Thursday, September 22, 2016

A Man of Dance - Vincent Warren

 A MAN OF DANCE / Un Homme de Danse 
by Marie Brodeur

Canada, Quebec /  2016 / 83 minutes

Selected for the Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec (FCVQ)
Premièred at the International Festival of Films on Art - FIFA 2016
FIFA 2016 winner of the Best Canadian Film Award

A MAN OF DANCE (Un Homme de Danse) is a documentary feature about the life and times of dancer, curator and historian Vincent Warren. He was the bright shining star of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, the male principle dancer who contributed to this ballet's company to succeeded in acquiring, in a rather short time, the worldwide recognition and great reputation.

The film documents "la belle epoque" of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and its beginnings with the founder Madame Ludmilla Chiriaeff. It shows extracts from its major performances and focuses on the public's interest they steered. But most importantly, the film highlights the life and the creative, artistic career, as well as the major contribution of the company's lead dancer Vincent Warren. That period of Les Grandes Ballets' youth and blossoming is revealed through Vincent Warren's on screen recollections and reminiscences, as well as the vast documentation and a number of video clips, many of which came from Vincent Warren's memorabilia collection and his personal, very unique, and the largest dance related library.

The film presents a remarkable man and his achievements, and also focuses on his vast interactions with the artistic milieu of his days, as well as his great love of the dance and his respect and consideration for his dancing partners and colleagues. It is an inspiring film that also helps to reconnect Montrealers to their recent cultural past.


Official Synopsis:
"From Igor Stravinsky to Norman McLaren to Frank O’Hara, Vincent Warren has touched hands with history. This American-born star dancer of Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens has always been inhabited by the importance of dance, art and culture in society and has worked his whole life as the bearer of beauty. From his début at the Old Metropolitan Opera and throughout his career, he established a reputation as a formidable dancer, historian and curator. The recipient of several awards including the Order of Canada, Vincent Warren has, to a certain extent, incarnated great social and artistic trends both in Canada and in the United States. A MAN OF DANCE is the story of this living legend and his historical era." 


About the filmmaker

Marie Brodeur comes from the visual arts, dance and theater. She studied with a number of renowned visual and theatrical artists such as Irene Whittome, Gilles Maheu, Linda Rabbin, Martine Epoque, Jean Asselin, Merce Cunningham and Jean-Pierre Perrault. Following a brilliant 10-year dance career in modern ballet in Canada, the United States and Europe, Marie Brodeur took on a new career in 1986 as a documentary filmmaker, specializing mostly in art and dance. She was honored with two UNESCO prizes, recognizing her films (Danse du guerrierLa danse en Asie : la magie en mouvement) for their “exceptional contribution to the conservation of our world cultural heritage.” Many of her films are now part of the permanent collections of esteemed institutions such as the Lincoln Centre Performing Arts Library in New York, the Cinémathèque de Paris and the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art.

A MAN OF DANCE

Director: Marie Brodeur
With: Vincent Warren and the participation of Annette av Paul, Arnab Bandyopadhyay, Anik Bissonnette, Peter Boneham, Jean-Sébastien Couture, Paul-André Fortier, Linde Howe-Beck, Chris Huizinga, Véronique Landory, Marie-Josée Lecours, Brian Macdonald, Mamata Niyogi-Nakra, Gaétan Patenaude, Aileen Passloff and Jeanne Renaud.
Cinematography: Sylvestre Guidi, Marie Brodeur
Editing: Michel Giroux
Online editing: Denis Pilon (ACIC)
Original Music Score: Thomas Alain Thériault
Sound: Louis Léger, Alain Thériault, Jean Laurence Thériault
Sound Design: Catherine Van Der Donckt 
Sound Mix: Bruno Bélanger (PRIM)
Producers: Alain Thériault, Marie Brodeur
Executive Producer: TAP Film Inc.
Production: La Compagnie de la Marie
Distribution: SPIRA



In Theatres on September 30
A MAN OF DANCE will then open in Quebec theatres on September 30, in French at Cinémathèque québécoise (Montreal) and Cinéma Le Clap (Quebec), and in English at Cinéma du Parc (Montreal). The film will also be screened in theatres throughout the province this autumn.


Monday, September 12, 2016

World Press Photo 16: Montreal 2016

Montreal World Press Photo 16
August 31 - October 2, 2016

This is the Montréal's 11th edition of World Press Photo, with 150 winning images, as well as four complementary exhibits. It is held at Bonsecours Market in Old Montréal. 


Often compared to the Oscars of photography, the World Press Photo is the most prestigious annual competition of professional photography in the world. Gathered in Amsterdam in February, jury members awarded the first prizes to 41 photographers from 21 countries out of 83 000 submitted images from 5,775 photo journalists across 128 countries.


This emblematic exhibition that has kicked off Montréal’s cultural season, proposes a series of images depicting major events of the year, covered in eight categories. Themes such as the Paris attacks, the earthquake in Nepal, the refugee crisis and tensions in the Middle East are showcased amongst the photographs selected by a jury of 18 international professionals.


