Girls of film
REEL DEVASTATION: From “Still Lives” by Anna Sarkissian
Hosay Breau and Aimée van Drimmelen started The Reel Dames Film Festival three years ago to promote cutting-edge short films by women, emphasizing collaboration, local music and innovative use of media.
“We’re trying to be a noncommercial, independent space where people can do whatever they want,” says van Drimmelen. “As organizers, we have no commercial interest in film whatsoever. We like to look at cool things moving on screens.”
This year’s festival features 15 shorts curated loosely around the theme of work. They cover a wide range, from experimental Super-8 to music videos and documentaries. The docs include a volunteer perspective on post-Katrina recovery in New Orleans, and fuelling an Andean community with natural gas derived from pig shit.
“If there’s any sort of political, environmental or cultural edge, that’s what makes us happy for sure,” van Drimmelen says.
The screening takes place Wednesday, March 12, 8 p.m. at la Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent), $5.
by VINCENT TINGUELY
Hangings and death
PRETTY DESTRUCTION: “Descending”Long Drop: A Hanging is Dil Hildebrand’s MFA thesis show now at Pierre-François Ouellette (372 Ste-Catherine W., #216).
The first time I saw one of Hildebrand’s pieces was in a group show at this gallery in 2006; I was immediately drawn to the painterly surface of the canvas. Soon after that, he won the RBC painting competition and his work was immediately in high demand.
“I came into Concordia’s MFA program with the attitude that I wanted to use the program to explore and try different things,” says Hildebrand, “but then I needed to quickly become professional.”
To his credit, Hildebrand hasn’t cranked out the same successful formula, canvas after canvas. Completed over the past four months, this new series of work continues to meld tactile painting techniques with imagery culled from theatre sets and nature, but he’s taking risks.
Some surfaces are incredibly three-dimensional with collaged sheets of acrylic or large dollops of oil paint. Other works are in charcoal, while one of the wittiest, called “Death” depicts an oversized squished fly—its corpse one big blob of paint oozing mustard yellow guts.
Until April 5, info: (514) 395-6032.
by CHRISTINE REDFERN
Triple bill from Madrid
It’s hard to believe five years have passed since we saw Nacho Duato’s Madrid-based Compañía Nacional de Danza.
This weekend, Duato’s company returns with a triple-bill of short choreographies that deal with a wide range of ideas, from castration to drugs.
For Duato, it’s music that propels his creations. “I try to make a connection with the music and the movement,” explains Duato while on tour in Seattle.
Txalaparta, the more upbeat piece of the bunch, is set to music from the percussion instrument of the same name, which is a signature wooden Basque instrument played by two musicians called “txalapartaris.” In the half-hour piece, a dozen dancers execute “fast and earthy movements” that were inspired by the particular sound.
For years, Duato had kept a piece by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins in mind, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with it. A few years later, he came up with the concept for White Darkness, the closing piece, which “is a reflection on how drugs can ruin people’s lives” and tackles the “fear of addiction and the fear of dying of an overdose.”
The company of 30 dancers performs at Place des Arts (Wilfrid-Pelletier) until March 8, $26–$63, (514) 842-2112.
by MARITES CARINO
Taking a gamble
With each generation comes a new way of doing things. As Through Line Productions, a group of actors from the Dawson College and John Abbott theatre  programs, ready their first show at MainLine Theatre (3997 St-Laurent), company co-founder Francis J. Martins says that besides starting a new company, “we wanted to create our own thing and bring cutting-edge technologies to our productions.”
Especially interested in contemporary drama focusing on the relationships among men, they’ve picked a beauty for their first production with U.K. playwright Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice, a look at the addictions, obsessions, and egos between friends at a poker game.
There are several distinctive things about group: they’ve quickly adopted social networking tools to promote themselves on Facebook and YouTube. And there’s a desire to expand their talents. Their slick YouTube clip sets the tone with music, transitions and titles. You wonder why no one’s tried this before.
Until March 15, for tickets call (514)-482-1767).
by NEIL BOYCE
Is it art?
IN A PICKLE: Can pickles be squeezed? It seems that they can and the product of all that squeezing are Pickle Sickles, new treats that are the pickle equivalent of popsicles.
And who would think of creating something like frozen pickle juice? That man would be John Howard, the owner of Outerskate roller skating rink and arcade in Seguin, Texas, who started selling Pickle Sickles to surprising results—he sold out!
Though the company acknowledges that pregnant women are some of their biggest fans, they are not the only ones sucking on a pickle. Pickle Sickles have also found their way into the lunchboxes of many a primary schooler.
The bizarreness of the treat, however, is not lost on the company. Co-founder David Millar acknowledges that the notion of a pickle flavoured anything (Dill pickle chips excluded) is kind of hard to wrap your head around. But he promises, “once people try them, they are hooked.”
www.picklesickle.com
Arts
hole
WE BUILT THIS CITY: Co-authors Nancy Dunton and Helen Malkin of 
A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Montreal celebrate the publication of their new book, which documents some of the city’s most interesting and revitalizing architecture (see Bibliothèque National and the Schulich School of Music). Available in stores March 8.• DIY PRIZE: Expozine honours the best in small press at an awards ceremony this Monday, March 10 at the MainLine theatre 9 p.m. (3997 St-Laurent). Prizes will be awarded in both English and French for Best Comic, Zine and Book. Free.
Artistat
The number of times Pointe-à-Callière has presented Port Symphonies, which makes its next port of call on March 9 at 1:30 p.m. in the Old Port. The symphony itself will be led by composer Martin Leclerc and the music will be made by tugboats, bells and train whistles: 14 |
