FREE | DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021 Volume 55 | Number 2810
HOUSING CRUNCH
Affordability out the window
LOST BROTHER Helen Walkley processes John
BEST MOVIES The Souvenir: Part II is one of many 2021 movies that you don’t want to miss; plus, some award winners at the Whistler Film Festival
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DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
3
NEWS
Emissions rise in �rst two full years of B.C. NDP rule
CONTENTS
December 23-30 / 2021
15
COVER
With great films like The Souvenir: Part II, Judas and the Black Messiah, and the new West Side Story, it almost felt like a normal year for moviegoers.
by Charlie Smith
By Norman Wilner Cover photo by Josh Barrett
10 FOOD
North Van’s retro Douce Diner’s vintage décor, which includes funky wallpaper and a chequered floor, takes patrons back to simpler times. By Rachel Moore
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ARTS
The disappearance of Helen Walkley’s older brother John led her to create a deep and touching dance/theatre piece named after him. By Steve Newton
e Start Here
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The Climate Change Accountability Report shows gross B.C. greenhouse-gas emissions rose by one percent in 2019, which wasn’t as bad as the previous year. Photo by Margarita-Young/Getty.
.C.’s overall greenhouse-gas emissions rose in the first two full years under NDP rule in 2018 and 2019. The province’s recently released 32-page Climate Change Accountability Report indicates that gross emissions reached 68.6 million tonnes in 2019, up from 67.9 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalents in the previous year. Gross emissions of carbon-dioxide equivalents rose 2.2 million tonnes in the NDP’s first full year in power in 2018, amounting to a three-percent hike over 2017 emissions. “B.C. applies emissions reductions from validated forest management offset projects to our official emissions total every year,” the new report points out. As a result, net emissions of carbon-dioxide equivalents were 67.2 million tonnes in 2019, up slightly from the net figure of 66.9 million tonnes in 2018. In 2019, transportation accounted for the greatest share of emissions in B.C., reaching 26.8 million tonnes of carbondioxide equivalents. That was down 0.2 million tonnes from the previous year but was up 22 percent since 2007. That’s “largely due to increases from heavy-duty vehicles (+29%) and to a lesser extent from passenger vehicles (+14%)”, the report states. In 2019, emissions from industry ranked second, at 14.3 million tonnes, followed by buildings and communities (14.1 million tonnes) and the oil and gas sector (13.4 million tonnes). B.C.’s rate of increase in 2019 exceeded the national rate. That year, Canada’s emissions were about 730 million tonnes, up 0.2 percent from 2018, according to the federal government website. From 2010 to 2019, gross greenhousegas emissions in B.C. rose eight million 4
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
tonnes—or 12.8 percent—which went unmentioned in the 2021 report. B.C.’s Climate Change Accountability Report echoes the approach of Stephen Harper’s former Conservative government by highlighting greenhouse-gas-emission “intensity”. The report points out that net greenhousegas emissions rose by only two percent from 2007 to 2019. Over the same period, the overall economy grew by 30 percent. “In last year’s report, the data showed the GHG intensity of our economy was down 16%, meaning GHG intensity continues to fall and is expected to decline significantly more as we reduce emissions towards our targets,” the report states. Even though the 2019 reporting period covered the startup period of the government’s CleanBC program, overall emissions still increased. But the report states that the government expects those numbers to fall as “the full suite of policies take effect in the years to come”. Those policies include mandating that 100 percent of new cars sold by 2040 be zero-emission vehicles, achieving a target of producing 650 million litres of low-carbon renewable fuel annually in B.C. by 2030, and continuing to increase the number of electric-vehicle charging stations. New upstream methane-emission regulations took effect on January 1, 2020. “It’s clear that more needs to be done for B.C. to meet its legislated targets,” the Climate Change Accountability Report concedes. “New emissions projections show that existing actions in CleanBC are expected to get us approximately 40% to our 2030 target. “To fill this gap, the Province’s new CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 outlines a range of expanded and accelerated actions to fully meet our target by cutting more pollution and
DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
see page 6
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EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER (ACTING) Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald
e Online TOP 5
Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.
1 2 3 4 5
Court ruling on carbon tax opens door for Trudeau to curb oil and gas production. COVID-19 in B.C.: 2,550 new cases and three deaths over three days. Metrotown stabbing victim pronounced dead in hospital. Foreign affairs minister takes rapid test and learns that she has COVID-19. Jim Pattison residential project to honour the history of Mount Pleasant. @GeorgiaStraight
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DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
5
CLIMATE
West Van library prioritizes climate awareness
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by Martin Dunphy
he West Vancouver Memorial Library has announced its first climate writer in residence. The District of West Vancouver library said in a December 13 release that the appointment of Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty will be effective January 3, 2022, and run until April 15. The new position is in support of the library’s Climate Future initiative—a program of events, readings, and a resources toolkit designed to stimulate community response to the climate crisis—which it instituted after the District of West Vancouver declared a climate emergency in 2019. Lafferty is an author (Northern Wildflower, Land-Water-Sky/Ndè-Ti-Yat’a), a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation in the Northwest Territories, and is studying law at the University of Victoria. The library announcement said that Lafferty will provide an Indigenous perspective to the climate crisis through writing and planning workshops and events for the community, especially for youth and seniors. “My vision for engaging the community during the residence at the library will
My vision…will be to start hosting open… sharing circles… – Katjà (Catherine) Lafferty
Yellowknives Dene First Nation member Katjà (Catherine) Lafferty, author of Northern Wildflower and Land-Water-Sky/Ndè-Ti-Yat’a, will become the West Van library’s climate writer in residence.
