Arts & Culture – Page 108

Magic to amaze and educate

Partial proceeds of Randy Charach’s Oct. 14 show at the Rothstein will be donated to the Canadian Mental Health Association. (photo from Randy Charach)

Anyone who has seen Randy Charach perform will swear he can read people’s minds. He certainly is attuned and sensitive to his audience, and those brave and lucky enough to become part of his high-energy, humour-filled show, which he will be bringing to the Rothstein Theatre Oct. 14, at 7 and 9 p.m.

“It has been five years since I’ve done a public show in Vancouver,” Charach told the Independent. “Most of my work is in the United States, as a corporate speaker and entertainer. The performances I’ll be doing at the Rothstein Theatre on Oct. 14th is my newest show. I’ll be blending my life’s work as a comedian, mentalist, magician and hypnotist. I’m looking forward to providing a memorable experience for my Vancouver audience.”

According to the press material, Charach has been entertaining people since he was 5 years old, “inspired by his uncle, a Las Vegas magician.” He has performed around the world, including on major television networks and even in film. A certified practitioner of neuro-linguistic programming and a certified hypnotist, Charach invites people to join him on stage: “As the excitement grows, the crowd watches in amazement as other audience members enter a hypnotic state and become stars of the show.”

“I love to amaze people,” said Charach about what he enjoys most about performing. “The art of magic has been a passion since childhood, and something I see as analogous to life. As a society, we constantly thrive to have our expectations met. When we are surprised, delighted and amazed, we often become elated. This feeling occurs in performance, in personal interactions and in business. When we surprise people, we become memorable.

“I write of this in my latest business growth book on Amazon, Client Centric,” he said. “I teach it in the book and at my corporate presentations, All Business is Show Business and All Life is Show Business. When we continue to amaze others by exceeding their expectations, it’s not magic, but it works like magic. This is an example of how art imitates life and my analogy of how magic is present in all our lives.

“Performing magic has evolved for me to the point where I have taken my interpretation of the art to a new level. While on stage, I am in a heightened state of consciousness, which I am unable to replicate any other way. Magic is present in every aspect of my life, and it pleases me to share it during my performances.”

Despite this love of entertaining, Charach said there were years when he didn’t perform at all.

“My decision to return to the stage,” he said, “was made at a group event hosted by Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman of Chabad in Richmond. The rabbi stated we must share our talent with others. It was at that moment I looked at my wife Chana and said I would be performing again. I suppose it’s in my blood. Entertaining and educating is part of my life’s purpose.”

Partial proceeds of the Oct. 14 show will be donated to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

“Mental illness is prevalent in our society, and I don’t feel this condition receives the attention it requires,” said Charach. “I’ve personally dealt with depression over the years, and am aware I am not alone. I do my best to raise awareness and plan to do more. I hope the stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination stop.”

For more information, videos and to reserve your seats at one (or both) of the Oct. 14 shows at the Rothstein, visit randytickets.com or call 1-800-838-3006. Tickets are $36 (plus service charge).

Relatable dysfunction

The Beacham family. Back row, left to right: Seth Little as Guy, Nick Beacham’s partner; Jordon Navratil as Nick; Mia Ingimundson as Norris Beacham, the daughter; and Chris Walters as Kevin, Norris’ husband. Seated are Howard Siegel as the patriarch of the family, Glen, and Anna Hagan as the matriarch, Bonnie. (photo by Ellie O’Day)

Homeward Bound by Elliott Hayes is about death and relationships. And family dynamics. Jewish community member Howard Siegel plays the father, Glen Beacham, in Western Gold Theatre’s production that opens today, Oct. 6, and runs until Oct. 29 at Pal Studio Theatre.

Set in 1990, Glen and Bonnie Beacham have invited their adult children (a son and a daughter) and their respective partners for dinner – and an announcement, publicist and Jewish community member Ellie O’Day told the Independent. Homeward Bound “is a dark comedy,” she said, “but also plays with the ways we talk to each other but don’t always really listen.”

“Every family has a time when they get together. Ours was Shabbat,” said Siegel. “No matter where we were or how busy our week was we had to be home Friday for dinner. We ate at the dining room table instead of our usual place in the kitchen, and talked, or argued, but that was our family time. If there was chicken soup, we were having roast chicken; if it was vegetable soup, it was brisket. While the Beachams are getting together on a Sunday and it may not be as regular as my childhood was, dinner with the family is no less important and the news of the week is going to change all their lives.”

