The Confluence Issue 15

onfluence

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Welcome To Our New Web Manager Taren Johnson Joins Our Crew -Page 2

Library Funding Blues Paul Strickland writes about our libraries.

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Left To His Own Devices A. Warren Johnson Reviews Vice Versa -page 8

November 13th 2012

November 13th 2012

Cncsu.ca Facelift Taren Johnson, Web Manager

As a second year, New Media student I have been eager to start doing more practical work experience and when I saw that the position of Web Manager I couldn`t help but apply. As soon as I hit the send button for my application I started to have second thoughts. I told myself that I was crazy and how was I going to juggle Web Manager, being a student and working as a receptionist. After just a short time in the position I am happy to say that I have put my doubts aside and am excited to be a part of The Confluence team.

My first task has been to redesign the CNCSU website.

After doing some research and checking out the look of other student union and newspaper sites I have come up with a whole new layout. The current site seemed to be lacking a personal touch. It is static, using the same layout on each page and is missing a few key components such as pictures, events happening at the college, and off campus with CNCSU. I felt like the site didn’t have a personal connection to me as a student and with the new design I am hoping to create that connection and that it will encourage more student visitors to the site.

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The Confluence - News

Currently I have been working on some interface designs that include more colour, a twitter feed, links to our social media sites, and places where photos or events can be added and updated regularly. I am also working on a page for The Confluence where past and current issues will be available for viewing or download in PDF form.

Hopefully within the next few weeks the new designs will be completed and a whole new CNCSU website will be available for viewing and I am looking forward to working with this great organization and to continue to grow as a Web/Graphic designer.

Andy Johnson, Editor-in-Chief

Garett Svensen, Production Editor

Taren Johnson, Web Manager

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November 2012 November 2012 Harvest Market 5

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Opt out Cheques Availiable 11

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Remembrance Day 18

Submissions Due 13

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International Students’ Day

Confluence Out 19

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Annual General Meeting 25

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ByElection Submissions Due 28

Confluence Out Environment Canada 5-Day Weather Forecast: For Prince George, BC. 14-18 November 2012

The Confluence - News

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Wednesday, November 14: 4°C, -2°C, Wet Flurries.

Friday, November 16: 3°C, -2°C,Wet Flurries.

Saturday, November 17: 8°C, 2°C, Rain.

Sunday, November 18: 3°C, 0°C, Showers.

The Confluence is produced biweekly at the CNCSU office on CNC’s Prince George campus by Garett Svensen, Taren Johnson and Andy Johnson.

Submissions, inqueries and requests can be made to news.cncsu.ca, in person at the CNCSU office room 1-303, or mailed to “The Confluence c/o CNCSU 3330-22nd Ave. Prince George, BC. V2N 1P8” All submissions are welcome, the authors of edited works used in the confluence receive a $20 cheque upon publication. Advertisement rates are availiable upon request.

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Thusday, November 15: 2°C, -2°C, Flurries.

November 13th 2012

In Other News Andy Johnson, Editor-in-Chief Bigfoot Bounty

The Confluence - Fun And Games

From the huffingtonpost.com, Spike TV—“partnered with the international insurance market, Lloyd’s of London”— is offering a $10 Million reward for irrefutable evidence of the existence of the mythical creature known as Bigfoot. But before you get your equipment ready to set out into the woods to track down this hairy hominid, the reward is part of a new reality television series, “10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty.” The series is in pre-production at the moment and is scheduled to premiere in the fall of 2013.

White Paper, Real Money

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According to cnews.canoe.ca, Fabrice Tchouta and Vincent Onana appeared in a Regina courtroom for charges of fraud over $5,000 and several other charges this past Friday. An investigation into the two Montreal men after the owner of a business in northern Regina told police that Tchouta and Onana had initially approached him to place an offer on his business. In a Regina Police statement, “It is alleged the two males demonstrated how they could take what looked like plain white paper, which they claimed had been altered to conceal it, and turn it back into real currency.”

http://cncsu.cfs-services.ca/en/student-saver

Nude Casket Models On to msnbc.msn.com, a 2013 calendar depicting nude women posing next to caskets has caused some uproar for a Polish firm that manufactures caskets. The firm’s owner, Zbigniew Lindner, said, “My son had the idea of creating the company calendar . . . so that we could show something half-serious, colorful, beautiful; the beauty of Polish girls and the beauty of our coffins.” This calendar has angered the Catholic Church; needless to say they have condemned the calendar as inappropriate.

