian in Armenia

Last Thursday evening we decided to do a rare thing and watch TV, specifically CBC's Opening Night which featured A Long Journey Home. This is a beautifully filmed and spiritually moving documentary that follows Armenian-Canadian operatic soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian on... [Continue Reading...]

on artists & celebrity

Poking around in my bookmarked "articles to re-read", I was taken in once again by this Guardian interview of JG Ballard about a year ago. His thoughts on today's art scene struck a chord with me: "Today's art scene? Very... [Continue Reading...]

'Rings' debut in Toronto

"The much-anticipated stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy will have its world premiere in Toronto, producers announced in London Tuesday. The $27-million show, co-produced by Toronto's Mirvish Productions, will open in March 2006 at the... [Continue Reading...]

Ararat by Egoyan

Our Saturday Night at the Movies was spent comfortably at home with a DVD of Atom Egoyan's Ararat. Yes, I know it's already two years old, it took us this long to get around to it. Wow, what a powerful... [Continue Reading...]

Elvish

The Lord of the Rings mania has hit the schools! BBC has an amusing article "Do you speak Elf?", about Birmingham schoolboys who have volunteered for lessons in Sindarin, the "conversational" form of Elvish, invented by Lord of the Rings... [Continue Reading...]

Whale Rider

I saw Whale Rider for the first time this weekend, on DVD. Though I do not intend to be a film critic on this blog, this movie is so astounding that I would like to share my excitement about it.... [Continue Reading...]