be to start by hosting open and interactive sharing circles with members of West Vancouver’s community,” Lafferty
said in the release, “including different spaces for youth and seniors to gather input on what they hope to learn from me from page 4
building a cleaner economy for everyone.” The emissions for 2020 have not been released, but they’re likely to post a decline, given the impact of COVID-19 on the economy. Consumption of oil fell sharply worldwide in the months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020. However, the 2021 B.C. wildfires have led to massive emissions of carbon dioxide, as Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives B.C. office senior economist Marc Lee pointed out earlier this year in a policy note. “Wildfire numbers are not counted in our official GHG tally because they supposedly represent ‘natural disturbances’ rather than impacts of human economic activity,” Lee wrote on the CCPA website. “But these wildfires are not acts of God, they represent climate change in action—the consequence of human use of fossil fuels for energy. And our over-heating atmosphere makes no distinction between the GHG emissions we choose to count and those we choose to ignore.” So how big of a contributor are B.C. wildfires? Lee noted that in 2017, they released an estimated 163 million tonnes. That was followed by another 200 million tonnes in 2018—almost three times the “official” total. B.C. must achieve official emissions reductions of 40 percent below 2007 levels by 2030 and 60 percent reductions below 2007 levels by 2040 under provincial legislation. The report outlines many measures that are intended to reduce the province’s 6
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during the residency.” The library said that Lafferty’s first event will be via Zoom on January 22, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The introduction will feature a traditional welcome, a reading, and a moderated Q & A. “We are looking forward to furthering our library’s work around the climate emergency with Catherine’s expertise and take it to the next level,” library spokesperson Tara Matsuzaki said in the bulletin. “Given the recent extreme weather events we’ve been seeing, this work feels more important than ever.” g greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030. They include 1.4 million annual tonnes being curtailed by reducing methane emissions from upstream oil and gas operations by 45 percent. The government also expects to achieve 1.1 million annual tonnes of reduced emissions by providing clean electricity to planned natural-gas production in the Peace region and by increasing access to clean electricity with new transmission lines and interconnectivity to existing lines. The province is also betting big on “renewable gas”, suggesting that it can achieve a 1.9-million-tonne annual reduction by 2030, according to the report. Earlier this year, however, the Seattlebased Sightline Institute listed four “fatal flaws” to renewable gas: availability, cost, carbon intensity, and industry obfuscation. “While many electric utilities in the Northwest are beginning to understand that clean, renewable power is their only possible future, the gas utility sector is taking a different tack with a new pipe dream: renewable natural gas (RNG),” wrote Laura Feinstein and Eric de Place on the Sightline website. “These utilities aim to position RNG as the answer to decarbonization. “It’s an answer that would allow them to continue to grow their customer base, lock in profits from new infrastructure investment, and green up their image,” they added. “Unfortunately, their RNG strategy rests on faulty assumptions and fuzzy math, plus a bit of deception.” g
NEWS
VPD sergeant wins in court against commissioner
A
by Charlie Smith
veteran Vancouver police officer has won a resounding victory in B.C. Supreme Court this week against Police Complaint Commissioner Clayton Pecknold. Sgt. Ajmer Sandhu has been with the VPD since 1994. According to the decision by Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson, a Crown counsel with the B.C. Prosecution Service filed a complaint against an unnamed VPD constable in 2018. This constable was off-duty when the incident allegedly occurred at the Surrey courthouse. “The complaint alleged that the constable had attempted to intimidate her during a break in the trial of a criminal charge that she was prosecuting against a member of the petitioner’s family,” Hinkson wrote. “The complaint alleged that the petitioner [Sandhu] was present while the intimidation attempt was made.” The complainant asked for an external police agency to conduct an investigation of the constable but not Sandhu. That led a former police complaint commissioner, Stan Lowe, to retain then–Central Saanich Police Service chief Les Sylven as the discipline authority. RCMP officer J. B. (Brian) MacDonald was the investigating officer under the Police Act. Lowe was succeeded by Pecknold in 2019. Sylven subsequently initiated an investigation of Sandhu based on the VPD sergeant’s responses during the investigation of the VPD constable. Sandhu argued in court that Sylven did not have the authority to launch a probe of him under the Police Act and therefore his decision could not be permitted to stand. Pecknold conceded that while Sylven did not have the power to launch a complaint and an investigation of Sandhu, this should be seen as “benign procedural f law” rather than an error of “fundamental jurisdiction”. Moreover, the police complaint commissioner argued that Sandhu “declined to raise any procedural concerns when asked to do so out the outset” at a hearing into the matter. Hinkson rejected the police complaint commissioner’s arguments, granting Sandhu’s application for a court order quashing several of Sylven’s decisions. This included Sylven’s order to drop Sandhu’s rank from sergeant to first-class constable. “In this case, the petitioner argues that the Commissioner’s gatekeeping function was usurped, and Chief Constable Sylven assumed a power that could not even be lawfully delegated to him,” Hinkson wrote. “Doing so fundamentally re-cast the process under the Act and removed the ‘executive’ or ‘prosecutorial’ function of the Commissioner. It also impermissibly
Complaint czar Clayton Pecknold’s case versus a cop didn’t end the way he would have liked.
A hearing was held on November 6, 2019, where Sandhu was represented by a lawyer. In a notice of decision issued on February 13, 2020, Sylven concluded that three of the allegations were “proven” against Sandhu. “The constable was ordered to have a temporary reduction in rank from First Class to Second Class Constable for a period of nine months,” Hinkson wrote. “The petitioner [Sandhu] was ordered to have a reduction in rank from Sergeant to First Class Constable, with no ability to compete for promotion for five months.” Sandhu later asked the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner to hold
…Sylven assumed a power that could not… be…delegated to him.
a public hearing to review these findings. Pecknold refused this application. Instead, he retained former Provincial Court chief judge Carol Baird Ellan to conduct a review of the record on December 14, 2020. Sandhu sought a stay on that review, which Hinkson granted following a hearing on November 23, 2020. Sylven retired as chief of the Central Saanich Police Service in 2020, five years after being promoted from deputy chief. Coincidentally, Pecknold is also a former deputy chief of the Central Saanich Police Service. He left that position in 2007 to become chief of the Port Moody Police Department. g The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.
Scan to conffess
– Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson
La la la la lappetite combined the roles of complainant and adjudicator.” According to Hinkson’s ruling, Sandhu provided one written duty report and participated in two interviews during the initial investigation of the constable. Sylven rejected MacDonald’s final investigation report and directed him to undertake further investigation into the actions and conduct of Sandhu. In his role as the discipline authority, Sylven also emailed a notice of reassignment on December 4, 2018, to Chief Adam Palmer and Deputy Chief Steve Rai of the Vancouver Police Department. “This Notice of Reassignment required that the petitioner be reassigned to duties within the VPD that did not require interaction with the public or the collection of evidence,” Hinkson wrote. On December 6, 2018, two days after the notice of reassignment was sent, MacDonald issued a notice of complaint and initiation of investigation to Sandhu. This investigation, ordered by Sylven, listed four allegations, all based on evidence in MacDonald’s initial “final investigation report”. Sandhu then underwent a third interview. And following a second final investigation report, Sylven found that on the balance of probabilities, three acts of “deceit” appeared to be substantiated in connection with Sandhu’s responses to queries from the RCMP officer.
Do you ever completely forget how to pronounce words?? I was trying to tell a doctor today I had LOW appetite or a LACK of appetite or a LOSS of appetite, and instead I somehow combined it all into some crazy gibberish like ‘la la la lappetite’. Silver lining, he patiently waited for me to finish my special moment and even understood what I meant!
Alarming I just changed my morning alarm to “I Got You Babe” because this shit is starting to feel like Groundhog Day.
Soooo fat that noone will want me. That’s it. That’s the confession. Originally being fat was a strategy to keep men away. It worked. Now it’s really difficult to lose the weight. And I will probably look this way forever. And that’s heartbreaking.
Not cute As an old lady, I can’t stand being called “young” lady. I know you’re trying to be nice, but I really can’t stand it.
Covid Bubbles Trying really hard to maintain my boundaries around bubbles without offending my friends, but it’s very hard. People have massive bubbles and/or don’t pay attention to news, then get offended when you can’t come over.
Visit
to post a Confession DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
7
HOUSING
Housing affordability worse than in past 31 years
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by Carlito Pablo
eople may wonder how bad the housing-affordability situation is in Canada. A new RBC Economics report could drive them to tears: it’s the “worst level in 31 years”. That’s from a paper prepared by economist Robert Hogue that was released Monday (December 20). RBC’s affordability measure is the proportion of median pre-tax household income to costs required to maintain a home. Costs include mortgage payments, property taxes, and utilities. Simply put, the higher the measure, the less affordable it is to own a home. For the third quarter of 2021, the measure increased by two percent to 47.5 percent. “It came on the heels of a huge 2.7 percentage increase in the second quarter that completely reversed improvements at the start of the pandemic,” Hogue wrote. The 47.5 percent figure represents the cost of ownership of an aggregate of all types of homes. The long-term average has been around 40 to 41 percent in Canada since 1985. Talk about housing unaffordability inevitably leads to Vancouver. “The area still reigns supreme as Canada’s least affordable market,” Hogue noted about the western
[Vancouver] still reigns supreme as Canada’s least affordable market. – RBC economist Robert Hogue
This East Vancouver bungalow at 342 East 57th Avenue came on the market with an asking price of $1,399,000, and it sold after nine days on December 15 for a much higher $1,805,000.
Canadian metropolis. As of the third quarter of 2021, RBC’s affordability measure shows Vancouver at 64.3 percent. Toronto follows as the second least affordable with 61.9 percent. In Montreal, it’s 40.7 percent. Ottawa is 40 percent; Calgary, 32.8 percent; and Edmonton, 28.5 percent.