Armstrong’s Effigy Finally from telegraph.co.uk, Lance Armstrong was elected this year by the Edenbridge Bonfire Society to take the place of Guy Fawkes.

The large, steel-framed effigy of Armstrong was “stuffed with oil soaked newspapers and set alight on Saturday night.” According to Charles Laver, this year’s celebrity villain was not an easy choice: “We had a shortlist which included Jimmy Savile but it was decided it would not be nice to use him as a lot of children attend the bonfire and they might start asking parents questions [sic.].”

November 13th 2012

Horoscopes You can be incredibly productive today — as long as you don’t mind a little stress. Things are going your way, but you probably have to deal with some emotional stuff that isn’t easy for you.

A B C D E F G H I J K L

You should find that your home life is intensely warm and lovely today — or at least better than the outside world! If you can swing a home day, you should feel better prepared for the rest of the month.

You need to push yourself a little harder today — if only because you can tell that you can get so much done! Exceed expectations and get everyone talking you up for that next promotion.

People may almost make fun of you for your high energy levels today, but you don’t mind a little teasing. In fact, you may join in the fun — but in the back of your mind, you’ll still be multitasking!

The Confluence - Fun And Games

You can’t handle the stream of praise coming your way — and it’s up to you what to do about it. Your natural modesty might pop up, or maybe you deflect it by heaping praise on another.

Family comes calling — maybe online — and you need to take care of their needs pronto!

It may be time for you to call for a reunion or to ask for a truce between you and someone close.

You need to use your terrific aesthetic sense to make your home or work space look and feel more comfortable. Things are sure to get easier for everyone concerned after you’ve had your way with the decor.

You have to let go if you want to get anything to go your way today — sometimes the universe just needs to do things its way! If you can stand back and watch, you should be pleased with the results.

Try to relax and let the world do what it does — there’s no stopping it, anyway! If you can let go, you should find that you are better able to deal with the tiny obstacles that pop up today.

Your energy levels never stay flat today — they are always climbing up or plummeting down!

Make sure you know what’s happening before you agree to staying late at work or taking that long lunch.

If you’ve got pets, they need you today — maybe a lot more than usual! If you’re allergic or otherwise disinclined to pet ownership, you still find yourself drawn toward the natural world in some way.

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Your feelings for friends and family are heightened today — and they come right back at you! Your terrific personal energy helps you to fan the flames of love all around you, so open up!

November 13th 2012

Funding Libraries and the Future Paul Strickland, Contributor I spend a lot of time in the Prince George Public Library and use many of its services.

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The Confluence - Feature

having to argue strenuously to save basic public services like municipal libraries and neighbourhood fire halls.

