What’s Up: Elvis, documentaries, local music pop-up, FortWhyte, Al Simmons

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2023 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rockin’ Elvis Christmas with Rory Allen

• Friday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m.
• Club Regent Event Centre, 1425 Regent Ave. W.
• Tickets from $31.25 plus fees at ticketmaster.ca

While a white Christmas might still be uncertain for Manitoba this year, Saskatchewan Elvis Presley tribute artist Rory Allen is coming to town to make sure the holiday season is just the right amount of blue.

Allen returns to Winnipeg Friday with his finest jewel-encrusted jumpsuit, his sideburns and an 11-piece band for his Rockin’ Elvis Christmas with Rory Allen show, where he’ll bust out the King’s holiday classics as well as plenty of other faves from throughout Presley’s legendary career, including his infamous Las Vegas era.

Pick up Elvis-themed stocking stuffers at Allen’s merch table, including a glittery blue Christmas tree ornament and more.

While nearly everyone loves to spend Christmas with the King, a handful of tickets to see Allen and his band are still available at wfp.to/6iQ.

— Ben Sigurdson

Filipino film features in new documentary challenge

• Sunday, Dec. 17
• Dave Barber Cinematheque, 100 Arthur St.
• Tickets: General admission: $10; students and seniors $8; members $6

Local Filipino filmmaker MC de Natividad’s latest project, The New Balikbayan Box, will be showing this weekend as part of Winnipeg Film Group’s Gimme 10 in 30! documentary challenge.

“Balikbayan boxes are traditional care packages sent by those within the Filipino diaspora to loved ones in the Philippines. When I was going back home this summer, I wanted to make one, and then it made me think about questions like, why do we make these? And will future generations continue this practice? I made this film to have this dialogue,” de Natividad explains.

Visual artist Charles Romeo Venzon, who is featured in the documentary, spoke about his balikbayan box installation.

“To acknowledge the current complexities of the Philippines and ongoing economic reliance on the Filipino diaspora in Winnipeg, Balikbayan Box — Remittance Project — Hereforu, a print media artwork and sculpture, sparks conversation and creates active participation from the wider community,” Venzon says.

De Natividad collaborated with all-Filipino team of local filmmakers to complete the film in a little more than two weeks after being approached by the organizers halfway through the challenge deadline.

“Other filmmakers had turned down the opportunity, so they reached out to me. I was in Ottawa at the time and waited until I got home to work on the film, which meant we had just over two weeks to complete the film instead of the intended four,” de Natividad says.

For the Gimme 10 in 30! documentary challenge, 10 local filmmakers were selected based on a lottery system and tasked with completing a new documentary in 30 days. All 10 docs are eligible for a $500 cash prize for the Audience Choice Award, which will be voted on live by the audience after the screening.

— AV Kitching

House of Wonders Holiday Merch Pop-Up

• Saturday, Dec. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m.
• Riley Grae, 701 Corydon Ave.
• Free performances

House of Wonders had a wonderful year. The Winnipeg record label and recording studio’s small but mighty roster of artists each reached new heights with its releases in 2023.

Amos the Kid released his debut LP Enough as It Was in the spring, sounding like a Prairie Kurt Vile and inspiring a low-key indie cowboy tent revival at Festival du Voyageur. Tinge’s debut EP Big Deep Sigh reverberated loud and clear, earning Veronica Blackhawk’s band a shoutout from the Grammys as one of five Indigenous artists audiences “need” to know. Virgo Rising played so well at the album launch of their inspiring and crystalline sophomore EP Vampyre Year that an audience member proposed to her partner during the band’s single, Tristan.

Add Julien’s Daughter and Jamboree into the mix, and it’s clear label owner Adam Fuhr is onto something good.

As those 2023 releases are popping up on “Best of 2023” lists across the country, House of Wonders is hopping over to Riley Grae for a holiday merch pop-up, with the label’s stock of cassettes, records, and limited-run shirts and other products available at discounted prices. Amos the Kid, Tinge, and Julien’s Daughter are playing free sets at the Corydon shop.

At 8 p.m., on Friday, Bush Lotus — the soulful folk project of Arielle Beaupré — plays the Good Will (625 Portage Ave.) with Mahogany Frog and Sweeping. Go figure: Bush Lotus’ first EP, Floating Kitestrings, was produced at House of Wonders earlier this year. For Saturday’s show, the bilingual Beaupré, who also plays with Amos the Kid, will be backed up by Brian Gluck (drums), Shawn Dearborn (guitar) and Corey Hawkway (bass). (Tickets: $16.88 at reallovewpg.com).

— Ben Waldman

A woodsy brunch with Santa

• Sunday, Dec. 17, 9:30 and 11 a.m.
• FortWhyte Alive, 1961 McCreary Rd.
• Tickets $32 for adults, $16 for kids at Eventbrite

Join the jolliest elf at Buffalo Stone Café this weekend for photos and a prix fixe meal.

The menu for the event at FortWhyte Alive’s onsite restaurant includes a cheese and spinach frittata, roasted baby potatoes with hemp hearts, waffles and sausages, as well as a selection of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and juice. Vegan and vegetarian substitutions are available on request.

Santa will be gathering wishlists and making the rounds for photos during the both seatings.

After brunch, take in some of the park’s regular outdoor weekend programming, including a guided family nature hike, sod house tours and fireside storytelling. Admission to the nature preserve is not included in the ticket price.

— Eva Wasney

Concert to raise funds for St. B charities

• Friday, Dec, 15, 7:30 p.m.
• St. Boniface Cathedral, 180 Ave. de la Cathedrale
• Free admission, but donations collected

Children’s entertainer Al Simmons headlines a Friday night benefit that will offer a hearty Noel and raise funds for two St. Boniface organizations that help people in need.

Besides Simmons’s zany antics, Noel Chez Nous — Christmas at Home will welcome three other Winnipeg-based acts: Burnstick, the Cree/Métis husband-and-wife folk duo of Jason and Nadia Burnstick, francophone jazz singer Suzanne Kennelly and Myron Schultz, the multi-instrumentalist from the klezmer group Finjan.

While admission is free at the cathedral, which has a capacity of 600, donations will be collected for l’Accueil Francophone, which helps French-speaking newcomers to Manitoba, and the Société St. Vincent de Paul, a lay Catholic group that aids the poor, regardless of race, creed, gender, opinion or age.

— Alan Small