In the newsletter: streaming links and insightful essays!
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Hi, Art!

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Hi, art lovers!

 
Still from Rustic Oracle. A woman and girl with dark straight hair, sit outside during golden hour side by side holding dandelions.

Nish Media

 
What’s the best feature film directed by a Canadian? It’s been a minute since I last asked you that question, but over on the site, CBC Arts contributors have been going deep on the topic for weeks, all in response to this special project — CBC Arts Presents: The 50 Greatest Films Directed by Canadians. 

That feature, which went live earlier this summer, captured the results of a country-wide survey of critics, film programmers and journalists. But for all the great films that made the top 50, so many deserving titles weren’t included — which is why we’ve been commissioning essays about must-see movies: stories that fill the representational gaps in Canada’s film history. 

The essay series isn’t over. (Watch for more in the weeks ahead.) But in case you missed these stories when they first ran, definitely bookmark the following links. 

Here’s Alex Heeney on Rustic Oracle, a mother-daughter drama directed by Sonia Bonspille Boileau. (Alex calls it “the best fiction feature film I’ve seen that addresses the national tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls,” and you can stream it for free on CBC Gem.) 

In his essay, Radheyan Simonpillai champions Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community, directed by Jennifer Hodge and Roger McTair. Released in 1983, the doc focuses on Toronto’s Jane and Finch area, and as Rad writes in his piece, the film “engages in a conversation about anti-Black racism and overpolicing that hasn't aged one bit.” (Watch it here.) 

Matthew Hays recommends Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives, a portrait of Canadian lesbian life during the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Fun fact: Matthew screens the doc for his film class at Concordia University every year. “And each time, students marvel at the power of the women interviewed,” he writes. (It’s streaming on the NFB site.) 

One more movie you can watch right now: Double Happiness, directed by Mina Shum. It’s Danita Steinberg’s all-time fave — “an absolute ‘90s banger that should be talked about more.” 
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Painting in a surrealistic style of two female figures. At bottom, a woman sits in profile on the floor and looks above her, viewing a standing woman who holds flowers in both hands. Both figures wear colourful patterned clothes.

Isabella Vella

Mercury with an Unrequited Love by Isabella Vella. See it in person at Toronto’s Dianna Witte Gallery. Isabella’s one of the local artists whose work is featured in the gallery’s Summer Salon exhibition. It’s on to Sept. 9.
 
Photo of a person in a white demon costume, swinging a club above their head in a blur. They are pictured against a black backdrop.

Shary Boyle

Eek! You’re looking at a scene from Shary Boyle’s The Trampled Devil. A video of the performance will be screening at Charlottetown’s Victoria Park on Aug. 26 as part Art in the Open — a festival I will forever associate with this CBC Arts short doc. Not familiar with the event? The (awesome) official tag line sums it up. It’s “the only day of the year Charlottetown is a gigantic art gallery.”
 
Black and white photo of a sculptural text installed in front of a body of water. It reads in block letters:

Lisa Hirmer

Here’s another sneak peek at Art in the Open programming. This piece by Lisa Hirmer will be appearing in Victoria Park as well.
 
Installation photo of a furry multicoloured arch on a furry pink carpet. Another furry object of many colours hangs on an opposing wall.

Alissa Bilodeau

This is why I miss Instagram’s chronological feed! The algorithm fed me this picture from Caravansérail in Rimouski, Que., AFTER the exhibition was over. Silver lining: at least I’m now following the artist, Quebec City’s Alissa Bilodeau.
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Portrait of two performers wearing realistic goblin masks. One is seated and wears a crown. The other stands next to the seated goblin, holding a brass goblet. The background is deep blue and the figures are flanked by burgundy drapes.
Terry Manzo

How do you get someone to care about Shakespeare?

 
Two words: Goblin Macbeth. Now appearing at Bard on the Beach in Vancouver — and coming soon to the Stratford Festival — it’s the classic play performed by monsters.
 
Still frame from the show Coronation Street. Sue Nicholls, Ryan Russell, and Todd Boyce celebrate Canada Day, with Boyce wearing a hat with a Canadian flag and moose antlers.
ITV

There’s a serial killer on Coronation Street, and he’s from Toronto?!

 
Yep! The character’s a businessman with major anger issues, and he’s murdering Canadian stereotypes.
 
Black and white photo from 1972. A young Jane Fonda, a white woman with a shag haircut wearing chunky sweaters and a wide leather belt, holds a microphone in a crowded square in Rome. People in the crowd hold signs and cameras.

Art Gallery of Ontario

 

How has city life changed over 173 years?

 
To find the answer, the Art Gallery of Ontario is diving into its photo archive.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Xiaojing Yan

@xiaojing.yan.studio
Installation photo of artwork by Xiaojing Yan. An illuminated platform threaded with strings of pearls. Together, they create the illusion of a moving white cloud formation.

Xiaojing Yan

We’ve caught up with Xiaojing a few times over the years (most recently for an episode of Natural Collaborators), and as I recently learned from Xiaojing’s own newsletter, her work will be included in an exhibition that opens at the Art Gallery of Hamilton on Sept. 23. The show (Wonder: the real, the surreal, and the fantastic) features artists who “find magic in the unexpected and the unnatural, the overlooked and the odd.”
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
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