Of the plot, O’Day added, “Dad, who happily distracts himself with crossword puzzles, is apparently not well…. Mother distracts herself by constant chatter (where will they go on their next holiday? Dad is totally noncommittal)…. Meanwhile, the gay son’s partner is late for this Sunday dinner … and the daughter is trying unsuccessfully to hide the deterioration of her marriage.”

Siegel described the character of Glen as a “glib, funny, highly educated” man who “has provided a substantial middle-class standard of living for his family.” He said, “My father aspired to these qualities, but it was his struggle, so I wasn’t able to model Glen after my dad. However, finding the love for his family that perhaps isn’t so clear in the text is important to me and to the play. That was very apparent in my experience in my parents’ home.”

He added about the Beachams, “This is a family like so many families we know or grew up in. The parents have to accept choices their children make whether they like or understand them; they accept them out of love and perhaps duty. The kids bicker, but would defend their sibling to anyone if push came to shove. Deep in this family’s dysfunction is a connection that we all should be able to understand.”

Homeward Bound runs Oct. 6-29, Tuesday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m.; and Oct. 19, 2 p.m., at Pal Studio Theatre, 581 Cardero St. Tickets are $32/$27 from 604-363-5734 or homeward. brownpapertickets.com.

Help finish new thriller

Richard Harmon stars in Crypto, written and directed by Jon Silverberg. (photo from Red Castle Films)

Enjoy watching a psychological thriller? Well, now you can help make one. At least, finance one. Starring Vancouver actor Richard Harmon – most recently John Murphy in the Warner Brothers series The 100 – and written and directed by local Jewish community member Jon Silverberg, the feature film Crypto has been shot but needs funding for the finishing touches.

“Crypto is my first feature film, and has been a struggle to complete on personal and private resources so far – this is why we’re now turning to crowdfunding to help finish it!” wrote Silverberg in an email to the Jewish Independent.

“We’ve shot and edited the film, but need the completion funds for VFX [visual effects], sound design and our festival and marketing rollout,” he said in an interview. “We have some really awesome perks to give back to fans in exchange for their donations – from a production diary, to merchandise, to an advance screening gala planned for early 2018.”

The film is described as “a psychological thriller, which follows drug-addicted photojournalist Jake (played by Harmon) who, after taking a job at a wilderness lodge, sets up a darkroom where the photos he develops begin to reveal unsettling apparitions of the future.”

“I enjoy watching lighter films, but the stories that I revisit in my mind long after I watch them are the ones that explore the darker more mysterious aspects of life – especially inside the human mind,” said Silverberg. “In Crypto, we explore the effects of isolation on an already troubled soul, and even the fantastical elements of the story are as much an allegory for the main character’s internal struggle,” as they are entertaining.

The crowdfunding press release talks about the film being Harmon’s “passion project,” but it is also Silverberg’s. “It’s been a longtime goal of mine to direct a feature film and I felt strongly about developing my own material,” he said. “I had been writing the script for Crypto for nearly three years by the time the cameras started rolling.”

Filming took place in Port McNeil, on Vancouver Island, over 11 days in February 2017, with a crew totaling 16, said Silverberg. “My producer, Andy Hodgson, was the other main driving force behind the film, and also served as cinematographer and camera operator on set.”

In the press release, Hodgson notes, “We need about $20,000 to finish the film and get it out to international festivals, which, comparatively speaking, is a very small amount in a world of multimillion dollar movies.”

Born in Montreal and raised on Vancouver Island, Silverberg moved to Vancouver in the early 2000s for film school, “and also for the overall film industry infrastructure. There wasn’t much happening for film on Vancouver Island at the time,” he said.

Silverberg is co-owner of Red Castle Films with producer/cinematographer Hodgson and business manager Nolan Smith. His bio on the site notes that he “grew up fascinated by cinema, and began to shoot photos and develop them in the darkroom by age 6. He attended Capilano University’s film program in 2003, and went on to shoot hundreds of episodes of internationally broadcast documentary television – from the waters of Alaska to the jungles of Mexico – before he settled in Metro Vancouver. More recently, Jon premièred his short film Disappeared at the 2015 San Francisco Indie Fest and is currently preparing to shoot his first feature film Crypto, a sci-fi/thriller set in the Haida Gwaii.”