It seems that, in a way, we are being taken back to 512 A.D., a previous period in history when libraries Reference librarians direct me to the were closed and access to books was right resources, and, if a book can’t be restricted. Even if, as I understand, found in its collections, they quickly the local library isn’t to be closed outright, I hope we don’t go the route order it in for free through InterLibrary Loan. I use its public Internet of some Oregon and Nevada libraries terminals to do research, and to send that are now open only from 3:00 to and receive e-mails. I also have taken 7:00 on weekdays. computer-training courses taught by The neo-liberal and neo-conservative a reference librarian. I attend bookruse is to cut taxes too drastically at launch events held in the library’s the federal level to please multinationKeith Gordon Room and also go to al corporations and investors. Then meetings of a creative writing group many federal services are downloaded sponsored by the library. onto provinces, who, to please many of the same kinds of investors, in their Although it was promised that the public library would not be closed as turn cut taxes too sharply and then, a result of the current municipal Core saying “There’s no money!”, slash needed services and download many Services Review process, there was of them onto municipalities. Then, serious concern it might be targeted when municipal taxes rise to handle for serious cutbacks in services. the downloaded responsibilities, busiPrince George Mayor Shari Green ness groups blame municipal workers’ gave assurances in late October that there is no stomach for closing librar- wages for the problem. ies in this city, and only one person No matter what party is nominally in making a submission to the Core Ser- power in a state or province – whether vices Review committee had seriously liberal, conservative or social-demadvocated that. However, Mayor Rob ocratic – the program always ends Ford of Toronto made a serious atup being the same: close more and tempt to close branch libraries in that more schools; cut services; cut parks, city. Such municipal leaders should forest service and environmental realize that a library is a cultural insti- agency staffing to the bone; let mutution and does not have to justify its nicipal parks go shabby through lack existence through its ability to turn a of maintenance; talk about closing profit. or even selling some provincial and state parks; and, in some cities in However, Prince George motorists often misuse the local library’s parking lot to attend events in the Civic Centre next door, and then library patrons can’t find parking spaces for themselves. The city might recover some revenue if bylaw enforcement officers ticketed people who stay in library parking spaces for more than two hours in order to attend Civic Centre events. However, it sounds as if it has already been decided through the Core Services Review process to cut the number of bylaw enforcement officers, and so that approach to raising revenue from the library’s property is closed to the city.

It is alarming that in modern Canada in 2012 we are put in the position of

Washington State and New Jersey, lay off police officers and firefighters. If a social-democratic government or a centrist conservative or liberal government in a province or state tries to resist the trend, bond-rating agencies, who gave suspiciously high rating to banks and investment houses that later failed or required huge bail-outs during the financial crisis of 2008, threaten to lower their rating, causing big increases in their borrowing costs.

And so they eventually have to fall in line. Then we have to cut corporate income taxes and property taxes to keep disloyal multinational corporations and skittish investors happy.

Too often we hear business groups say that, if we allocate the funding necessary to maintain public services ordinary people need or enjoy, “investors” will leave, the local or regional economy will go into a tailspin, and huge numbers of people will be out of work. But the multinational and foreign corporations on behalf of whom we are cutting taxes don’t hire locally and frequently ship jobs overseas. And who are these almighty “investors” – gods on high on Olympus who will send lightning bolts down to blast any city or province that tries to maintain a reasonable level of taxation to fund necessary local services?

The spirit of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the anti-union neoliberal Koch brothers stalks the whole continent, and it appears no municipal or provincial politician anywhere can offer any meaningful resistance.

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The Confluence - CNCSU

November 13th 2012

November 13th 2012

Curiosity

hit games like Populous, Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper. Following the string of successes, he became one of the rock star developers of the 1990s.

The success seemed to go to his head though, he began talking up his projects to the press in ways that his studios consistently failed to deliver on. Not an uncommon occurrence Annual General Meeting in the heady days of 90s game promotion, the key difference between Tues, Nov 20, 12:30pm Molyneux and say, Id’s John Romero, CNC Cafeteria was that Molyneux kept on making promises and describing scenarios that never materialized well into the If you did, too bad, because 2000s, and now with Curiosity¸ the Curiosity-What’s Inside the Cube?

2010s. The phenomenon has been doesn’t work. It turns out, a so widely remarked on that a twitter game industry veteran of 25 years Agenda: account, PeterMolydeux, has gained underestimated the curiosity of the 1. Introduction and Explanation of a certain level of internet fame internet. As of today, the holiday Voting Procedures 12th, the servers for Curiosity are still parodying Molyneux’s trademark 2. Ratification of the Plenary overambitious style. bogged down to non-functionality Chairperson from the sheer volume of the But, to be fair, any creative industry hundreds of thousands of curious 3. Adoption of the Annual General needs its dreamers. Those who users attempting to chip their way Meeting Agenda into the cube. The grand experiment are willing to go out on a limb with 4. Presentation of Annual Report from currently lays crushed beneath its own experiments that can result in utter the Executive Committee failure.

