Welcome to [EDIT]ION Volume 63! We're so happy you're here! Your free, monthly digital publication is packed with stories, thoughts and opinions that will inspire you in between issues of the original, award-winning print magazine. 

Cover Story: Chun Hua Catherine Dong's At The Edge Of Two Worlds

Also in this issue:

• Moncton's Frye Festival by Jennifer Wood
• From Schiltigheim, France to Moncton, New Brunswick: An Exclusive Film by Mark Hemmings
• Martin Silverstone on Tim Myers' Dollar Dog

One of the most talked about exhibitions of the year is Chun Hua Catherine Dong's At The Edge Of Two Worlds, currently on display at The Rooms in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. 

The work of Chun Hua Catherine Dong blurs the boundaries of here and there, the actual and the virtual, as she considers how ideas of home and self are changing with the rise of digitalization and globalization. Working in 3D printing, augmented reality, performance art, photography, video, and virtual reality, Dong explores the body—often her own body—to activate social commentary on gender, cultural identity, migration and digital diaspora. Throughout, envisioned futures dissolve binaries and borders as identity is lost, created and re-created.

Chun Hua Catherine Dong (She/ They) is a Chinese-born Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal-based multimedia artist working with performance, photography, video, installation, AR, VR and 3D printing. Dong received an MFA from Concordia University and BFA from Emily Carr University Art and Design. Dong’s work has been exhibited in many national and international venues, such as: Montréal International Digital Art Biennial (BIAN),Quebec City Biennial, MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image, MAC VAL in France, Museo de la Cancillería in Mexico City, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, DongGang Museum of Photograph in South Korea, He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, Hamilton Art Gallery, Varley Art Gallery of Markham and so on. Dong was the recipient of the Franklin Furnace Award for performance art in New York in 2014. She was also a finalist for Contemporary Art Award at Le Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec 2020, and awarded with Cultural Diversity in Visual Arts by the Conseil des arts de Montréal in 2021. 

At The Edge Of Two Worlds can be enjoyed until 16 April on Level 3 at the Natural Light Art Gallery in The Rooms, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to learn more.

To learn more about Chun Hua Catherine Dong please visit her official website.

 

 

 

MONCTON'S FRYE FESTIVAL 2023

[EDIT]ION's Jennifer Wood on Atlantic Canada's Leading Literary Gathering 

Since its creation, the Frye Festival has dazzled with its impressively bold, diverse, and rich lineups, and the 24th edition will be no exception. The festival began in 1999 and honours noted literary critic Northrop Frye (1912–1991), who spent his formative years in Moncton. Since its inception in 1999, The Frye Festival has become one of the major literary events in Canada and continues to grow every year. More than 450 authors and recipients of almost every major international literary prize, have now attended Frye. This year's line up is as star studded as ever including Catherine Hernandez, author of the award-winning and globally acclaimed Scarborough.

Featuring ten days of festivities, the festival takes place between April 21 and 30th and unfolds in the Greater Moncton region, in neighbouring communities, and for the Youth Program, all over the province. Round tables, public talks and readings and youth events are just some of the programming on offer.

 “This year’s Frye Festival has a few new events that we’re excited for the public to experience,” says Frye Festival's Executive Director Ariane Savoie. “For the Lunch-in-Conversation series, we had the chance to partner with Les Brumes du Coude, where Alexander MacLeod, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch (pictured above), and Fawn Parker will discuss their work over a spectacular meal. We hope it will allow our busy public to enjoy more of the festival.”

2023’s schedule is teeming with activities and events for all ages: “We will be trying out new reading concept, “Beyond the Book,” a 90-minute event where writers and poets will do a short reading and speak about the art that inspires them,” says Savoie. “And we’re bringing back Festival favourites like the Frye Jam—readings backed by musical improvisations and projections—and Trivia Night hosted by local drag legends Rose Beef and Barb Wire.”

Be sure to visit the Frye Festival website for up-to-date details and programming information by clicking here. 

 

From Schiltigheim, France to Moncton, New Brunswick - [EDIT] + ACC presents a film by Mark Hemmings! 

