The Comox Valley Art Gallery and The Toronto International Film Festival - Film Circuit Presents

CVAG Winter/Spring 2012 Film Series

Film Passes are $55, individual film tickets are $11 each
Available in the CVAG Gift Shop, 580 Duncan Ave, Courtenay and at Video's N More, 264 Anderton Road, Comox
All screenings are on SUNDAYS at 5:00 pm at the Rialto Theatre, 2665 Cliffe Ave, Courtenay (at Driftwood Mall).

Call us at 338-6211 for more information or to purchase passes/tickets with Visa or Mastercard.
Please be aware that CVAG membership discounts cannot be used for purchasing film passes or tickets.
The Film Series is a fundraiser for CVAG. No refunds. Films are subject to change.

What is Film Circuit? Film Circuit, a division of TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), provides filmgoers in under-served communities with transformative experiences through access to Canadian and international independent films. With over 195 groups in 163 communities across Canada, Film Circuit is essential in helping TIFF lead the world in building markets and audiences for Canadian cinema.
Old House Restaurant / CVAG Film Discussion Group

Film Discussion & Dessert
Join us at the Old House Restaurant after each screening for an après film discussion and dessert! Enhance your theatre experience with this social and educational component, facilitated by gallery staff.

Special Promotion
Present your CVAG film ticket stub to receive $5 off your bill with the purchase of any entrée OR $9 coffee & dessert

Enjoy good food, good company & a lively discussion!

CVAG & The Old House Restaurant will be giving away 2 free tickets for each film on the Old House Restaurant facebook page - click here for more info

 Great Food & Great Films

The Atlas Café & Avenue Bistro are offering 15% OFF to CVAG movie goers on film days (food only)

Simply show your CVAG film pass, ticket or ticket stub on the day or night of the film to receive your discount (please inform your server before you order)

The Atlas Café will be featuring a special dish on their fresh sheet that will be inspired by that evenings film.
Take Shelter
Sunday, January 22 at 5pm

Director: Jeff Nichols
Cast: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain Year: 2011, Run Time: 120 mins
Country: USA Language: English
Rated: R Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Drama
Reviews - Official Site - Trailer

A Special Presentation at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, Take Shelter is a darkly compelling domestic drama-cum-psychological thriller set in the rural American heartland. Propelled by the mesmerizing performance of Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire, Revolutionary Road) as a young husband and father plagued by apocalyptic visions, writer-director Jeff Nichols crafts a haunting and powerful film.

Curtis LaForche (Shannon) lives in a small town in Ohio with his loving wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain, The Debt, Tree of Life), and their hearing-impaired six-year-old daughter. A solid, taciturn working class man, Curtis seems to have everything a modest man could wish for. When he starts having nightmares about ominous black clouds and an impending storm that threatens disaster for his family and small community, he does his best to push these visions from his mind. Keeping his turmoil to himself, Curtis starts channelling his anxiety into obsessively building a storm shelter in his backyard.

Borrowing elements from the thriller, horror and disaster-movie genres, Take Shelter is ultimately a complex and engrossing family drama about a man striving to protect the ones he loves from the imminent threats he sees all around him - whether real or imagined. Using tone and atmosphere to chilling effect - from the glowering skies and forlorn landscapes, to the ominous chords of the soundtrack and unnerving special effects - Nichols masterfully creates an aura of unease. Together with Shannon’s performance, Take Shelter is a disquieting tale for our times that is both deeply unsettling as it is unforgettable.
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Monsieur Lazhar
Sunday, February 5 at 5pm
**** Feb. 4 - This Film Is Sold Out ****

Director: Philippe Falardeau
Cast: Fellag, Sophie Nelisse, Émilien Neron
Year: 2011 Run Time: 94 mins
Country: Canada Language: French (English subtitles)
Rated: PG-13 Genre: Drama/Comedy
Reviews - Official Site - Trailer
Nominated: 2012 Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Philippe Falardeau (Congorama, It’s Not Me, I Swear!) and from the producers of last year’s Academy Award nominated Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar is one of the most gripping Québécois films of the last decade. The film has already received extraordinary attention, including Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival as well as being named as Canada’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards.

