Edmonton Film Festival

Nextfest showcases talents of next generation

The Edmonton Chamber Music Society once again brings together some of North America's finest musicians in its fourth annual Summer Solstice Festival. The 2011 Festival features Angela Cheng (piano), Lara St. John (violin), Roman Borys (cello), Alvin Chow (piano), Anthony Flynn (tenor), Marina Hoover (cello), Jasmine Lin (violin), Michael Massey (piano), Annalee Patipatanakoon (violin) , Charles Pilon (viola) and Patricia Tao (piano & Festival Director). Gypsy Voices (June 24, 8 p.m.) Liszt: Revolutionary Romantic (June 25, 8 p.m.) Summer Passion (June 26, 3 p.m.)

Tomorrow night, the 16th edition of Nextfest kicks off in Edmonton igniting the talent of a new generation of young artists.

For the following 11 days until June 12, this multi-disciplinary showcase will be devoted to breaking new ground and presenting edgy works.

The variety seems limitless. Check out an experimental theatre piece where a famous painting brings people to life. Or a musical series featuring everything from jazz to electronica. See the contemporary dance of birds affected by an oil spill. Or a film where a young woman is the unwitting subject of a sinister experiment.

Curator Steve Pirot has programmed theatre, music, dance, a film fest and a visual arts exhibition. For fun there’s the Nextfest NiteClubs, a series of evening performance parties where no two are alike.

What makes this offering so vibrant is that budding artists, some of whom are still in high school, run many aspects of the festival. The end result is a series of works that broach subjects ranging from gender issues and environmentalism to the cult of materialism and people’s relationships to material things.

When all is said and done, more than 500 young artists from their teens to early 30s will participate in Edmonton’s largest youth culture festival.

Even the St. Albert area has a few ambassadors. Former St. Albert Children’s Theatre alumna Sarah Van Tassel directs Gone , a tale about a small-town disappearance while Legal’s Joelle Prefontaine stars in Guernica , the story of Picasso’s famous painting.

“Erika Luckert (the playwright for Guernica ) was part of the high school students mentorship program last year and she returns as part of the main stage. That makes me feel good. It’s about developing ongoing works rather than each festival is an entity in itself,” says Pirot.

NFB films to screen at Dreamspeakers Film Festival in Edmonton ...

Dreamspeakers is a film festival based in Edmonton, Alberta, showcasing films made by Aboriginal filmmakers from around the globe. This year’s edition runs June 1-4. The NFB will be presenting 4 films (both animation and live action) as well as a compilation of animated shorts by filmmakers from Nunavut ( Nunavut Animation Lab ).

The films include Waseteg

“When the first Dene filmmaker returned home to Canada’s Northwest Territories, his people had no words for his new art. They called it “Dreamtalking”. When you make films a Dene elder said, you are speaking your dreams. Edmonton, Alberta becomes the site of an international gathering of our own Dreamtalkers: filmmakers, performers and artists. Indigenous people from around the globe gather to share their common bond, a linkage with of a natural world whose harmonies and rhythms are being forgotten by those that came later.