Event Listings

125 Vancouver Stories – Digital Stories from our Vancouver Communities


Date: Stories will be recorded from May to September 2011. Community screenings on August 28, October 18, October 19 and October 22, 2011.
Location: Sunset Community Centre, West End Community Centre, Britannia Community Centre
Website: vancouverstories125.blogspot.com

Community Screenings
Sunday, August 28th, 2011
Noon – 5pm
Artful Sundays at Britannia Community Centre

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
7:30pm
West Point Grey Community Centre

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
6:30pm
Sunset Community Centre

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
4:00pm
Britannia Community Centre

As part of the City’s 125th anniversary celebrations, the Vancouver Park Board is hosting a team of digital media artists at community centres. With 125 Vancouver Stories, artists will be gathering stories and images to capture the oral histories and memories of local residents.

These digital stories mark the history and create a legacy of our diverse communities. The collected digital stories will be archived online and will be amalgamated on a DVD to be shown on large TV screens in community centre living rooms. This project will present a new communal focus for community members to see themselves reflected in their story montages and will re-animate the community living rooms. The stories will also be seen in celebration screenings throughout the city.

Be part of this unique project by coming out and sharing your stories. Digital storytelling is the use of accessible digital tools to let everyday people tell their own personal stories. Digital stories are: short, simple videos that use recorded voice as well as photographs, animation, sound, music and limited live action. The stories are captured by artist and filmmaker Lisa g Nielsen and her team: Brian Lye, Suzanne Ahearne, Odessa Shuquaya and Lisa Walker. The team will be collecting stories from May until September and will work out of (but not limited to) three Vancouver Park Board community centres: Britannia, Sunset and West Point Grey.

Contact the team at vancouverstories125@gmail.com or call 604.257.8149 and leave a message. Check out the stories here: vancouverstories125.blogspot.com

View the story of Musqueam carver Doug Baker as he revisits the place by the Fraser River where his life found new meaning.

Vancouver 125 Redress Series


Date: May 22 to November 27, 2011
Location: W2 Community Media Arts
Website: www.creativetechnology.org

W2′s Vancouver 125 Redress Series challenges the readiness of Vancouver to live with cultural harmony when for decades systemic barriers to citizenship have barred immigrants from calling Vancouver home. The program kicked off with the Komagata Maru anniversary in May, continues with A Time for Change (Woodward’s Atrium, June 17 – July 1), a photographic record of South Asian migrant farmworkers who pick our food but do not have equal rights to working conditions. Later this year W2 presents artists working on Japanese internment issues, and presents First Nations filmmakers during the November Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival.

Upcoming Redress Event
Saturday, Nov 12, 2pm | W2 Media Cafe – 111 W Hastings | By Donation

Vancouver 125 Panel & Screenings: Loretta Todd on NDN portrayal in mainstream media and representation throughout Vancouver’s 125 years. This event is part of the W2 Vancouver 125 Redress Series with short films screening: Siwash Rock, Dead Ground, The Last Family, Encroaching Vancouver, Oppenheimer Park and A Proud Lineage.

Earlier this year, at the VIMAF Kickstarter event, W2 and VIMAF screened Reel Injun examining how Indigenous People’s of Turtle Island are portrayed by Hollywood, now with this event, we go hyperlocal on the West Coast on the Unceded Coast Salish Peoples’ Territories.

W2′s mandate includes crosscultural dialogue and redress and therefore the W2/VIMAF rebuild a West Coast indigenous media arts festival, and this panel discussion specifically, is an appropriate use of funding from the City’s 125 grants program. W2 Board member, Sid Tan, a veteran of the Chinese Head Tax Redress movement and a community TV activist will join the discussion. Loretta Todd (Metis/Cree) is an award-winning director, writer and producer. She is a commanding presence known for her powerful, visual storytelling, the highest production standards and professional demeanor.

With support from the City of Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary Grants Program and the participation of the Government of Canada.

Kingsway Project


Date: Project creation: September – December, 2011; project exhibition: December 8, 2011– March 31, 2012. Gallery hours: Tuesday – Friday from 9am – 5pm. Opening: December 8, 2011, 10:30am to 1:00pm
Location: Sir Guy Carleton and Charles Dickens elementary schools. Exhibition at ArtStarts Gallery, 808 Richards Street.
Website: http://artstarts.com/gallery

ArtStarts and professional photographer and media artist Anne Marie Slater bring the history of the Kingsway corridor alive for 120 grade 3 to 7 students at two Kingsway area schools, Sir Guy Carleton and Charles Dickens Elementary. Through urban interpretive walks, archival research, fieldwork and photo sessions, students work with the artist to thoughtfully connect their personal experiences to the rich and important history of the Kingsway corridor. The residency project culminates in a photo-installation exhibition at the ArtStarts gallery in downtown Vancouver, featuring the artwork created by the students in collaboration with the artist.

With support from the City of Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary Grants Program and the participation of the Government of Canada.