Culture – Page 12 – Nicolas Demers

Vancouver International Film Festival Review: The Eye 3D

This hour-long film takes us on a tour of the Very Large Telescope array in Cerro Paranal, Chile—the most powerful deep-space telescope in the world. We hear the scientists and technicians describe their work and discoveries, and through them get a tantalising glimpse of the cosmos.

I expected to see lots of grand starscapes, as in that IMAX movie on Hubble, but we only see a little bit of those right at the beginning, to get us in the mood. The rest of the movie is very down to earth, a lot of it dealing with life at a compound in the middle of nowhere, and the nitty-gritty details of scientific research and making those ginormous telescopes work. And you know what? This was just as inspirational. The people there absolutely love their work: the phrase “dream come true” comes up at least twice from resident scientists; one relatively minor technician also waxes rhapsodic about the VLT’s work in pushing back the boundaries of knowledge, and awesomely refers to the community of workers as his second family.

But we also hear about the science, and it is beautiful: from the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy (indirectly detected from tracking the movements of nearby stars, themselves detectable only by the VLT), to another scientist’s research into extragalactic black holes and how our own black hole applies to that, to monitoring the ancient light of unbelievably faraway galaxies… Man, working there really would be any astronomy geek’s dream come true.

The ESO is planning an even larger telescope array, called the Extremely Large Telescope. The location still hasn’t been decided as far as I know, but one candidate site is not too far from the Cerro Paranal—it’s really an ideal region, high up and very dry all year round. Even now the next generation of astronomers, in high school or university, are dreaming and working and a select few will get to work on the ELT, looking for Earth-like planets around distant stars and studying light remnants from the first generation of galaxies.

PS: The movie was in 3D, which I found pretty unnecessary. I’m no fan of 3D to begin with, and with most of the scenes being talking heads, or indoors, I really didn’t see why I had to wear an extra pair of glasses. Meh. Still, that was the only sore point.

High School Confidential

The Out on Screen Society does a lot more than put out quality queer cinema. They also run Out in Schools, a program to put queer films in schools all across the province, to facilitate discussion and fight homophobia and bullying. The news have been full of stories of gay teens committing suicide due to bullying—and don’t think it doesn’t happen in Canada. That’s why Out in Schools is such a vital program, because it may be the difference between life and death for some students.

But in spite of the seriousness, there was a lot of fun to be had. Yummy baked goods, a stint in detention where you might have to do lines or get spanked by a nun, dressing up as a nerd or jock, it all adds up to a freaky fetishy fantasy of a high school that never was, where queer is either just another word or the word of the day. And it was awesome. Looking back I probably should have dressed up, if only putting tape on the bridge of my glasses or something, but oh well.

And then you had the cabaret acts. Because these days you can’t put “high school” and “queer” together without it adding up to “Glee,” the first act was a chorus doing “Don’t Stop Believing”. Then you had the usual gamut: a couple drag acts, a truly awesome gardening-themed stripper, a nerdy librarian who tries to keep it classy but can’t help stripping, and a poetry reading. Great fun.

Apologies for the low quality, all I had was my iPhone and the light level wasn’t too good.

Vancouver International Fringe Festival

I don’t think I’d ever gone to a Fringe show before, and this year I went to two! It should have been three, but I’d double-booked myself on Friday and missed Morgan Brayton’s Raccoonery. I thought about rescheduling (which would have meant buying another ticket, since Fringe policy clearly states there are no refunds or exchanges), but I’d just come down with a cold, so that plan was kaput. Still, I got to enjoy two really excellent shows:

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible, live on stage, in front of an audience! And it was awesome. All the scenes, all the songs, plus a few extra surprise ones from Commentary: The Musical, which I’ve never watched so they were brand new (“Ninja Ropes,” “Nobody’s Asian In The Movies”, and “Nobody Wants To Be Moist”). All the classic lines were there, eagerly awaited (“The hammer is my penis.” “The thoroughbred of sin?”), along with a brand new one that got a big laugh from the crowd: when Billy and Moist were discussing truly evil deeds to impress Bad Horse, Moist suggested “slashing funds to the BC arts community.”

(Ooo, politics! See, it’s funny because the Campbell government is evil.)