Silverberg shared with the Independent that, not only was he raised in a semi-observant Jewish home, but that his company’s name, Red Castle Films, and its logo “was chosen in honour of the regional flag of my family’s former home in Poland.”

Crypto is scheduled for release in 2018 through festivals and other distribution. To see a trailer of the film, visit redcastlefilms.com/project/features-crypto. For more information and to donate – perhaps becoming a producer yourself – visit crypto-movie.com.

Poetry inspired by abstract art

On Sept. 25, a group of writers gathered to write and share poems sparked by the paintings of Waldemar Smolarek, now on display at Zack Gallery. (photo by Olga Livshin)

Poetry events at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery have become a regular feature in the last few years. Every couple of months, writers of Pandora’s Collective meet at the gallery to read their poems inspired by the art. They held their latest gathering on Sept. 25.

The abstract paintings currently on display at the Zack seem to have been created to inspire poetry. Waldemar Smolarek’s work is known to gallery patrons. Smolarek’s first show at the Zack, in 2012, was posthumous – he died in 2010 – but his art is alive, infused with vibrant colours and the artist’s unique frenetic energy.

Smolarek, a proponent of purely abstract compositions, filled his canvasses with dynamic currents. His lines, in every imaginable hue, fly like arrows. His multicoloured balls dance like polka dots. His vivid splashes of blue and peach flow into each other, seemingly at random, but there is logic in the twists and turns of the artist’s brush. His art invites people to delve into their own psyche, and the poets of the evening responded to the paintings’ visual challenge with a wide variety of works: long and short, light-hearted and lamenting. Some poems were inspired by one specific painting, while other rhyming flights of fancy encompassed the entire gallery.

As the event was a collaboration between the Zack Gallery and the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library, Helen Pinsky, the head librarian, gave a short introduction before passing the microphone to Leanne Boschman, the host of the evening.

Although it was her first time as host, Boschman has participated in the Zack Gallery poetry evenings twice before. “The first time, the exhibition included the artist’s journal and sketches, and I found it fascinating to see the artistic journey in progress,” she told the Independent. “The second time, it was a show of abstract photographs…. I like abstract art in connection to my poetry. I can play loosely with colours and shapes and words. It’s harder when the art shows specific people or places. With abstract art, the poet is free to follow her own associations. Sometimes, it’s a story; sometimes, a feeling or a question.”

Most of the participating poets agreed with her assessment, and Smolarek’s art was a rich source for many pieces. The audience, although not large, was extremely generous in support of anyone at the mic, both the listed readers and the brave volunteers who took part in the open mic portion of the event. The friendly atmosphere, combined with the bright paintings and Boschman’s humorous but factual introductions of every reader, made the evening a joyful celebration of colours and words.

The first poet who read, Suzy Malcolm, has been writing poetry since she was a teenager. “It’s my fifth time at the Zack,” she said. “I prefer abstract art for my poetry. It feels like a gift to write about colours and shapes.” She writes poetry for children as well as adults, and her poems at this event reflected both sides of her poetic endeavours.

Eva Waldauf, the next reader, started writing poetry when she was around 40. “I’m a visual artist,” she said. “Once, I had to write a poem for a class, and I liked it. I thought it was fun; thought, ‘I could do it,’ so I began writing poetry.” Her poems were not written on the spot. “I visited the gallery last week to see the paintings, so I would have time to write and edit my poems. I like to come prepared.” Although she admitted to always being nervous before reading her poems, one wouldn’t have guessed it from her performance. Her reading, relaxed and expressive, enhanced by expansive gestures, revealed a good actress as well as an original poet.

The next presenter, David Geary, staged his poems as letters to Smolarek. His presentation was comical. As if playing a game, he strode around the gallery and enrolled everyone in the audience and all the paintings as his willing and laughing playmates.

As a counterpoint to his irreverent show, Sita Carboni’s poetry resonated with mournful tunes. One of the co-founders of Pandora’s Collective, Carboni noted that, with art like Smolarek’s, a poet is free to explore in any direction. Her poetry, contemplative and deep, included a goodbye to someone she lost recently, and she couldn’t finish her reading because of the tears that choked her.

Warren Dean Fulton also prefers abstract art for his poetry. “Abstract art allows you to project your own feeling and emotions. It is speaking to your subconscious. The poet is much less free with portraits or landscape.”

Fulton has participated in the poetry readings at the Zack before. “It is interesting to hear how the same paintings could inspire such different interpretations,” he mused. As he likes to improvise with his poetry, he hadn’t seen Smolarek’s work before that evening.

