FFWD Weekly
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News by FFWD Staff Calgary Fringe fest struggling to get off ground Calgary’s first International Fringe Theatre Festival is in jeopardy due to a shortage of funding. The Fringe Society is making an 11th-hour plea to the community to help it raise the $20,000 needed to stage the event, scheduled August 26 to 29 at the University of Calgary campus. Founder and co-producer Miki Stricker says the festival has been in the planning stages for more than a year and the society has received a great deal of in-kind support and sponsorship, but at this point it needs cash. "It would truly be a shame to have to cancel this event," says co-producer Deborah Iozzi, adding that it’s an opportunity to experience independent theatre, arts and culture. "The performers are placed in an especially difficult position, given that they have foregone other opportunities (in order) to participate in our Fringe." Organizer Dennis Cahill says the society is still operating on the assumption that the 1999 festival will take place, but if there isn’t enough funding by the end of July, it will be cancelled. Regardless of the outcome, organizers are already seeking funding for the 2000 festival, stating that many sponsors have expressed interest. Film fest fund-raisers Two Stanley Kubrick films and a night of independent music are planned to help raise funds for the annual $100 film festival. For the past eight years, the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers has produced a low-budget, short-film festival that that provides an outlet for many local filmmakers to showcase their work on Super-8 and 16-mm film formats, and continues to attract entries from across the country and around the world. Three events are planned to raise funds for the eighth annual festival (November 18 to 21 at the Garry Theatre), which exposes audiences to the diversity and creativity that characterizes low-budget filmmaking. On Monday, July 26 and Tuesday, July 27, The Plaza Theatre in Kensington will honour the late writer/director Stanley Kubrick with one film each night starting at 5:30 p.m., and a suggested $4 donation at the door – Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb shows on Monday, and Paths of Glory shows Tuesday. On Wednesday, July 28, Java Sharks will host a night of independent music in support of independent film, featuring Maizun (formerly of the lux), Maypolers, Rhythmaires, Airship One, and National Dust. The doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are available in advance at Java Sharks, Melodiya and Sloth, or at the door. The Arts Centre honours Jack Singer The Arts Centre honours a great Calgarian and one of its original founders this week with the unveiling of a bronze sculpture of Jack Singer on Thursday, July 22. The event commemorates the completion of Singer’s generous pledge of $1.5 million to the Calgary Centre for Performing Arts. "Through his gift to this Arts Centre, Jack Singer showed the kind of leadership that has been a hallmark of his life. We are very proud to celebrate his vision of the arts and the commitment to our city," says Colin Jackson, president and CEO of The Arts Centre. The bronze casting, sculpted by Calgary artist Francis Hartwell Thomas, was commissioned by the Singer family and donated to The Arts Centre. The bust will reside in the lobby of the Jack Singer Concert Hall, and is the first in a series by Thomas of outstanding community, business and national leaders. Development in national parks under fire Following on the heels of a controversy over the approved expansion at Chateau Lake Louise, environmental groups are warning that increased development in Jasper will harm the environment. Last week, an environmental group charged that the $45-million expansion by CP Hotels at Lake Louise, which includes a seven-story, 13,800-square-metre convention centre, was approved by a federal cabinet minister despite a Parks Canada development officer’s recommendation that the application be rejected. Under the agreement, CP would give the park 20.5 acres of land, and rehabilitate another 22 acres. A parks official stated that the hotel made several modifications to the plan prior to its approval. Banff environmentalists are fighting the development, stating the high number of people already visiting the lake in the summer has resulted in the deaths of several wolves and has driven away grizzly bears. In a court case being heard this week in Vancouver, the Bow Valley Naturalists will ask for a new environmental assessment. Meanwhile, environmentalists criticized a community plan for the Town of Jasper developed by Parks Canada. Although conservation groups praised the plan for proposing to maintain the current town boundary, they stated that the maximum commercial development allowed under one of the two options would change the nature of the community and jeopardize the environment. Members of the business community and the town also opposed the plan, stating it will severely restrict commercial development and stagnate the economy.

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