Part 2 of the Nordlys Theatre and Arts Festival preview:
Closing out the festival will be two films revolving around young people whose bravery and idealism capture and inspire. Silent Revolution is based on a true story about a class of high school students who pledged to show their support for the victims of the 1956 Hungarian uprising even in the face of the wrath and fear of the East German communist regime. It is a tale for the times.
And finally, to round out the weekend, another Canadian film. Weirdos is the story of two small town teens who run away in search of the boy’s mother, the world beyond their small town, and ultimately their own identities. Weirdos was nominated for many awards with Molly Parker taking home three awards for best female actor in a supporting role.
All events will take place at the historic Bailey Theatre, long a community gathering place, movie house and live performance venue.
Live music
This year’s Saturday night concert will feature the Blake Reid Band. The Blake Reid Band pays homage to the craft of making authentic music rooted in the traditions of country and great storytelling. While incorporating flavors of folk, roots, red dirt, swamp, bluegrass, Americana, rock n roll, outlaw country and more. The Blake Reid Band stays true to the story.
Blake’s incredible, and what seems like effortless, songwriting brings to life heartfelt folktales of real life experiences that we can all instantly relate to. Songs of hardship, pain, joy, remembrance, family, friends, hope, and love. They are often centered around working class, blue collar, salt-of-the-earth people. Characters who work hard, deal with tough times, usually working with the land or their tools, applying their craft to earn a living and to make a life for themselves and their loved ones.
Their concert will follow No Roads In, a gorgeous documentary featuring the Band. Blake Reid and the film’s producer Geoff Plewes will be on hand to chat and answer questions.
film.
Sister Claire
Sister Claire spent most of her youth in Camrose and attended Camrose Lutheran College. After finishing university, her introduction to the Dominican nuns came through her work with L’Arche - an initiative of Jean Vanier in which people with development disabilities and those who assist them share life in a family-like setting. She did her religious training in Europe and was formerly the prioress of the 800 year old monastery, the Holy Teaching of Prouilhe in France. In 2007 she returned to Canada to help in the foundation of the Queen of Peace Monastery located in Squamish, BC in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. She is currently serving as prioress there. An ex junior national ski racer, Sister Claire has a connection to the outdoors that is both meditative and exuberant.
The scientist
Another interesting story is the connection of Dr. Tron Trondsen to Camrose and now the festival. Trondsen’s day job is as president and owner of Keo Scientific Ltd of Calgary.
KEO SCIENTIFIC LTD designs and builds highly sensitive scientific instrumentation capable of wavelength-resolved imaging of sub-visual emissions from the upper atmosphere. Trondsen earned his PhD in Cosmic Geophysics from the Univsersity ofTrømso, Norway, and worked at the University of Calgary Institute for Space Research in the 1990s.
A great film enthusiast, he is the co-founder of the popular website Masters of Cinema (https://www.eurekavideo.co.uk/moc ) and served as co-producer and technical advisor of the film Magnetic Reconnection. http://magneticreconnection.ca. The film captured footage of the aurora borealis in degrees previously not thought possible. The film has won numerous awards.
But the most interesting part for local audiences in how he came to know Camrose and perhaps why he is such an enthusiastic fixture at the festival. As a young child in an isolated region of Norway, he loved to play with his radio set but the only signal he could pick up was from Camrose from the late Lyndy Olson. The two became radio friends.
More information is available at www.nordlysfestival.com.
-Submitted