They did a great job of adapting the action for a small stage with very few actors (for example, in the heist scene the truck was first a tiny remote-controlled one, then left completely offstage.) The actors were fine; the actress playing Penny was a little weaker, and I thought her voice was too soft, but aside from that, no complaints. I absolutely loved the show.

Fucking Stephen Harper

I wasn’t really sure what to expect with Fucking Stephen Harper: How I Sexually Assaulted the 22^nd Prime Minister of Canada and Saved Democracy. I sort of thought we’d get a humorous retelling of the incident where he accidentally touched Stephen Harper’s junk and was charged with sexual assault (though that charge was eventually dismissed). What it turned into was a blistering rant on Canadian Conservative politics, the explicit homophobia of lots of Conservative neanderthals past and present, including the dead-eyed Bush Lite currently running our country, and the apathy of many gay Canadians who think we’ve got it pretty good here. And we do, no question, but there are people in power right now doing their best to turn back the clock and impose their version of Christianity on the country. Whether or not they succeed is up to us.

I really should start on Marci McDonald’s The Armageddon Factor, shouldn’t I?

Davie Day 2010

Ah, the Davie Day festival, the time when local businesses and community groups come out to shine. In the last five years my attendance has been pretty sporadic—last year, for instance, I just remember briefly going up and down Davie Street, saying hi to a few friends, and that was it. But this year, I thought I’d be a little more involved. That meant pictures!

The stretch of Davie between Thurlow and Bute held all the fair-like attractions: an old-time picture booth, complete with faux vintage clothes, a display of vintage cars, a play area for the kiddies in front of the police station… and hunky guys with swords!

Didn’t expect to see the Academie Duello here, since they’re not local to the West End. But I’m also glad to see them, since I missed their show at the PNE. Didn’t quite work up the nerve to handle their swords, though…

And more PNE-style goodness: a horse-drawn carriage! Don’t see those too often outside of Stanley Park. And blacksmiths actually forging shoes!

West of Bute was the haven for local artists. All up and down the street I checked out lovely paintings, sculptures and various crafts. No pictures, though.

The east end, between Thurlow and Burrard, is where you’ll find all the political and activist groups. And ping-pong, for some reason.

I volunteered at the Outgames booth, helping to spread the news about what’s coming to Vancouver next summer. Though to be honest, mostly I stayed under the tent because the weather had turned cold and rainy.

And to be even more honest, I’m not that enthusiastic about the games anymore. The volleyball event still hasn’t been officially declared since VGVA decided not to host (a decision I supported, for many reasons which I won’t get into right now), forcing the Outgames board to look for another host group. I guess Volleyball BC is the next logical choice, but it looks like that hasn’t been finalised. So… there may not even be a volleyball event? Well, that’d be kind of a bummer but, in the grand scheme of things, not that big a deal. It’s only a North American event, after all, and there are plenty of other volleyball tournaments going on. So yeah, we’ll see what happens.

NetSquared Camp 2010

Okay, now that the film festival’s done, I’m finally free to blog about NetSquared Camp 2010, an unconference of activists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and assorted geeks who want to make the world a better place, in a full-day extravaganza of sharing and networking. It was my first NetSquared Camp ever, and I’m still digesting everything I’ve learned. Here’s a rundown of the talks I attended:

Okay, now that the film festival’s done, I’m finally able to blog about NetSquared Camp 2010, an unconference of activists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and assorted geeks who want to make the world a better place, in a full-day extravaganza of sharing and networking. It was my first NetSquared Camp ever, and I’m still digesting everything I’ve learned. Here’s a rundown of the talks I attended:

Social Media Ninja School

Cecilia Lu, owner of Kiwano Marketing, started off my day with some tips on using social media to promote one’s brand.

The first thing to do, she says, is to sit down and set some goals. Is this going to be your business or personal brand? What are the measurable results? Fundraising, volunteering, or just exposure of your brand/message? With so many entrepreneurs in Vancouver, it’s important to make your message uniquely you, to catch people’s attention.

Now that we have a focus, we got some practical tips. The question of corporate twitter accounts was raised. What if more than one person is tweeting? Should you use different accounts, or the same account but marked with your initials or something?

Now, how do you talk to people? Don’t be afraid of trying conversations. Engage someone online by following them, then replying or commenting (but intelligently) if you have something to say. Don’t be shy, and you can find clients, friends, even mentors.