The last poet of the night, Amanda Wardrop, is also an experienced writer and reader. A schoolteacher, Wardrop said she finds poetry everywhere: in her interactions with students, in figurative art and in abstract art. “Different poetry, that’s all,” she said. “Figurative art often results in a narrative, while abstract art pushes one to a more emotional response.” She did her research before coming to the reading that night, and her poetry touched on the artist’s technique: layers and textures, as they related to our lives.

The night concluded with a lively musical performance by Kempton Dexter, who played his guitar, sang and joked to the delight of the audience.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

***

Balls collide and come apart,
Lines zigzag and soar,
Feeding moxie to my heart
Fields awash with colour.

Reds and blues and greens explode
Shards and doodles frolic,
Polka dots in quirky mode,
Joyful and symbolic.

– Olga Livshin, inspired by the artwork of Waldemar Smolarek

Spotlight on the Sylvia

Advah Soudack and Anna-Mae Wiesenthal rehearse the song “Building a Dream” for Two Views from the Sylvia, which runs Nov. 8-12. (photo by Adam Abrams)

With the upcoming theatrical production of Two Views from the Sylvia, author Diana Stevan interviewed Sue Cohene, a founder of the show’s producers, Kol Halev Performance Society. The new play, based on the Sylvia Hotel, runs Nov. 8-12 at Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island.

DS: What inspired you to do the play?

SC: The answer is insanity.

DS: Tell me more about that. How did you get the idea?

SC: About five years ago, I was attending one of our monthly Jewish psychology network meetings. During our introductions, welcoming new attendees, I did a quick version of my background as a psychotherapist and the latest news about Kol Halev. After the introductions, Marsha Ablowitz, another psychotherapist, who I had known for many years, came up to me and said, “Do you want to do a story about my aunt?”

My response was, “Your aunt?”

She said, “Yes, my Aunt Sylvia.”

Not particularly keen, I replied, “Your Aunt Sylvia?”

“Yes, Aunt Sylvia of the Sylvia Hotel.”

I was hooked and said, “Tell me more.”

DS: So she told you the story of her aunt. Was there anything you were surprised about?

SC: Yes, but you have to come see the play to find out. But, I have to say, the Jewish Vancouver backstory is quite fascinating. I’ll tell you one tidbit. There was a connection between Sylvia Goldstein Ablowitz and another legendary Vancouver figure, Joe Fortes, the lifeguard at English Bay.

DS: Interesting. I’ve heard about him. I understand from the title of your play, that there are two views from the Sylvia. Can you tell me more about that?

SC: One view is from the outside, from English Bay, looking in; the other is from the inside, looking out. And those are just the literal views I’m talking about.

DS: I understand there’s some music. Is this a musical?

SC: We have two one-act plays. The first one, named Sylvia’s Hotel, is a musical about the building of the hotel by the family and the obstacles they found. The second one-act play, named The Hotel Sylvia, is a play with music, focusing on the period of time after the hotel was built.

DS: I heard that the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia showed an interest.

SC: Yes, the Jewish Museum is one of our partners in this project. They will be presenting a historical photography exhibit at the theatre.

For tickets ($28) to Two Views from the Sylvia, visit kolhalev.ca or tickets.theatrewire.com.

Diana Stevan is a writer, who previously worked as a family therapist, teacher, model, actress and freelance writer broadcaster for CBC TV’s Sports Journal. Her novels – A Cry from the Deep, a romantic mystery/adventure, and The Rubber Fence, psychological fiction – and her coming-of-age novelette, The Blue Nightgown, draw on both her experience and imagination. This interview was published by Theatrewire.

Win free dance tickets!

Hasta Dónde…? is one of two works Compañía Sharon Fridman brings to Vancouver Oct. 12-14. (photo by Gerardo Sanz)

The work of Israeli choreographer Sharon Fridman comes to the West Coast for the first time, with a program featuring Hasta Dónde…? and All Ways. And Jewish Independent readers can win two tickets to the Oct. 14, 8 p.m., performance at Scotiabank Dance Centre – simply email [email protected] by Wednesday, Oct. 4, 5 p.m., to be entered in a draw. The winner will be contacted.

