FEISTY FEST IN WORKS
Big May show in Ste-Thérèse
Is our music scene heading north?
In recent months, local music fans have had to trek to Laval to see major bands like LCD Soundsystem and The Killers headline at Place Bell. And now a festival in Ste-Thérèse looks to be making a play to become an important event on the local cultural calendar.
The lineup for the second edition of the Santa Teresa Festival was unveiled this week, and it sports a mighty impressive selection of acts, including Junowinning singer-songwriter Feist, Australian artist Nick Murphy (formerly known as Chet Faker), hip-hop star Lil Uzi Vert, bilingual Montreal rap group Dead Obies, Quebec progressive altrock outfit Chocolat, Canadian alt-pop ensemble Stars, seasoned indie rockers Wolf Parade, local electro duo Milk & Bone, innovative Montreal singer-songwriter Klô Pelgag, and the Voidz, a band fronted by Julian Casablancas from the Strokes.
The festival takes place in Ste-Thérèse from May 18 to 20. There will be three concerts at Église Ste-Thérèse-d’Avila, including Feist on Friday, May 18 and Pelgag, who will host “la grande messe” on Sunday, May 20. The Saturday show at the church has yet to be announced.
There will also be a big outdoor stage, and other gigs will take place in seven intimate venues, which have also not yet been announced. There will be bus service to shuttle Montrealers to Ste-Thérèse, which is 25 minutes north of downtown Montreal. That service will cost $35 for the entire weekend.
Tickets go on sale Friday at noon via SantaTeresa.ca.
A three-day pass costs $80; individual tickets will be sold for the concerts at Église SteThérèse-d’Avila.
LES RENDEZ-VOUS QUÉBEC CINÉMA
The Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois has changed its name, but the concept remains the same. The festival has been renamed Les Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma, and is still all about promoting homegrown moviemaking. The 36th edition runs from Wednesday to March 3 and features more than 300 films, including 90 premières. It opens with director Bernard Émond’s Pour vivre ici and closes with Sophie Dupuis’s Chien de garde.
One of the cool things at this fest has always been the Leçons de cinéma series, whose lineup is particularly strong this year. It includes veteran documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin (Feb. 24), costume designer Renée April (Feb. 26), and directors Robin Aubert (Feb. 23) and Denis Villeneuve (Feb. 25).
For more information, see quebeccinema.ca.
CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS
There was some chatter among francophone journalists on social media about how the hosts of this year’s Canadian Screen Awards are unknown to franco Quebecers. But a number of us with more knowledge of the strange beast that is the English-Canadian cultural scene broke it to them gently that, in fact, many in the rest of Canada don’t know these hosts, either.
It was announced this week that the Canadian Screen Awards will be hosted by Jonny Harris and Emma Hunter. Exactly.
Well, Harris has starred in the CBC series Still Standing and Murdoch Mysteries, and Hunter has appeared in the Comedy Network’s The Beaverton and CBC’s Mr. D.
This is the gala where prizes are doled out to folks working in both the film and TV worlds in English Canada, and the lack of star power underlines how hard it is for these types of awards shows to gain traction outside Quebec. Here, ceremonies like the ADISQ and Artis galas garner big ratings because they feature loads of vedettes who are well known to viewers.
In the rest of Canada, it is sadly much harder to find homegrown movie and TV stars who are popular enough to attract a big audience. The result is that ratings tend to be pretty lacklustre for these galas.
Here’s boldly predicting that’s not likely to change with this year’s Canadian Screen Awards, which will be broadcast live on CBC on March 11.