And what’s the ROI? Sales (or whatever your goal is) are not going to skyrocket overnight. It usually takes time to build trust, and it will take you time to build a voice, as well. The best thing you can do in the beginning is to listen.

Measuring Social Media Success

Darren Barefoot has co-written a book on social media marketing, based on his years of experience, and that morning he walked us through some of its insights, condensing it into ten basic rules, including:

Set quantifiable objectives (as opposed to things like public opinion, or “brand”)
Beware of creatively named metrics, like “engagement.”
Measure everything.
Iterate rapidly, and
Fail fast. (These two ideas come from the world of software. Social media is very young, and we’re still figuring it out.)

And, the acronym POST, representing the necessary steps of any social media campaign, in their proper order:

People
Objective
Strategy
Technology

You have to start with people, but so many just start with technologies.

Many of the examples he gave us were taken from his recent work on The Big Wild, a conservation site big on infographics, clear and simple navigation, and easy actions to take. Perfectly consistent with his earlier talk at Northern Voice on doing good on the Web.

(And here are the slides of his talk)

All About SEO

This very informal talk was facilitated by Sean Cranbury, who works as a media consultant.

We talked a bit about keyword research and testing. Google Keyword Tool is your friend here. You need to look for keywords with high cost per click but low competition. That’ll help you stand out from the crowd.

Apparently meta tags don’t make a difference with Google rankings, though they used to once upon a time. For small businesses, you shouldn’t worry too much about keywords; authenticity and passion count for a lot. Quality content is important, of course, but there’s also metadata, dates and locations. All of that counts too. I think it’s here that someone brought up Google Maps as an advertising tool. Create a custom map, add whatever landmarks you wish (like, say, your business), make it public, and voilà, now you’re searchable in Google Maps or Google Earth. It seems this is an amazingly useful but so far underutilised advertising tool.

Then you’ve got the old standbys: blogging, twittering (and don’t forget hash tags!) WordPress provides many SEO opportunities. Sean mentioned a couple of themes that are heavy on SEO: Canvas, and Thesis.

Converting a static site to WordPress (or any other CMS): change as little as possible, including the URLs. If needed, use 301 redirects.

And, of course, to bring in incoming links, you have to have people engage with the site.

Finally, Google Adwords are a good way to test if your SEO campaign will really end up with the results you want. A campaign may last for months, and you want to know right away if it’s going to be worth it.

Advertising Campaigns

Another presentation by Darren Barefoot, on the finer points of Google ad campaigns.

Adwords show up in Google searches, which means we have to focus on keywords first and foremost.

Our ads compete for the top spot; Money × Quality determine your ranking. You pay per click, so it’s okay if an ad isn’t working.

To start, be as specific as you want. To write the ads, use good copywriting, make it compelling. Create landing pages for each of those ads so the action is immediately available, don’t send them to your home page. Then, you want to track conversions or other actions, which is what his earlier talk was all about.

Facebook ads are very different from Google ads, because you can target them by age, gender, or any other preferences.

As a final note, Google ads are not good for revenue generation unless you’re covering your site with ads, and/or have lots of traffic.

Conclusion

NetSquared was an amazing and inspiring experience, with excellent people who I learned a lot from, and who I may be able to help in return. There’s so much being done right here in this city, and I’m going to be a part of it. More than before, I mean.

Also, I have to give a shoutout to Nuba, where a whole bunch of us went to eat. The food was excellent (I’d never tried Lebanese cuisine before), and they handled our large group perfectly well.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival: Final Thoughts

Wow, what a trip it’s been. Going to so many screenings and then blogging about them will really take it out of you, but it was so worth it! I’ve seen some truly excellent movies this year, along with some… not so excellent ones. Well, they can’t all be winners, right?

But what made this year different was my decision to see as many movies as humanly possible, and then blog about them. Two years ago, I wrote a single blog post on The Coast Is Queer. One year ago, I wrote one blog post with short reviews of all the movies I saw (all 6 of them.) This year? A separate post for every single movie, in most cases written within a day of the actual showing (and never more than two): the longest, most intense sustained blogging I’ve ever done!

Let’s recap the festival a bit:

Number of shows I’ve seen: 14

Number of nights I did not see a movie: 3, including the opening and closing galas (I had to miss Wednesday night because of volleyball). One day I’ll remember in time that the opening and closing shows are not covered by the festival pass. I already had plans for the 12^th so that couldn’t be helped, but I could have gone to the closing gala. Next year, I promise!