Fridman has taken the dance world by storm since establishing his company in Spain in 2006: his athletic, adventurous work is rooted in contact improvisation, filtered through an innate musicality and an eye for design. Hasta Dónde…? explores the relationship between two dancers as it evolves through dependency, struggle and harmony. The endlessly fluid lifts and tumbles are propelled by a surging score. All Ways is a meditation on the multiple paths before us: seven dancers power through a physical and emotional spectrum, which ranges from fierce urgency to calm contemplation.

Hasta Dónde…? premièred in 2011 and has toured to more than 30 cities worldwide, receiving several prizes and audience awards. Fridman describes the work as: “A struggle between two sides, the inner sides we all somehow contain. How far can you transmit? How far can you pull or let yourself be pulled?.… No side is a winner.” All Ways is Fridman’s latest work, and it premièred in 2016. The company visits Halifax prior to Vancouver, in its first North American tour.

Fridman was a dancer with leading companies including the Tadmor Dance Company, the Vertigo Company and Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, before moving to Spain and forming Compañía Sharon Fridman in Madrid in 2006. His works have toured to countries including France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Colombia, South Korea and Singapore, receiving multiple awards. The work of the company is based on the language of contact improvisation, deconstructing and exploring the technique to create a dramatic language that evolves in the hands of the dancers. In addition to many works for the stage, Fridman has created large-scale, open-air, site-specific performances for as many as 70 participants. Fridman’s works are also in the repertoires of companies including Ballet Nacional de Paraguay, Vertigo Dance Company (Israel), Compagnie Jus de la Vie (Sweden) and Compañía Nacional de Danza (Spain).

Compañía Sharon Fridman’s performance is part of the Dance Centre’s Global Dance Connections series. There are shows Oct. 12-14, 8 p.m., at the centre, with a post-show talkback Oct. 13. For tickets ($32/$24), call 604-684-2787 or visit ticketstonight.ca. For a chance to win two free Oct. 14 tickets, email [email protected].

Revisiting the Venice ghetto

A page of the digital interactive installation of the domestic space of the Jewish ghetto, which was created by camerAnebbia. Part of the exhibit Venetian Ghetto: A Virtual Reconstruction: 1516-2017, which is at the Italian Cultural Centre’s Il Museo until Oct. 30. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

The Venetian ghetto – a segregated enclave for Jews and the one from which the very name “ghetto” emerged – was created 500 years ago. An exhibit at Vancouver’s Italian Cultural Centre tells the history of the ghetto and is one of a number of local cultural events this year marking the half-millennium since the notorious decree.

The Venetian Ghetto: A Virtual Reconstruction: 1516-2017 opened at the centre’s Il Museo this summer. It is an abridged version of a larger exhibit showing concurrently at the Doge’s Palace in Venice, said the museum’s curator, Angela Clarke.

Clarke and Il Museo had wanted to do something around the topic of the ghetto in part because of a connection with a member of Vancouver’s Jewish community. When the late renowned University of British Columbia architecture professor Dr. Abraham Rogatnick passed away in 2009, he left his collection of Venetian books and other materials to the museum.

“A lot of the prints we have in the hallways are from his collection,” said Clarke. “Venice was his specialty.”

Rogatnick took his architecture classes to Venice and was also noted for turning his lectures into theatrical performances, accompanied by moody lighting and complementary background music. (After his retirement, he became immersed in Vancouver’s alternative theatrical scene, depicting, as he put it, “usually dying old men.”)

“We have, for a long time, wanted to do something in honour of Abraham Rogatnick,” said Clarke. When she discovered that the Doge’s Palace was planning an exhibit to mark the 500th anniversary, she contacted the institution. They agreed to reproduce a version of the exhibit tailored to Il Museo’s space.

It was the palace’s 16th-century resident, Lorenzo Loredan, the doge of the Republic of Venice from 1501 until his death in 1521, who determined that Jews should be segregated from the general Venetian population.

Although the origin of the term “ghetto” is disputed, many accept the view that it comes from the Venetian dialect’s word ghèto, foundry, which was the neighbourhood in which Jews were confined. Jews were allowed access to the city during the day, but were restricted to the ghetto at night. Space limitations in the ghetto led to upward expansion, including multi-storey homes and buildings, a unique architectural approach to that date.

“They built upwards to accommodate their family life and their businesses, so you got these very, very high staircases in buildings and they just built upwards,” Clarke said. “For the Jewish community, it’s all about going up stairs. I think a lot about the aging people in these families. What happened to them? What would an 80-year-old do? How would they negotiate that and go about their family life and business? And the stairs are incredibly steep. That was just their everyday life.”