And it’s only going to get worse. “We expect ownership costs to continue to rise quickly in the period ahead,” Hogue stated. The economist noted that home prices have increased “amid strong demand and scarce inventories this fall”. Housing loans will also get more expensive. Hogue said that fixed mortgage rates
have gone up since summer. In addition, the Bank of Canada is expected to hike its overnight rate next spring, which means variable mortgage rates will go up. In short, the “knock on affordability will be felt across the country”. For buyers, the outlook is “grim”. “We estimate rising interest rates alone could drive up our national affordability measure another 2.0 to 3.5 percentage points over the coming year,” Hogue wrote. In addition, a further five percent increase in home prices would add an extra two percent to RBC’s affordability measure. g
Pattison project honours Mount Pleasant history
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by Carlito Pablo
nterpretive displays will celebrate the culture and history of Mount Pleasant in a new Vancouver development. The displays are to be mounted on a brick wall that will frame a heritage alley at the southern side of the residential and commercial project by Jim Pattison Developments. The alley is expected to animate the public realm around the six-storey development. Formosis Architecture filed an application with the City of Vancouver for a development permit at 2202–2218 Main Street and 206 East 6th Avenue. The architecture firm said in a design rationale document that the heritage alley is “not required by city zoning or community plans”. Rather, it is “part of the owner’s (JP Development Group) gesture to the community to connect the project with Mt. Pleasant’s history and culture”. “As such, the alley will contain an interpretive display of the history of the area, while offering a physical connection from Main Street to the laneway mid-block,” Formosis Architecture explained. The alley will reduce the massing and density of the project as well as provide a buffer to the neighbouring building to the south. Formosis Architecture was operating as Studio B when it filed a rezoning application for the site in 2017. At the time, the firm’s developer client was Main Street Arts Investments Inc., a company identified with PortLiving. A city staff report to council noted that an “existing heritage brick wall will be retained in situ” as an “urban relic” in a proposed pedestrian alley. “This space is being referred to as ‘Heritage Alley’ as 8
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Formosis Architecture filed the application for the corner of Main Street and East 6th Avenue on behalf of Jim Pattison Developments.
the space is anticipated to include an interpretive display of the history of the area in conjunction with the heritage brick wall,” the report explained. Council approved the rezoning application in 2019. The application for a development permit for the Jim Pattison Developments project lists 76 apartment and townhouse units as its residential component. There will be commercial spaces fronting Main Street that will wrap around the building to the southern side, where the
heritage alley is found. The city will accept public comments on the application from December 20, 2021, to February 17, 2022. Jim Pattison Developments is one of many B.C. companies associated with Vancouver businessman Jim Pattison. He’s the founder of the Jim Pattison Group, which is a diversified holding company that generates $12.7 billion in annual sales, according to its website. The president and chief operating officer is former B.C. premier Glen Clark. g
WINE
Put the rum and eggnog on hold and get cosy with wine
WHEN WALKING WON’T DO THE TRICK
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he Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer figurines have been carefully arranged on the fireplace mantle, the Charlie Brown tree swaddled in a blue blanket and decorated with a lone red bulb, and It’s A Wonderful Life is cued up on the flatscreen. You’ve worked hard this holiday season and now it’s time to kick back for a bit before the big day. Put down the rum and eggnog, and curl up with one of the following wines. And don’t forget to have the Kleenex on standby for when Clarence gets his wings.
RUFFINO IL DUCALE TOSCANA 2018
Ever been lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks in Tuscany? If so, you know the attraction: centuries-old villas, sprawling hillside markets, and rolling vineyards. The last of those turns what’s already heaven on earth into an absolute paradise. With the idea of loading onto a plane this spring starting to look like a pipe dream once again (dear COVID-19: enough already), transport yourself with the fruit-forward Ruffino Il Ducale Toscana. Cassis, scraped vanilla bean, and earthy tobacco all pop up in this easydrinking, medium-bodied blend of Sangiovese, Merlot, and bold Syrah. Throw a rosemary-lemon chicken on the bricksand-mortar Tuscan-style barbecue, break out the leccino olives, pour a glass, and dare to dream about what might be next spring break.
SANDBANKS FOCH-BACO NOIR SLEEPING GIANT
There’s little point trying to pretend otherwise—Thunder Bay isn’t at the top of places most folks feel they’ve just go to see when planning a cross-country trip in Canada. Tofino, Quebec City, and the Maritimes? Absolutely. The Lakehead? Well at least it’s got not one, but two Tim Hortons, which is important because, admit it, Canadian Maple donuts are stupidly delicious. The big attraction at Lakehead—sometimes known only as “Lakehead” to the locals—is the Sleeping Giant of Thunder Bay, a land mass across Lake Superior that looks like, you guessed it, a sleeping giant. That landmark serves as the inspiration for Sandbanks Sleeping Giant Foch-Baco Noir, a bold hybrid where ripe blackcurrent, UPick blueberries, and fresh coffee lead the charge off the line. On the back stretch things expect a smooth and lingering finish marked by dark mocha and a hint of oaky smoke. Next stop Thunder Bay. Or maybe not. HESTER CREEK 2020 MERLOT
Ever watch a movie that you’ve gone in cold on, and then started thinking “That scenery looks familiar?” Assuming you’ve been beyond Main Street, or Boundary Road, in Beautiful British Columbia, the backdrop for Wind Chill with a young Emily Blunt will get you thinking Fraser
see page 11 DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
9
FOOD
Douce dishes up a tasty brunch with funky décor
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by Rachel Moore
he promise of a delicious brunch and well-garnished Caesar is the only reason we’ll peel ourselves out of bed before 11 a.m. on a weekend. A poorly heated Pillsbury Toaster Strudel that’s still frozen on the inside doesn’t quite provide us with the motivation required to seize the day. Thankfully, for breakfast lovers in North Vancouver, Douce Diner genuinely loves filling the bellies of guests at the cozy, retro-inspired spot on Pemberton Avenue. Upon walking through the door, once you’ve worked your way through the waitlist, it becomes obvious that you aren’t at any old chain restaurant. Instead, you’re in a neighbourhood diner that’s bursting with love, a result of the team’s hard work and enthusiasm. Douce Diner’s vintage décor, which includes intricate pastel tiling and funky wallpaper, adds to its lively environment, and it is usually chock-full of guests who are happy to be there. The restaurant’s blackand-white chequered floor and old-school bar seating channels the ’50s—a simpler time, when TikTok celebrities didn’t exist. The smells of freshly brewed coffee, housemade waffles, and savoury egg sand-
Douce Diner’s Avocado Toast My Way (left) and French toast (right) will satiate all of your sweet and savoury brunch cravings in a hip and retro North Vancouver eatery that reinforces a nostalgic vibe with a black-and-white chequered floor and bar seating that seems like it’s from the ’50s.
wiches spark hunger—and a little bit of drooling—among folks waiting patiently at their tables. The nostalgic vibe of the diner and its menu packed with elevated traditional
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
dishes was developed by owner and chef Dawn Doucette. Before opening the restaurant in 2019, her determination, experience, and passion for preparing meticulous dishes landed her a spot on the Food Network’s Top Chef Canada. These days, Doucette can be found running dishes crafted with fresh ingredients straight from the diner’s kitchen to your table. WHAT WE ATE
Slightly hungover from a small holiday gathering the night before, we had every intention to order a meal that would really turn things around for us. After ordering a chocolate handspun milkshake and a Caesar, it was time to choose our fighters. We put our faith in the avocado eggs Benny and an eggs Benny topped with butterflied sausage, both served with hash browns. The diner’s signature hash browns— shredded and mixed with secret seasonings—are superior to those tasteless, square-shaped potato chunks that have been dunked in the deep fryer. As for the eggs Benny, every variation prepared at Douce Diner comes on a fluffy buttermilk biscuit that’s made in-house, with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. You might never return to making Bennies in your own kitchen, as the diner’s tangy recipe will put your store-bought hollandaise dry mix to shame. For the next 15 minutes, which felt like eternity, we experienced excitement every time a server walked toward our table with food in tow. When they finally approached with our meals, we promptly coated the crispy hash browns in ketchup and Douce’s signature
hot sauce. Then we dug in as if it was the last meal we’d ever eat, popping the bright yellow yolks of our soft-poached eggs before diving fork-first into the Benny. As frequent Douce-goers who don’t care about the slightly uncomfortable food coma that often follows, we were cleanplate rangers. WHAT’S NEXT?
