4 Student doc films delight audience Short documentaries by Langara students show at social justice film festival By BEN ZUTTER Langara students had the opportu- nity to screen their documentaries be- fore an audience of approximately 30 as part of the weekend’s Just Film Festi- val. Hosted by Langara, the event show- cased social justice and environmental documentaries, running from Feb. 28 to March 2. Its mandate was to gather Vancouver’s diverse social justice com- munity to a festival that encouraged reflection and was a forum for discus- sion and a place to prompt action. “While the issues are often difficult, we feel it is important to provide tools and ideas for solutions,” said the infor- mation guide. Dozens of professional films were shown over the course of the weekend- long festival, as well as five from stu- dents of Langara’s documentary film program. The first student film was Tony, a short directed by Roqaya A. Hameid that told the story of one man’s strug- gle with gynecomastia, the enlarge- ment of breast tis- sue in males. As r4 4 the credits rolled, the audience sat in The fi lm contemplative _ si- . lence. with the The pace quickly ; : shifted with the unicy clist next film entitled Was defi- The Gran Nigel, di- ; rected by Joella Ca- nitely my balu. Using a light. favourite. hearted approach, Jf really it told the story of Nigel Wakita, a Made me performer and in- laugh structor at the Van- couver Circus School who decid- ed to ride his uni- cycle in a race from Vancouver to Whistler. Wakita’s witty description of events had the audience at Langara in stitches. “The film with the unicyclist was definitely my favourite,” said Mark Gil- christ, one of the audience members. “Tt really made me laugh.” Next up was Throwing Punches: A Stuntwoman’s Journey. Rosalie Miller directed the film, which followed the career of Leanne Hindle, a pioneering professional stuntwoman. Hindle, alongside family and friends, was also present for the screening of the film, which was received with unanimous applause from the audience. Press Pause: Reset Your Life again changed the mood with its connection of stress and spirituality. Directed by and starring Linda Cherry, the film tackled its subject through sensory de- privation, meditation and radical shifts in perspective, and was met with mixed reactions. The fifth and final film, Hives for Hu- manity: The Power of Bees, was direct- ed by Mathew Parry and allowed the audience an intimate view of a bee- keeper’s unique hive setup in Vancou- ver’s Downtown East Side. It was a fit- ting end to the festival and seemed to delight all present. MARK GILCHRIST British play gets new tunes Director adds original songs and new costumes to wedding comedy By LAUREN COLLINS here Goes the Bride, an English drama by Ray Cooney and John Chapman, gets a new twist by di- rector Catherine Morrison at the Metro Theatre in Vancouver. This is Morrison’s second time di- recting the play and this time she de- cided to add music and costumes that weren't originally in the script. “Besides the humour, I loved the sto- ry of one man’s transformation, and the impact it made on both his marriage and perhaps his life,” said Morrison in her director’s notes. The songs were classics that most people would be able to sing along to, but the songs felt out of place along ie TRACY-LYNN CHERNASKE submitted photo Diana Sandberg, playing Daphne Drimmond, and Jill Raymond, playing Polly Perkins, in Metro Theatre’s show There Goes the Bride. with dancing that was awkwardly in- serted at times. There Goes the Bride takes place in London in the 1960s. On the morning of his daughter’s wedding, Timothy West- erby, played by David Wallace, gets a knock to the head. From then on, Timo- thy starts hallucinating about a flapper girl named Polly Perkins, played by Jill Raymond. The play is filled with continuous cases of mistaken identity, both pur- poseful and accidental. Timothy’s hallucinations get worse after he gets a second knock to the head, leading him to believe he’s living in the 1920s. The mistaken identities and halluci- nations made the play seem to drag on. It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the show that most of the problems were resolved. Two of the actors, Christian Sloan and Don Glossop, playing the charac- ters of Timothy’s friend Bill Shorter and the grandfather of the bride, Dr Gerald Drimmond, stole the show with their comedic performances. Both actors earned big laughs from the small audience as they played off Timothy’s head injury and hallucina- tions with punchy one-liners and dry British wit. There Goes the Bride plays Thurs- day to Saturday at 8 p.m. until Mar. 22 with a matinée on Mar. 16 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults or $22 for se- niors and students. 66 I loved the story of one man’s transfor- mation and the impact it made on his life CATHERINE MORRISON Entrepreneurial talk by Studio 58 director Director and producer Peter Jorgensen and wife Katey Wright give talk on how to be successful in arts EDRICK DUDANG photo Director and producer Peter Jorgensen advises artists. By EDRICK DUDANG preneurial approach is key to suc- ceeding in the arts, theatre pro- ducer and director Peter Jorgensen told his audience in a lecture last week. Also, it is impor- tant “to be your 66 own boss,” said Te risks and adopting an entre- Jorgensen, the di- At least rector behind Stu. . dio 58’s recent pro- if we go duction of Grease. Qdouwnin In a lecture with fellow producer flames and wife Katey gape would Wright at the Van- couver Public Li- have gone brary downtown, down do- the couple talked + ° about their own mg it our successes, risks, QOUN way and failures as art- ists. KATEY WRIGHT Instead of wait- ing to be accepted for a job, artists should take matters into their own hands and build their own success, according to the couple. “For so many artists in theatre... especially actors, they are waiting for someone to bestow the opportunity upon them and that can be just so de- feating,” said Jorgensen. Both Jorgensen and Wright have been successful for many years in the- atre arts. They made breakthroughs simply because they created opportu- nities for themselves, they said. “T didn’t have to wait for anyone else to come up with a show for which I can possibly audition, and maybe get cast,” said Wright. “It’s too much maybe for me. “At least if we go down in flames, we would have gone down doing it our own way.” Despite considering culinary educa- tion a practical choice, fine arts student Camilla Barker left culinary school be- cause she felt food was not a good out- let to channel her creativity. She en- rolled in Langara to find which art suited her. “That’s what I like about Langara,” said Barker. “I never had done sculp- ture before and I am finding the oppor- tunities that it provides really great.” Even though she does not know what she will do in the future, she said that she is happy in fine arts. “fm having the time of my life,” Barker said.