Glebe Report

Music fans can now attend Doors Open for Music at Southminster concerts live at noon on Wednesdays at Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Avenue. No preregistration is required, but you are asked to arrive no earlier than 11:40 a.m. and bring your proof of vaccination. Or you can watch the concert live on YouTube. Here is the fall lineup.

Some of the books read so far this year by Sunnyside library’s Sylvie Chartrand. “I mostly like mystery novels; hopefully you can find something that appeals to you.” The books are available at the Ottawa Public Library.

Stillwater is one of those unassuming at-first-glance movies that once seen cannot be easily forgotten. It has this raw quality that reaches straight for the heartstrings. It is mostly a classical drama telling yet another harrowing story of love and redemption, starring Matt Damon, who needs no introduction, and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine and My Sister’s Keeper).

I absolutely love a good horror film. Movies are a perfect place to explore fear and dread. The visuals, audio and tone used to explore primal emotions and sensations are a fantastic escape from our actual fears – we experience the danger, without the consequences of the danger.

Freedom of the press is the reason that most of the news we consume is made available to us. Throughout history, journalists have strived to write, share 
and expose the world’s biggest stories and many have even risked their lives
in the process. Their efforts have been depicted in films for years and the art of journalism has also been shown in a fictitious form. These films are broad and engaging.

Psycho is an iconic film. I don’t think there is anyone out there who isn’t familiar with the famous shocking shower scene, the brilliant score by Bernard Herrmann and the classic closing monologue. But watching it now, I think we have taken for granted how great it is.

I wrote film reviews for the Glebe Report for 17 years. It was a great run. As a filmmaker, I love seeing films that other people make and meeting those who make them. I was lucky to be able to do this for decades, either working on my own films or viewing films at the Montreal World Film Festival and other festivals.

This month the Glebe Report’s film reviewers take a look at The Grand Budapest Hotel, a 2014 Wes Anderson film; The Father, a 2020 film that disrupts our notions of time and truth; and Old, a recent thriller filmed in beautiful Dominican Republic.

After being trapped indoors with just your own thoughts for so long you’re probably ready to get to know some new people. Luckily for you, the Ottawa Public Library offers many different biographies and autobiographies on some incredible individuals.

“Transitions are hard mummy,” said my youngest. “Maybe you need to get used to noise.” As we collectively approach a moment of transition, with its attendant joys and anxieties, I highlight two children’s picture books that focus on the possibilities of movement and change.

Ethereal, haunting, earthy, gut-punching – if I had a poet’s mastery of language, I’d be reaching for words like these to describe a new collection by Old Ottawa South’s Susan J. Atkinson. Atkinson is a poet and Grade 1 teacher at Charles H. Hulse Public School. The Marta Poems is her debut poetry collection.

This month, the Glebe Report brings you a plethora of films to while away what remains of the pandemic. Lois Siegel reviews the 1979 classic Meatballs; Kate Roberts reviews a quirky Korean film, Space Sweepers; Barbara Popel introduces us to Chloé Zhao’s second film The Rider, just before her Oscar winner Nomadland; Angus Luff reviews the 2014 film Whiplash that is still relevant today; Xavier Saikaley reviews the 1994 Tim Burton film Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp; and Iva Apostolova introduces us to the UK film The Woman in the Window reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock.

A season of beginnings, daylight and warmth, leaves in bud, birdsong, crocuses! Thaws, rain and floods, too. How does release from winter’s grasp feel after a year with the pandemic? Here are your poems of relief – exuberance –wistfulness – and joy. Spring has come!

Here are two takes on the Oscar-winning film Sound of Metal, one from Glebite Barbara Popel and the other by Glebe Collegiate student Angus Luff. Both find the film “surprising.”

Niamh O’Kelly reviews the popular film Nomadland, this year’s winner for best picture and director at the Oscars.

Blow-Up, a 1966 thriller directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, was based on a short story by Julio Cortázar called “Las babas del Diablo.”
 Read a review by filmmaker Lois Siegel.

Whoever has stepped into the multi-purpose room in the Glebe Community Centre has certainly noticed the framed sign hanging above it: colourful Lego blocks against the grey baseplate spell the words that identify the space ahead. But what about the small black tag glued on the top right corner of the sign?

The documentary film A Drummer’s Dream is an 
absolute must for drum
mers and interesting for anyone else who loves music. The location is Westport, Ontario – cottage country, near a lake, at a summer drum camp with 40 students.

The film My Octopus Teacher is a documentary released last September on Netflix, directed by James Reed and Pippa Ehrlich. It follows Craig Foster, a filmmaker and founder of the Sea Change Project, as he dives in the Cape Point reef. He comes in contact with an octopus, and they form a remarkable trust and bond.

Glebe resident Louis J. Cabri can look back on the many awards for his mineralogy research and fieldwork. But just as gratifying is his recent work on a just-published, richly illustrated book about his wife Mimi’s remarkable South African family, the De Meillons.

This month our long-time film reviewer Lois Siegel brings us The Dig, a recent UK release set in England just before the Second World War, and new reviewer Kate Roberts gives us her take on the recent American movie Palm Springs, a variation of the Groundhog Day theme, a perfect pandemic film.

How much suspense does a story need? Just enough to keep you reading. Ken Shipley knows how to do that. LeapTurkey … and Other Stories, by Ken Shipley, reviewed by Stewart Geen.

The advice I got when I first moved to Ottawa was: Don’t try to avoid winter – embrace it. Here are some winter reads to help you and your child fall in love with winter all over again – even in the month of February!

This month our intrepid film reviewers bring you The Queen’s Gambit, the drama miniseries that everyone is talking about, and Arch of Triumph, a 1948 American film adaptation of the novel of the same name by German writer Erich Maria Remarque.

This month, Paul Green reviews the historical French film De Gaulle, set in France in the spring of 1940, and Lois Siegel writes about A Trip to Greece, the latest “fun-filled romp” from the U.K. featuring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon eating their way through Greece.

Like many other charities, St. Matthew’s Anglican Church has had to change its fundraising plans because of COVID-19. The church holds a major auction, with all the trimmings, every three years, and this wasn’t meant to be one of them. But instead of “Jazz & Tapas” originally scheduled for the fall but cancelled, St. Matt’s is looking forward to its first-ever online auction.

This month, Paul Green reviews the 2019 French film, La Fille au Bracelet or The Girl with a Bracelet, a subtly told psychological tale, and Lois Siegel tells the inside story of her 1995 documentary Stunt People, about four generations of stunt actors.

This month, Paul Green reviews the 2019 French film, La Fille au Bracelet or The Girl with a Bracelet, a subtly told psychological tale, and Lois Siegel tells the inside story of her 1995 documentary Stunt People, about four generations of stunt actors.

Local artists Christopher Griffin and Heidi Conrod have found ways to make their art work for the Ottawa Food Bank and the Mayfair Theatre.