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2010 Winnipeg Folk Festival Wrap-Up and Photo Gallery

Posted by Paul Little | Thursday, July 22, 2010 @ 4:33am

Dozens of acts, tens of thousands of festivalgoers, and countless hours of great music helped make the 37th Annual Winnipeg Folk Festival a memorable five days. The weather held up for the most part, while the music certainly did.

I'm going to be honest here... when organizers first announced the complete Folk Fest line-up for 2010 and I perused the list, I wasn't overly excited. Sure, there were acts that I enjoyed listening to and would want to see live, but there weren't any names that personally jumped out at me as "must-sees", especially compared to previous years' line-ups. That's the thing about Folk Festivals, though: you may not know a lot of the acts going in, but you're certain to be surprised by quite a few of them.

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The Cat Empire, Arrested Development, and Pieta Brown highlight a rainy Saturday at the Winnipeg Folk Festival

Posted by Paul Little | Saturday, July 10, 2010 @ 11:58pm

The rain finally came to the Winnipeg Folk Festival on Saturday -- but what would an outdoor festival be without a bit of the wet stuff falling? It didn't seem to damper the spirits of festival-goers, however, as plenty of people were out at all the workshop stages throughout the day -- some decked in ponchos and others just letting the rain cool them down. And by the time the Main Stage started, the clouds had mostly broken up, and the beautiful sunset accompanied some equally great music from Hot Tuna and Pieta Brown.

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Friday at the Winnipeg Folk Festival was all about sunburns, heatstroke, and -- oh, right -- great music

Posted by Paul Little | Saturday, July 10, 2010 @ 1:09am

On the first full day of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the story was the sun and the heat. And of course the music, which is always the cornerstone of a festival like this, was in strong form, allowing the people in the sun to enjoy everything from blues to folk to roots to a conglomeration of pretty much every genre one could imagine. Between the Main Stage performers, and the more alt sounds of the Big Blue at Night stage (not to mention the countless daytime performances and workshops), there really was something for everyone on Friday in Bird's Hill Park.

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The 37th Winnipeg Folk Festival kicked off Wednesday for five days of folk and roots music (and a lot more)

Posted by Paul Little | Thursday, July 8, 2010 @ 9:16pm

The Winnipeg Folk Festival is in full swing, as the 37th annual folk music festival held just outside Winnipeg, Manitoba began with two evenings (Wednesday and Thursday) of music before the full day schedules kick in from Friday to Sunday. With names as iconic as Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, Jimmy Cliff, John Hiatt, and Arrested Development joining more contemporary folk and roots acts such as Andrew Bird, The Weakerthans, The Cat Empire, The Swell Season, and Sarah Harmer, the 2010 festival is shaping up to be a remarkable 5 days of music and community.

As I mentioned last year, the Folk Festival -- which began in 1974 and last year saw attendance reach 53,000 people (many from across Canada and the United States) -- is more than just the music, even though the music is pretty great. The festival prides itself on being a sustainable, green, community event, with more than 2500 volunteers annually and workshop performances that allow the various artists to work together in front of a crowd.

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Following concerts by The Roots, The Slew, and others, the Winnipeg Jazz Festival ends with a weekend of free outdoor shows

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, July 5, 2010 @ 11:42pm

After an amazing opening weekend, the 2010 TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival continued on throughout the week and closing weekend with a series of concerts from great performers and, generally, just a lot of fun! And while I unfortunately had to miss a couple days of the festival while zipping off to Saskatoon to see a decidedly NON-jazz concert (Iron Maiden and Dream Theater), I still got to see a lot of great jazz, funk, hip-hop, and overall solid music descend on our little Canadian burgh.

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Roy Hargrove, Buck 65, and Toshi Reagon kick off the opening weekend of the 2010 Winnipeg Jazz Fest

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, June 29, 2010 @ 4:18am

After offering up a "preview concert" last Wednesday night featuring living legend Sonny Rollins (a show I unfortunately had to miss because I was out of town), the newly-named TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival officially kicked off this past weekend. And when a festival like this -- featuring such must-see acts as Roy Hargrove, Martha Wainwright, Terence Blanchard, and The Roots -- takes place in our back yard, you know ShowbizMonkeys.com will be there!

