Ottawa

Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company is closer to paying for its new theatre complex after getting a $3-million grant from the federal government.

Heritage Minister Bev Oda and Treasury Board president John Baird announced the federal grant on Wednesday.

The $3 million will go to the company’s new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, named after a benefactor whose family gave $2.6 million to the group. The 270-seat theatre is part of a larger residential-commercial complex being developed in Hintonburg, a neighbourhood west of downtown Ottawa.

The province has injected $2.6 million and the city $1.3 million into the $10.5-million project, which is now under construction. The centre, which includes a smaller studio performance space, two-storey theatre lobby and space for set construction, could be open by next year.

The non-profit GCTC, which is in its 32nd year of operation, plans six productions in the 2006-7 season. It will operate the theatre and surrounding arts space in the Greenberg centre. Until now, the company has operated out of a converted truck garage.

The Department of Canadian Heritage still has not announced whether it will give money toward another Ottawa cultural project, the Concert Hall.

Concert hall in the wings

The Ottawa Chamber Music Society has proposed a $27.6-million concert hall in central Ottawa and won $6.5 million in funding from the province and $6.1 million from the city toward the project.

Cynthia White-Thornley, director-general of arts policy at Canadian Heritage, said the department continues to talk with the Concert Hall Group.

“Certainly any contribution we make we like to see a certain amount of community support, whether that is one philanthropist making a large contribution or many philanthropists, many private citizens giving small amounts,” she told CBC Radio.

“What’s always important to us is that the organization is well supported by the community.”

She said the Concert Hall group needs to prove that it has its funding sources in place and a viable business plan.

Vancouver

The Vancouver International Film Festival offered a taste of its upcoming film lineup this week, announcing two lengthy works and a host of documentaries about photographers.

The annual event, which celebrates its 25th edition this year, will open with Pedro Almodovar’s female-centred Volver, which won raves at the Cannes Film Festival in the spring.

Organizers also highlighted two lengthy special presentation screenings at their announcement on Tuesday.

Jacques Rivette’s 12.5-hour French opus Out 1: Noli Me Tangere was likened to “the French New Wave equivalent of reading Proust or watching Wagner’s Ring Cycle.”

Broken into eight instalments, the film will screen just before the festival and again during the event, with an introduction by Rivette expert Jonathan Rosenbaum.

The Canadian film Klatsassin, described as “a Rashomon-like exploration of time and perception” by Vancouver artist Stan Douglas, will also be featured at the festival. Revolving around the killing of an aboriginal chief, the film will first screen as a six-hour installation and then as a special 75-minute presentation.

Documentaries are an important part of the Vancouver festival’s annual lineup and several of this year’s selections are about famous — or infamous — photographers.

* The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover tells of the battle over the artistic legacy of American photographer O. Winston Link.
* Manufactured Landscapes follows the renowned Edward Burtynsky as he travels the world taking his large-scale images.
* More than 1000 Words follows photojournalist Ziv Koren, who chronicles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
* Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project is about the U.S. photographer who was charged with child pornography in the U.K. for an exhibit that included photos of her own children nude (the charges were later dropped).

Other films announced include Mozartballs, a film about quirky Mozart fans around the world; Thin, a documentary set in a U.S. treatment facility for eating disorders; and Exit: The Right to Die, about a group of Swiss volunteers who help the terminally ill end their lives.

The festival’s full lineup of more than 300 films will be announced Sept. 6.

The Vancouver International Film Festival runs Sept. 28 – Oct. 13.