LEE MARACLE
Last week North Vancouver-born writer Lee Maracle was awarded with the Order of Canada“ for her contributions to Canada’s literary landscape and for her influential voice in cultural relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.” The granddaughter of Chief Dan George, Maracle is also a descendant of Mary Agnes Joe Capilano and Khatsahlano and a member of the Stó:lo Nation. She currently lives in Toronto and teaches at the University of Toronto First Nations House: bit.ly/2BXC9fo.
ITALIAN FILM FEST
The 2018 Italian Film Festival opens tonight at the VIFF Vancity Theatre with Martin Scorsese’s epic 1999 documentary My Voyage to Italy: bit.ly/2CqpiQP.
POLYGON GALLERY
Director and Curator Reid Shier leads a tour of Polygon Gallery’s inaugural exhibit, N. Vancouver, on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 1 p.m.: thepolygon.ca.
DAVID BOWIE
Dancing Sawhorse and the Rickshaw Theatre present the Bowie Ball on Saturday, Jan. 6 celebrating the life and music of David Bowie for the benefit of the Canadian Cancer Society. More than 20 local bands and solo artists will perform:
rickshawtheatre.com.
STEVE GUNN
Brooklyn-based, singer-songwriter Steve Gunn performs at St. James Hall on Jan. 12 with Julie Byrne sharing the bill. Steve Gunn and the Outliners live on KEXP: bit.ly/2EULIKC.
FELA KUTI
New sublime box set, #4, curated by Erykah Badu as part of an ongoing series, delves into some of the 50-plus albums produced by Fela Kuti (1938–1997), the radical Nigerian creator of Afrobeat. Badu’s selections include Coffin for Head of State, Yellow Fever, Dog Eat Dog and Underground System. Available as a limited 3,000-copy run on Knitting Factory Records, you can listen to everything on Spotify: fela.net.
GLORIA GRAHAME
Hollywood actor Gloria Grahame had to sign a contract promising to obey her husband, director Nicholas Ray, during working hours before Columbia Pictures would let her play opposite Humphrey Bogart in the 1950 film noir classic In A Lonely Place. Ray and screenwriter Andrew Solt turned the story into a metaphor for McCarthy Era Hollywood and made one of Bogart’s best films in the bargain. The Turner Classic Movies TV channel screens the film on Sunday, July 7 at 8 p.m. followed by Vincent Minnelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), another Hollywood film about Hollywood which Grahame appeared in opposite Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner: tcm.com.
DJANGO REINHARDT
Capilano University pays tribute to the gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt at The BlueShore at Cap on Friday, Jan. 26 at 8 p.m: capilanou.ca.
PSYCHO
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 masterwork is screening at The Cinematheque on Jan. 5 and 6 on a double-bill with Alexandre O. Philippe’s new documentary, 78/52, that focuses on the shower scene in Psycho. It took Hitchcock 78 camera setups and 52 cuts to shoot the 45-second clip with Janet Leigh: thecinematheque.ca/hitchcocks-psycho.
ESSENTIAL CINEMA
This week The Cinematheque is also screening a restoration of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1986 film, The Sacrifice, and Luis Buñuel’s Mexican masterpiece, The Exterminating Angel (1962), to kick off the new year: thecinematheque.ca.
