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Arts Briefs

Ninth Whistler Readers and Writers Festival starts tonight

The words start flowing tonight, as the ninth annual Whistler Readers and Writers Festival kicks off with the launch of local author Leslie Anthony's latest project, White Planet: A Mad Dash through the Modern Global Ski Culture , at the Whistler Public Library.

The book launch is just the first of many events featured on this year's festival schedule: there are also plenty of seminars on offer for writers and readers at all levels of ability, great guest author appearances and readings, and even spoken word events to tick off your to-do list.

This year, organizers have decided to offer a total of 10 seminars split between two "streams" of programming: Where Traditional and Digital Media Collide and Crafting a Great Story. Participants can sign up for the whole day for $110, or cherry-pick and pay $25 per class, instead.

"We do have some that have signed up for the entire day, which is great for our planning, as well, but because we offered both options, I would say the majority have picked and chosen what they wanted so that they could take things from both streams," said Stella Harvey, founder of the festival and the Vicious Circle writers group.

Young writers between the ages of 12 and 19 can also get in on the action (for free) by taking part in Stop Making Sense, or How To Keep It All Remarkable, a Saturday session sponsored by Creekbread and hosted by Terrence Young, designed to take participants through a range of exercises to help them craft their own responses to prompts, questions, riddles and exemplars, strengthening their imaginative powers in the process.

Thanks to a new partnership with the Vancouver International Writers Festival (VIWF), Whistler is getting access to a bigger and better roster of guest authors, this year: Kate Pullinger, author of The Mistress Of Nothing and winner of the 2009 Governor General Award; two-time Governor General nominee, Patricia Young; and the 2009 winner of the Writers Trust of Canada Non-Fiction prize and the B.C. Booksellers' Choice Award, Brian Brett, are just a few of the literary figures on board for this year's festival.

"I'm really excited to see people that we just wouldn't have necessarily been able to bring in from a financial perspective," Harvey said. She pointed out that Pullinger and Russell Wangersky are being brought to B.C. from the UK and Newfoundland, respectively, by VIWF.

"The partnership hasn't made us another arm of Vancouver, we still have our own sort of unique stamp," she said, adding that workshops are different from those bring offered at the Vancouver festival.

"...It's really a nice marriage, really. We're able to maintain the things that we've always done, in terms of workshops and the other kinds of events we've put on, but we can make use of these writers who are right here, or very close to right here, to deliver some workshops and to also do readings."

Harvey is expecting a solid turnout at the festival's first PechaKucha event being held at Maxx Fish on Friday night, which features spoken word artist CR Avery in action. Avery performs after a range of speakers each present a series of 20 slides, with a 20 second explanation per slide. Tickets to this event are $15.

At the Saturday evening gala event, being hosted at the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, 10 prestigious Canadian authors will be reading from their newly released books and hosting a Q&A session with the audience.

People can also explore the realm of literary marriages during a free discussion at the WPL on Saturday afternoon: Write, Fight, Love featuring Merilyn Simonds, Wayne Grady, Terrence Young and Patricia Young.

As of late last week, ticket sales were tracking along the same lines as in previous years. Harvey candidly admitted that they were selling slightly slower than she would like, but Whistler is a last-minute town, as anyone who has hosted an event here will probably tell you.

"Of course, we get ticket sales at the door," she laughed. "It drives me bonkers!"

Help Harvey breathe a bit easier and get your tickets today at www.theviciouscircle.ca .

 

Film series for free

Even if money is a bit tight right now, Whistler residents can still get a taste of independent cinema, thanks to the Whistler Public Library's new monthly film screening series.

Through a new subscription to the Film Movement series, which is sponsored by the Friends of the Library, the library will screen a foreign or art film on a monthly basis. Film Movement is a group that scours the world's top film festivals looking for the best films from thousands of entries. All films will be screened in their original language, with English subtitles. And seeing as they are unrated, they aren't recommended for children under the age of 18. Through their new subscription, the WPL will screen a new award-winning film each month. Then, after a free screening, the film will be added to the library's collection for patrons to check out with their library card.

The second screening in the series is The Wind Journeys , a subtitled Spanish drama directed by Ciro Guerra. The film tells the story of Ignacio Carrillo, who has spent most of his life traveling the villages of northern Colombia, playing traditional songs on his accordion, an instrument that is said to have once belonged to the devil. Carrillo eventually married and settled in a small town, leaving the nomadic life behind. But after the traumatic death of his wife, he vows to never play the accordion again and sets out on a final journey to return the instrument to its rightful owner. Along the way, he is followed by Fermín, a spirited teenager determined to become his apprentice. Tired of loneliness, Carrillo accepts the young man as his pupil and together they traverse the vast Colombian terrain, discovering the musical diversity of Columbian culture. Hardened by a life of solitude, he tries to discourage Fermín from following in his footsteps, but destiny has different plans for them.

The screening takes place on Monday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. in the community room. Admission is free.

 

Slednecks, unite!

Backcountry enthusiasts are anxiously counting down the days until they can load their snowmobiles into the beds of their trucks and head out into the great, big backyard to play in some fresh powder. To help get slednecks well and truly stoked for another epic season, The Pony and Route 99 Motorsports are teaming up to host the first ever Sled Kickoff Party at The Pony on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m.

There, they'll be premiering Slednecks 13 to the crowd to help kick off the 2010-2011 snowmobile season. Admission is free, and they'll be offering up food and drink specials all night long.

 

On a quest with Missoula Children's Theatre

Students at Ecolé la Passerelle, Spring Creek and Myrtle Philip community schools are honing their acting chops this week, getting ready to take to the stage as part of the Missoula Children's Theatre's upcoming annual performance.

Missoula Children's Theatre is a non-profit organization that "uses theatre to foster enrichment and education in children of all ages." Based out of the United States, they coordinate a tour project that sees members of their company working with over 65,000 children during 1,200 weeklong residencies each year. Every week, up to 45 teams of touring actors/directors travel to a new town, audition and cast 50 to 60 local children in an original musical production, run rehearsals, teach workshops and by the end of the week, stage a full-scale musical.

This year, more than 50 Whistler students will be performing in King Arthur's Quest, which features King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and a host of other medieval characters in an original musical adaptation. The students will perform for the public, family and friends at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 16 at Myrtle Philip Community School. Tickets are $3 for children, $5 for adults and $10 for a family. For more information, contact Alli van Gruen at 604-967-1207.