“The Montréal edition is one of the most popular amongst the hundred resented around the world”, stated Matthieu Rytz, president of the event. “Our privileged relationship with our visitors speaks volumes about the Montréal community’s curiosity and level of involvement in the evolution of our societies. It also demonstrates the relevance of presenting such a high quality window on the world”.


World Press Photo of the Year: Hope for a New Life
(Poto just below.)
The photo of the year has been awarded to Australian photographer Warren Richardson. Entitled Hope for a New Life, the winning photo in black and white depicts a man handing a baby through a razor wire barrier, crossing the border from Serbia into Hungary


Founded in 1955, World Press Photo is a non-profit organization with headquarters in Amsterdam. The foundation is committed to developing and encouraging the highest standards in photo journalism and documentaries worldwide. In the course of the year, the exhibition travels around a hundred cities in over 45 countries. World Press Photo benefits from the support of the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon.


After Montréal, the exhibition will be presented in Toronto, October 4 - 25, 2016, (Brookfield Place, Allen Lambert Galleria). Then it will travel back to the Province of Quebec, to be shown at the Chicoutimi Pulperie Regional Museum, November 3 - 27, 2016.


For more information, consult Montreal's World Press Photo 16 website here.

Click on images to enlarge them.
Hover your mouse over images for credits.


The top most photo by Nadia Slejskova.
All other photos courtesy of World Press Photo.

Description of World Press Photos (from top to bottom):

Nature, 2nd prize stories – photo 2
© Brent Stirton, South Africa, Getty Images for National Geographic
Title: Ivory Wars 
November 17, 2014. Michael Oryem (29) poached elephant with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), operating mainly in the Garamba National Park in DRC. He says he was asked by LRA leader Joseph Kony to take ivory to him in Darfur, Sudan, and that the LRA trades the ivory to the Sudanese Army. Oryem defected from the LRA and helped take Ugandan forces through the border into the Central African Republic to retrieve a stash of ivory he had previously hidden. He is carrying two of the six tusks he hid.

General News, 3rd prize stories
© Daniel Berehulak, Australia, for The New York Times
Title: An Earthquake's Aftermath, Nepal
Nepalese villages watch a helicopter picking up a medical team, dropping aid at the edge of a makeshift landing zone in Gumda, Nepal, 09 May 2015.

Daily Life, 1st prize singles
 © Kevin Frayer, Canada, Getty Images
 Title: China's Coal Addiction
Chinese men pull a tricycle in a neighborhood next to a coal-fired power plant in Shanxi, China, on 26 November 2015. A history of heavy dependence on burning coal for energy has made China the source of nearly a third of the world's total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the toxic pollutants widely cited by scientists and environmentalists as the primary cause of global warming.

General News, 1st prize stories
© Sergey Ponomarev, Russia, for The New York Times
Title: Reporting Europe's Refugee Crisis
Refugees arrive by boat near the village of Skala on Lesbos, Greece, 16 November 2015.

World Press Photo of the Year
© Warren Richardson, Australia
Title: Hope for a New Life, Serbia/Hungary border
August 28, 2015. A baby is handed through a hole in a razor wire barrier, to a Syrian refugee who has already managed to cross the border from Serbia into Hungary, near Röszke. Hungary was hardening its stance towards refugees attempting to enter the country. In July, Hungary began construction on a four-meter-high barrier fence along the entire length of the frontier with Serbia, to close off border crossings through all but official routes. Refugees attempted to find ways through before the fence was completed on 14 September. This group had spent four hours hiding in an apple orchard at night, dodging border police, being gassed with pepper spray, and trying to find a way across.

Nature, 1st prize singles
 © Rohan Kelly, Australia, Daily Telegraph  
 Title: Storm Front on Bondi Beach
November 6, 2015. A massive shelf cloud moves towards Bondi Beach.The cloud was part of a weather front that brought violent thunderstorms, with local media reporting damaging winds, hailstones the size of golf balls, and heavy rainfall. Shelf clouds are low cloud banks often with smooth or layered surfaces, and black, turbulent bases.

Nature, 1st prize stories – photo 3
 © Tim Laman, USA
Tough Times for Orangutans
June 13, 2014. Orphan baby orangutans get a ride from their night cages to a patch of forest where they can play for a day, at the International Animal Rescue facility in Ketapang.

Sports, 3rd prize singles
 © Jonas Lindkvist, Sweden, for Dagens Nyheter
 Title: Neptun Synchro
 December 13, 2015. Members of Neptun swimming club’s synchronized swimming section perform in  sailboat position, during pre-Christmas Lucia festivities.Synchronized swimming demands advanced water  skills and requires strength, flexibility and breath control, as well as artistry and precise timing. Neptun has  nearly 100 members who participate in synchronized swimming, ranging from four to 65 years old.

Nature, 3rd prize stories – photo 3
 © Christian Ziegler, Germany, for National Geographic 
Title: Chameleon Under Pressure
 November 28, 2014. A dominant male of a rare turquoise form of panther chameleon displays its colors.