Québec in Hollywood: Something New in LA

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Food/Wine

Published on Monday, 05 September 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

Québec in Hollywood runs September 9 - 25, 2011 at the Kodak and Egyptian Theatres in Hollywood and the El Rey Theatre and other venues around Los Angeles, California.

Québec is home to well-established entertainment icons such as Céline Dion, Leonard Cohen and Cirque du Soleil. But in addition, Québec can boast producing some of the most progressive, exciting new talent emerging today, such as this year’s Grammy Award winner Arcade Fire, 2011 Academy Award-nominated director Denis Villeneuve and pop punk band Simple Plan.

Events this year include:

• a Québec film festival at the Egyptian Theatre
• performances by top bands and comedy acts,
• a Montréal fashion runway show
• special restaurant tastings with renowned Québecois chefs
• a green transportation design symposium
• gallery exhibitions

The festivities dovetail with the World Premiere of Iris, a new resident show led by Cirque du Soleil.

"In 1987, the Québec Government Office in L.A. played a pivotal role in bringing Cirque du Soleil to Los Angeles, introducing their unique brand of entertainment to the U.S," said Yanick Godbout, Director of Governmental Relations and Public Affairs, Québec Government Office in Los Angeles.

"We are now bringing a selection of the best new talent from Québec to Los Angeles. We hope that ‛Québec in Hollywood‛ will create the same effect and will serve as a springboard for the next wave of Québécois success."

Cirque du Soleil has evolved from a group of 20 street performers in 1984 into a major Québec-based organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment.

Iris, the new production from Cirque du Soleil, is a multi-media extravaganza in which everything -- dance, acrobatics, live video, filmed sequences, animation, illustration, black and white, color, silent films, talkies, fixed shots, swooping camera movements -- takes the audience on a "fantastic voyage through the history of cinema and its genres".

The Québec film industry is currently booming, as it produces over 30 films per year for a population of 8 million people. With a strong presence at the world‛s most prestigious film festivals, its directors -- among them Denys Arcand, Manon Briand, François Girard, Carole Laure and Denis Villeneuve -- have "put Québec cinema on the map worldwide."

The films being screened are:

International Premieres:
 
Starbuck
dir. Ken Scott
starring Patrick Huard, Julie Le Breton, Antoine Bertrand, Marc Bélanger
A man, 42 going on 17, coasts through life with minimal effort. Then he learns that his girlfriend is not the only woman he got pregnant. Thanks to his "contribution" 20 years earlier at a fertility clinic, he is the father of 533 children.

Le sens de l'humour / A Sense of Humour
dir. Émile Gaudreault
starring Michel Côté, Anne Dorval, Benoît Brière, Louis-José Houde
Two B-list stand-up comedians tour across Québec playing to small town crowds. "Part of their shtick every night is to pick a victim and make fun of him, to the audience’s delight. Then one night, they choose a bashful cook who flips burgers at the local diner. Big mistake: Roger is a complete nut case." This film is the No. 1 box office hit for Québec films.

Other films are:

Funkytown
dir. Daniel Roby
starring Patrick Huard, Justin Chatwin, Paul Doucet, Sarah Mutch, Geneviève Brouillette
In 1976, "Montreal was on the verge of becoming one of the biggest cities on the continent, Quebec was dreaming of becoming a country of its own, and a phenomenon called disco was sweeping the world." And eight characters wanted to live the dream as far as it would take them.

Le Vendeur / The Salesman
dir. Sébastien Pilote
starring Jean-François Boudreau, Jean-Robert Bourdage, Nathalie Cavezzali
The perennial car salesman of the month cares only for selling cars and watching over his beloved daughter and grandson. But the working-class town they live in is about to lose their paper plant, and more people are laid off. So "car buying seems utterly absurd" and the Salesman must now reassess his life.