The exhibit has four parts, including an interactive exploration of the ghetto’s synagogues through a virtual reconstruction. The architecture of the ghetto, the cemeteries and “the ghetto after the ghetto” – the fate of the area after Napoleon conquered Venice and emancipated the city’s Jews in 1797 – round out the exhibit.

The ghetto was remarkably multicultural, Clarke emphasized.

There were four main cultural groups that came to Venice, she said. “There were the Italian Jews, there were the German Jews, there were the Spanish Jews and then there were the [Levantine] Sephardic Jews, and they all came to Venice, so there were a number of synagogues and each synagogue was like a different cultural centre, based on your group, because each synagogue, of course, had schools. You have Hebrew but then your own cultural language. So the synagogues really did deal with a diverse group of people who came.”

photo - Image of a boat leading to the Jewish cemetery circa 1700s. Part of the Venetian Ghetto: A Virtual Reconstruction: 1516-2017 exhibit at Il Museo — Images of boats leading to the Jewish cemetery circa 1700s. Part of the Venetian Ghetto: A Virtual Reconstruction: 1516-2017 exhibit at Il Museo. *(photo by Meghan Kinnarny)*

Jews began gravitating to Venice as early as the 900s, with a surge in the 1300s and then again after the expulsion from Iberia.

The segregation of Jews was premised on economic concerns, said Clarke, with restrictions on professional activities that pushed the Jewish residents into dubious roles like moneylender. As in so many instances across European history, Jews were forced to wear differentiating articles of clothing; in Venice’s case, a red hat. The exhibit demonstrates the constancy of the compulsory topper while also depicting changing styles across centuries.

“The fashions change but the red hat stays the same,” Clarke says guiding visitors from one painting to another. “The woman over there, she’s very Renaissance. Over here, it’s the 1700s and he’s still wearing the red hat but the fashion has changed dramatically.”

Napoleon liberated the Jews, but he had somewhat bigoted notions of the city of Venice.

“He called it the drawing room of Europe, depicting Venice as this beautiful little elegant community,” Clarke said. “However, I’ve been reading Florence Nightingale and she [observes that] referring to something as a drawing room is a pejorative term. For a man to be in a drawing room is basically to say that he’s effeminate.

“When you look at it in that historical context – especially when you’re dealing with a megalomaniac who’s got basically size issues – it’s a veiled term,” she said, laughing.

The exhibit at Il Museo coincided with the Stones of Venice exhibit at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (profiled in the Independent Aug. 18) and performances of Merchant of Venice and Shylock as part of this year’s Bard on the Beach (reviewed July 21).

“It all just seemed to come together, which is very bizarre,” said Clarke. “It doesn’t often happen that way.”

The Venetian Ghetto: A Virtual Reconstruction: 1516-2017 continues until Oct. 30 at Il Museo in the Italian Cultural Centre of Vancouver, 3075 Slocan St. More information at italianculturalcentre.ca.

A mythical Haida love story

In The Mountain of SGaana, sea hunter Naa-Naa-Simgat is abducted by a killer whale and his lover, Kuuga Kuns, must try to save him. (image from National Film Board of Canada)

One of the highlights at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival will be the animated short The Mountain of SGaana, presented by the National Film Board of Canada.

In The Mountain of SGaana, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter tells the tale of two lovers, sea hunter Naa-Naa-Simgat and Kuuga Kuns. When Naa-Naa-Simgat is abducted by a killer whale (SGanna, in Haida), Kuuga Kuns must negotiate a supernatural undersea world in order to save him. If she doesn’t succeed, they will both become part of the spirit world forever.

The film starts in the present-day, with a thoroughly modern fisherman, Skipper, ignoring all that is around him; his focus being solely on his cellphone, until a small mouse catches his attention and, literally, knits the supernatural tale. Auchter notes in an interview on the NFB website that SGaana also means “supernatural” in the Haida language.

“The Haida are an indigenous people whose island territories lie off the West Coast of Canada and in the southern regions of Alaska,” explains Auchter in the interview. “The modern name for the archipelago is Haida Gwaii, which best translates to “people’s island.” There was a time when the islands were called Xaadlaa gwaayee, which means ‘coming out of concealment,’ appropriately named for its location in the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest.

“Haida Gwaii was formerly named the Queen Charlotte Islands, after the ship of a British explorer who landed there in 1787. The lands of the Haida nation were re-named in 2009.”

