News
- Acts of Imagination will screen at the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University in NY city on February 14th.
- Acts of Imagination screens on Super Channel.
- Acts of Imagination, with the support from Telelfilm Canada, launches a November tour with screenings in Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton.
- Acts of Imagination screens in Ukraine. The Molodist festival has selected Acts of Imagination to screen as a special presentation of Canadian films on October 25th.
- Ukrainian film club of Columbia University acquires Acts of Imagination
- Acts of Imagination, will screen at the 22nd Triennial Congress of Ukrainian Canadians, Connecting Our Communities to be held in Winnipeg on October 19
- US premiere - Acts of Imagination will open the Post Revolution Blues Ukrainian and Polish Film Festival in Chicago on August 24
- Moving Pictures BC and Women in Film and Video Vancouver have been working together to present two screenings.
- April 30th, 2007 - Acts of Imagination is nominated for best debut feature at the Aarhus Independent Festival of the Arts in Denmark
- March 8th, 2007 - Dartmouth Rolls out the Red Carpet for the UK premiere of Acts of Imagination
- Acts of Imagination plays at the Pusan International Film Festival, director Carolyn Combs and actress Maki Nagisa attend.
- Cast and Crew News
- Year End Catching Up With Cast and Crew:
Acts of Imagination will screen at the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University in NY city on February 14th.
Acts of Imagination screens on Super Channel.
Several times throughout February 2008, Acts of Imagination will be playing on Super Channel. For show times visit: www.superchannel.ca.
Acts of Imagination, with the support from Telelfilm Canada, launches a November tour with screenings in Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton:
Toronto
The Royal Cinema, 608 College St
November 1, 7pm with guests: Dr. Yuri Shevchuk, Columbia University, Stacey Donen, Royal Programmer and the filmmakers
November 4, 2pm
Winnipeg
Cinematheque, 100 Arthur St.
November 2-8, 8:30pm
Q&A with special guests and filmmakers November 2-5
Edmonton
Metro Cinema, 9828 101Aave.
November 9,11,13 7pm
November 10,12,14 9:15pm
Q&A with special guests and filmmakers November 9,10
Acts of Imagination screens in Ukraine. The Molodist festival has selected Acts of Imagination to screen as a special presentation of Canadian films on October 25th.
Ukrainian film club of Columbia University acquires Acts of Imagination.
Acts of Imagination, will screen at the 22nd Triennial Congress of Ukrainian Canadians, Connecting Our Communities to be held in Winnipeg on October 19.
US premiere - Acts of Imagination opens the Post Revolution Blues Ukrainian and Polish Film Festival in Chicago on August 24.
Where: Chopin Theater 1543 W. Division St. Chicago , IL 60602
Description: Post-Revolution Blues Film Festival Intense and dark, the films of Post-Revolution Blues are often uplifting as they focus on the actions of some remarkable individuals navigating life in two Eastern European countries after their respective Revolutions: The Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004), and The Solidarity Movement in Poland (1980). These films present a rare opportunity to witness the true environment of those post-revolutionary times. Presented by The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, the Ukrainian Film Club at Columbia University, and the Chopin Theatre. August 24th-26th.
Ukraine¹s principal media, TV and film industry publication, TELEKRYTYKA, publishes an article on the Post-Revolution Blues Film Festival featuring Acts of Imagination.
www.telekritika.ua
Article in PDF
Moving Pictures BC and Women in Film and Video Vancouver present two screenings of Acts of Imagination.
Download the press release PDF.
Acts of Imagination is nominated for best debut feature at the Aarhus Festival of Independent Arts in Denmark (April 30th, 2007)
Carolyn attended the festival and writes:
Aarhus is beautiful city with a well-designed mixture of new and old architecture. The festival was probably the most fun of all the festivals I have attended because of its small size and independent mandate. It felt like the attending filmmakers were very supportive of each other’s work and enjoyed spending time with each other over beer. I met some wonderful and interesting filmmakers and saw films that I would not have otherwise had the chance to see.
March 8th, 2007 - Dartmouth Rolls out the Red Carpet for the UK premiere of Acts of Imagination
Carolyn and Stephanie attended the opening ceremonies, champagne reception and dinner.
See BBC/Spotlight interview with Carolyn.
Carolyn attended the festival and writes:
The community of Dartmouth was very welcoming of us and our film. I had a wonderful time and want to thank Barbara Yarwood, Ian Phillips and Debbie DiBello for organizing this great event. As part of the event I was privileged to watch some films made by the local high school students that I thoroughly enjoyed. I look forward to further developing this exchange between two "West Coast" cities.