Dreamers are good to have grandeur. around, they can inject novelty into 5. Presentation of the Audited This isn’t the first time a Molyneux- their field, but they can cause disasters Financial Statements for the 2011in executive positions. Molyneux’s backed project collapsed under its 2012 Fiscal Year own ambition. Molyneux’s career is, ideas are certainly novel, but as a lead 6. Selection of the Union’s Auditor for in many ways, a study in hubris. He designer, the resulting products can the 2011-2012 Fiscal Year wind up like Curiosity: hamstrung by got his start in the late 80s, when he 7. CNCSU Bylaw Resolutions co-founded Bullfrog Productions with their own ambition.

8. Other Announcements Les Edgar and produced a series of Order of the Day Adjournment (2:00pm)

FREE PIZZA For members

The Confluence - Fun And Games

Garett Svensen, Production Editor Peter Molyneux’s latest project is an ambitious, massively multiplayer experiment in game design. One where hundreds of thousands of users simultaneously chip away at an enormous cube layer by layer. In the centre of the cube, lies a mystery.

Molyneux wants to ask you, and every other gamer on the planet a question.

A very important question. Do want to know what’s in the cube?

Executive Committee Positions Available:

Women’s Student’s Representative Internal Affairs Coordinator Treasurer Nominations Close Nov. 22 All Encouraged to Apply.

ADVOCACY

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CAMPAIGNS Curiosity -What’s Inside the Cube? onthecube.tumblr.com

SERVICES EVENTS

Vice Versa: Poetry Up Here Josh Massey and Justin Foster: vimeo.com

“Vice Versa: Poetry up Here” is written and directed by Josh Massey and Justin Foster. It was uploaded on vimeo.com—the video can be found here: http://vimeo.com/51248950—11 October 2012. This project was produced as a component for Massey’s Master’s Thesis (also available online via UNBC Library). The video is split into three parts dubbed Versas. It features Gillian Wigmore and Barry McKinnon (Versa I), Jeremy Stewart and Si Transken (Versa II) and Ken Belford and Derrick Denholm (Versa III). The finished video means to represent the north via its poetry “community”, but it fails to achieve its “objectives.”

The tagline claims “six northern poets face up to the realities and stereotypes of their society.” But how?

November 13th 2012

Gillian Wigmore

Gillian Wigmore and Barry McKinnon are the poets that make up Versa I. Wigmore reads McKinnon’s “Writing on the Ridge,” and McKinnon reads Wigmore’s “Ksan.” The theme of the poems are autobiographic curse (poem is life) and geographic observation (poem is mountian). Following the producers train of thought, I struggle to see how Wigmore reveals anything of McKinnon’s work, his intention, the meaning of the poem (if there is/are meaning) and vice versa. Why is there no context? Who are these poets, and why does this reading matter? Am I supposed to guess? Ok. I will. Based on the poem choices, I suspect that

“looking [sic.] back from the melt breaking up the ice/where the poems meet a moment of reflection” are two lines over laid on a shot of the Fraser River taken on the Cameron Street Bridge. The local pulp mill is framed in the upper right of the screen. This is followed by a shot of a snow covered river bank with white text: “northern dialect(ics) [sic.] a dialogue between the lines/6 poets ride an eddy at the confluence.” Neither before or after the poems is there analysis of the “[h]arnessing [of] the transformative powers of shared words.” Was each poet to come to some realization by reading the work of another? What realization could this be? Maybe a different word would have been better here (if I had written it), or a geez, I like this poem more Barry McKinnon than I thought, or when I say these things I feel like I am another’s work? “[A] dialogue between the lines” implies that the viewer is required to make McKinnon is paranoid, and Wigmore an inference about what is going on in the film. At face value, the poets are is in touch with the pomo eco-poet “[riding] an eddy at the confluence.” Dare I ask, so what? gods. It is interesting that these At this point the audience, I assume, begs to ask: what realities? What readings are filmed inside – neither stereotypes have been faced up to? Are we to assume that by a man reading a poet gets to go outside. In contrast to woman’s poems, and vice versa, we have challenged something, anything? the other readings, this might mean something.