Number of wonderful, lovely people I met during the festival: lots

Favourite feature-length movie: Pornography: A Thriller

Favourite short film: Ooo, tough question. That’d be a tossup between The Heist and That’s Right Diana Barry, You Needed Me

Least favourite feature-length movie: Watercolors

Least favourite short film: No, I’m not going there. There were some shorts that didn’t speak to me, but none that I actively disliked.

Movies that I wanted to see but didn’t get the chance to: Children of God (who everyfuckingbody is still raving about); Gayblevision, which I had originally planned to go see until I realised the Zombie Walk was on that day and it’d be too hard to go all the way to Granville Island in time, and then back downtown to watch The Fish Child; the opening and closing gala screenings, Undertow / Contracorriente and Strella.

Favourite app: Okay, trick question, because there’s only one: the VQFF iPhone app, custom-made by the fine folks at Creative B’stro, the same ones responsible for the VQFF web site. It’s sharp, hip, pretty, and loaded with terrific features. Screening list, venue list, your own schedule, even your choice of pickup lines for when you’re standing next to a cute boy/girl/etc in line for a movie. Pity I could never get the “Compatibility” feature to work, for some reason it wouldn’t connect to other phones. Oh well.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: The Fish Child / El Niño Pez

This is the story of Lala, the teenaged daughter of a rich Buenos Aires judge, and her lover Ailin, a maid in her family’s house. The pair plans to to run away together to Ailin’s family home in Paraguay near Lago Ypoa, but when Lala’s father is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Ailin takes the blame to protect her lover. What will happen to them now? Can they escape the law and live out their dreams?

The Fish Child is a magnificent movie, and the above summary really doesn’t do it justice. The synopsis says “[Director Lucía] Puenzo makes a conscious decision not to make the clandestine lesbian love story the central dilemma. Any stigma attached to the Lalaâ€™s sexual orientation is secondary to the obstacles imposed by Argentinaâ€™s sharp class divide.” And it’s true: nobody’s really shocked at the girls’ relationship, but Ailin has had to endure emotional and sexual abuse from Lala’s father, her own father, the police commissioner, not to mention being a poor member of a racial minority.

But the movie also speaks of the power of love and dreams to take us through those trials. Lala’s plans to escape with Ailin and build a little house by Lake Ypao may seem naive, but after they’re on the run it’s all they have. Maybe that’s enough; the movie leaves that an open question, and that’s okay.

This hasn’t been an easy review to write. A lot of scenes are pretty dark and disturbing, and the exact timeline of events was a bit hard to follow at first. The movie uses flashbacks a lot, and drops the viewers right in the middle of the story. Plus, this is a movie with layers, a lot of which I’m sure I haven’t gotten right now, but which will become clear on a second viewing.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: From Coast To Coast Is Queer

It’s good to be queer and Canadian! This brand-new installment complements The Coast Is Queer to show queer shorts from all over this fair land of ours. The program included a dozen titles, but I’ll only list the ones that made a strong impression on me.

The Island

Filmed in Cold Lake, Alberta, I believe. Cold Lake looks… cold. I guess it’s probably not just miles and miles of snow every day of the year, but damn. Anyway, the snow forms a great contrast to the cute animation and cuter fantasy of an all-gay tropical island.

Lesbian National Parks

Oh, sure, it’s full of easy jokes about endangered lesbian species like the Marxist-Feminist and Bull-Dykus Americanus, but I didn’t care. So funny!

Au pays des esprits

The only French language short of the night (with subtitles). In a letter to his father, the narrator draws parallels between Louis Riel’s resistance and his own. Lovely use of archival footage, but I’m not sure I really got it. I’d probably have to watch it a couple more times.

Labels

Okay, so having a fetish for cowboys makes you Alberta-sexual? Ha! This cute little movie by David C Jones questioned the importance of all the labels we put on our preferences. Incidentally, it got me thinking about The Butch Factor, where some of the men also downplayed the importance of the label “gay”. The difference is, they didn’t play it for laughs.

The Reason Why

One man’s open letter to four of his exes, all named Mark. Drama and humour in equal amounts

Basin

Native drumming and shots of the Athabasca River basin—lovely pristine water and nature, contrasted with the devastation caused by tar sand extraction. Sort of reminded me of Koyaanisqatsi.

