The Vancouver Queer Film Festival celebrates the best in independent queer cinema and facilitates a unique community space through a variety of performances, panels and workshops, running August 15 to 25, 2019.
The 11-day festival is the largest queer arts event in Western Canada and the second-largest film festival in Vancouver, with more than 100 films from 27 countries!
Vancouver Queer Film Festival
When: August 15 to 25, 2019
Where: Various venues: Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas, SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, the York Theatre, VIFF Vancity Theatre, and the Vancouver Playhouse
Out On Screen is excited to host the Opening Gala of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival on Thursday, August 15. One of the most sought after invitations of the Summer, the Opening Gala film at the Vancouver Playhouse will be followed by a party outdoors on the šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn (Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza) on the corner of Georgia and Hamilton Street.
“The biggest highlight in the Queer calendar is our Opening Gala’s A Night At The Opera,” said Out On Screen Executive Director, Stephanie Goodwin. “Dress in your opera best for a stunningly beautiful film and then party the night away with 500 of your best friends.”
There will be several international and local artists, performers, and filmmakers attending the VQFF, such as: Phillip Pike, director of Our Dance of Revolution (Canada), a remarkable chronicle and celebration of Toronto’s Black queer community history; and director Flavio Alves and lead actressCarlie Guevara for the feature film, The Garden Left Behind (USA), which follows Tina, a young Mexican trans woman living in New York, as she navigates an upcoming medical transition while struggling to survive as undocumented immigrant.
There are also many free events to enjoy at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival: The archival film Toni, Randi and Marie(Canada), directed by Ron Hallis, and a unique cinéma-vérité trilogy about the everyday lives of the eponymous female impersonator cabaret star, trans hustler, and female sex worker; in the Queer the CBC Workshop, the VQFF and CBC will host a discussion panel on the role of a national broadcaster in the creation and dissemination of LGBT2Q+ content–learn how to get your content noticed by a major television network. A full list of all free events can be found on the Queer Film Festival website.
Out On Screen is a charitable organization that illuminates, celebrates and advances queer lives through film, education and dialogue. The Vancouver Queer Film Festival creates a dynamic platform for queer cinema that reflects a diversity of experiences while connecting and strengthening our communities. The award-winning Out In Schools anti-bullying program brings age-appropriate queer cinema into secondary school classrooms to combat homophobia and transphobia.
For more information follow the Vancouver Queer Film Festival on Twitter and Facebook.
The Sefer Project at this year’s Vancouver Mural Festival is a fun and meaningful way to bid on and collect some awesome local artwork, all for a good cause.
The Sefer Project at the Vancouver Mural Festival
Painted by famous graffiti artist NAKS, The Sefer Project mosaic mural is divided in to 36 sections and each portion will be auctioned off on Instagram @TheSeferProject.
Presented by the Holden Courage Memorial Fund for Artists, which funds graffiti artists in Vancouver, the project and fund were founded by Vancouver broadcaster Tara McGuire in memory of her son Holden Courage. Sefer was one of Holden’s graffiti names.
The Sefer Project embodies the idea of celebrating graffiti in a new way. So far there have been 22 bids on the 36 pieces so be sure to get your bid in before the auction closes at 7:00pm on August 10th. All proceeds will go to The Holden Courage Memorial Fund for Artists.
You can also stop by the 3rd Annual Holden Courage Memorial Graffiti Jam which will be a part of the Mount Pleasant Street Party at the Vancouver Mural Festival again this year on Saturday, August 10th from 12:00pm to 7:00pm at 5th and Main.
The first ever Squamish Constellation Festival took place on July 26 to 28, 2019 and was held in Hendrickson Field. The festival was comprised of two stages, local vendors, artists, and food trucks.
A Day at the Squamish Constellation Festival
The atmosphere was incredibly family friendly. Stilt walkers and acrobats roamed the audience between acts. Face painted kids sat on picnic blankets to watch artists perform. A row of clothing vendors was set down the middle of the festival, selling a wide range of festival clothes from bright floral dresses to colourful western style vests.
Constellation Festival is working towards a waste-free environment in music festivals. Compost stations were set up throughout the field and a water refill station was available for attendees to use whenever needed.
Foxwarren, Jocelyn Alice, The Sunset Kids
Saturday’s lineup was full of amazing artists. We flipped back and forth between the stages to catch every act. We discovered a new love for Art D’ecco. Between walking from The Sunset Kids to Jocelyn Alice, we filled up on food truck snacks. We sat on the grass waiting for Foxwarren to play their set and ate our dinner surrounded by groups of other people warming up in the sun. Fortunately we walked away without any burns when the day was over.
Peach Pit
As Peach Pit was setting up, we wandered over past the racks of cowboy hats and people on picnic blankets to watch the band we were most excited for. We watched the crowd jump around to new, unreleased Peach Pit music, the old and loved album, and even a Tom Petty cover.
Organisers are hoping this is the first of many Constellation Festivals in the years to come. Follow the festival on Twitter and Instagram for updates ahead of next summer.
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by Rebecca BollwittDisclosure: Sponsored Post — Sponsored by Metropolis at Metrotown Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
The world’s largest flip flop art exhibit is coming to Burnaby, transforming an environmental hazard into something beautiful, while supporting a great local cause! Metropolis at Metrotown presents Waste to Wonder, one-of-a-kind art exhibit transforming flip flop pollution into life-size animal sculptures.
Waste to Wonder at Metropolis at Metrotown
When: August 8 to September 8, 2019 Where: The Grand Court at Metropolis at Metrotown (4700 Kingsway, Burnaby) Bid Online »
In addition to the exhibit, many special Waste to Wonder activities will be taking place in the Grand Court including a selfie station with an iconic Canadian beaver sculpture, artist demo / meet and greet, upcycle bracelet workshops, upcycle Kiehl’s workshop, plastics recycling drives, contest giveaways, and more.
The Waste to Wonder exhibit consists of five life-size sculptures of Canadian at-risk wildlife (the narwhal, orca, bison, grizzly, and caribou), each of them made from recycled flip flops. More than 6,500 flip flops in total were used, by Ocean Sole Africa, to make the sculptures, requiring 2,500+ hours of work by more than two dozen artists.
Why flip flops? In recent years, hundreds of thousands of discarded pairs of the synthetic-rubber sandals have been found worldwide in bodies of water and along shorelines. They often are made with non-recyclable materials, and contain chemicals that are harmful to humans, animals and plants. Ocean Sole Africa is a Kenya-based social enterprise that “upcycles” flip-flop waste and turns it into animal art sculptures. Ocean Sole Africa handcrafted the custom Waste to Wonder exhibit, the organization’s largest exhibit in the world to date. This and other Ocean Sole Africa projects not only create beautiful works of art, they promote conversation about environmental issues, as well as provide employment.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Check out #METWasteToWonder on now until Sept 8th and RT to enter to win a $500 @MetropolisAtMet gift card http://ow.ly/saUP30pjVtf” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]
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I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Friday, August 16, 2019.