The Confluence - Arts

By A. Warren Johnson

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Misrepresenting the North: A Review of Vice Versa

Prince George, alternatively, is presented with a clear vision: the footage is washed-out, ecodepressing: the camera tracks debris floating in salmon habitat, Mr. PG – that symbol of resource exploitation/ jobs, a small organic garden with little produce. PG, from this film, looks a Zellers’ washroom (RIP Zellers).

over is produced during footage of a disassembled mannequin, it seems to be a metaphor for dismemberment, maybe even violent crime. For example, Tranksen reads “The North will fuck you over.” When Transken is back on screen, she is standing between Mr. PG’s legs. Her reading concludes with her smiling into the camera.

November 13th 2012

It is interesting that Wigmore appears coy, occasionally looking up at the audience. McKinnon, in contrast, looks tense, especially at the poem’s conclusion when he looks up with a visibly tight throat. If there is meaning in these observations beyond the literal, I imagine they are discussed in Massey’s thesis. In the absence of analysis, commentary or context, the audience is left to guess. I think McKinnon’s in a tough position.

Si Transken

The Confluence - Arts

Versa II introduces Jeremy Stewart in traffic and Si Transken spray painting toys by a dumpster. Both garden to the Civic Centre and finally readings are affected by the elements, to the Prince George Hotel, while traffic and wind. Stewart looks and Stewart repeats: “through distance in detachment.” What does this mean? Does moving from location to location represent geographic displacement? Of who? Stewart?

Reassuringly, in the garden Stewart reads, “I can’t know everything. My life is too full of joy, learning, going forward and educating others.” Then Massey and Foster cut to Transken:

Jeremy Stewart

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talks like a hipster, the kind that the government warns you about. His maroon cap and sleepy delivery are symbiotic with Transken’s casual, proletariat persona. Both readings are spliced with jump cuts to new locations (Stewart to a vegetable garden, Transken to her creative room, then to Mr. PG). Stewart reads “Casual Pleasures of Ageing Well” (the British spelling is Transken’s).

Transken reads “theory of The North”

by Stewart. Versa II is when this video goes from slightly misguided and open to interpretation into complete nonsense. It’s interesting that Stewart uses a lowercase “t” and an uppercase “N.” Does this mean that theory is small in the north? Stewart begins his reading in front of the Prince George Hotel—which is now a vacant lot.

Does this imply that Stewart or the poem he is reading will disappear?

Weird. The content of Transken’s poem: “But 2 of the worst are dead - 1 of a heart attack, 1 eaten by cancer” juxtaposed by the sunny day is also weird.

The cuts jump from the community

Are Stewart and Transken “[harnessing] the transformative powers of shared words.” I don’t know. One interpretation of the progressive non-sensibility I managed to extrapolate from this section of the video is that Prince George is antagonistic towards the compassionate left in spite of the fact that they are attempting to make the north “a better place” through poems, art and crafts and community gardening.

The final section, Versa III, is by far the most convoluted of the three sections. Ken Belford reads “Dead Salmon Dialectics” (a nearly So. It’s, it’s hard to be creative and incomprehensible work) by Derrick functional. And to make changes in Denholm, and Denholm reads “lan(d) the world, and our own worlds. And guage” by Belford. Massey and not become like those other people, right? Those people that are, let’s say Foster begin this section with Belford flipping through a book and appearing heartless, like in that one up there. somewhat confused as to what it is he [Transken points to something offscreen] Or who are mean, or bitter, or is supposed to do. The scene is then cut to Belford in what is presumably shutdown. his basement. The shot is framed When Transken says creativity is similar to the scene in “A Beautiful incongruent with productivity, it Mind” where Russell Crowe is pining seems to undercut the project. When up papers to a cork board. Belford she points fingers at “those other explains that: people,” how do we know who they I edit again, and again, and again, are? At the Farmer’s Market after and I end up with pieces that look like she reads the line, “You and all your this.