Throughout the next week, you'll see a few posts talking about the most exciting shows of the festival, as well as previewing what acts you shouldn't miss, in case you happen to be in Winnipeg this week and looking for some great jazz (or "jazz-ish" music, as the festival continues to bring in acts with new sounds that may not seem like jazz on the surface). Tonight, I bring you my thoughts on the opening weekend, which featured a trio of amazing shows -- two that I had already planned to attend, and one which I stumbled into and, ultimately, was thoroughly blown away by!

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2006 Vancouver Jewish Film Festival

Posted by Mark McLeod | Thursday, March 30, 2006 @ 12:00am

Here we are, nearly four months into 2006, and as a movie critic and entertainment writer something has been bugging me: the downright lack of good movies. Although I haven't compared the studios' output to the same period last year, I can't help but think that there has been far less in the way of solid entertainment that I'd seriously recommend to anyone who likes a good movie. Even now, as I sit in my office writing this piece, only a handful of titles come to mind. Luckily for film fans in Vancouver, there is a constant stream of alternative film programming for those who want more than just a Hollywood blockbuster. Moving Pictures: The Canadian Film Festival has already occurred, as well as a Masters of Horror program and Shaw Brothers retrospective. Now, from March 30th through April 9th, we have the 18th Annual Vancouver Jewish Film Festival.

The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival first came to my attention a couple years back after reading about it in the Georgia Straight, where I learned that they were set to screen The Hebrew Hammer, a film which received a very limited release in the U.S. The movie, funded by Comedy Central, was a Jewsploitation film in the vein of Shaft, with Adam Goldberg trying to stop Andy Dick from running the holiday season. For some reason, this sounded extremely funny to me, and I had been on the lookout for it to hit video or through some fluke a theatrical screen ever since I saw Goldberg on one of the late night talk shows. Although I never made it out to that screening and was disappointed when I finally did manage to catch the film in question, I applauded the festival for booking such a film in amongst a bunch of more serious documentary and historical fare. That trend continues this year, with another bold programming choice, but more on that in a moment.

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VIFF: Brightlight Pictures Party

Posted by Mark McLeod | Monday, October 24, 2005 @ 12:00am

For most people, the 24th annual Vancouver International Film Festival started on Thursday, September 29th, with the opening day of screenings at the festival's 10 screens. In terms of the official launch of the parties that come with the festival, that occurred later that night at the Aquarium. However, for those of us in the media who had already experienced 2 1/2 weeks of pre-festival press screenings, the party circuit opened up two days earlier at the 3rd annual Brightlight Pictures party at local hot spot Cin Cin on Robson Street.

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Another Year, Another VIFF

Posted by Mark McLeod | Wednesday, September 7, 2005 @ 12:00am

Looking back at my introduction article to last year's Vancouver International Film Festival, I found it hard to believe that a year had passed since the 2003 edition. It had been an interesting year at the movies and one that I was hoping to out-do with the 2004 edition. In the end, I ended up seeing 43 movies both during the festival itself and during the press screenings that us media types get to attend for a couple weeks prior to the event. Even though that was an improvement over the past year's total, it didn't come close to some of my friends' totals, which were so high they were scary. Now, yet another year later, things are shaping up for another exciting two weeks of early fall movie-going. Will I be able to top last year's total or will I bottom out and see less? We'll be sure to find out, but if today's launch press conference is any indicator of what's to come, it's going to be another banner year for VIFF.

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Wrap Yourself in Our Shorts Festival

Posted by Mark McLeod | Tuesday, March 29, 2005 @ 12:00am

The first edition of the shorts film festival Wrap Yourself in Our Shorts, celebrating Vancouver's independent film community, takes place over two nights at the Planet Theatre at the HR MacMillian Space Centre. The festival not only has a witty name, but is comprised of a great selection of short films by Canadian filmmakers. This two-part screening series offers the opportunity to aid exposure of Canadian talent and allows people the chance to see a collection that is otherwise not readily accessible at local theatres. Featuring 2005 Academy Award-winning film Ryan by Chris Landreth, as well as Gary Hawes' Pits starring X2's Alan Cumming. The festival lineup also includes William B. Davis's Exchange and Matthew J Blecha's The Mall Man, alongside many other quality short films.

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