A GLOWING SUCCESS
Gala for B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre raises $738,000 to fund three new-tech ultrasound machines for the newborn ICU
Born freer: Medical-related fundraisers often have research physicians and static displays to remind attendees what their money will buy. B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre went further when Karim Kassam and Sonia Sayani co-chaired the Glow gala in the Pan Pacific hotel. President Jan Christilaw could have simply shown arriving guests a new-technology device from the hospital’s months-old research centre for ultrasound. Instead, diagnostic radiologist Dr. Denise Pugash sat at it to demonstrate real-time internal images of obstetrician Chelsea Elwood lying on a gurney beside her. A fellow in reproductive infectious diseases at B.C. Women’s, Dr. Elwood has twin girls due in midMay. Gala-goers marvelled at high-resolution 3D images of the sisters’ hearts beating. By night’s end, they’d contributed $738,000 to fund three such machines for the hospital’s newborn ICU.
Aiding those contributions, Mangalji family members donated gala facilities in their newly renovated 503-room hotel. They and other Ismailis were evicted from Uganda by president Idi Amin. It’s ironic that the 1971-79 dictator’s lamentable birth should help benefit many Canadians who have still to do so.
World views: The 12th annual Women in Film and Television Vancouver organization kicked off International Women’s Day by screening Iranian director Nargas Abyar’s Breath. With a Skype Q&A session and postscreening celebration at the Vancity VIFF theatre, it opened the five-day Vancouver International Women in Film Festival. The schedule’s global offerings featured several by B.C.-based filmmakers. Those at the premiere event included Laura Adkin, Maja Aro, Shauna Johannesen, Brishkay Ahmed and Elizabeth Sanchez. The latter two made Unveiled: The Kohistan Video Scandal, which details constitutional and tribal justice at odds in the deaths of four Pakistani girls. Ahmed, who also directed a prime-time courtroom series in Afghanistan, said: “It is critical that more and more people sup- port women’s rights today.”
Eat and greet: Two-decade international-development professional Nihal Elwan had festival guests feast on mutabbal and hummus spreads, fattoush salad, sheesh tawook chickenand-vegetable skewers, waraa enab stuffed vine leaves and other Syrian cuisine. More seriously, the Tayybeh organization that she founded helps Syrian immigrant women assimilate in Canada. Claiming that “all Syrians are amazing cooks,” Egyptborn Elwan recruited some to prepare dishes for Tayybeh, the Arabic word for “kind” that means “delicious” in Syria. Its inaugural October pop-up dinner at Tamam Palestinian restaurant led to events that reportedly double every time and sell out in minutes. “It is getting overwhelming, fantastic,” said Elwan, who expects to launch a catering arm “soon.” Kicking tires: The 12th annual Cabriolet charity gala ran in the Brian Jessel BMW dealership’s new-car showroom recently to benefit Pancreatic Cancer Canada and Pancreas Centre B.C. The Evening in Saint-Tropez theme gave Diane’s Lingerie store carte blanche for models to parade in mostly black underthings. Meanwhile, white-suited Jessel spends many evenings in Cabo San Lucas, where he’s built a hacienda and part-owns Sharky’s Mesquite Restaurant. With partner Jim Murray ever at the wheel, though, the dealership reportedly sold 4,800 cars last year, up 1,000 from 2015.
Kicking for Cannes: Although non-grata in Trump America, Iran-born Vancouver resident Mostafa Keshvari, 30, expects France’s welcome in May. His Music Box will screen at the Cannes Film Festival where his 22-minute I Ran did in 2015. The new film is “a strong surreal animation that deals with sexism and social media,” the former BMO financial-services manager said. Made by a fivesome from Bolivia, Canada, Mexico, Iran and Ukraine, it portrays ballet dancer Leeza Udovenko “trapped in a music box that is actually a cellphone, and she has to find her own voice to get out.”
Keshvari was encouraged when The Salesman’s Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi, boycotted his recent second Oscar win but sent a message that included: “Filmmakers can capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions … not just limited to the United States; in my country hardliners are the same.”
Keshvari is readying a feature film about fellow nationals who immigrated to the U.S. “It will be an intimate picture of an Iranian family. I know I can tell the story authentically,” he said. “You can’t do that in Iran.”
Community chest: The Surrey Memorial Hospital & Outpatient Foundation took off to the reported tune of $1.3 million recently when Haisha Ashrafi and Fay Bond chaired its Sky’s The Limit thoracic surgery benefit in a Boundary Bay airport hangar.
Ten years ago: Rain had Yaletown’s warehouse bay surfaces glistening like ice when Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund and centre/right winger Trevor Linden attended the Basquiat clothing store’s launch. Owned by Linden’s wife Cristina and jewelry designer Liselott Montesano, it became popular with then-gung-ho pucksters. They’d caught fire under new coach Alan Vigneault and would end the season as Northwest Division champs and the league’s top penalty killers. Basquiat’s premises now house Monti Samuel and Iva Pownall’s Blush Bridal store.