Auchter first read the story told in The Mountain of SGaana years ago in an anthology. In subsequent research, he encountered various versions of the tale, but all contained the same fundamental elements.

In addition to directing the 10-minute short, Auchter co-wrote the film with Annie Reid and the film’s vivid and magical animation was created by Auchter, Tara Barker, Marco Li and Sitji Chou. Jewish community member Michael Mann is listed as compositor, VFX and after-effects animator.

“Chris Auchter designed and created this beautiful world of The Mountain of SGaana, which had this beautiful Haida iconography and told a really wonderful story,” Mann said in a phone interview with the NFB. “What I did is, I took this 2-D animation and basically added lighting, camera moves and visual effects. Say, I get a flat image of water, I make it feel more watery and rippley.”

Mann also colour-graded the film. He explained that certain parts of it needed to look aged, as the film contrasts an older world with a more modern one. He said, “My reading of the story is, it’s a modern-day character [Skipper] who’s lost connection with his stories…. For a long time, they’re very separate and by the end they connect.”

And Mann also had to unite the characters that inhabit the different worlds. “One thing that’s really fun,” he said, “is playing with sunlight and darkness and rain. And all these mythical characters, how do you make them feel they’re all in the same world?”

He said, “I think of myself as a visual sandwich maker sometimes because, basically, someone gives me one layer of the sandwich and then I add all those other layers up to it so that it looks like it’s all one meal, like it’s all one world.”

Mann mostly worked on The Mountain of SGaana remotely from his studio on Salt Spring Island, but came to the NFB offices in Vancouver at the end for an intense 36-hour session with Auchter to finalize all the film’s effects.

Mann’s work as a visual storyteller – using animation, illustration and graphic design – has been featured in the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, on Nickelodeon, on PBS, in advertising campaigns, in documentaries, in video games, at Ontario’s Stratford Festival, the list goes on.

“Whether working on documentaries, commercial projects, government initiatives or collaborations with other artists,” reads his bio, Mann “loves using creativity to translate cultural concepts to new audiences.”

And The Mountain of SGaana certainly communicates, if only in a small way, something about Haida culture.

“I used Haida art to help frame the action and highlight key moments in the story, and to give those important moments an exclamation mark,” explains Auchter in the online interview. “I also use the Haida art as symbolism: at the beginning of the film, the character of Skipper is surrounded by multiple frames featuring various scenes from his environment. He ignores what’s going on around him, and doesn’t engage with his world. These scenes that surround Skipper are framed with black lines. This works in contrast with the other more complex multi-panel Haida formline shots we see throughout the course of the film. Skipper doesn’t get this more complex visual treatment until later in the story when he actively begins to engage with the world around him. His biggest moment comes when he throws the rope to Kuuga Kuns and Naa-Naa-Simgat and pulls them in. This symbolizes that he is pulling his culture closer to him.”

The Mountain of SGaana won the Young Audiences 6-12 Official Competition at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival and was an official selection for ImagineNATIVE 2017 and the Vancouver International Film Festival. It screens at VIFF on Oct. 5, 9:15 p.m., and Oct. 12, 3:15 p.m., at International Village 8, as part of the Strangers in Strange Lands shorts program. For tickets and the full festival lineup, visit viff.org. The festival runs Sept. 28-Oct. 13.

Bar mitzvah is musical’s hook

Clockwise from the top: Jason Sakaki (Brett), Julia Mclean (Patrice), Graham Verchere (Evan), Julian Lokash (Archie), Emma Leblanc (ensemble) and Rachel Valentina (ensemble). (photo by Anita Alberto)

Jason Robert Brown’s 13: The Musical, a show that centres around the bar mitzvah of its young hero, Evan Goldman, will première in Vancouver on Sept. 28, presented by Bring On Tomorrow Co.

Concerned both with authenticity and sensitivity with regards to the show’s Jewish content, director Chris Adams invited Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Adam Stein to meet with the cast and crew after a rehearsal Aug. 29. The Jewish Independent was invited to attend.

13 was the first-ever Broadway show to feature an all-teenage cast when it debuted in 2008. The cast of the local production is an accomplished team of professional young actors who have appeared on such networks as ABC, NBC, CBC, Disney and FX. They were dynamic, cheerful and attentive throughout Stein’s visit, laughing at his jokes and making a few of their own as well. The rabbi, who himself has a background in theatre, seemed right at home.