Following the tragic and shocking death of a Montreal schoolteacher, Bachir Lazhar (Fellag) - a middle-aged Algerian immigrant seeking political refuge in Quebec - swiftly pursues the opportunity to fill the sudden vacancy and come to the aid of the overworked principal and students affected by this tragedy. To these children in shock, Lazhar’s traditional teaching methods may well provide the structure they need. As more information about Lazhar’s own history is revealed, his struggles and experiences make him all the better suited to guide these children into adulthood.

Monsieur Lazhar is further proof of Falardeau’s talent for drawing out depth and precision from child actors. The fine performances reflect the authenticity of the characters, and the story illustrates how adult hypocrisy and little white lies about death can turn a child’s world upside down when fate strikes. A complex character study of loss, innocence and imposture, Monsieur Lazhar is a resplendent and tender tale about the lessons we learn from one another, regardless of age. Bachir has much to gain from his pupils, and so do we.
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A Separation
Sunday, February 19 at 5pm

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Cast: Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami
Year: 2011 Run Time: 123 mins
Country: Iran Language: Persian (English subtitles)
Rated: PG-13 Genre: Drama
Reviews - Official Site - Trailer
Winner: 2012 Golden Globes Best Foreign Language Film
Nominated: 2012 Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film & Best Original Screenplay

Transcending cultural and religious barriers to present a fascinating portrait of contemporary Iran, A Separation is Asghar Farhadi’s Divorce, Persian Style. Screening at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival it has already received accolades from critics and audiences around the globe, leading to its selection as Iran’s Best Foreign Language Film entry for the 84th Academy Awards.

Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) are well-behaved middleclass Iranian citizens. They fight quietly, hold decent jobs and prefer to resolve their domestic differences in court. But they only comfort themselves with such courtesy because they might be a little too civilized to let their real feelings show. After Nader refuses to emigrate from Iran, Simin files for divorce. Retreating to her mother’s house, Nader hires Razieh (Sareh Bayat), a deeply religious and secretly pregnant young woman, to look after his father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. As Razieh’s “condition” starts getting in the way of her job, Nader allows the worst aspects of his repressed nature to emerge - resulting in Razieh’s uncivilized termination and even more courtroom headaches. As Nader’s entire family is drawn into an unprecedented feud, Farhadi continues his devilishly clever turning of narrative tables, selectively revealing new details and forcing the viewer to continually reassess each character.

With extraordinary performances by an outstanding cast, A Separation delivers Farhadi’s best work to date; a maze of narrative intrigue and complex emotion in which everyone is both innocent and guilty, depending on where you stand.
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Pina (Shown in 3D)
Sunday, March 4 at 5pm

Director: Wim Wenders
Cast: Dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
Year: 2011 Run Time: 103 mins
Country: Germany/France Language: Multilingual (English subtitles)
Rated: PG Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Reviews - Official Site - Trailer
Nominated: 2012 Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature Film

Making its Canadian debut at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, Pina, the breathtaking new film from cinematic master Wim Wenders, came very close to not being made at all. Shortly before shooting was scheduled to begin in 2009, the film’s subject, choreographer and artistic genius Pina Bausch, died suddenly - just days after being diagnosed with cancer. Director Wim Wenders (The Buena Vista Social Club, Wings of Desire), a virtuoso in his own way and one of Germany’s most illustrious postwar filmmakers, almost abandoned the project, but when Bausch’s superb dance troupe decided to continue on, so did he – the result of which is this visually stunning and magnificent tribute to a talented artist.

Bausch’s absence is felt throughout, but the film is in no way a traditional documentary. The troupe’s trademark dances and Bausch’s amazing choreography become the heart and soul of this beautifully imagined homage to one of the world’s great artists. With amazing skill and technique, Wenders opens up each dance, employing the streets and parks of Wuppertal - where Bausch’s company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, is based - as exciting backdrops to some of her best-known productions.