Like many North Vancouver residents, we plan to slowly but surely eat our way through the entire menu. Next week, we’ll explore the restaurant’s sweet side by ordering the in-house waffle layered with seasonal compote and housemade vanilla crème fraîche. We also find enticing the French toast made from thickly cut challah with lemon curd, mascarpone cream, seasonal fruit, and real maple syrup. Because folks following a plant-based diet deserve a memorable brunch experience too, Douce Diner has an elevated take on the traditional avocado toast. Vegans—and nonvegans—can gobble down a slice of fresh bread that’s slathered in plant-based mayonnaise and avocado, topped with Earth Island smoked vegan cheez, gem tomatoes, and sunflower sprouts. As always, our visit to Douce Diner was everything we had hoped, with friendly staff, consistent quality, and an upbeat atmosphere, which goes a long way during these uncertain times. We remained full until 6 p.m. that evening. As soon as the first hunger pang was felt, we ordered the restaurant’s popup fried-chicken dinner for pick-up, with potato salad, pickled zucchini slices, biscuits, and gravy. g
ARTS
Helen Walkley’s John puts us all in the same room
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by Steve Newton
n May of 1969, when Helen Walkley was 13, her 23-year-old brother John went missing, never to be seen or heard from again. That profound loss eventually led Walkley to conceive the dance/theatre piece John, a memoir of her sibling that played to sold-out crowds when it premiered at the 2019 Dancing on the Edge Festival. “It’s a very long process that led me to creating this work,” the dancer/choreographer explains on the phone from her Mount Pleasant home. “It wasn’t like I went to the studio and said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna make a piece about the disappearance of my brother.’ It was more like an accumulation over time.” In early 2016, Walkley had a writing practice with a colleague, in which they wrote spontaneously, sourcing from prompts. The writing that arose revolved around transients, something that is missing, and her family. Back in 2010, after her father had died, she’d received an archive of letters that were sent from her parents to her brother John, and from John to her parents and family. The archive also included correspondences from doctors, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists. “I’d had these letters for six years and I hadn’t read them,” she says, “and when I had done this series of writings that I realized were about transients and related to my family, that’s when I decided, ‘Okay, these letters and my writings will be the focus of the piece, the point of departure for the work.’ “That’s an accumulation of gathering information over time to receive the focal point,” she adds. “So, for example, in that fi rst phase of research, there were actually two dancers, an actor, and a harpist— they had a harp in the space and a harpist. And when I realized the focal point of the work, that’s when I scaled it down to a duet, with [dancers] Billy Marchenski and Josh Martin.”
Helen Walkley combined her own spontaneous writings with an archive of letters to create a dance/theatre memoir of her older brother John, who went missing in 1969 when she was 13.
Walkley first came in contact with Marchenski in the mid-’90s, when he was doing an undergraduate degree in theatre at SFU at the same time as she was getting her masters in interdisciplinary studies. “We’d just cross paths sometimes,” she recalls. “We didn’t know each other; we’d just grin at each other.” Then in 2004, when Walkley was an artist in residence at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, she choreographed a duet Marchenski performed with Andrew Olewine. “Billy is both an actor and a dancer,” Walkley says, “so he is speaking text, the letters, and there’s also some recorded piece of text that he spoke that’s a piece of my writing. But it’s a very collaborative process, and [Marchenski and Martin are] both just very talented guys, so it was a very illustrious process.” As Walkley speaks, it’s still three days before rehearsals for the remount of John begin, and she’s interested to see where from page 9
You can’t go wrong with Sandbanks Foch-Baco Noir Sleeping Giant, Ruffino Il Ducale Toscana, and Jackson-Triggs Grand Reserve Pinot Noir.
things will lead. “I think that we’re all pretty curious to go back into the studio and to just start moving through this work again,” she says. “But, of course, two and a half years have transpired, so it’s also likely that there could be some changes. And there could be some changes, for example, in the sound score that James Maxwell composed.” Walkley and composer Maxwell have a long history of working together, having first collaborated back in 1997. Also on display with Maxwell’s music will be the lighting design of James Proudfoot. “Both with the light and with the sound, they bring in their voice to the work. So it’s not as if I prescribe something; it’s more they look and listen to what I and we are doing and they bring in their own voice. So in that sense, then, the work is composite; it’s the voices of everyone—and by voice, I mean the quality of expression, their way
Canyon. But do some internet sleuthing and the fi lming location is actually the Okanagan. Who knew that it snowed so much in the land of sunshine, peaches, and endless wineries? Hester Creek’s Select Vineyards Merlot starts with grapes grown on the winery’s Golden Mile Bench estate. Those are blended with grapes from three nearby vineyards, after which it’s two week in Italian Ganimede fermenters, and eight months on fine lees with 40 percent American and 60 percent French oak. Redolent of Lambert cherries, June Blood plums, semidark chocolate, and peppery allspice, this pleasantly bold offering won’t disappoint on the table next to a slab of charred venison, blackberry-sage sauce optional. Or skip the dinner conversation and watch it with Wind Chill, which really does look like it was shot in the Fraser Canyon.
of being, their presence in the work and what they bring to it. “And something that did come up in the process of making the work was how the participants were touched by the story, if you will, of having a brother that was diagnosed with some mental illness and subsequently disappeared. How that touched them in their own lives, how they have experience of that in their own lives, in their own family.” Donna Spencer, artistic producer at the Firehall Arts Centre, where John will be remounted next month, describes it as “such a powerful, intimate piece that you are left feeling like you know this mysterious person”. So was that one of the goals of the project for Walkley, to have audiences feel like they know her brother? “That wasn’t a way that I specifically thought as I/we created the work,” she replies after a long silence, “but we all came close to it. We all came through these letters. Like there’s excerpts, I think, of maybe nine letters, but the entire archive is more like a hundred letters, which we all read. That’s where we started—I sent them copies of these letters. So I think it just had to do with the ability of all of us to meet at the same point. I don’t know how else to describe it. “I mean, this is a life experience that is very impacting, and it’s something that I carried with me and felt very aware of throughout the course of my life, from a young teenager to today. There was a way that it was always kind of bubbling up in me, and I was processing it. And I think that the nature of this work is that we are, in fact, all in the same room, we all have very impactful life experiences, and sharing that vulnerability is deep and touching.” g Helen Walkley’s John will be performed at the Firehall Arts Centre from January 12 to 15.
JACKSON-TRIGGS GRAND RESERVE PINOT NOIR 2019
As the cold weather rolls in across the country, here’s something that sounds pretty appealing right now: summer on a covered porch with lazy southern-style fans overhead, and a plate of ripe field-grown strawberries dipped in dark chocolate. Add an iced mocha, and you’ve got a scenario idyllic enough to carry you through the next few dark and cold winter months. Jackson-Triggs Grand Reserve Pinot Noir 2019 doesn’t lack for character, with this bold yet elegant offering flush with rich oak, freshly ground cloves, shaved nutmeg, and—you guessed it—chocolate-laced strawberries. Forget playing second fiddle to roasted squab or a seared Tomahawk steak—pour a glass or three, kick back on the couch with the fireplace roaring, and suddenly winter doesn’t seem so bad. Don’t forget to admire your staged Rudolph display, and to weep unabashedly when it’s time for “Auld Lang Syne” at the Bailey house. g
DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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CHILL.
