Venue :
The Pearl Company
Featured Film :
Manufactured Landscapes
Musical Performers :
Kim and Frank Koren
Doors Open : 6:30pm
Film : 7:30 pm
Music : 9:15 pm
Tickets : $15
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES :
I had to cross some unknown territory through Pennsylvania, which happened to be one of the largest strip mining areas in the United States. All of a sudden I was in this town called Frackville and I thought, “Something feels different here.” I started to drive around the slag heaps and then finally stood in one spot. It was then I realized that as far as my eye could see, everything had been transformed. There was nothing natural left.
-Edward Burtynsky
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is a feature length documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky makes large-scale photographs of 'manufactured landscapes' – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams. He photographs civilization’s materials and debris, but in a way people describe as "stunning" or "beautiful," and so raises all kinds of questions about ethics and aesthetics without trying to easily answer them.
The film follows Burtynsky to China as he travels the country photographing the evidence and effects of that country's massive industrial revolution. Sites such as the Three Gorges Dam, which is bigger by 50% than any other dam in the world and displaced over a million people, factory floors over a kilometre long, and the breathtaking scale of Shanghai's urban renewal are subjects for his lens and our motion picture camera.
Shot in Super-16mm film, Manufactured Landscapes extends the narrative streams of Burtynsky's photographs, allowing us to meditate on our profound impact on the planet and witness both the epicentres of industrial endeavour and the dumping grounds of its waste. What makes the photographs so powerful is his refusal in them to be didactic. We are all implicated here, they tell us: there are no easy answers. The film continues this approach of presenting complexity, without trying to reach simplistic judgements or reductive resolutions. In the process, it tries to shift our consciousness about the world and the way we live in it.
Winner: Genie Award for Best Documentary
Winner: Reel Current Award at the Nashville Film Festival
Winner: Toronto International Film Festival Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film
Winner: Best Canadian Documentary, Atlantic Film Festival
Winner: Best Canadian Documentary, Calgary Film Festival
Winner: Best Feature documentary & Best Canadian Film, Toronto Film Critics Association
Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival
KIM AND FRANK KOREN
Live performances are Kim’s strength. They are full of energy and enthusiasm, and reveal her need to connect with the audience.
"Being on stage for me is a chance to spread my wings and soar. I completely lose myself in the songs I write" Lyrically,
her songs speak of love, loss, truth, and things that make her happy. The demand
for Kim's well-written songs and beautiful voice have led to her performing
across southern Ontario for the past 5 years, sharing stages with the top musical
performers.
"This Dundas-born country rocker has a voice that could melt butter. She writes with Stevie Nicks' power. And her band, Punchbuggy Yellow, led by husband-guitarist Frank Koren, kicks butt. You can hear it all on their CD, Sun Went Down." Graham Rockingham, The Hamilton Spectator
Punchbuggy Yellow begins with Frank Koren, whose professional guitar styles extend from Motown R’n'B (Ruben Kincade) to hard Rock and alt-pop, ‘All Good Children’. Frank's primary musical collaboration is with Kim, both on stage and in the studio. He has enjoyed performing with Ontario treasures such as Harrison Kennedy, Dave Martin, the Dysfunkshunals, Neil Murray, Paula Tessaro and is currently Country artist Colin Amey's live guitarist.