In this exclusive film produced by Edit Media in collaboration with the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, Matt George meets barber Pat Chnapz. Pat was born in Schiltigheim, France and has won numerous barbering awards in Europe. He moved to New Brunswick in 2018 to adapt to a different culture and to join the burgeoning barbering scene here. He joined Handsome Devils in Moncton at the beginning of 2019 and received Canadian citizenship on August 5, 2022.

Watch complete film here.

Click here to read the full feature in English or French.

An Edit Media Production Directed by Mark Hemmings 

Interview by Matt George

Filmed and edited by Mark Hemmings

Executive produced by James & Pamela Mullinger

Pat Chnapz from Handsome Devils, 700 Main Street, Moncton, New Brunswick

 

 

Tim Myers' award-winning film Dollar Dog
by Martin Silverstone (editor of the Atlantic Salmon Journal) 

Just as Atlantic salmon return home to Cape Breton’s storied Margaree River year after year, anglers from all over are drawn to its banks. With public water, this river boasts a world-class fishery that is accessible to everyone. A new film by Tim Myers titled Dollar Dog tells the story of the most unlikely of fish bums – Ella. A four-legged vagabond who’s love for Atlantic salmon rivals that of her waded counterparts. A tale of the place and the fish, from which legends are born. This magnificent new film from Tim Myers is premiering at the International Fly Fishing Film Festival. Martin Silverstone has the inside story...

Film festivals, or at least a film festival, was part of my childhood. Every late fall as my father, a crazy, committed skier, waited for the snow, he’d drag me and my six siblings to the latest Warren Miller ski film. Skiing was not as “every day” back then as it is now. Skiers were viewed as … well … a little nuts. You’d feel that kind of zany energy in the gymnasium or church basement, where the showings were usually held.

My first fly-fishing festivals were much the same. Like skiing in its early days, fly-fishing is still very much a novelty for those who aren’t familiar with the terms live release, false cast and fly pattern. And like Miller’s films, which, as more and more people took up skiing, became filled with wilder and wilder stunts to maintain the novelty, so are fly-fishing films becoming filled with bigger and bigger fish and more exotic locales.

One film, an official selection at this year’s International Fly Fishing Film Festival (IF4), bucks that style this year and puts the whole grip-and-grin, high-fiving, whooping-with-joy trend to rest. In Dollar Dog, filmmaker Tim Myers (pictured below) turns his talents toward a little-known, but very special fly-fishing aficionado who frequents the Margaree’s Dollar Pool.

The ASF/Orvis co-production’s script, written by Deirdre Green, ASF’s Nova Scotia program director (pictured below with Ella) , tells the story of Ella, a lovable pooch (what dog isn’t?) from Doyles Bridge, Cape Breton. The retriever-shepherd-lab mix trots alone most days during fishing season, along country paths to Dollar Pool on the Margaree River, where she watches anglers cast and even points to where salmon are lying.

The film is beautifully shot, which is no surprise, as Myers’ credits include work with Sportsnet, CBC, Fly Max Films and Fly Nation TV, plus a few previous IF4 selections. It’s not Green’s first rodeo either. He’s written and co-produced films on the Miramichi and St. Mary’s, still worthy watching on YouTube. Ella’s experience shines through, as the plot is strong and has a powerful ending. (Spoiler alert: Dollar Dog is the first “fishing” film that had me in tears at the closing credits.)

Myers attended the IF4 in New Jersey earlier this year and got a sense of what the competition was like. “It’s neat to see how Dollar Dog fits in with the other films,” he says. “Well actually, it doesn’t seem to fit.” 

“We didn’t want to tell the typical big fish story,” Green told me over the phone as I huddled down on the coldest day of last winter. “It’s more about the fabric of this river and the tapestry of characters it draws.” True to her word, there is no “fishing porn.” Nevertheless, just as the original Warren Miller films were meant to pump skiers up for the coming season, Dollar Dog had me longing for opening day. 

Over 300 people attended the Halifax Library screening on Saturday night. Vote for Dollar Dog! For public screenings of the IF4 (and how to vote for Dollar Dog), visit flyfilmfest.com.

 

Art Director: Lindsay Vautour
Senior Editor: Jennifer Wood
Publishing Director: Pamela Mullinger
Editor: James Mullinger

For all advertising enquiries, email Pamela: pamela@maritimeedit.com