BY WENDY ELLIOTT
The Advertiser
NovaNewsNow.com
Film tour in town
A film tour coming to Wolfville this week will provide a venue for community discussion on the future of the fisheries.
Bear River First Nation, the Bay of Fundy Marine Resource Centre and the Ecology Action Centre are working together to screen a documentary film tour, In the Same Boat? It will screen in eight Mi'kmaq and non-native fishing communities this month. Community forums on sustainable fishing are being organized in conjunction with each screening.
In the Same Boat? tells the story of two neighbouring fishing communities – one Mi'kmaq, the other non-native – both struggling to defend their ways of life. The film follows members of Bear River First Nation as they stand up to the Department of Fisheries (DFO), who is pressuring them to sell out their treaty rights for a ticket into the commercial fisheries. The second segment is a portrait of Terry Farnsworth, the last handliner on the Bay of Fundy.
Director Martha Stiegman has been collaborating with harvesters and community leaders in Bear River and Digby for three years. "We wanted to make a film that explored the grounds for solidarity between First Nation and non-native communities working to save the inshore fisheries," Stiegman says, "but in a way that honours the very different role fishing plays in both cultures and the very different issues each community is facing."
The tour comes in the midst of a struggle to preserve the independence of Atlantic Canada's inshore fishing fleets. "A handful of companies have been allowed to take over most of our fisheries - now they want it all," says Arthur Bull of the Marine Resource Centre. "We need to stop this piracy."
Sherry Pictou of Bear River First Nation is concerned about the impact of this corporate takeover for Mi'kmaq communities. "Small-scale, independent fishing is under attack," Pictou says. "DFO is enforcing a model of fishing that violates and undermines Mi'kmaq Treaty Rights."
"This tour is a chance to engage communities in discussions about the past and the future of the fisheries. It’s easy to forget that the fisheries are a public resource," says Susanna Fuller at the Ecology Action Center.
The film will screen at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.
Walford's new work
Kings County artist George Walford has a new exhibition of his work at the Harvest Gallery in Wolfville.
The show called 'Untitled' includes 15 new mixed media paintings. It runs until Nov. 20. To preview the show:
www.harvestgallery.ca www.harvestgallery.caNight Kitchen
On Nov. 3 at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville, Ardyth and Jennifer, who met 10 years ago at a kitchen party, will be among the entertainers at November’s Night Kitchen. Others include: Rise Up Shannon is Denise Aspinall and Aran Silmeryn with Mike McMahon on bodhran. Paul Marshall, songwriter and professional performer, will take part along with: Carter Lake, the Dungaree Brothers, Scott Prudence and Brian Frizzle, Jamie Loughead and George Symonds.
Tickets are $7 in advance and $10 at the door.
Fundy Film
Brand Upon the Brain is the documentary screening Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville.
Then Fundy Film continues its Autumn Edge Series with The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Set in Ireland in 1919, the film chronicles a key chapter in Ireland’s “Troubles”, with Irish workers banding together to form a guerrilla resistance to the British “Black and Tan” squads sent to thwart Irish independence.
A drama of epic proportions dealing with family, loyalty and history, The Wind That Shakes the Barley is an engrossing experience that evokes the intimate relationship between brothers.
In English and Irish Gaelic with English subtitles, it will screen Nov. 11 at 4 and 7 p.m. For further information, see
www.fundyfilm.ca or call 542-5157. Tickets ($8) are available 30 minutes prior to the film.
Performing offshore
Heather Pineo Regan will return to Saint-Pierre et Miquelon to give a piano recital Nov. 8 at the invitation of the Centre Culturel et Sportif.
She was there previously in the spring of 2002 as guest artist in the production ‘Minuet en Mer,’ with countertenor Christopher Carre and actress Anais Hebrard. This time she will perform a solo program of Schumann, Kabalevsky, Schubert, Debussy and Chopin.
Well known in the Nova Scotia music community, she has a private teaching studio in Port Williams.
Pirates of Penzance
Pirates and privateers are familiar figures from Nova Scotia’s past. Valley folks are invited to join the mayhem at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3.
The Pirates of Penzance is one of the most popular of all the musicals created by the famous team of Gilbert and Sullivan and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Nova Scotia is happy to bring a fresh new production to the Al Whittle Theatre.
The original Pirates of Penzance is set on a rocky English coast during the reign of Queen Victoria. Director Jacqui Good explains that her version is just a little bit different; “I feel that with Pirates, Gilbert and Sullivan basically invented the modern musical that we still enjoy today onstage and at the movies. So I decided to place the show on a 1929 movie set, where we’re making one of the very first movie musicals. The pirates could come out of an Errol Flynn movie. And the inept policemen are pure Keystone Kops comedy. We’ve even created our own black and white movie trailer!”
The show is full of memorable music (you’ll recognize the tune to “Hail, Hail the gang’s all here”) including the rapid-fire “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” and the haunting “Ah, leave me not to Pine.” Pianist (and former CBC radio host) Leon Cole accompanies the singers.
Producer Ann Miller says, “we had a huge success with performances in May in Liverpool, Annapolis Royal, Windsor and Halifax. The show has recently played to enthusiastic audiences in Lunenburg and Truro.”
Tickets are $20 adult, $15 students and $5 for under-12s. The show is family-friendly. Tickets are available at Just Us! Coffee House at the Acadia Cinema on Main Street. You can also call 902- 429-1287 to make a reservation.
Coming up
Until Oct. 26
Christine Ross exhibit, Ross Creek Art Gallery, near Canning
Nov. 3
Penny Lang and Rick Fines, Union St. Café, Berwick
Nov. 10
Cara Luft and Hugh MacMillan, Union St. Café, Berwick
Nov. 10–11
Ron James, Festival Theatre, Wolfville, 8 p.m.
Nov. 15
The Merry Widow, Performing Arts Series, Festival Theatre, Wolfville, 8 p.m.
Nov. 27
Jimmy Rankin and Nathan Wiley, Festival Theatre, Wolfville