The sheer joy, abandon, humour and physicality of Bausch’s choreography are on full display here, and Wenders has done a masterful job capturing the essence of her work. Pina is a revelation – a haunting elegy that is entrancing and truly inspiring.

Landing somewhere between a concert movie and documentary, an interest in modern dance isn’t necessary to enjoy the film.
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CORIOLANUS
Sunday, March 18 at 5:00pm

Director: Ralph Fiennes
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave, Gerard Butler
Year: 2011 Runtime: 122 mins
Country: UK Language: English
Rated: R Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Drama
Reviews - Official Site - Trailer

In the eleven years since Ralph Fiennes triumphantly trod the boards in London and New York as Coriolanus, the celebrated English actor has been driven by the notion of bringing Shakespeare’s visceral history play to the big screen for the first time - so driven, in fact, that Coriolanus also marks his debut as a director. A Special Presentation at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, Fiennes brings the same fierce intelligence and passion to craft an indelible portrait of the banished Roman general who allies himself with his sworn enemy to take revenge on the city that rejected him.

Shakespeare’s tale of rivalries, civil unrest and betrayal in ancient Rome portrays war as an eternal human drama. So it’s fitting that Fiennes sets his film in contemporary Europe, with real Serbian soldiers blended into a cast of actors that includes Vanessa Redgrave (Anonymous, The Whistleblower), Brian Cox (Edwin Boyd, Zodiac), Gerard Butler (Machine Gun Preacher, Beowulf & Grendel, 300) and Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life, Take Shelter). The contemporary setting allows Fiennes to interject one crucial aspect of warfare today: mass media. Here, it punctuates the action with a baleful chorus of cable news commentary.

To capture both the disorientation of battle and the inner clamour of the drama’s hero, Fiennes’ inspired choice of cinematographer is Barry Ackroyd (Green Zone and The Hurt Locker, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award). With Coriolanus, Fiennes and Ackroyd create visual rhythms that are both propulsive and hypnotic, with deft hand-held camera work and bold closeups. Coriolanus is a drama for the ages, a commentary on the seductions of war and an auspicious directorial debut from one of the world’s great classical actors.

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CVAG Special Events


Call For Entry

2012 Wearable Art Show Entry Form (pdf file)

What is Wearable Art?
Wearable Art is original, one of a kind, often whimsical, innovative or theatrical adornment for the human body. Artists & designers will use any materials, such as wood, metal, leather, candy, pop cans, paper, or carpet to build a costume of artistic endeavor. Hairstyles, make-up, shoes & accessories are styled to complete the look.

What is the Wearable Art Show?
The Wearable Art Show is an “art couture fashion show” and performance/exhibition of creative explorations of body adornment. Artists create a wearable work and their chosen performer will wear the art and “perform” the artwork for 2 minutes to music, also selected by the participants. The entries will be presented in a theatrical performance, with the final night’s show including judging, an awards ceremony and cocktail reception.  Judges will award prizes; the audience will also vote on their favourite piece.

Who should enter?
YOU! If you are an artist, designer, costumer or creative body adorner!

How do I enter?
Complete the Entry Forms and submit your concept drawings by the deadline of April 30, 2012.If you have already completed the actual garments, you can send photos of them as your submission.


Does the actual wearable art have to be done by the entry deadline?
No, the first deadline is for the submission of your drawings and sketches.

***The Timeline ***
Call for Entry Release Date January 20, 2012
Deadline to submit Entry Package April 30, 2012
Successful Entries will be notified May 10, 2012
Meetings and Rehearsals July 2012
Show Nights/Awards & Party Date TBA - July 2012

Your Entry Package must arrive at the Comox Valley Art Gallery by 5pm, April 30, 2012

From the entries received, 20 will be selected for performance in the 2012 Wearable Art Show

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We gratefully acknowledge support from the Government of Canada, the Province of BC, British Columbia Arts Council, BC Gaming, Comox Valley Regional District Areas A, B & C, City of Courtenay, Town of Comox, Membership, Private Donation and Volunteers


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