Also screening is a selection of short films, including:

• Sophie Lavoie, dir. Anne Emond
• I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, a National Film Board of Canada production
• Original Sin, dir. Roger Gariépy
• Poudre, dir. Ky Nam Le Duc
• Higglety Pigglety-Pop, dir. Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski
• File Under Miscellaneous, dir. Jeff Barnaby
• Alone With Mr. Carter, dir. Jean-Pierre Bergeron
• Moi non plus, dir. Chloé Robichaud

Music:

Québec’s music industry has succeeded in carving out an enviable position within its own market by encouraging local production through independent companies. This festival presents performances by

• The Respectables
• Steve Hill
• Tailor Made Fable
• Dance Laury Dance

Fashion:

The spring and summer 2012 collections from Montréal's most acclaimed designers take to the stage for a production headed by Groupe Sensation Mode, with a backdrop of live performances by Opéra de Montréal.

Featuring an eclectic mix of fashion, progressive house sounds, modern opera, pop video art and contemporary stage costume design, Fashion & Opéra explores a mixed landscape of sights, sounds and urban sensations from the second largest French-speaking city in the world.

The Fashion designers displaying are

• Barilà
• Philippe Dubuc
• Denis Gagnon
• Mackage
• Renata Morales
• Marie Saint Pierre

The Symposium presents Sustainable Transportation Design: "Forward Motion: Advancing Mobility in California & Québec".

Energy security, climate change, air quality concerns -- all have joined to encourage a rapid push toward sustainable transportation. California and Québec have led the drive, researching and proposing solutions from their respective corners of North America.

The half-day symposium examines the impact on vehicle and infrastructure design. Expert panelists "compare Québec and California's initiatives for the promotion of electric vehicles and public transit, and examine the new technologies and advanced materials that are rapidly driving North America forward."

The topics include:

• Electric Cars and Their Required Infrastructure
• The Future of Urban Transit
• Automobiles and Urban Transit Systems Working Together

Cuisine:

Québec is recognized as a sophisticated culinary capital that encompasses Québec City and Montréal. It is also the only society in North America that is anchored in French and European heritages. It is dynamic, creative and multiethnic, yet undeniably Québécois at heart.

With its perfect blend of French, Native and British influences, Québec cuisine stands out for its variety of products and ingenuity of its artisans and chefs.

Featured at Québec in Hollywood:

Chef Jean-Pierre Curtat – Curtat has been overseeing the kitchens at the Casino de Montréal since it first opened in 1993. Under his direction, Nuances restaurant has won the coveted CAA-AAA Five Diamond distinction since 2000.

Chef Laurent Godbout – Godbout began his career at the Auberge Hatley, and later was executive chef at the Hostellerie Rive Gauche. He was a professor of professional cooking at the École Professionnelle Jacques Rousseau, and is currently at Chez l'Épicier in Montréal.

Bibulous events are:

Unibroue Beer Tasting – Unibroue was the first North American beer maker to use a brewing method inspired by the two-centuries-old tradition developed by Trappist monks in Europe. Attendees can enjoy free samples of Unibroue products available in California.

Neige Apple Ice Wine – "Neige ("snow") is made from apples harvested in the fall and pressed at Christmas time. Their juice is then kept outside in the freezing winter cold, in order to naturally separate the sugar from the water through the process known as cryo-concentration." "Sweet and well-balanced with a beautifully acidity," Neige Premiere has won 37 awards. Visitors can enjoy tasting a wine Californians don‛t get every day.

Québec in Hollywood is a welcome change of pace for LA.

For more information, go to www.mri.gouv.qc.ca/quebecinhollywood.

Québec in Hollywood
September 9 - 25, 2011

Kodak Theatre
6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028

Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028

El Rey Theatre
5515 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Hard Rock Café
6801 Hollywood Blvd. 105
Hollywood, CA 90028

Hollywood & Highland Center
6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028

Art Center College of Design
Hillside Campus
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, CA

The Grill on Hollywood
6801 Hollywood Blvd. #407
Hollywood, CA 90028-6145

Public Kitchen & Bar
Roosevelt Hotel
7000 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA  90028

Little Next Door Brasserie – Wine Bar
8142 W 3rd Street
Los Angeles, ca 90048

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