culture

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America's largest documentary festival. Each year, the festival presents a selection of more than 100 cutting-edge documentaries from Canada and around the globe. Through its industry programmes, the Festival also provides a full range of professional development, marketing, and networking opportunities for documentary professionals. Below are the remaining (April 23-27)show times and locations for documentaries related to love and relationships. Happy viewing!

From the City of Toronto website for their Wintercity Festival

Experience the enchantment of Nights of Fire, magically created by Cie Carabosse, France's acclaimed fire art troupe in Toronto for their North American premiere. Fuel the flames of your imagination as you wander among intricate sculptures of metal, clay and fire that will transform Nathan Phillips Square into a wonderland of warmth and light.

The gentle illumination of the entire square will unfold over three hours as clay pots are individually lit until 1500 burn in unison, radiating heat and reflective beauty across the urban landscape.Haunting musical performances will accompany the fire installation, delicately enhancing the magic and wonder of the flames.

By Bill Rosenfield

No one can predict where a musical comes from. Classic novels and popular movies have been sources, and real life experiences have found themselves musicalized – but a Spelling Bee?

Well, why not?

For Bill Finn, it began with a phone call from his friend, playwright Wendy Wasserstein, whose weekend nanny had been appearing in a comedy troupe called The Farm on the Lower East Side.  An improvised piece that the group performed, entitled C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, seemed to her to be the perfect gem for a musical comedy. After watching a videotape of it, Finn agreed. With the enlistment of Rachel Sheinkin, they set about developing the piece originally conceived by Rebecca Feldman, into a full-length fully developed show.

There is a memorial concert celebrating the life of Oscar Peterson at Roy Thompson Hall on Saturday, January 12, 2008, at 4 p.m. (doors open at 3 p.m.). Peterson, who died at the age of 82 on December 23, 2007, was one of the world’s best-known and most influential jazz pianists.  A fellow Torontonian, Peterson was awarded the Order of Canada in 1973 and earned seven Grammys during his music career.

By Jonathan Rotsztain

During the past few months, I’ve shouted at you, letting y’all know what shows to see, where, and when. Over the weekend, the thought dawned on me that perhaps my particular- and oft peculiar- taste is not exactly in sync with LoveInToronto.com’s general readership, nor should it be. Music is the universal language, but it is also deeply personal and highly individual. With that logic in mind, I present to you my primer on how to find out about shows and buy tickets for anything and everything that our multicultural, cosmopolitan metropolis has to offer.

By Jonathan Rotsztain

Hailing from the People’s Republic of China, the Twelve Girls Band can only be described as a real treat. This unique act will be at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts this Friday October 26. Bridging the ever-narrower divide between the Occident and the Orient through the power of song, the neatly named ensemble are best known for their haunting takes on American pop classics like Céline Dion’s My Heart Will Go On and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas mixed with classic Chinese fare and flare. Playing traditional Chinese instruments like the guzheng, the yangqin, the pipa, the erhu and flutes, the Girls are going places.

by Anthony Petur

Have you ever imagined what a night’s possibilities could entail if there was no predetermined close to it? Have you ever wished that just once the city would cease from fading into the shadows after last call and instead open itself up into a city that refused to sleep? If so, then brace yourself because tonight your desires will not only be heard, but unleashed into a cabaret of art, sight, senses and choices, all in which will be stretched way past the city’s usual bedtime. Yes, you are reading correctly. Tonight, the City doesn’t sleep.

By Jonathan Rotsztain

Nuit Blanche Toronto is a free, all-night contemporary art thing. Nuit Blanche is Toronto transformed from 7:03pm, Saturday September 29 to 7:00am Sunday September 30. Nuit Blanche is what you expect from fine art: painting, sculpture, photography and so much more – live and interactive dance, video, lights and sounds.