The top 5 things to do in Montreal: November 20 to November 30
Linda Franke’s four-minute-long piece will stop you in your tracks. | Image courtesy of the artist
1. BIZARRE ONLINE CONFESSIONS
Can’t Stop by Linda Franke | Goethe-Institut, in collaboration with the Festival Les HTMlles | Sunset to midnight, till January 1
A restaurant worker can’t stop spitting in people’s food, a smoker starts a fire by leaving a burning cigarette in an ashtray — artist Linda Franke’s video work, Can’t Stop, is created around 11 anonymous confessions taken from the internet.
Accompanied by bizarre digital shapes that grow and move, Franke delivers her found confessions over a jarring electronic soundtrack while assuming distinctly odd body positions.
The four-minute-long piece, which is being screened on the windows of the Goethe-Institut, will stop you in your tracks.
Multidisciplinary Métis artist Moe Clark will be at at Bar Populaire's next Slam Session. | Photo courtesy of Moe Clark
2. UNLEASH YOUR INNER POET
Slam Session Montreal | Bar Populaire | November 24 at 8 p.m.
Attention, creative writers! Bar Populaire on Saint Laurent is hosting the next edition of its monthly Slam Session.
On the last Monday of every month, the well-attended watering hole provides this opportunity for local writers to voice their work (literally) in front of a receptive audience.
Not cut out to be a slammer? Then listen to multidisciplinary Métis artist Moe Clark, who is performing works from her second album Within (September 2014) in the first part of the evening.
In Actress, it’s not clear whether the protagonist, Brandy Burre, is a real person or indeed, an actress playing a role.
3. IS SHE FOR REAL?
Discussion: Robert Greene | At the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) | Coeur des sciences Amphithéâtre (SH-2800), Université du Québec à Montréal | November 21 at 2 p.m.
In Actress, the latest film by documentarian Robert Greene, it’s not clear whether the protagonist, Brandy Burre, is a real person or, indeed, an actress playing a role.
Greene will join Burre, as well as directors Giovanni Donfrancesco (Stone River, 2014) and Tim Sutton (Memphis, 2014) onstage for a discussion about the complex relationships that develop between documentary filmmakers and their subjects. Not to be missed!
4. IF TREES COULD TALK…
Listentree | At the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) | Coeur des sciences de l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) | Till November 23
Imagine a future where even trees have a digital presence. Edwina Portocarrero and Gershon Dublon, two students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have brought their rendition of this unlikely, futuristic scenario to Montreal’s RIDM.
"Listentree," an installation created in collaboration with MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, transforms a tree near the Agora at UQAM’s Cœur des sciences into a loudspeaker. You’ll know which one when you begin to hear strange sounds emitting from it.
Put your ear right up against the tree, and the messages become clearly audible. We've heard a rumour that these range from wetlands noises to live recordings...
Danielle Owens-Reid and Kristin Russo are the authors of "the perfect guide for parents of questioning and gay children."
5. THE CONCORDIA CONNECTION
An evening with Everyone is Gay | Hall Building, Concordia University | November 20 at 7 p.m.
Kristin Russo and Danielle Owens-Reid are the co-founders of Everyone is Gay, an organization that works to improve the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning or queer (LGBTQ) youth and their families.
They’ll be at Concordia to promote their new publication This is a Book For Parents of Gay Kids. Ellen DeGeneres calls it “the perfect guide for parents of questioning and gay children.”
After sharing a few inspiring stories from the book, the authors will get a conversation going about parenting and issues facing LGBTQ youth.
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About the author
Andy Fidel is a Montreal-based freelance journalist, photographer and writer with dreams of living on a submarine. She enjoys metro rides, writer's block and cold instant coffee.