Enjoy stress-free reading without the noise on CreatorNews.
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
ARTS
Femme Festival launches Cultch winter-spring lineup by Charlie Smith
JAN
14/15
Steven Page with the VSO Fri & Sat, 8pm | Orpheum
Acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Steven Page returns to the VSO for a heartfelt performance of his solo works as well as iconic hits from his Barenaked Ladies days.
Hear it. Feel it. JAN
8/9
In the Mindy Parfitt–directed Bunny, Emma Slipp plays a character who challenges traditional gender roles and social inhibitions through the expression of erotic desires. Photo by Emily Cooper.
T
he Cultch has announced 11 new in-person shows for the winterspring season. Below, you can read about six of these plays that are featured at this year’s edition of the Cultch’s Femme Festival.
the eyes of three female characters. In this world, men, not women, are the objects, revealing how skewed our media and, indeed, our society have become. Beautiful Man will run from February 24 to March 5 at the Historic Theatre.
SEA SICK
IN RESPONSE TO ALABAMA
One of Canada’s greatest science journalists, Alanna Mitchell, delves into the crisis in the oceans caused by the buildup of carbon dioxide—and why that threatens human beings’ very existence on land. Her play, Sea Sick, emerged from her bestselling book Sea Sick, which resulted from her groundbreaking exploration of the world’s oceans. The Toronto-based Theatre Centre’s show is directed by Franco Boni with Ravi Jain, and will run from February 2 to 19 at the Historic Theatre.
RAVEN
Germany-based Still Hungry’s “contemporary circus about motherhood” derived its title, Raven, from the German concept of Rabenmutter. It’s a word used to describe a selfish and neglectful mother. Cocreated and performed by the three cast members—Anke van Engelshoven, Lena Ries, and Romy Seibt— the show raises questions about society’s notions about working mothers and circus performers. Raven will run from February 8 to 13 at the York Theatre. BEAUTIFUL MAN
Written by Governor General’s Award–winning playwright Erin Shields and directed by Keltie Forsyth, Pi Theatre’s Beautiful Man challenges gender stereotypes through
Keltie Forsyth also directs this intimate Little Thief Theatre show about three performers who talk openly about their abortions. In Response to Alabama was created, written, and performed by Libby Willoughby, Miranda MacDougall, and Mariam Barr. According to the Cultch website, it “confronts one of the most emotionally and rhetorically charged issues of our time with nuance, honesty, and care for our performers, our audience, and their lived experiences”. It will be shown at the Vancity Culture Lab from March 3 to 12.
Jens Lindemann
BUNNY
The Search Party’s Mindy Parfitt directs this play revolving around a woman, played by Emma Slipp, whose erotic desires challenge societal inhibitions and traditional gender roles. Bunny was written by Governor General’s Award–winner Hannah Moscovitch and it will run from March 17 to 27 at the Vancity Culture Lab. g
Sat, 7pm | Bell Centre, Surrey Sun , 2pm | Chan Centre at UBC
Precision, presence, and style come together as Canadian trumpet legend Jens Lindemann leads the VSO in a thrilling and virtuosic performance. SURREY NIGHTS IS ENDOWED BY WERNER AND HELGA HÖING
JAN
Chopin, Berlioz, Ravel & Bologne
28/29 Fri, Sat, 8pm | Orpheum This (almost) all French concert features award-winning Canadian Chopin specialist Charles Richard-Hamelin in a ravishing program led by Maestro Tausk. Charles Richard-Hamelin
NEW CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENT! TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
ABBA The Concert MAY
Wed, Thur, 7:30pm | Orpheum
11/12 Come dance, come sing, having the time of your life at THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE CELEBRATION! Audiences and press all agree—“This is the closest to ABBA you’ll ever get.” Not featuring the original singers, but you would never know it! If you enjoyed “Mamma Mia,” you should love “ABBA The Concert.”
CLEAN/ESPEJOS
The world premiere of Christine Quintana’s exploration of female solidarity is set in a Mexican resort, where a hotel floor manager meets a Canadian wedding guest. Both are carrying secrets. This Neworld Theatre production will run from March 10 to 19 at the Historic Theatre.
Haydn & Mozart with Jens Lindemann
Concerts presented at 50% capacity, in adherence with Provincial Health Orders
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DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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MUSIC
Of Neil Young, the Clash, and mutated hummus
W
by Mike Usinger
hat’s In Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6-cubic-foot refrigerators.
ON THE GRILL
Dave Gowans
WHO ARE YOU
My name is Dave Gowans, owner of local indie record shop Red Cat Records, and former singer and member of the bands
the Buttless Chaps and Cloudsplitter. Also a dad for my two lovely daughters.
son make the first foray into British folk rock, taking medieval songs and poems and turning them into a transcendent listening experience centered around the interplay of Denny’s voice and Thompson’s amazing guitar playing. So much space in the instrumentation—you can hear how they listen to each other even when they stretch out into some extended instrumentals. Always critically rated in the top 10 best folk albums of all time, so when anyone tries to trade a copy in at the record store I usually ask why.
FIRST CONCERT
My parents took me not to a first concert, but to see the then-famous Reveen hypnotist and illusionist. It was sometime in the early ’80s in Victoria at the Royal Theatre. I was extremely disappointed that my brother Mark was not chosen as a volunteer for the grand finale even though he had his hand up the whole time. Honestly, I did not really start going to shows until I was 18—a few local gigs here and there in Victoria. But my friends and I were more concerned about skateboarding outside while
ALL-TIME FAVOURITE VIDEO
Red Cat Records owner Dave Gowans didn’t start going to music shows until he turned 18.
the bands played, even though I listened to music constantly on a Walkman, or at home on the turntable. LIFE-CHANGING CONCERT
The first big show I remember seeing was Neil Young and Crazy Horse with Sonic Youth in 1990 in Vancouver at the Pacific Coliseum. We did not have a ride, so I rode in the back of the truck outside with three friends all the way from Victoria. Sonic Youth changed my outlook on music— standing on their guitars, walls of feedback… I was there to see Neil Young, and was only familiar with the video for Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing”. I’d never heard anything that loud before! After that I was at Harpo’s—a club in Victoria—as many nights a week as possible. TOP THREE RECORDS
The Clash London Calling First band I heard on a Walkman—borrowed the tape and Walkman from my friend at high school. I could not believe the sound of the Clash, as well as being able to walk around amongst others while your own soundtrack played. I remember smiling while listening, and receiving some scary comments such as “What’s so funny Gowans?” from some of the school’s larger sports enthusiasts. Depeche Mode Violator Every sound on this album is so carefully tweaked and put in place by Alan Wilder and Flood—it’s the first time the band was allowed to really develop Martin Gore’s demos into fully formed ideas. Great songs, and only nine of them. Released during the height of the CD era, but left people wanting more, instead of an album of 18 songs that went on for 74 minutes. Fairport Convention Liege & Lief Oh, wow! Sandy Denny and Richard Thomp14
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
Okay, this is embarrassing but I need to share this. Grade 7, watching Video Hits on CBC, promising young new wave band named Industry, the video was for “State Of The Nation”. The singer, Jon Carin, ended up playing synths for Bryan Ferry at Live Aid, and then has been a longtime collaborator with Pink Floyd. More recently, he programmed all the synths for Kate Bush when she did some shows a few years back. So that being said, I loved the sound—only heard the song once, but somehow memorized all the words of some of the verse and the chorus. I then started telling people “Have you heard of Industry?” and drawing keytars on my binder and thinking how cool it would be to be able to wear the same white jumpsuit/parachute pants as Jon Carin. WHAT’S IN YOUR FRIDGE?