And, for the time being, I have friends grew up with Peasant Vision titles on them. Uh. And then when it in The North” I notice how Stewart’s comes time to edit, after I get the full poem jives thematically with length of the manuscript, the proposed Transken’s introduction. When a voice book, on to a corkboard, then I print it all off again and I stand back from this. And I look at it, and I indicate in some way, or other, what I—a piece that I may think might be the first, or the second, or the third, or fourth.

Ah. And I construct them, so that they kind of harmonically reflect upon each other, before. And what is to come.

For the next. And, uh, so I take the pieces. Like here I have a new poem called “Textbook Pictures” and I just trim them close to the edge of the— Ken Belford the text. I sometimes think of these as semiotic textiles. And then I just locate

Belford reads in a monotone voice, droning out a series of words that mean, seemingly, nothing. The reading is spliced crudely with shots of Belford standing on a river bank.

In these shots, he seems like he is supposed to be reading, but his lips don’t move and he is voiced over.

This is followed by a shot of a plateau and a matted Chroma key of a forest while the camera zooms out, as if it were drinking. Belford’s reading ends with a grumpy look on his face.

The lead up to Denholm’s section is by far the hardest to make sense of.

There is a close up of rippling water, followed by a piece of driftwood caught in an eddy, which bears a strikingly similar resemblance to watching a turd being flushed down a toilet for 23 seconds. Excuse my humor. There is no context for this shot: is this “[facing] up to the realities and stereotypes” of the north? It does, however, announce Denholm’s second appearance – his

Together Now And then again, I find myself driving, towards those old crossroads while others race up behind me; racing up to that red light.

Once I stop & think, I look past that sign, and this, only to find myself wondering . . . what lies beyond?

November 13th 2012

Belford is the only other poet, besides Transken and a strange interlude by Denholm and Massey, who is allowed to speak before a reading. Denholm’s brief, seemingly out of place, conversation with Massey about his trip from Prince Rupert is at the tail end of Versa II. It serves no obvious purpose to the narrative structure of the film.

other. Denholms reading is prefaced with an eco-montage of the poet walking along a river trail that shows garbage – an old motor, a discarded BMX, and dead fish, bright green leaves, and river rocks. Denholm– in plaid and denim – appears as the eco-poet personified when he reads directly to a patch of dandelions.

“Trying to focus on many little parts and how they create many different wholes depends on who and what you ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// are.” To summarize, if I may, Massey and Foster say nothing: many little Turning right parts create many different wholes – means that I head home. so what?

I think it important to comment on the soundtrack. It has elements of 1970s pornography as well grungeinspired indy rock.

I am shocked that Massey and Foster believe this video represents northern poetry, specifically Prince George poetry. The video is amateurish. It is not intended for general audiences.

“Vice Versa: Poetry up Here” is an unflattering and inaccurate representation of Prince George and its poets, vice versa.

I challenge anyone to make a better video than this about the Prince George poetry scene by March 2012.

The winner will be chosen by The Confluence staff and will be shown as part of the Barry McKinnon Chapbook Awards.

Alone, once more with my cigarettes and to see myself in the mirror after a shower, only to

find

my

faults

and to find that these colors truly don’t run, but mask themselves in what I call self. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Turning left means taking a trip down memory lane.

All my failed relationships with girls I barely knew, both physically and metaphorically.

The Confluence - Arts

it on the board like this.

All the times I cut a class, to drink and use and not think of myself as self, nor in the moments in which there memories lie. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Going straight, almost from the first star until morning.

Derrick Denholm

Like so many times before, I find this self to worry, unlike the one that lays to the left.

second coming.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A Scene from Vice-Versa

Behind me is another car, beside me, one turns off.

