Happy Valentine’s Day, Flin Flon and area! We are off again, on a whirlwind ride of arts and cultural activities in the region. Tomorrow, Feb. 15, we have another film from the TIFF series of movies. This one is “Franz,” a drama set in Germany after the First World War. It is directed by François Ozon, a French director, and stars Paula Beer and Pierre Niney. Though these may not be household names to Canadians, Paula Beer won a Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Performer at the Venice Film Festival and the film was nominated for 11 César Film Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars. This will be a worthwhile film to see.
It is an almost-love story with many plot twists involving the family and girlfriend of a young German soldier who was killed in the war. It is slow and languorous and quite beautifully filmed. It will be shown, as usual, at the Dorothy Ash Theatre in Hapnot Collegiate. The start time is 7:30 pm and the cost is $10.
On Feb. 22 we are invited to a Ceilidh at the R.H. Channing Auditorium in Flin Flon Community Hall. The Flin Flon Arts Council presents the Derina Harvey Band, a Celtic rock band from Edmonton, Alta. This quartet has a very east coast feel, performing a wide variety of traditional and contemporary Celtic music with some original jigs and reels for good measure (see what I did there? Pretty slick wording). They have released a couple of albums, the most recent being Rove and Go which includes one of my all-time favourite songs, “Caledonia” by Dougie MacLean. They also have “Galway Girl” by Steve Earle and “Mary Ellen Carter” by Stan Rogers on that album. I hope they have some for sale.
Best bring your dancing shoes to the Community Hall though, as the Arts Council is planning a party. Armed with the knowledge that no one can just sit and listen to these songs, there will be a bar with with Harp lager and Guinness (and regular beer and wine) for your enjoyment and a dance floor in front of the tables. Patrons are invited to bring their own snacks for the evening and to kick back and have fun. Tickets are $30 and are available at Northern Rainbow’s End. It’s going to be a great evening, “Just trust us!” That’s the new slogan for the Flin Flon Arts Council, created on the Amisk Tours bus to Come From Away. You will like it, just trust us! Oh, and tell us what you think of the slogan!
The last event to report in this column is a paint party with Monique Rainville at the NorVA Centre and Art Gallery, on Feb. 23. These paint marathons are becoming so popular, NorVA artists are taking turns now, bringing them to you. At the end of the evening, you have a finished painting that you completed yourself and seriously, they look great! Perhaps all the painting impaired people just haven’t gone yet. The cost for this evening is $55 which includes the stretched canvas and all the paint and brushes you will need, along with the expert instruction. This is brush on canvas painting and is called Moonlight Paint Party so I am going out on a limb here and predicting that you will be painting the moon, but not in the dark. Call NorVA Centre soon at 204-687-4237 to register.