Chipotle/adobo peppers in sauce. To use in chipotle-mayo, dressings, and a particular breakfast wrap—almost like an inverted omelette which you can fill with whatever ingredients. Aside from egg and tortilla, a solid foundation for a long day of retail. The wrap is found on Nadiya’s Time To Eat on Netflix White wine. To drink, and to also hit certain recipes on the fly with a splash—pasta sauces, risotto, de-glaze a pan—then hit it with butter and lemon to go with some fish, et cetera. Hummus. The freak-store-bought hummus that I thought at the time would be a great idea to have around for snacks. Maybe with veggies? Crackers? Chips? But no, it gets opened after getting home from shopping, starving, half-eaten, then somehow pushed to the back of the top shelf. Then the life forms inside the container, and turns into the most horrid discovery of life living in the back of the fridge. g Red Cat’s new location is 4386 Main Street. You can also check out the new website and online store at Redcat.ca.
MOVIES
Critic’s top films in a year of living dangerously
I
by Norman Wilner
t’s been really nice to go back to the movies. Almost a full year passed between my last theatrical screening of 2020 (Tenet) and my first of 2021 (The Green Knight), and it’s an experience I’d sorely missed. I’m back up to three or four screenings a week now—since it’s awards season and all—and I’m a lot less stressed about it than I thought I’d be. I mean, except for those two and a half hours I spent trapped with House of Gucci, but that’s a different issue. As moviegoing becomes normal again— with new things to complain about, like people wearing their masks improperly— it’s been mostly a pleasure to reconnect with the little things I’d missed, like the blanket of silence that rolls through an auditorium as the lights go down, or noticing the smell of popcorn late in a morning screening as the concession stand gets ready for the afternoon. It’s nice to notice that stuff; it feels like the world behaving as it’s supposed to. Here are the best films I saw this year.
1. THE SOUVENIR: PART II
No other film moved me as much as Joanna Hogg’s follow-up to her autobiographical 2019 drama about a film student discovering her artistic perspective by surviving a toxic relationship. Part II finds Honor Swinton Byrne’s Julie trying to turn the experience into art, and Hogg finds both the anxious tension in the work and the unexpected laughter that comes from the release of that tension. Personal, powerful, perfect. 2. JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Shaka King’s powerhouse first feature about the complicity of FBI informant Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) in the 1969 murder of Chicago community organizer Fred Hampton (Oscar-winning Daniel Kaluuya) dares to collapse America’s past and present into one awful, continuous moment. It also trusts us to make the connections and parallels between the Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter movement half a century later—and to understand what was lost when Hampton was killed. 3. WEST SIDE STORY
Any reservations I had about Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Sondheim/ Bernstein stage musical—and, by extension, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’s Oscar-winning 1961 film—were demolished in the first two minutes, which establish a new context for the story and an entirely different, cinematically charged vision. The rest of the picture delivers on that promise, making instant stars of Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose and offering yet another chance to celebrate Rita
Honor Swinton Byrne (above, left) and Tilda Swinton costar in The Souvenir: Part II, a film that critic Norman Wilner chose as his top pick for 2021 and one he describes as “Personal, powerful, perfect.” Wilner’s number-two choice, Judas and the Black Messiah (right), stars Daniel Kaluuya.
Moreno’s indefatigable screen presence. 4. DRIVE MY CAR
At three hours, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story may seem imposing. However, this deceptively placid study of the bond that forms between a widowed theatre star (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his younger chauffeur (Tôko Miura) as she drives him around Hiroshima uses its running time to build a whole world out of their specific isolation while also understanding that the world around them refuses to be blocked out. 5. LICORICE PIZZA
Paul Thomas Anderson’s shaggy-dog love story about a young woman (Alana Haim) pursued by a precocious teenager (Cooper Hoffman) in 1973 California lets the filmmaker recapture the pulsing energy of his breakout period with a more mature perspective. It’s a coming-of-age movie steeped in the understanding that young people always feel like hostages to the adults around them. 6. NIGHT RAIDERS
Set about a quarter-century in the future, in a Canada under military occupation from a nation identified only as “the southern state”, Danis Goulet’s knockout first feature situates a residential-school allegory in an efficient and entirely convincing dystopia that might as well be happening right now. Her tale of Indigenous characters pulling their shattered culture back together and looking for a way forward is awfully relevant to the current moment, as is the simmering fury in Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’s performance as a mother trying to rescue her daughter from colonization. 7. BEANS
Named both best first feature and best Canadian film at the Canadian Screen Awards this year, Tracey Deer’s autobiographical
breakout—built around a sensational performance from relative newcomer Kiawentiio—reframes the 1990 Oka Crisis through the eyes of a 12-year-old Mohawk kid, the better to make us feel the impact of the chaos and horror of that summer—and understand where it came from. 8. NINE DAYS
A loving homage to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life that can stand proudly alongside that 1998 masterwork, Edson Oda’s first feature—which stars Winston Duke as a man who interviews new souls to send the best candidate into the world—has the same curiosity about humanity but an entirely different perspective. And Duke, the scene stealer of Black Panther and Us, anchors the fantastical story with a moving minimalist performance. Don’t miss this. 9. SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)
In his first feature documentary, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson collapses the multiple weekends of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival—which were videotaped by producer Hal Tulchin for a television broadcast that never happened—into two ecstatic hours. The film celebrates both the talent gathered there—including Mahalia Jackson, the Staple Singers, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, and an electrifying Nina Simone (who premiered “Young, Gifted And Black” there)—and the largely Black audience that got to experience it. It’s pure joy. 10. TITANE
Emotional mayhem rarely looks this good. Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or–winning tale of sex, cars, murder, identity, and belonging is one of the year’s wildest rides, with Agathe Rousselle’s unreadable Alexia crashing over and over again into Vincent
Lindon’s wide-open firefighter Vincent, their separate narratives entangling to produce something undefinable but entirely compelling. HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Even in a pandemic year, art was everywhere you looked: the psychological intensity of Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 Ft. and Nicole Dorsey’s Black Conflux; Sonia Kennebeck’s strangerthan-fiction documentary Enemies of the State; BenDavid Grabinski’s unclassifiable couples-weekend comedy Happily; Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man, which gets amazing mileage out of Dan Stevens playing a perfectly charming sex robot; Robert Machoian’s spare, aching drama The Killing of Two Lovers; the timescrambled textures of Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho; Fran Kranz’s searing four-hander Mass; Michael Rianda’s delightful animated robopocalypse The Mitchells Vs The Machines; Bassam Tariq’s daring psychodrama Mogul Mowgli; Guillermo del Toro’s fever-dream take on Nightmare Alley; Philippe Lacôte’s magic-realist prison drama Night of the Kings; Steven Soderbergh’s underworld puzzle box No Sudden Move; Ali LeRoi’s The Obituary of Tunde Johnson; Michael Sarnoski’s genre-defying, Nicolas Cage– reinvigorating Pig; Lili Horvát’s eerie, lonely Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time; Rose Glass’s relentless two-hander Saint Maud; Nikole Beckwith’s empathetic antiromcom Together Together; Todd Haynes’s eclectic, elegiac documentary The Velvet Underground; Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s unrelenting revenge drama Violation; and, finally, a special citation to the gonzo giallo of James Wan’s instant horror classic Malignant, which—like Titane—must be seen to be believed. g
DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
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MOVIES
Cinema of Sleep snares big Borsos prize in Whistler
A
by Charlie Smith
psychological thriller about a recent immigrant from Nigeria caught up in a police investigation has captured a major award at the Whistler Film Festival. Cinema of Sleep, directed by Jeffrey St. Jules, won the Borsos Competition for best Canadian feature. Dayo Ade, who plays the central character who finds a woman (played by Getenesh Berhe) dead in his bed, earned the Borsos award for best performance. Berhe won honourable mention in this category. “Driven by powerful performances, this film uses the language of film noir to explore one of the most compelling issues of our times in an inventive, weirdly entertaining, and entirely surprising way,” the jury stated. Dayo’s performance was described as “nuanced, subtle, powerful, and flawless”. “He exemplifies the soul of an artist and embodies the life of the character in a way that is unforgettable,” the jury stated. The award is named after Canadian film director Phillip Borsos (The Grey Fox, Bethune: The Making of a Hero, The Mean Season) and was presented by the B.C. branch of the Directors Guild of Canada in association with Telefilm Canada. The Borsos award for best Canadian feature comes with a $15,000 cash prize from the DGC and a $20,000 postproduction prize from Company 3. The award for best direction in a Borsos Competition film went to Luc Picard for Confessions of a Hitman. In the film, Picard also played Gerald Gallant, who was a real-life hitman for Quebec bike gangs. According to the jury, Picard “masterfully retells the story of the biker wars in Quebec, and in doing so reveals the atypical personality of a hitman”. Carmen, which is set in Malta, won best cinematography in a Borsos Competition film. Diego Guijarro was responsible for the gorgeous imagery in the movie, which stars Natascha McElhone as a 50-year-old woman who has broken free of the shackles of the church. “His work in Carmen is breathtaking, even magical, and draws in the viewer from the first frame,” the jury concluded. “As he paints with light, he guides our imaginations through the things we see and masterfully keeps us mindful of the things that we don’t.” The Borsos Competition jury members were veteran Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson, Dune executive producer and The Paper Man director Tanya Lapointe, The Cuban director Sergio Navarretta, and Conquering Lion Pictures partner Damon D’Oliveira. The winner for the best screenplay for a Borsos Competition film was Sarah Fortin for Nouveau Quebec. She also directed the movie, which takes place in the Quebec town of Schefferville after its mines were 16
THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
Clockwise from left: Dayo Ade earned the Borsos award for best performance at the Whistler Film Festival in Cinema of Sleep, which won as the best Canadian feature; Carmen, starring Natascha McElhone, captured the cinematography prize; Noveau Quebec was named best screenplay.
