The Sunshine Coast Film Society will screen the award-winning Canadian film Brother at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 30 at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse and 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3 at the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt.
The film is adapted from David Chariandy’s novel and directed by Clement Virgo (The Book of Negroes); it follows the coming-of-age of two brothers who are sons of Caribbean immigrants: Michael, played by Lamar Johnson (The Last of Us, Your Honour) and older brother Francis, played by British actor Aaron Pierre (Underground Railroad, Rebel Ridge).
The tale is propelled by the pulsing beats of Toronto’s early hip-hop scene and riveting performances by the two young actors and their mother (Marsha Stephanie Blake). It is set during the sweltering summer of 1991, during which a mystery unfolds and escalating tensions set off a series of events that change the course of the brothers’ lives.
Memberships and tickets ($10) can be purchased with cash at the door or online at www.scfs.ca. Membership is required to attend SCFS screenings.
Bounty of stars from Pitcairn
The Sunshine Coast Astronomy annual general meeting and speaker night on Friday, Oct. 4 will feature a guest presenter who crossed an ocean to set up his telescope at the darkest spot he could find: the Pitcairn Islands.
Bryon M. “PackPuppy” Elliott is an astronomer and dark sky enthusiast from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Vancouver chapter.
His quest to find a dark sky far from the lights of Vancouver took Elliott to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The volcanic islands are naturally dark; inhabitants also turn off their generators at 10 p.m. to make their skies as dark as possible.
The presentation is open to the public and takes place at the Sechelt Public Library at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 4. More information for local stargazers is available online at coastastronomy.ca.
A legend in her own time
Friends and admirers of shíshálh Nation member Barbara Carmelita Higgins will gather for a public celebration of Higgins’s life on Sept. 29 at the Egmont Heritage Centre.
A display of Indigenous arts will be accompanied by sparkling beverages and appetizers. Higgins was the author of Etched in My Memory: My life as a Shishalh Rememberer and was born in Egmont in 1933. She was an actress, an activist, a teacher, a principal, a volunteer for the Native Brotherhood, and erstwhile president of the Victoria Friendship Centre.
Admission to the event at the Egmont Heritage Society is $25 per person. The celebration starts at 1 p.m. on Sept. 29, and includes free museum membership upon admittance.
Quilters host panel discussion
The monthly meeting of the Sunshine Coast Quilters Guild will take place this Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre. The doors open at 9:30 a.m., followed by a business meeting and a show-and-tell session at 11 a.m. Speaker Christine Richardson is set to present Creating Panel Quilts at noon. Admission to the event — which is sure to keep participants from unraveling — is $10 for non-members. The guild maintains an informative website at scquiltersguild.com.
Seeking twelve brothers, and more
The Coast Music Theatre Company is holding auditions this weekend — Sept. 27 and 28 — for its 2025 staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It promises to be a performance of Biblical proportions.
Aspiring Josephs, Potiphars, or Pharaohs (plus a host of other characters) are encouraged to prepare a song from a musical, and bring sheet music if possible. “You do not have to sing a song from the show for your audition, although it is wise to be familiar with the show songs,” recommends the Coast Music Theatre creative team of Sara Douglas, Tom Kellough and Sylvain Brochu.
Audition slots can be claimed by browsing to coastmusictheatre.weebly.com.