Acts of Imagination in Pusan
Director, Carolyn Combs and actress Maki Nagisa attended the Pusan International Film Festival this past October where the film had been officially selected as one of four Canadian films to be presented in the World Cinema category.
Carolyn Combs writes:
We participated in a question and answer period after one of the film's four screenings. The questions from the audience were very thoughtful and we became engaged in a very interesting conversation. Maki, a Korean national (her Korean name is Wi Hyung Yi) spoke directly to the audience in Korean, while I spoke through a translator, Hawon Kim. Hyun-Ju Lim, the trade commissioner for the Canadian Embassy in South Korea, was in the audience, and at one point she joined in the translation as the conversation became quite intense, too much for one translator.
We discussed the similarities between the South Korean and the Ukrainian experience of living through times where the "official" version of history was in fact meant to prevent the population from knowing the truth about their own government's actions. It was mentioned, as an example, that it has only been in the last ten years that people have become aware of the massacre in the South Korean city of Gwang Ju, which took place in 1980 when a democratic civil movement was brutally repressed by the then military government of Cheon Doo Hwan (supported by the United States). Knowledge of this event was kept hidden from the Korean people much in the same way that knowledge of the famine was kept from the Ukrainian people.
One elderly gentleman took the microphone and said that when he watched Acts of Imagination, he felt like he was watching his own story.
I very much appreciated his comment. Being able to engage with a Korean audience in this way was a fantastic experience.
Being at the festival was also great fun. See the photos below.
Cast and Crew News:
Stephanie Hayes and Olivia Delachanal are members of Tiger Milk Collective which opens Stupid Little Girls on June 6th.
Ladies and gentlemen come closer… Toss aside the empty boxes of food, the beer cans and the toilet paper and take a seat in our living room. We apologize for the mess but we have been victim of some sort of earthquake and now only floods might wash this place clean. The girls will enter momentarily. They haven't entirely recovered from the cataclysm and might appear scattered, but they are here for your entertainment only, for your bright and shiny eyes. So sit back, sit still and do not be alarmed, this after all is only a play… a stupid little play about human cataclysms.
Stupid Little Girls , an original creation by the intriguing theatre company TigerMilk Collective, was developed as a reaction to the events of the missing women from the Downtown Eastside. The play, which will be performed in the community based Art Centre BLIM, is directed by TigerMilk member Olivia Delachanal, whose direction of Freeport Texas was rated by The Vancouver Courier as one of the top theatre experiences of 2005.
TigerMilk combines a dedication for strong political content and a curiosity for new theatrical forms. Join us at St upid Little Girls for fearless writing and defiant performances.
Stupid Little Girls will be performed at Blim, 197 East 17th Ave.@ Main St
Opening Wednesday June 6th
June 7th-June 16th - No Performance Monday
All shows start at 8pm
$12/Students $15/Adults
Reservations can be made at 778-229-9232
Very Limited seating. Reserve early.
Chad Galloway and his partner Jenny are the proud new parents of Kristofer, a beautiful baby boy born on Monday May 21, weighing 9 pounds and 4 ounces! For pictures of Kristofer visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadgalloway/sets/72157600269244171/
Michael Springate and Nathan Hesselink just finished performing together in Küt Craning Neck Theatre Society proudly presents: Küt. Bold in subject, clear in presentation, innovative in form, Küt is a powerful collaboration between writer-performer Michael Springate, musician Nathan Hesselink, video artist Carolyn Combs, and director Carey-Jo Hoffman.
The work tells the story of a veteran who was directly involved in the assassinations of a "pacification" program in Vietnam. After being asked to leave the military, he converted to Buddhism. Now he is in South Korea, staying with the Korean-Christian family of a deceased friend, and struggling to deepen his meditation practice.
Springate performs four distinct characters: the veteran, the wife of the deceased friend, their son, and their daughter. He weaves a rich fabric of historical insights and genuine moral questions into a stunning performance that borrows both from Korean p'ansori, a traditional story-telling method, and Küt, the Shamanic ritual of healing.
Sharing the stage with him is Nathan Hesselink, a cellist and specialist in Korean percussion. The video artist is Carolyn Combs, whose work incorporates the on-screen performance of Maki Nagisa. Directing the whole is Carey-Jo Hoffman, a recent graduate from the Masters in Contemporary Performance program at Naropa University.
