I Heart Edmonton

The Cinema By Emil Tiedemann Every time I drive down 111th Avenue, past the former A1 Trading pawn shop, I think about David Woolfson . He was a Jewish immigrant who ran the pawn shop on the corner of 94th Street, and he was the focus of Rosie Dransfeld ’s Broke. documentary.  Shot entirely at A1 Trading, the movie was a raw look at the real desperation of many of his shop’s inner city clients, focusing on an Aboriginal regular named Chris Hoard . The pair sparked up an unusual kinship, giving way to moments only real life could script.    The screening of 'Broke.' at the then Global Visions Film Festival. Broke. kicked off the 2009 Global Visions Film Festival (now called Northwestfest ), Canada’s longest-running non-fiction film and art fest, screening mostly documentary features and shorts since 1983, when it was known as the Third World Film Festival. This wasn’t my first film fest in Edmonton though, nor would it be my last.  Shortly before Glob...

Some of the latest happenings in Edmonton (EIFF, EIA, CCMA...) BY EMIL TIEDEMANN " E VERY Night Is Opening Night!" That is the slogan for the 24th annual Edmonton International Film Festival , which will take over Edmonton City Centre mall Friday, September 24 to Saturday, October 2 . The 9-day fest will kick off with Opening Night Film Score: A Hockey Musical (Sept. 24) and will tread on with dozens of other features and shorts from across Canada and abroad to our very own backyard. Another returning favourite will be the 6th annual 24/One Challenge , in which filmmakers will have just one full day to put together their own movie, and the top 10 films will premiere at EIFF on Oct. 2, the final day of the festival. Tickets for EIFF 2010 are available at the Empire Theatres box office in City Centre, or at Tix On the Square . Each individual film (or Short Film Package) will cost $13.75, though there are various multi-show passes to choose from as well, including the all-a...

Some of the latest happenings in Edmonton (Heritage Festival, Rock'n August, Monster Burger, etc.)... BY EMIL TIEDEMANN U niversity of Alberta pre-med student Paula Findlay (pictured right) has made our city beam with pride, with her Saturday ( July 24 ) first-place title at the 2010 World Championship Triathlon Series race in London, England. The Edmonton triathlete was the first to cross the finish line (at one hour, 52 minutes, 48 seconds) of the Elite Womens race at Hyde Park. "Oh my God, this is so unbelievable," said an elated Findlay, 21, who has won two other International Triathlon Union World Cup races this year already (Mexico and Quebec). "I felt better than ever on the run today, and just kept pushing as hard as I could." Silver went to Switzerland's Nicola Spirig , and England's Helen Jenkins took bronze. E dmonton's most diverse festival is just around the corner, as organizers are about to launch the 35th annual, 3-day Heritage Fe...

YouTube video shows off Edmonton's most popular festivals BY EMIL TIEDEMANN I T'S time to face facts, autumn has settled in and winter seems to be right around the corner, which means that Edmonton's world-renowned festival season has come to an end. Sure, there are a handful of smaller fests going on as we speak or are coming up soon, but all the major ones have wrapped up for the year, including the Fringe , Folk Fest , Capital Ex , A Taste of Edmonton , Heritage Days and the Street Performers Festival . In fact, it was earlier this month that the last of the big ones, the Edmonton International Film Festival , had ended its '09 season, which led us into the lesser-known DEDfest Horror Film Festival (Oct. 15-18) and the North of Nowhere Expo (Oct.16-31). Although Edmontonians have bid farewell to one of the most prolific festival schedules in North America, we're a year-round festival city and it's only time that stands in the way for the next round of the bi...

Anne Wheeler's Bye Bye Blues kicked off the 2009 EIFF with a free screening on Churchill Square BY EMIL TIEDEMANN O NE week before Edmonton kicks off its 23rd annual International Film Festival on September 25th, it hosted a free double feature screening at Churchill Square last Friday (September 18). Initially intended to be a 2-day series that offered up one picture per evening, organizers were forced to cancel Thursday's outting due to weather, squeezing both films ( Man on Wire and Bye Bye Blues ) into Friday evening instead. Drive-in movie theatres are a thing of the past, or at least they are here in Edmonton, so I was excited to take in Anne Wheeler 's Bye Bye Blues (1989) on the giant inflatable screen (supplied by Fresh Air Cinema ) in the heart of downtown. I had never even heard of this 20-year-old feature film by Edmonton-born director/ writer/ producer Wheeler, but it was more about sitting in a lawn chair in the Square on a Friday evening, sipping on hot ...

With Capital Ex, the Fringe and Folk Fest all behind us, Edmonton settles in for its 23rd annual International Film Festival BY EMIL TIEDEMANN Needless to say--but let's say it anyways--the Edmonton International Film Festival is just an infant dipping its toes in the big boys' pool when it comes to global film fests, but that doesn't mean that our humble event can't offer up some intriguing, inspiring and popcorn-worthy movies that may easily be just as good as anything screening at Cannes or Sundance. "We strive to uncover cinematic gems and celebrate unique voices in movie-making such as directors, writers and producers," claims the EIFF on their official website as part of their "Mission & Objective" statement. "[We're] about films and the people who make them." Well said. The commended fest, which runs this year from September 25th (Friday) to October 3rd (Saturday), inaugurated in 1986 as the 3-day "Local Heroes" a...