Of all the endless possibilities, I still find myself parked, and wondering . . . what lays beyond that red light.

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Throughout Denholm’s section there are three montages. His reading is spliced with cuts that include the camera pointed at the ground for a spell, a few matte Chroma key effects, a cross-faded sequence and a two frame shot that depicts boxcars in one frame and the other river bank in the

Cinema CNC presents...

Four for Fall

NOV 10 : BEASTS Of THE SOUTHERN WIlD

NOV 17 : mOOnRiSE KinGDOm

Dir: Benh Zeitlin USA 91 mins.

WITH: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry

DIR: Wes Anderson USA, 94 mins WITH: Bill murray, Edward norton, frances mcDormand, Tilda Swinton and Bruce Willis

This stunning debut from first-time film- maker Benh Zeitlin alludes to a number of artistic masterpieces, paying homage to great works of literature, painting, and cinema. At home in The Bathtub, a marshland cut off from the Louisiana coast, an unapologetically uncivilized band of humans live alongside the animals that sustain them, blissfully disconnected from their resource-burning neighbours to the north.

Among them, six-year-old Hushpuppy already fends well for herself, sharing a trailer with her father, Wink, who hasn't been the same since Hushpuppy's mother left them years earlier. Beasts of the Southern Wild is equal parts mythological, anthropological, folkloric, and apocalyptic. An emotionally wrenching and heartfelt portrayal of the bond between a father and his daughter, it is not to be missed.

NOV 24 : the queen of versailles DIR: Lauren Greenfield USA, 100 mins documentary. WITH: David and Jackie Siegel

This real-life riches-to-rags story follows billionaire David Siegel and his wife Jackie as they embark on the construction of their dream home: a sprawling, 90,0000-square-foot mansion inspired by the palace of Versailles, designed to be the largest private residence in the USA. But when the economic crisis hits and the real-estate bubble bursts, progress grinds to a halt and seals the Siegels' fate.

Chronicling the decline in the Siegels' fortunes over the course of two years, Greenfield's riveting documentary explores both the virtues and tragic flaws of the American Dream. "A gaudy guilty pleasure that is also a piece of trenchant social criticism; a sprawling, richly detailed study of ambition, desire and the wild swings of fortune that are included in the price of the capitalist ticket.” –A.O. Scott New York Times.

This is the eagerly-anticipated new film from director Wes Anderson, and features his unique brand of quirky humour, an iconic soundtrack and distinctive visual style. On the fictional New England island of New Penzance in 1965, lovestruck twelve-year-olds Sam and Suzy have decided to run away together. Both are isolated children and their romance is ridiculous yet touching — a pre-teen fantasy of grown-up love. Their escape triggers a humourously hapless search party; the dramatic absurdity of the situation is heightened by the violent storm on course for New Penzance. Youʼll find yourself nostalgic for this magical, largely fictional time. Moonrise Kingdom is sure to be a joyful experience for Anderson fans, and a treat for the uninitiated.

dec 1: BOy Dir: Taika Waititi nEW ZEAlAnD, 87 mins maori with subtitles with: James Rolleston, Te Aho Aho Eke tone-Whitu and Taika Waititi

Itʼs 1984. Michael Jacksonʼs Thriller rules the airwaves and 11-yearold Boy dreams of the day when his absentee father will return to whisk him and his younger brother, Rocky, away from their home in New Zealandʼs Bay of Plenty to see his one-gloved idol in concert.

One-time comedian Waititiʼs refreshing direction and funny script imbues the story with magic, from its hand-drawn flip-book animations and Michael Jackson dance fantasies, to its bleeding sunsets, sweeping coastline vistas, and unforgettably colourful characters. As Boy, Rolleston — initially an extra who replaced the original actor at the last minute — turns in a remarkably unaffected, seemingly effortless performance.

All shows in room 1-306 at the college of new caledonia showtimes: 7 + 9:30 pm seasons passes: $24: available: Books and Co. and CNC Bookstore Single tickets: $8, regular;

$7, student, senior, unemployed