His work in Carmen is breathtaking, even magical… – Borsos jury on Diego Guijarro
closed by the Iron Ore Company of Canada. A woman and her boyfriend are forced to remain in the town as police investigate an accident involving an old miner, which the woman witnessed. “Sarah Fortin’s skillful screenplay for Nouveau Quebec delicately observes the disintegration of two lovers taken out of their comfort zone, against the atmospheric backdrop of a nearly extinct Canadian mining town grappling with complex, Indigenous realities,” the jury stated. In addition, Nouveau Quebec was chosen as the best female-directed feature at the Whistler Film Festival by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. The alliance presented the best femaledirected narrative documentary award to $avvy, a Robin Hauser film highlighting how important and fun it can be for women to learn about financial literacy. And the alliance’s best female-directed short film was for the mother-daughter relationship film “Fanmi”, directed by
DECEMBER 23 – 30 / 2021
Carmine Pierre-Dufour and Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers. The world documentary award at the Whistler Film Festival went to Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché, directed by Celeste Bell and Paul Sng. The jury for this award included playwright, author, and filmmaker Cheryl Foggo; Fireworks Media Group president Robert Hardy; and Sienna Films/ Sphere Media producer Laura Perlmutter. The best B.C. director award, which was presented by the B.C. branch of the Directors Guild of Canada, went to Cassie De Colling for Precious Leader Woman. It tells the story of how Winter X Games snowboarding star Spencer O’Brien reconnected with her Kwakwaka’wakw culture following her disappointing performance at the Sochi Olympics. “Cassie spoke to the power we have within ourselves to grow and to find a deeper meaning for our existence and one where we can be role models to others, regardless of culture,” the jury stated. “Spencer O’Brien’s journey to becoming one of the best snowboarders in the world, paralleling her journey to becoming the namesake Precious Leader Woman, was so rich, moving and compelling.” Precious Leader Woman also snagged an honourable mention in the competition for best mountain-culture film award, which went to Buried. The jury described this movie, directed by Jared Drake and Steven Siig, as “a truly stunning piece that takes a hard look at our relationship to mountains, to loss that endures, and the risks we take in mountain places. It is a
masterful cinematic journey into a world of grief, trauma and hope.” The mountain-culture jury members were filmmaker and cinematographer Brian Hockenstein, Transmission Media storyteller Caroline Hedin, and Yap Sisters studio producer and designer Carrie Yap. The $1,000 Canadian shortwork award went to Zacharias Kunuk’s “Angakusajaujuq—The Shaman’s Apprentice”, with honourable mention to Omolola Rachel Ajao’s “Fufu”, in which an immigrant daughter recalls her mother’s life. “Isole Ciclope”, directed by Ryan De Franco and Matthew Mendelson, won the international shortwork award for its exploration of dementia. Honourable mention in this category went to Jerry Carlsson’s “Successful Thawing of Mr. Moro”. The $500 B.C. student shortwork prize went to Ashley Yeung for “A Family Act”, which portrays a young woman coming to terms with her identity as a second-generation Chinese Canadian following the death of a distant relative. In total, the Whistler Film Festival handed out $74,500 in cash and production prizes. That included a $36,000 prize package to Christina Saliba, winner of the WFF Power Pitch Competition, for her White Noise project. Saliba took home a $25,000 postproduction credit from Company 3, and a $1,000 cash prize and $10,000 lighting and grip production credit from William F. White International. g The Whistler Film Festival continues online across Canada until December 31.
MOVIES/ SAVAGE LOVE
Femdom culture gets an airing in A Wicked Eden
S
by Charlie Smith
ometimes, it takes a documentary to make you realize that there are some fundamental changes taking place in society. This is certainly the case with A Wicked Eden, a 96-minute examination of femdom culture that’s available online at the Whistler Film Festival until December 31. Calgary director Naddine Madell centres her film around Goddess Alexandra Snow, a veteran fetish-video-content creator who’s also known as Domina Snow to her paying clients. “I’m going to break you into the smallest little pieces and reassemble you as something else entirely,” Snow sneers to pulsating music near the beginning of the fi lm. But rather than being a highly sexualized and erotic journey into dominance and submission, A Wicked Eden is more about the everyday practicalities of creating fetish videos, as well as a how-to manual for anyone considering entering this industry. Snow’s commanding presence anchors the documentary, but the fi lm is also populated by several other dommes, a couple of male slaves, a fi lmmaker, an editor, and a clinical psychologist named Susan Writer, who each provide their own insights. Writer points out that femdom “creates a space where there’s no judgment”. “There’s no shame or blame,” the psychologist declares. “That’s the sexiest place you can be.” Later in the fi lm, Writer says that functional magnetic resonance imaging has revealed that those with fetishes experience the same type of dopamine bursts from seeing the object of their desire as when seeing a romantic partner. Yet according to Writer, it’s still unclear what causes fetishes to emerge, notwithstanding anecdotal stories that try to explain this phenomenon. One of the dommes interviewed, Princess Rene, says that the online world of fetishes has exploded in recent years. Nothing seems too weird—there are clown fetishes, fart fetishes, wedgie fetishes, and balloon-popping fetishes, she notes. “I think probably before the last decade, somebody with a fetish really wanted to be closeted,” Princess Rene says.
Seattle resident Raevyn Rose (left) receives fetish-content advice from Goddess Alexandra Snow in A Wicked Eden.