The musical follows 12-year-old Evan Goldman, a Jewish kid from New York who moves to a small town in Indiana after his parents’ divorce. A fish out of water, the story details his struggle to adapt to his new community and make friends, with a key plot point centring around him trying to get the cool kids to come to his bar mitzvah, and the rite of passage that results as Evan’s perspective matures.

Stein explained the meaning of the bar mitzvah ritual to the cast, saying that the passage into adult moral responsibility is at its core. He also described some of the details of the synagogue ceremony. In 13, Goldman is heard singing one line of his Haftarah and Stein explained its meaning and checked the trope in the script, which was correct.

The rabbi also explained the meaning of the tallit and tefillin the bar mitzvah boy would begin wearing, and advised the cast about how the tallitot in the show should be handled – for starters, don’t hold them by the tzitzit (fringes). They also discussed how to stage and choreograph the synagogue scene, and debated how to costume the actors who appear in a dancing rabbis scene. Stein helped the cast imagine the layout of a synagogue, and suggested that having all the rabbis look like Chassidim would be stereotyping.

13: The Musical was penned by young adult novelist Dan Elish with TV producer and writer Robert Horn. Starring as Evan is Graham Verchere, 15, whose recent credits include Theatre in the Raw’s The Raymur Mothers and Arts Club Theatre’s A Christmas Story. Graham is a regular on the FX series Fargo and will appear in ABC’s The Good Doctor, which premières Sept. 25.

The Bring On Tomorrow cast also includes Jewish community member Julian Lokash, who just had his own bar mitzvah 15 months ago. “I first heard about the play at my own bar mitzvah,” Julian told the Jewish Independent. “Friends of mine who were there are now in the cast for this production.”

Asked if he played an ambassadorial role as the only Jewish actor in the play, Julian said he wouldn’t quite say that, but he did feel called to a certain degree of leadership. “Everyone turned to me when they had a question,” he admitted.

Julian’s acting credits include Theatre Under the Stars’ Shrek, Oliver! and Beauty and the Beast; the lead role of James in Carousel Theatre for Young People’s James and the Giant Peach; and roles in Gateway Theatre’s Music Man and Famous Artists Ltd.’s Mrs. Claus’ Kitchen.

13 director Adams is joined by vocalist Monique Creber as musical director. The production company, Bring On Tomorrow Co., is a collective of artists founded in 2016. The group “aims to assemble the city’s brightest professional theatre talent with award-winning musical artists to mount productions monumental in scale, energy and sound.”

Asked why Bring On Tomorrow was inspired to produce this show, Adams told the JI that it was all based “around the kids.”

“We knew we had the talent out there to present this show,” he said. “We wanted to give these professionals an opportunity to be leads…. Often kids in this city play the ‘kids’ roles. Well, in 13, every role is made for kids. They have to step it up because there isn’t a cast of professional adults driving their own show. It really is a wonderful challenge and something that a lot of them don’t get to experience every day.”

13 runs Sept. 28-Oct. 1 and Oct. 4-8 at the Waterfront Theatre. For tickets and more information, visit bringontomorrowco.com.

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He writes regularly for the Forward and All That Is Interesting, and has been published in Religion Dispatches, Situate Magazine, Tikkun and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

About the JI Rosh Hashanah cover art

“Pomegranate Tree” is a fine art print of an original watercolour by Yael Berger. It is inspired by traditional folk art paintings. Pomegranate trees are actually big bushes, and their shape has inspired a lot of textile and illustration. Pomegranates symbolize plenty, wisdom and fertility, and the fruit is one of the symbols of Rosh Hashanah. The original painting was sold.

Berger is an Israel-based textile designer. After graduating from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Ramat Gan, she worked in the fashion and home textile industry for more than 20 years, had her own design studio and sold funky printed T-shirts. Then she worked for 16 years as a senior sock designer and stylist at Delta Galil Ltd., a leading company of socks and underwear.

Her greatest passion is for colour and pattern, which is reflected in the name of her shop, the Joy of Color. “I hope my optimism and the joy I feel when creating is reflected in my paintings and prints,” she writes. “Nature, everyday objects and folk art inspire me and make me happy. As a minimalist at heart, I try to keep the shapes as simple as possible and let the colour speak. I do hope that my work will bring you joy and happiness.”

To see more of Berger’s work, visit etsy.com/shop/thejoyofcolor.