Sharkwater Extinction: A matter of death, and life, for the Stewarts
Movies: Sharkwater Extinction
Shattered by their son Rob’s death in a diving accident, Sandy and Brian Stewart found inspiration in his message and turned pain into positive action by completing the film he died trying to make.
By Katherine Monk
VANCOUVER — “There was no way this movie was not going to be made.” The very statement is an act of defiant optimism in a world where the majority of endeavours fail to even reach production, let alone completion. For Brian and Sandy Stewart, however, defiant optimism was the very essence of their son’s message, which is why they dedicated the last 20 months of their heartbroken lives bringing Sharkwater Extinction to fruition.
The movie isn’t just a tribute to their late son, Rob, 37, who died in a diving accident off the Florida Keys in January 2017. “It’s the continuation of his mission,” says Brian Stewart, sitting with his wife Sandy on the eve of Sharkwater Extinction’s western premiere at the Vancouver ...
How the ghost of Ginger Goodwin painted the town “Red”
Canadian History: The Ginger Goodwin General Strike of 1918
When pacifist union organizer and worker’s rights activist Ginger Goodwin was killed by a single police bullet 100 years ago, it marked the beginning of Canada’s first general strike, and a blood-drenched birth to B.C.’s modern labour movement.
By Rod Mickleburgh
At 12 o’clock sharp on Aug. 2, 1918 – one hundred years ago today – Vancouver transit operators stopped their streetcars in mid-route, drove them to the barns and walked home. The city’s normally bustling waterfront fell silent, as 2,000 burly stevedores and shipyard workers streamed from the docks. Construction workers refused to pound another nail or lift another brick. They joined textile and other union workers across Vancouver who were also leaving their jobs. It was the start of Canada’s first general strike and the beginning of one of the most memorable 24 hours in the city’s history.
(Okay, I could have photo-shopped this a bit ...
Tim Wardle’s life changed at the hands of Three Identical Strangers
People: Interview with documentary director Tim Wardle
When he first heard the story of triplets separated at birth and placed in different families, British director Tim Wardle knew it should be a movie. He didn’t know others had tried, and hit a wall of orchestrated silence. His new documentary takes us inside a secret ‘Twin Study’ and the shocking experience of three unwitting subjects.
Pixar’s Ted Mathot Talks Technology, Education, Incredibles’ Design
Interview: Ted Mathot
The talented artist says working under the wing of Oscar-winner Brad Bird helped him make the big leap from storyboard artist on The Simpsons to story supervisor on The Incredibles 2. But this could just be the beginning for the Boston native. Now a fledgling graphic novelist, Mathot's own stories seem poised to fly.
What Made the Sedins Magic? Sixth Puck Sense
Sports: Daniel and Henrik Sedin Say Goodbye
Once called the “Sedin Sisters” by cynical media types who saw the Swedish twins as soft, Daniel and Henrik Sedin proved their taunters wrong with an iron forged commitment to the game, and pure finesse with the puck.
By Rod Mickleburgh
VANCOUVER - The outpouring of admiration and affection for the incomparable Daniel and Henrik Sedin, as they played their final three games for the lowly Canucks, was like nothing I’ve witnessed in my more than half a century of following sports. Fans, scribes, commentators, competitors, all the way down to the referees and well, just about everyone, joined in the celebration and heartfelt farewells in a way that went beyond the usual tributes to the end of a great player’s career. They seemed to be an acknowledgment that, in the 100-year history of the National Hockey League, the Sedins were something special.
They were not the equal of Howe, Gretzky, Lemieux, the Rocket, or some of the ...
Stephen Campanelli: The Indian Horse Whisperer
Interview: Stephen Campanelli, Forrest Goodluck and AJ Kapashesit on Indian Horse
He spent more than two decades in Los Angeles lensing Clint Eastwood’s Oscar winners. Now Montreal-born Stephen Campanelli is back on home turf, taking on Canada’s ugly legacy of residential schools with his big-picture take on Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse.
Meet Linnea Dick: Daughter of a Maker of Monsters
Interview: Linnea Dick - Meet Beau Dick: Maker of Monsters
A new documentary and a retrospective of Beau Dick's work mark the anniversary of his passing, but for his daughter Linnea, the healing journey her father started is only just beginning. The 26-year-old has already battled addiction and depression, but she’s found a purpose in poetry, helping suicidal youth, and keeping her father’s legacy alive.
Bidding Adieu to Dave Barrett
Tribute: Dave Barrett
Funerals for public figures can often be stuffy affairs with formal speechmaking and half-hearted appeals to emotion, but the recent ceremonies for B.C.’s former premier were rife with real affection.
By Rod Mickleburgh
So, farewell then, Dave Barrett. A month after the remarkable NDP leader passed away, it was time for the public to bid adieu, formally and informally.
The official state memorial in Victoria came first, followed the next day by what was more a gathering of the clans at Vancouver’s Croatian Cultural Centre, not that far from where Dave Barrett grew up on the city’s rough-and-tumble east side. Both events were packed, befitting the immeasurable contribution he made to the province of British Columbia during his short 39 months as its first socialist premier. (Unlike today’s New Democrats, he never shied from using the term “socialist.”) Beyond his political legacy, there was an outpouring of real affection for someone who had ...
Mina Shum Gets Her Freaky Friday On
Interview: Mina Shum
The Vancouver filmmaker always wanted to make a movie about how she and her mother are so different, and in her new movie Meditation Park, she reunites with Sandra Oh to make it happen.
By Katherine Monk
VANCOUVER — Mina Shum says she's trying to be “a good Chinese daughter.” After a greeting at the door of the hotel suite, she ushers me to a seat, and checks to make sure the publicist is comfortable. The place is all too generic for a talk about the particular. With its creamy white walls and bleached white linens, the hotel room overlooking Vancouver’s downtown skyline is all postcard pretty, displaying snow-capped mountains and green-patina copper rooftops. Shum says she loves every corner of this coastal town, but her new movie Meditation Park is looking at a different view of the city she calls home.
Set in the Eastside neighbourhood of Sunrise-Hastings, and focused on one family’s love-laden unravelling, Meditation Park stars Asian heavywe...
Neither Waffles nor Pancakes, Dave Barrett’s Proof was in Pudding
Tribute: Dave Barrett
Back in the summer of 1972, Dave Barrett hit the campaign trail and started changing the mindset of British Columbians about socialism. After his historic win, he went further still, and literally transformed the provincial landscape by introducing the Agricultural Land Reserve. The act was is designed to increase food security, but like many other initiatives, it was at risk from the very start.
By Rod Mickleburgh
In the best of summers, Dave Barrett ran the best of campaigns. Up against the seemingly unbeatable W.A.C. Bennett, the NDP leader was as unruffled as the weather, relaxed and purposefully out of the media spotlight. Forty people at a small gathering in Houston, a brief visit to the distant mining town of Stewart, a mid-morning tea in mighty Yahk, mainstreeting in Revelstoke. It was all the same to Barrett, part of his strategy to defuse once and for all Bennett’s tried-and-true election fear mongering about the “socialist hordes.” Of ...
