Tony Wohlfarth
Margaret Atwood
Folk Alliance International (FAI) is the world’s largest gathering of folk artists from around the world. Led by a Canadian, Aengus Finnan, FAI took its annual conference online last month at www.folk.org
Folk Unlocked 2021 kicked off on February 22 with Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Atwood’s talk was a discussion with Anaïs Mitchell, singer-songwriter and Tony Award-winning director of Hadestown (www.anaismitchell.com/)
Atwood’s conversation with Mitchell (30 minutes) can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4FxjykdfCk
Sundance 2021: My Name is Pauli Murray
Last month, the Sundance Film Festival welcomed film buffs to virtual theatres and The Centretown BUZZ was there.
From the directors of RBG – the 2018 Oscar-nominated documentary about US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – comes another remarkable story, about the life of Pauli Murray.
Pauli Murray was a transgender law professor from Durham, North Carolina. She challenged segregation practices on buses in 1940–15 years before Rosa Parks fought this battle. Murray went on to be the first woman to study law at Howard University and became a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her legal analysis was relied upon by Ginsburg in briefs before the US Supreme Court in landmark cases overturning Jim Crow segregation laws, such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. Murray went on to receive a Doctorate in Law from Yale University, and facing discrimination as a lawyer, worked overseas teaching law in Ghana.
The film deals sensitively with the gender issue. Murray was diagnosed with undescended testicles. While the condition was not treated, she led a successful career as a law professor and non-binary professional. Then, in 1977, Murray went on to study at a seminary college and became the first African-American woman to become an Episcopalian minister.
My Name is Pauli Murray is a richly textured film, drawing on personal diaries and 141 boxes of files which Murray left to Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library. Talleah McMahon, one of the producers, combed through these archival records to paint a vibrant biography.
Murray died in 1985 at the age of 74. What is remarkable is that few Americans know about her. It’s about time they did.
This 2017 profile from The New Yorker gives a more detailed picture of Murray: www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-many-lives-of-pauli-murray
Remembering the ByTowne Cinema
When the ByTowne closed in late December, Ottawa’s own Lynn Miles wrote a song, “Goodbye ByTowne” in tribute to the iconic theatre. You can view the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo2gU3c6ny0
International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO)
From March 11 to 21, the Canadian Film Institute (CFI) launches the new International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO). The program includes 21 films along with Q & A sessions with key directors.
On March 15, IFFO screens Mouthpiece, the 2018 film by Canadian director Patricia Rozema. After the screening, Rozema will participate in a discussion with the audience. All the screenings are accessible online.
The complete schedule is available at: www.iffo.ca
National Arts Centre (NAC)
Performances at the NAC (1 Elgin) are available via live stream. This month, you can see Kadeema (March 12), Shawn Jobin (March 19), Le Vent du Nord (March 20), and Ottawa’s own Blakdenim on March 26. See all NAC performances this month at https://nac-cna.ca/en/calendar/list/2021/03
Easter 2021
Purdy’s Chocolates is running an Easter fundraising event, in support of the local Guide Dogs for the Blind: www.guidedogs.ca/2021/01/18/easter-chocolate-fundraiser-2021-ottawa-area/
The Gladstone Theatre
On March 19, the Gladstone Theatre (910 Gladstone Avenue) will livestream the 10-year anniversary concert by Ottawa rock/metal/world band Red Heaven. Tickets: redheaven.ca
Anne Frank – A History for Today
The Canadian War Museum (1 Vimy Place) has a new exhibit about Anne Frank, whose diary of her time hiding from the Nazis with her family in an attic in Amsterdam during the Holocaust has become a world-renowned classic.
The in-person and virtual exhibit is available until April 25: www.warmuseum.ca/annefrank/
Irene’s
Irene’s Pub (885 Bank) is back–at least virtually. The kitchen is open and Irene’s has live music on Fridays and Saturdays. On Friday, March 19, it’s Corduroy Moon and on the 26th, Mikhael Laxton. Saturdays feature the Saturday Night Revue with multiple musicians providing family-style music.
Limited in-person seats are available, or you can buy tickets to see the shows online at https://irenes-pub-restaurant.myshopify.com/
Tony Wohlfarth is an Ottawa-based freelance film, arts and entertainment writer. He participated in the online Sundance Film Festival in January and the Folk Alliance International Folk Unlocked Conference in February.
Editor’s note: The version of this column that appeared in the March 2021 BUZZ print edition contained two factual errors regarding the Anne Frank exhibit. The exhibit can be seen in person at the Canadian War Museum as well as virtually. Anne Frank did not survive the Holocaust, but rather died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. We apologize for these errors, which have been corrected above.