What’s up: Movie night, Jacques Demy, Islendingadagurinn, Pile x Ali Wan Kenobi, The Sadies, walking tour

Movie Night at Lyric Theatre

• Lyric Field, Assiniboine Park
• Fridays to Aug. 22
• Free

Part of Assiniboine Park’s summer entertainment series, Movie Night makes a return with its usual double bill of offerings during two time slots Fridays – an early showing at 6:30 p.m. and a late feature at 8:45 p.m.

Kicking things off tomorrow is the animated classic The Lion King followed by Mufasa. The bill on Aug. 8 starts with Pixar’s Inside Out 2, followed by Twilight. On the third Friday in August, the adorable Minions will take over the screens in Despicable Me 4, and the late feature is Thunderbolts*.

The season ends with tearjerkers Wild Robot and Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s Wicked on Aug. 22.

Lyric Theatre’s concession stand will be sell popcorn, ice-cream and other snacks.

— AV Kitching

 

The New Wave Musicals of Jacques Demy

• WAG-Qaumajuq Rooftop Sculpture Garden, 300 Memorial Blvd.
• Friday, 9:15 p.m.
• Admission $20

The Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq and the Winnipeg Film Group have teamed up for a rooftop screening series in August focusing on the vividly colourful, fantastical work of French New Wave filmmaker Jacques Demy.

The mini-retrospective begins with 1964’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a whimsical, candy-coloured movie musical starring Catherine Deneuve as Genvieve, an umbrella-shop owner’s daughter who falls in love with Guy, a handsome garage mechanic played by Nino Castelnuovo, only for him to be sent away to war.

Scored by frequent collaborator Michel Legrand, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg won the Palme d’Or at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for five Academy Awards and made Deneuve a star.

The series will continue with screenings of Donkey Skin (1970) on Aug. 15 and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) on Aug. 29. Screenings start at 9:15 p.m. Note: these films are in French with English subtitles.

— Jen Zoratti

 

Islendingadagurinn

• Gimli, various locations
• Friday through Monday
• Free

The 136th annual celebration Icelandic Festival of Manitoba, also known as Islendingadagurinn, takes place in Gimli this weekend with a four-day schedule featuring food, drink, music, art, special guests and various entertainment at venues throughout the lakeside community.

Among events running all weekend are the midway and rides, Vingólf beverage gardens, the historically inspired viking village (including combat demonstrations), craft vendors, art displays and live music. For the wee ones there’s plenty of children’s entertainment and a petting zoo.

Friday sees the festival’s first VIP cocktail reception at Johnson Hall, featuring music from local and Icelandic musicians.

Next to the water, the beach volleyball tournament and sand castle contest kick off on Saturday morning before local and visiting contestants undertake remarkable feats of strength at the fourth annual Magnus Classic strongman competition starting at noon at the foot of the viking statue.

On the pier, the inaugural Islendinga-Derby fishing contest takes place from 1-4 p.m. If you’re around later in the evening, a fireworks display happens at 10:30 p.m. over the harbour.

Cheer on the runners in the annual one-mile, five-kilometre and 10-mile road races at 8 a.m. or enjoy the pancake breakfast that also gets going around that time.

Check out the annual fris-nok tournament at noon, a locally created game where contestants throw a flying disc to try and knock a beer bottle off a post, and the Islendingadunk contest at 4 p.m., where contestants sit on a soapy pole over the harbour and try to knock their opponent into the water with a wet sponge-filled sack.

Monday sees the annual parade get rolling at 10 a.m., with a number of activities continuing throughout the day, including the scholarship award presentation and traditional program in the afternoon featuring Icelandic President Halla Tómasdóttir.

Admission to most events is free, with food and drink available for purchase throughout the festivities and ride tickets available at the midway. For a complete list of events and for more information see icelandicfestival.com.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Pile x Ali Wan Kenobi tape release

• Public Domain, 633 Portage
• Friday, 9 p.m.
• Admission $10

Ali Wan Kenobi keeps pumping it out.

That’s the monicker for the mysterious local producer who seems to put out a new mixtape of lo-fi house and hip hop every month or two. (Last we checked his bandcamp, he’d produced over 30 of such short albums since the pandemic.)

But quantity doesn’t always trump quality even when the former is in strong supply and Ali has long been immersed in the most experimental styles of Internet-centric “boom bap” beats.

For the second time in the past year, Ali has teamed up with a local rapper to produce a vocal-driven EP heralded by a release show at the Public Domain. Last time it was Dill, this time it’s rapper-visual artist Pile, whose grit, rasp and wit brings to mind the early sounds of Tyler, the Creator.

Despite obviously drawing heavily on samples in his beats, Ali tends to pepper his shows with live instrumentalists and singers. This one’s no different, featuring a who’s who of the local hip hop and R&B scene.

—Conrad Sweatman

 

The Sadies

• Blue Note Park, 220 Main St.
• Tonight, 8 p.m.
• Tickets $35 at eventbrite.ca

The Sadies can’t be stopped.

The genre-spanning Toronto band returns to Winnipeg tonight with a show at Blue Note Park just over a year after their last sold-out show at the same outdoor venue.

The band — Travis Good (guitar, fiddle mandolin, vocals), Sean Dean (bass) and Mike Belitsky (drums) — has continued touring as a trio following the unexpected death of founder vocalist-guitarist Dallas Good on Feb. 17, 2022 of a coronary condition.

The group, which formed in 1994, remains a live force to be reckoned with, offering up a mix of old-school country and western, roots, bluegrass, garage rock and twangy surf during unpredictable sets that have been known to last as long as three hours.

Opening the show is local bluegrass outfit the D. Rangers, which has continued as a quartet following the death of beloved fiddle player Don Zueff last October at the age of 73.

— Rob Williams

 

Poverty and Prosperity: A Walk Down Early 1900s Broadway

• Alloway Arch at The Forks
• Thursday 2 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Tickets $15 at fareharbour.com

Walking tours are ingenious ways to learn a city, even one you think you know. Exercise plus knowledge equals time well spent, especially during Winnipeg’s short but glorious summers.

This tour takes history-hungry visitors on a trek from the Alloway Arch at The Forks to Dalnavert Museum (61 Carleton St.), the former home of Sir Hugh John Macdonald.

Macdonald (1850-1929) is a former premier of Manitoba and the son of John A. Macdonald, Canada’s First Prime Minister. Built in 1895, Dalnavert was converted into a museum in 1974 after a top to bottom restoration by the Manitoba Historical Society, including Victorian-era furnishings. The red-brick mansion is now considered one of the finest examples of Queen Anne Revival architecture in Western Canada.

This 60-minute walking tour asks: what was life like for people in Winnipeg 100 years ago? In that era, Winnipeg was still being called the “Gateway to the West” and “Chicago of the North” but things were changing: the First World War, the Spanish flu pandemic and the 1919 General Strike had already happened and the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression were on the horizon. But from the very beginning, Winnipeg’s built landscape was shaped by classism and inequality.

The tour explores Winnipeg’s built landscape, what organizers are calling “Winnipeg’s roots and foundations,” from boom to bust to the present day.

The Poverty and Prosperity walking tour is offered every Thursday and Saturday until Aug. 28. Dalnavert also offers a Homeland of the Red River Métis walking tour Aug. 8 at 1:30 p.m. that leaves from the museum.

Tickets for this tour are $15 at friendsofdalnavert.ca (members pay $5).

— Ariel Gordon