It was taboo. It was weird. Now it’s just all over. It’s so popular—it’s kind of amazing. – Domme Princess Rene
“It was taboo. It was weird. Now it’s just all over. It’s so popular—it’s kind of amazing.” This, of course, has led to financial opportunities for women who cater to these desires. One domme, Sara DiAvola, discloses that she entered the business after learning
she could sell used panties online. Another one, Princess Meggerz, reveals with a laugh that she was attracted to this industry because she is a bitch in real life. “I didn’t care,” Princess Meggerz says. “I just wanted the money.” There’s also a lengthy segment, fi lmed in Vancouver, featuring Snow training her protégé, Seattle resident Raevyn Rose, on how to become a successful content creator for submissive men. No matter what, Snow advises, put your face in the shot as often as possible. That’s because this is what the audience is interested in seeing. Snow also teaches her student to never go beyond her comfort level, no matter how much money she might be offered. In fact, Snow says, “I’m no longer interested in teaching someone only motivated by money.” But who is Goddess Alexandra Snow? Madell’s fi lm goes a way toward answering that question, thanks to a revealing interview with Snow’s half-sister Sierra. Somehow, the dominatrix managed to transcend a very difficult childhood to take control over her life. This is one of the fascinating aspects of A Wicked Eden, which is named after the dungeon that Snow created with her former husband. In fact, it’s not always easy telling close family members that you make your living by creating femdom video content. Snow was able to make inroads with her sister when she talked about the science behind domination and submission. “It helped me a lot,” Sierra says. Another practitioner of femdom, Astro Domina, recalls preparing for the big reveal for her father and brother. It turned out that her brother already knew for three years what she had been doing to earn a living. Fortunately, her father responded in a loving way, telling her that it didn’t matter. Where the fi lm isn’t as strong is in revealing what draws some men to crave the escape that femdom provides them. The takeaway from A Wicked Eden is that those who create femdom video content are regular people, just like the rest of us. And some of them, like Goddess Alexandra Snow, are very good at what they do. g
Fetishist’s straight status battles with kink urges by Dan Savage
b I’M EXTREMELY KINKY, with an emphasis on extreme. To give an example, I love long-term and extremely restrictive bondage. Think full-body casts or getting locked up for an entire weekend. I’m a 32-year-old straight male who has been married for five years. In the last year, we opened up our marriage because my sexual desires were putting too much of a strain on the marriage. My wife is incredible, and we do many wonderful kinky things together, but I needed more. More frequency, more intensity. Since then, I’ve seen some other women, but looking around I came to the realization that gay men have all the fun! I often see these incredibly intense sexual experiences that I so desire in amateur gay porn or on various gay men’s fetish profi les. I think men have a higher propensity to pursue these kinds of things.
Dan advises a straight kinkster struggling with a desire to engage with men to set limits.
I’ve been talking to a guy who shares a very similar set of kinks, and it’s been great. He showed me Recon, which has opened a whole new world up to me. I’m
struggling right now. It’s like a battle between my identity as a kinkster/fetishist and my identity as straight. I think the former is going to win, but certain things concern me. I don’t know if I’ll feel repulsed to have, say, a dick in my mouth. And I don’t want the poor guy that I play with to have to deal with my own internal psychological drama. I grew up in a very rural area that was extremely homophobic. I was bullied and called a faggot constantly. I’ve just recently been feeling less shame about being kinky and now there’s this whole other level of shame that I am scared to contend with. Am I silly for considering doing stuff with men even though I’m a lot more attracted to women, just in order to fulfi ll these kinks? - Brooding Over Unmet Needs Daily
“I felt very much in this person’s shoes at one point in my life,” said bondage-porn star James “Heavy” Woelfel. Just like you, BOUND, Heavy was always turned on by extremely heavy bondage scenarios. That was the reason he chose “Heavy Bondage For Life” as his porn name. And just like you, BOUND, Heavy once felt conflicted about getting tied by other men because he didn’t identify as gay or bisexual at the time. “I was really worried that if I played with men that meant my identity had to change too,” said Heavy, looking back at that time in his life. “But seeking out other genders to play with doesn’t necessarily have to change your identity.” Heavy’s identity ultimately did change—he now identifies as queer—but he wants you to know that your identity
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doesn’t have to change. “I view bondage the same as getting together with friends for a round of golf or shooting hoops, watching a movie or game together,” said Heavy. “I’ve had many bondage encounters that involved sex, but I’ve had even more that were simply about the bondage itself.” What Heavy is suggesting here, BOUND, is that you can meet up with another guy for a heavy bondage scene and enjoy the bondage—and even get off on the bondage—without having “sex”. You can consent to being a guy’s bondage sub for an evening or a weekend without having to consent to sucking his dick or letting him fuck your ass. “BOUND just needs to be direct about what he’s looking for when he reaches out to the guys he might like to play with,” said Heavy. “He needs to have the same conversations he had with his wife about limits, comfortability levels, and intentions. And if someone’s pushy about certain things that he’s unsure about, then they’re likely not the right person for him.” Bondage tops on Recon with the kind of gear required to put you in truly restrictive bondage will most likely have heard from other straight and/or straight-identified guys who were in it for the bondage, not the sex. If simply getting to tie you up isn’t enough—if a gay bondage top isn’t interested in a bondage-only scene with you—he’ll decline to play with you. “The most important thing is to find good and genuine people to share these kinds of experiences with,” said Heavy. “Bondage is inherently dangerous, especially when you’re the one being put in bondage, and it requires a lot of trust. BOUND needs to make sure he’s putting his trust in the right people.”
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Dan’s heavy-bondage consultant—who changed his sexual identity from straight to queer—tells a fretful fetishist that playing with other men can be just like playing golf. Photo by Vizualini/Getty.
So how do you know if you’re interacting and negotiating with and possibly playing with the right kind of guys? In addition to trusting your gut—always trust your gut—check their references. If you’re meeting bondage tops on Recon, you can send messages directly to the guys listed as friends on their profiles. Someone with a lot of friends (and a lot of original play pics) is a much safer bet than someone with no friends or pics, BOUND, but if you’re tempted to play with someone without friends listed on his profile, ask to be put in touch with other men he’s played with. If he refuses, BOUND, don’t play with him. “The gay men I played with when I was still identifying as straight were generally very respectful,” added Heavy. “I did have a few experiences where my limits weren’t respected. But, thankfully, I’m okay, and I learned from those experiences.”
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And Heavy wants you to know that there are women out there who are into intense bondage. “It’s a myth that only men play to the level BOUND is interested in playing at,” said Heavy. “Though I’ve had many incredible experiences with men, I’ve met just as many women that wanted to lock me up in the most serious forms of restraint you could ever imagine.” Follow Heavy on Twitter @for_heavy, on Instagram @_heavybondage4life_, and Only Fans at Heavybondage4life. b AS WE COME into the holidays, I am dreading having to spend time with my siblingsin-law. They are fake, self-absorbed, and delusional. At family dinners, they always serve themselves first. They don’t wait until everyone is served before starting, and they are
often finished before everyone is served. They chew with their mouth open and talk with their mouth full. They talk about themselves constantly. They are rapidly approaching middle age and have never held a full-time or permanent job. As far as anyone knows, they have never been kissed or even on a date. At first, I tried to cut them some slack. They are sheltered and don’t really have any friends. Recently, I have taken to muting them on social media so that I don’t have to see their insipid posts. I have also started skipping events with my partner’s family, but I feel guilty when I do this. Also, I feel like it would be inappropriate to tell my partner how I feel. So, what do I do? Continue to suck it up, or further distance myself and risk hurt feelings for being absent? Or do I come clean with my partner and risk hurting them? I don’t know what I would expect them to do other than offer me absolution for missing events. - In-Law Lacking Substance
terrible table manners—if someone chews with their mouth open— don’t you want them to serve themselves first and finish before you sit down to eat? As for the rest of it… It’s hard not to feel sorry for your sibling-in-law, ILLS, but it’s easy for me to feel sorry for them because I don’t have to watch them chew or listen to them talk about themselves. And while avoiding your siblingin-law this Christmas would be pretty simple (just plead Omicron), I don’t see how you can avoid seeing your partner’s sibling in the future—seeing and tolerating and, perhaps, finding some pity in your heart for them. g
If someone has
Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Email: questions@savagelove.net. Columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at www.savage.love.
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