Articles — Stir

VIFF review: Sanzaru delves eerily into inherited evil and generational trauma=

VIFF review: Sanzaru delves eerily into inherited evil and generational trauma=

Enter another recent horror film that takes its metaphysics seriously.

SCREENAdrian MackSeptember 22, 2020VIFF, horror, Xia Magnus, ghosts

VIFF review: Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President finds Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and more singing the Peanut Farmer president’s praises

VIFF review: Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President finds Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and more singing the Peanut Farmer president’s praises

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself yearning for an era of kinder, gentler U.S. politics

SCREENGail JohnsonSeptember 22, 2020VIFF, Jimmy Carter, U.S Politics, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Camp David Accords, Iran hostage crisis

VIFF review: Cured recounts momentous battle of gay rights versus psychiatry

VIFF review: Cured recounts momentous battle of gay rights versus psychiatry

The documentary looks at the decades when aversion therapy was common.

SCREENGail JohnsonSeptember 22, 2020VIFF, cured, LGBTQI+, Gay rights, screen

VIFF review: Citizen Penn raises questions of pain, power, and poverty in Haiti

VIFF review: Citizen Penn raises questions of pain, power, and poverty in Haiti

Sean Penn rolls up his sleeves after the devastating 2010 earthquake

SCREENAdrian MackSeptember 22, 2020VIFF, Sean Penn, World Bank, Haiti, CORE, Documentary

With COVID-19 ongoing, choral singers try to find their voice

With COVID-19 ongoing, choral singers try to find their voice

Some Vancouver choirs are carefully resuming in-person rehearsals and learning how to sing together safely

MUSICGail JohnsonSeptember 22, 2020gospel choir, men's choir, vancouver choir, covid-19, choir, Chor Leoni, music, song

VIFF review: Japan’s Special Actors is cartoonishly fun

VIFF review: Japan’s Special Actors is cartoonishly fun

Director of 2018 VIFF hit One Cut of the Dead returns with a meta zany caper about a cult, a stress ball, and a fainting actor.

SCREENAdrian MackSeptember 22, 2020VIFF, Visual Art, Shin'ichirô Ueda, One Cut of the Dead, Japanese Films, Cults

VIFF review: Frida Kahlo documentary delves deep into her most intense artworks

VIFF review: Frida Kahlo documentary delves deep into her most intense artworks

Art historians reveal new complexity in some of the famed painter’s best-known works

SCREENJanet SmithSeptember 22, 2020VIFF, Visual Art, Frida Kahlo, mexico, painters

Wild Bells/ frequencies/ Drift brings ethereal sounds outdoors, September 25

Wild Bells/ frequencies/ Drift brings ethereal sounds outdoors, September 25

Open your ears to handmade bells and ceramic percussion.

MUSIC, FESTSJanet SmithSeptember 22, 2020

Vancouver theatre community pulls back the curtain on systemic racism

Vancouver theatre community pulls back the curtain on systemic racism

The scene finds itself facing a long-overdue racial reckoning

THEATREGail JohnsonSeptember 22, 2020Vancouver theatre, euphony works, rice and beans theatre, anti-racism, Homepage feature, Theatre feature

Artivism: Sex and the Unheard uses everything from spoken word to dance to talk about sex

Artivism: Sex and the Unheard uses everything from spoken word to dance to talk about sex

Coral Santana uses art to talk about sex at B.C. Culture Days.

FESTSLucy LauSeptember 22, 2020

At the TRANSFORM Cabaret Festival, Le Gateau Chocolat takes drag into unexpected terrain

At the TRANSFORM Cabaret Festival, Le Gateau Chocolat takes drag into unexpected terrain

Le Gateau Chocolat explodes expectations in a show that explores everything from depression to Olivia Newton John.

FESTSJanet SmithSeptember 22, 2020Festivals, Le Gateau Chocolat, Drag, Cabaret, Transform Festival, The Cultch, Icons

Kouign Café brings wonder—and pastries—to Vancouver’s Chinatown

Kouign Café brings wonder—and pastries—to Vancouver’s Chinatown

Pastry chef Andrew Han finally has a place to call his own and to create culinary magic.

CULINARYGail JohnsonSeptember 22, 2020CULINARY, Culinary Feature, Homepage feature

Kokoro Dance's Reading the Bones gets an online remount, September 23 to 26

Kokoro Dance's Reading the Bones gets an online remount, September 23 to 26

At the online Vancouver International Dance Festival, the company looks back 30 years.

DANCEJanet SmithSeptember 22, 2020Kokoro Dance

VIFF opener Monkey Beach was a decade-plus labour of love for director Loretta Todd

VIFF opener Monkey Beach was a decade-plus labour of love for director Loretta Todd

The B.C. filmmaker aims to capture the magic of Kitamaat and Indigenous lore of Eden Robinson’s book

SCREENJanet SmithSeptember 21, 2020VIFF, Indigenous, Film Festival, Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson, Loretta Todd, Grace Dove, Kitamaat, Snotty Nose Rez Kids

Comic collaborators Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra hit Word Vancouver September 24

Comic collaborators Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra hit Word Vancouver September 24

Partners in life and work discuss making people laugh.

COMEDY, READJanet SmithSeptember 21, 2020

VIFF review: Inconvenient Indian finds playful visual poetry in Thomas King’s plainspoken call to action

VIFF review: Inconvenient Indian finds playful visual poetry in Thomas King’s plainspoken call to action

A flow of imagery, old and new, subverts both stereotypes and documentary traditions

SCREENJanet SmithSeptember 18, 2020VIFF