The result of this fascinating and extremely timely collaboration is a riveting piece of contemporary theatre, brilliantly written and conceived, resonating long after its finish.
Craning Neck Theatre is: Adriana Bucz, Katrina Driver, Simon Driver, and Jeremy Waller. For more information, please visit us at http://www.craningneck.com/.
Year End Catching Up With Cast and Crew:
Carolyn Combs is working on a short video that will be presented as part of Michael Srpingate’s one man show, Küt., at the University of Puget Sound at the end of this January. (see Michael Springate for further details) She is also in development on a documentary and a feature film project.
Steven Deneault is working on feature length documentary for director, Dan West, (edited by Thomas Sabinsky) in collaboration with Brightlight Pictures on the filmmaker Uwe Boll.
www.stevendeneault.com
Richard Dolmat writes: I was just on the AOI site and started reminiscing! Anyway, besides a painful wisdom tooth extraction, we are going to be expanding the studio in Jan. Double the size. So that's taking a lot of planning and consulting with architects and structural engineers etc. As well, we're going to expand into full 5.1 surround capabilities. We've submitted a few more songs to the Juno awards for this year. We entered the Producer of the Year, Engineer of the Year and Pop Band categories. Something SHOULD come from that. Been doing a ton of VO and ADR. I potentially have a foley job coming up and an M&E mix to do for a film that will be released in Italy. The new studio should lend itself nicely to that!
As usual, more news can be had: www.digitalsoundmagic.com
Stephanie Hayes writes: I am still writing on my book, working with a band and writing a play with Tigermilk Collective.
www.tigermilkcollective.com
Nathan Hesselink writes: I just wanted to alert people to the book I just had published: P'ungmul: South Korean Drumming and Dance, by University of Chicago Press (2006). It's their only book on an East Asian tradition, so for that I feel pretty good. Below is a PDF of the cover.
Nathan will also be performing in Küt (see Michael Springate for more details.)
Roman Hlywa writes: happy new year
am working as designer on 3d animation series TRIPPIN THE RIFT simultaneously doing design and construction of office building for chemical plant
The next episode of trippin the rift revolves thru various designs for the funeral of a cosmic emperor clown and so on.
Billie Marchenski has been performing in East O' The Sun West O' The Moon with the Caravan Farm Theatre near Armstrong B.C.
www.caravanfarmtheatre.com
Maki Nagisa is working towards her MFA at Simon Fraser Univesity and is currently rehearsing for her graduate performance thesis called Gramma which she will present at SFU from the 17th to the 20th of January.
Trent Payton writes: I now have a job as the editor for a 3D animated children's series called Jibber Jabber to be seen on YTV in September of 2007. And I still have dreams of going to Cuba to learn to be an organic farmer.
Randy Raine-Reusch writes: I have just returned from a three week concert tour of China: Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, with the Mei Han Ensemble, it was a big hit.
Upcoming:
- Artist in Residence at the University of Calgary and performances at New Works Calgary Jan 28th-31 with Mei Han
- Artist in Residence at Linfield College, Oregon, Feb 21st-24th, with Mei Han
- Orbits and Revolutions: Stories of the World, Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3, 2007, at 8:00 p.m., The Vancouver East Cultural Centre, with the Now Orchestra and Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra.
- New Music in New Places, Arnica Gallery, Kamloops March 9th, with Stefan Smulovitz
- RainForest World Music Festival, Kuching, Malaysia, July 13th to 15th.
Thomas Sabinsky is editing a feature length documentary for director Dan West, (cinematographer Steven Deneault) in collabortion with Brightlight Pictures on the filmmaker Uwe Boll.
Julian Samuel writes: Hello friends: I wish you all a nice 2007. Here is some info on Atheism, my most recent documentary.
Ari Snyder writes: The High Holiday Season went very well; the choir, (Choir of Synagogue Chevra Kadisha B'nei Jacob Beit Hazikaron, conducted by Ari ) was clearly heard to have been at its best. We also participated in a fine benefit concert featuring Quebec's opera star, Gino Quilico.
I am continuing to participate in Bedraggled, a one-woman play with music by Gabrielle Maes, which we presented at the Halifax Fringe Festival. Happily, my [mute] character is allowed to sing a duet --- in Spanish no less! We had excellent reviews and so will expand the show to approach full-length status for a February presentation at the National Theatre's experimental space.
Michael Springate will be performing his one man show, Kut, at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma this January. (see press release below.) He is also writing a film adaptation of his theatre script, Freeport Texas.
