What’s up: Jerry Seinfeld returns, African Movie Festival and a celebration of comics

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This article was published 21/09/2023 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jerry Seinfeld returns to Winnipeg

Friday, Sep. 22, 7:30 p.m.

Canada Life Centre

Tickets $94 to 175+ at Ticketmaster (few left)

It’s been 25 years since Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s groundbreaking “show about nothing,” ended its nine-season run on NBC, winning a number of Emmys, Golden Globes and People’s Choice awards in the process. But Seinfeld, the American comedian known for his signature observational style, hasn’t faded from view.

In addition to his eponymous sitcom, Seinfeld, 69, has hosted the long-running series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, written three books (Is this Anything?, Seinlanguage, and The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book), four comedy specials, including 2020’s Netflix special 23 Hours to Kill, and has worked on dozens of other projects as a director, producer, actor, and documentary subject. He’s getting into the hot corporate biopic market, too, with the forthcoming Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, as director, co-writer, co-producer, and star.

Seinfeld is currently touring a new standup show across North America, which stops at Canada Life Centre on Friday. He was last in Winnipeg in 2016.

— Jen Zoratti

African Movie Festival returns to Manitoba for sixth time

Friday, Sept. 22 to 24, various times

Gas Station Arts Centre, 445 River Avenue

Weekend passes $88.95 (early bird $69.95); day passes ($49.95); for more info, click here

A total of 23 films will be screened at this year’s festival from 16 different African countries including Rwanda, Egypt, South Africa, Senegal, DR Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, and from African Diaspora in Guadeloupe, U.S.A. and Canada.

Short film, The Favor, directed by Wanjiru Njendu from the U.S. kicks off proceedings at 7 p.m. on Friday. Feature-length film Sira, by Apolline Traore follows.

On Saturday the AM-FM symposium at 8:30 a.m. broadly explores fragility and vulnerability in African cinemas and beyond. The symposium will feature a keynote lecture from the Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Toronto, Dr. Alexie Tcheuyap, and a panel discussion, with a lineup of speakers representing academia, cinema, and community organizations.

Screenings on Saturday start at 12:15 p.m. with a total of 10 films shown. Umwali, by director Inès Girihirwe of Rwanda begins the Sunday roster of 11 films.

There will be post-screening interviews with filmmakers.

— AV Kitching

Prairie Comics Festival looks to draw a crowd

Sept. 23 to 24

West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave.

Free to attend

The Prairie Comics Festival — not to be confused with a Comic Convention — takes over the WECC this weekend to celebrate comics, graphic novels, zines and other sequential art made by artists in Manitoba and beyond, with 40 independent artists expected to show and sell their work and three highly accomplished guests taking part in a (no-pun intended) panel discussion.

Coming to town are Vancouver-based NYT bestselling creator Johnnie Christmas, who collaborated with Margaret Atwell on the series Angel Catbird and whose debut graphic novel Swim Team was longlisted for a National Book Award; Megan Kearney, the Toronto writer and illustrator behind Swan Lake: Quest for Kingdoms, called “A fun, ballet-inspired hero’s journey, full of heart, trials, and good humor” in a Kirkus starred review; and Indigenous Voices Award winner Cole Pauls, a Tahltan comic artist from Yukon who received raves for his 2022 collection Kwandur and was best comic and zine of the year by Broken Pencil Magazine in 2017 for Dakwäkãda Warriors.

A full list of exhibitors is available at prairiecomics.com.

— Ben Waldman