It’s a Wonderful Life screens at the Rio
By Steve Newton
FRIDAY: vocalist Dawn Pemberton and bassist/bandleader Jodi Proznick lead an all-star band in joyful holiday classics in O Come All Ye Soulful at New Westminster’s Anvil Centre.
FRIDAY: screening at the VIFF Centre of Neil Young: Harvest Time, Bernard Shakey’s docu-film that takes an intimate journey inside the Harvest album, with never-before-seen performance and rehearsal footage. Neil is Shakey, by the way.
Revival69 screens at the VIFF Centre
FRIDAY: screening at the VIFF Centre of director Ron Chapman’s music documentary Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World, featuring John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and the Doors.
FRIDAY: final day of the PNE Winter Fair, which includes holiday-themed food and beverages, an outdoor marketplace, live kids’ shows, and ice-skating in the Agrodome.
FRIDAY: screening at the Rio Theatre of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, in which the Oscar-winning filmmaker reinvents the classic story of a wooden puppet brought to life in a stop-motion musical tale.
Festival of Lights is at VanDusen Garden
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: the City of Vancouver’s annual Festival of Lights is a winter wonderland featuring more than one million lights decorating 15 acres of VanDusen Botanical Garden. Goes good with hot chocolate.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: the Peak of Christmas at Grouse Mountain features visits with Santa in his workshop, light installation, sliding zone, and ice skating on the 8,000-square-foot mountaintop skating pond.
SATURDAY: afternoon screening at the VIFF Centre of director Wes Anderson’s 2009 animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox, as part of the ongoing film series Wes World: 10 Films by Wes Anderson.
SATURDAY: screening at the Rio Theatre of director Frank Capra’s beloved 1946 Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.
Dawn Newton illustration
SUNDAY: Merry freakin’ Christmas! Stay home, break out the ‘nog, watch Elf, and kick ass at Scrabble.