Love Exiled

This film focuses on American or half-American couples who had to move to Canada to get married. They speak of being exiled, unable to return because their marriage wouldn’t be recognised. Grandparents are separated from grandchildren, families are split… this is the human cost of bigotry. Not that the bigots care.

Mind you, there’s a potentially happy ending. The movie was done before Judge Walker struck down Prop 8, so an update may show same-sex marriages happening again in California. We can but hope.

That’s Right Diana Barry, You Needed Me

Canada has given us Anne Murray and Anne of Green Gables. Put the two together and what do you get? A sing-along to Anne Murray’s You Needed Me, with shots of Anne Shirley and her bosom friend (heh) Diana Barry, of course! There’s nothing like a little lesbian subtext and audience participation. This was by far the best short of the night, and a serious contender for best short of the whole festival.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Plan B

Well, that was pretty good: an odd little love triangle out of Argentina, with some very cute moments, excellent acting, and nice cinematography.

The story is that Bruno’s ex, Laura (who he still wants to get back together with), has a new boyfriend, Pablo. Perhaps intending revenge, perhaps just to sabotage their relationship to leave Laura available to him, Bruno starts making friends with Pablo, but the two eventually fall for each other.

I think what really stands out in this movie were the little moments. The two men bonding over a favourite TV show. Asking each other “If you were a toy, what kind of toy would you be?”—and later, as things get a little more serious, buying each other those same toys. Pablo quietly breaking into tears upon realising the game Bruno was playing. The mutual undressing scene near the end, so hilariously awkward. There was a spark there, but the men still didn’t quite know what to do with it. I don’t know if the actors were straight or just damn good at their jobs, but they really sold that scene.

Though some things were lost in translation. I’m not talking about the subtitles, but the style and aesthetics. Like most South American movies I’ve seen, Plan B’s pace is very slow, with loving attention paid to cinematography—either the beach, or the cityscapes. There was a bit near the end where, for a couple of minutes, the movie was nothing but a slow collage of buildings, each cut at least ten seconds long. It just seemed so pointless, the audience was confused, and then started cracking up. To be honest, I joined them. But looking back, I can’t help wondering how South American audiences would see that bit. Maybe there’s meaning there that I’m not getting. Or it could just be self-indulgent directing, who knows?

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Watercolors

Wow, that was… really not good at all. A deadly earnest, by-the-numbers coming out story that felt ripped straight out of an after-school special.

Wow, that was… really not good at all. A deadly earnest, by-the-numbers coming out story that felt ripped straight out of an after-school special. Sensitive nerdy gay boy, check; his feisty PC fag hag BFF (not a minority, but disabled, which still counts), check; broody and tormented jock he falls for, check; gay bashing scene, check; PG-rated sex scene that’s over-the-top perfect and magical and everything, check; oppressive soundtrack that swells like The Song That Goes Like This whenever a Big Dramatic Moment comes up, check. Oh, and the jock dies at the end, having tragically succumbed to his tormenting issues. Check? Sure, why not.

Oy.

Apart from all the clichés, the movie did a lot of things wrong. First, the framing story of an adult Danny (a.k.a. Sensitive Nerdy Gay Boy) as a successful artist who got famous on paintings and drawings of Carter (a.k.a. Broody And Tormented Jock) really doesn’t work. Not only does it depressingly show him as still not over Carter’s death, it’s frankly unnecessary and distracting. The final scene of him reconciling with his boyfriend and presumably moving on for good was kind of sexy but would have been a lot more effective if we’d known anything about the boyfriend or cared about their relationship.

Speaking of sexy, Danny and Carter’s first time was… just weird. What the hell was up with the rain? Was there some kind of symbolism there, or did the director just want the actors to glisten? I don’t get it.

As for Carter, the writers did aim for “broody and tormented” but actually landed on “asshole”. Stealing from Danny’s mother to support his drug addiction was bad enough, but stealing the BFF’s crutch when they visited the museum? That wasn’t cool, it wasn’t funny, it just made him a gigantic prick who doesn’t deserve to be in the same zip code as Danny.

So yeah… this movie had potential, especially with a gay nerd main character— we sure don’t get enough of those—but it turned out to be a huge disappointment. The one serious dud of the whole festival.