There is absolutely no point in me trying to identify likely films at the Vancouver International Film Festival (Sept 26 – Oct 11) – not while Ron Reed is alive and kicking. Definitely not a one-trick pony, he manages to watch every movie within a 100-mile radius while keeping a firm hand on the tiller at Pacific Theatre.
This is how he puts it on his Soul Food Movies blog: “One of the great pleasures of September – compensating in part for summer’s end and the return to work – is the Vancouver International Film Festival. Combing through the titles, making lists, adjusting schedules. I’m always watching for possible Soul Food movies – films with a spiritual flavour.”
So far, he suggests There Will Come a Day (“about a young woman searching for herself while working as a missionary in Brazil”) and A Place in Heaven (“When a retired general lies on his deathbed, bitter and alone, his estranged son, an ultra-orthodox Jew, tries to save his soul from hell.”) – but go to Soul Food Movies and read it all firsthand. Probably more in the coming days as well.
Check out Peter Chattaway’s Film Chat blog too. Nothing so far this year, but I imagine he’ll come up with something. Peter wrote for BC Christian News for years, and for the likes of Books & Culture; he’s very knowledgeable.
And so much more . . .
Here are some of the myriad signs of life in the Church of Vancouver this week:
Monday the 23rd
* Reflect on your TRC experiences at Streams of Justice.
Tuesday the 24th* Underwear concerns: Got Ginch? at Union Gospel Mission.
* For those Living Single Again, find support at West Van Baptist.
Wednesday the 25th
* Ken Shigematsu, Dave Koop, Dave Carson and Giulio Gabeli will lead Mission Fest’s Surrey Leadership Seminar at Cedar Grove Church. (The Vancouver edition, with a slight change of cast, is October 2.)
* Join Craig Greenfield, back briefly from slums of Cambodia, and spoken word poet Micah Bournes, as Alongsiders celebrate launch and film preview.* Paul Kariya on the Challenges of Environmental Stewardship at A Rocha.
* Parental guidance: Doing Life Together at Valley Church in North Van.
* Lawyer and TWU president Bob Kuhn will be featured in Global TV’s Undefeated: An Intimate Portrait of Parkinson’s. 8 pm.
Thursday the 26th
* The Emergence of the Indigenous People with Br. John Hascall at VST (with more on Saturday).
* ‘Arts and Narrative’ is the focus at TWU’s 7th annual Verge Conference (continues Friday).* Regent College president Rod Wilson addresses Helping a Hurting Friend at the Bitter Tasting Room in the DTES.
Friday the 27th
* Metro Vancouver Alliance is holding a Community Leadership Institute Friday and Saturday at Gordon House in the West End.
* If you want to get away from it all – and you’re a woman – head up to Rockridge Canyon to Unplug and Simplify.
* Hear Regent’s former president Walter Wright on The Third Third of Life.
Saturday the 28th
* Walk the Wall with ICC. It’s not the Great Wall, but this annual walk around the Stanley Park Seawall is about saving abandoned and disabled children in China.
* Or, Run for the River with A Rocha – the Campbell River
* A Vancouver Christian Counselling Centre workshop on The Art and Science of Listening.
* One Day in Taizé with Brother Emile for youth, at Christ Church. Brother Emile from Taizé, for the rest of us (actually, all of us). Sing, chant, pray and rest in silence, at St. Andrew’s-Wesley.* Gospel legend Mavis Staples, with Robert Cray at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.
Sunday the 29th
* One church moves in: Westside at The Centre, another (City Lights) reboots on Boundary, and Church at the Hollywood announces it will have to move.
* Sandra Vander Schaaf invites you to a book launch for the intriguingly-titled The Passionate Embrace: Faith, Flesh, Tango.
All week
* Learn about ‘Speaking in Oil’ by Haitao Yin at Regent College.
* Join Pacific Theatre for some real fun at The Foreigner (Wednesday – Saturday).
Looks like a good week to be in Vancouver!