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This article was published 08/12/2022 (1019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cannes Lions returns to the WAG-Qaumajuq

Dec. 10, 18, 22, 27-30; Jan. 6 & 7, 2023

Screenings at 7 p.m., with a 3:30 p.m. matinee on Dec. 18

Muriel Richardson Auditorium, Winnipeg Art Gallery

Tickets: $15 at wag.ca

In an era of streaming, you’d think that TV commercials risk becoming a lost art.

Not so, as the award-winning ads from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity handily show. A staggering 40,000 entries from 100 countires are showcased and judged during the annual festival, which has been presented since 1954, with the winners receiving the highly prized Lion trophy. And the best ads — or the “Lions’” — of 2022 will be screened at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq over the next month.

Whether they make you laugh until you wheeze or tug at your heartstrings, these ads not only offer a unique view of the world, but inspire the viewer to consider the intersections between creativity and commerce, advertising and art.

A cash bar and snacks will be available at Cannes Lions screenings. Doors open one hour before the showing; rush seating. Visit wag.ca for more information.

— Jen Zoratti

Luckygirl holiday pop-up

Friday, 4 to 9 p.m.

Centennial Concert Hall, 555 Main St.

Tickets: $8 at luckygirl.ca

Get your holiday shopping done under the grand chandeliers of the Centennial Concert Hall lobby during the Luckygirl Pop-up market this Friday.

The second annual event will feature more than 120 local artisans, makers and creatives. Visitors can shop while enjoying snacks and a full bar serving signature cocktails and mocktails.

This year’s market is in support of Velma’s House, a 24-hour safe space led by Ka Ni Kanichihk that offer’s at-risk women a low-barrier space to access traditional medicines, ceremony, hot meals, shows, emergency clothing and help navigating government programs.

Luckygirl is also collecting items for Main Street Project’s wish list, such as gloves, socks and hygiene products. There will be collection bins at the entrance.

Tickets can be purchased in advance online with a limited number available at the door. Kids 12 years of age and younger get in free.

— Eva Wasney

Country star Kane Brown plays the arena

Tonight, 7 p.m.

Canada Life Centre

Tickets: $37-$117.75 at ticketmaster.ca

A country singer that was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people of 2021 takes the stage at the Canada Life Centre Thursday night.

Kane Brown, who began performing on YouTube in 2015, has become one of country’s biggest stars in 2022, owing to hits such as One Thing Right and What Ifs and Heaven, as well as his latest album, Different Man, which came out in September.

Brown, 29, is biracial — his father is Black and has Cherokee ancestry and his mother is white — and he follows Charley Pride and Darius Rucker as country artists of colour who have gained success in the genre’s mostly white world.

Brown’s influence is also seen in ticket sales. Thursday’s show is almost sold out, with tickets in the upper reaches of the downtown arena and a few singles in the lower bowl available, according to Ticketmaster’s website.

Country-pop singer Jessie James Decker and the trio Restless Road open for Brown.

— Alan Small

The Water Walker: film screening and discussion

Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Manitoba Teachers’ Society Classrooms), 85 Israel Asper Way

Free admission

Autumn Peltier is only 18 years old, but already the Anishinaabe advocate and chief water commissioner has left her mark on issues surrounding clean drinking water, particularly as they pertain to drinkable tap water in Indigenous communities across Canada.

Her story is chronicled in the 2019 film The Water Walker — directed by James Burns and narrated by Graham Greene — which follows Peltier, who has on three occasions been nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize, from her Manitou Island community of Wiikwemkoong First Nation to the United Nations in New York City in her attempt to effect change and raise awareness.

Following a screening of The Water Walker, which takes place at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., the museum will host a conversation between curator Iabelle Masson and activist/filmmaker Layla Staats about the making of the film as well as on issues surrounding clean drinking water and climate change.

Admission to the screening and discussion, which takes place on International Human Rights Day, is free.

— Ben Sigurdson

A Rocky Mountain High Christmas

Today, 7.30 p.m.

Centennial Concert Hall

Tickets from www.centennialconcerthall.com

or by calling 204-949-3999

John Denver fans are in for a treat this festive season as a celebration of his greatest hits makes its way to Winnipeg.

Hollywood legend and Denver’s original conductor/arranger Lee Holdridge will conduct Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the concert, which will also see Canadian artists Rick and Steve Worrall, soprano Lara Ciekiewicz, tenor Nolan Kehler and the Winnipeg Youth Choir perform some of Denver’s greatest hits.

Get ready to bop along to classics such as Rocky Mountain High and Take Me Home, Country Roads alongside Holdridge’s arrangements of Denver’s favourite Christmas songs.

Concert organizer SOS Geek Productions is supporting Harvest Manitoba; there will be bins set up in the lobby for those who would like to donate a tin or two.

— AV Kitching

Comedian Dave Merheje returns to Winnipeg

Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.

The Basement, 3740 Portage Ave.

Tickets: $22, at www.basementwpg.com

Most people avoid Winnipeg in December. Dave Merheje can’t seem to stay away. The Windsor, Ont.-born, Los Angeles-based comedian and actor — who co-stars on the critically acclaimed Hulu series Ramy and acted in CBC’s Mr. D — was in town this time last year to perform, and is back this weekend for a pair of shows at the Basement, a speakeasy club on Portage Avenue.

“The crowds here are real comedy crowds,” says Merheje, whose special, I Love You Habibi, is streaming on Crave. So Merheje doesn’t mind too much the transition from the California heat to the Prairie tundra.

A pair of performances by Merheje is quite the coup for the Basement, which is part of a blossoming circuit of new comedy clubs in the city. He’s won the Juno Award for Best Comedy Album, and in Ramy, acts alongside his longtime friend Ramy Youssef, who was nominated for the Primetime Emmy for best lead actor for his role. In the show’s second season, Merheje got to share the screen with Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Green Book). And in season 3 now streaming, Merheje gets a feature episode following his character, Ahmed.

For Winnipeg comedy fans who’ve avoided the call of the snowbird, this is a great opportunity to see one of the country’s top comedians do his thing.

— Ben Waldman

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