It’s not surprising that Juno-nominated musician Terra Lightfoot’s first concert in her new hometown of Haliburton is a sell-out.

Lightfoot will be performing at the Haliburton Legion at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 28th, with local musician Thom Lambert opening. Tickets for the concert, presented by the Haliburton County Folk Society, are sold out — but you can email haliburtonfolk@gmail.com to be put on a waiting list.

Originally from Hamilton, the roots-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist moved to the Haliburton Highlands with her fiancé in late 2020.

“We both love the country life,” Lightfoot tells kawarthaNOW. “It’s incredibly peaceful and we spend a lot more time outdoors these days.”

It’s also an ideal setting for songwriting. Lightfoot recorded her latest single “Sleepyhead” in her living room with Peterborough engineer James McKenty, who also mastered the final mix.

Described as “a track for all those hard-working people who have put their own needs on the backburner so they can be there for their kids,” the song features a touch of strings added by Bailieboro native Jimmy Bowskill (The Sheepdogs, Brooks & Bowskill) at Ganaraska Recording Co., his Cobourg recording studio.

VIDEO: “Sleepyhead” – Terra Lightfoot

Lightfoot recently finished a cross-country tour with Stephen Fearing, Tom Wilson, and Colin Linden of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. In December, she performed with the band over two nights at Peterborough’s Market Hall. Her performance at the Haliburton Legion is her first concert of 2023.

“I’m looking forward to meeting folks from the local music community and having a rock ‘n roll party,” she says.

As for opener Thom Lambert, the Haliburton County musician and artist is thrilled to be sharing a hometown stage with Lightfoot.

“I am very excited to be in the same space as Terra,” he says. “She is a force of nature.”

Peterborough’s ReFrame Film Festival has announced a series of live and virtual events as part annual documentary film festival, running from January 26 to February 3.

Already announced is the exclusive, in-person opening night screening of Laura Poitras’s film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 26th at Showplace Performance Centre. Prior to the screening, Alice Williams will open the festival with a prayer, Cormac Culkeen will give a musical performance, and ReFrame creative director Amy Siegel will speak about the festival program. Opening night tickets, which are sold separately, are $20 or pay what you can.

ReFrame has also partnered with Artspace to present a series of in-person events at the non-profit artist-run centre at 378 Aylmer Street North in downtown Peterborough.

Running from January 25 to February 25, What Fools These Mortals Be is a three-channel video installation — created by The Circle Project and collaborator Adad Hannah and curated by ReFrame creative director Amy Siegel — that reimagines Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a series of living pictures performed by 14 formerly incarcerated women. The Dreaming, a companion piece to What Fools These Mortals Be, is an interactive audio documentary where formerly incarcerated women recount their dreams.

Running at Artspace during the afternoons of January 27 to 29 is Intravene, a 20-minute audio experience that immerses listeners in the intense audio environment of an overdose prevention site in Vancouver when a user has inadvertently injected a hit of “benzo-dope” (opiods laced with benzodiazepine).

Intravene was produced through a partnership between UK theatre company Darkfield Radio, Crackdown (a podcast produced by drug user activists in Vancouver), and Peterborough documentary filmmaker and artist Brenda Longfellow.

Longfellow will also be participating in the in-person panel discussion “What Role Can Art Play in the Overdose Crisis?” Taking place at Artspace at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 28th, the panel also includes Alex Bierk, Zoë Dodd, Mkwa Ghiizis (Crystal Hebert), and Jeff Bierk. Following the panel discussion, Peterborough Public Health will be offering one-on-one naloxone training.

Coinciding with the First Friday Peterborough art crawl on the evening of Friday, February 3th, Artspace will host Love Positive Women, a valentine-making pop-up where you can share love with women living with HIV. The community based Women’s HIV/AIDS Initiative (WHAI) will distribute the valentines made at the event to women in the community who are living with HIV (the WHAI coordinator for Peterborough is PARN’s Brooke Dewhurst).

On Sunday, January 29 at 2 p.m. two filmmakers whose documentaries are screening at ReFrame will participate in a livestream panel discussion. Resita Cox (Freedom Hill) and Luke Gleeson (The Scattering of Man) will talk about their powerful films that explore themes of environmental racism. Czarina Garcia from the Community Race Relations Committee and Patricia Wilson from Diverse Nature Collective will also join the discussion.

A series of pre-recorded talks featuring some of the filmmakers whose films screening at ReFrame will also be available:

• Marilyn James and Ali Kazimi (Beyond Extinction: A Sinixt Resurgence)
• Bob Romerein, Colin MacAdam, Rob Steinman, and Jim Angel (Choices)
• Natasha Luckhardt (Fault Lines) and subjects from the film
• Chase Joynt (Framing Agnes)
• Colin Askey (Love in the Time of Fentanyl)
• Maia Kenworthy (Rebellion)
• Karleen Pendleton Jiménez and Barb Taylor (The Butch and the Baby Daddy)
• Barri Cohen (Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children) and subjects from the film

Each pre-recorded talk will be included with the film during the virtual festival.

For more information about the in-person events, livestream panel discussion, and pre-recorded talks, visit reframefilmfestival.ca/festival/reframe-live/. For virtual festival passes, festival ticket packs, and pay-what-you can tickets for individual films, visit reframefilmfestival.ca/festival/passes-tickets/.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be an official media partner and sponsor of the 2023 ReFrame Film Festival.

Every Thursday, we publish live music events at pubs and restaurants in Peterborough and the greater Kawarthas region based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, January 19 to Wednesday, January 25.

If you’re a pub or restaurant owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our nightlifeNOW editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com. For concerts and live music events at other venues, check out our Concerts & Live Music page.

With the exception of karaoke, we only list events with performing musicians. Venues may also host other events during the week (e.g., dancing, DJs, comedy shows).

This year’s ReFrame Film Festival will take place between January 26th and February 3rd with a slate of provocative films set around themes of social and environmental justice.

Previous attendees of the ReFrame Film Festival will know that many themes presented at the festival are timely and urgent, pulling at the heartstrings of documentary fans and new-to-film viewers alike.

ReFrame hopes to “light up the darkest time of the year with inspiring activist stories, fascinating trips across the world, incredible images and thought-provoking discussion.” Interested individuals can now access the full lineup of films using ReFrame’s interactive film guide at reframefilmfestival.ca/film-guide/.

The festival will open with an in-person screening of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed by Laura Poitras at Showplace Performance Centre on Thursday, January 26th at 7 p.m.

The majority of film screenings will be held virtually, with in-person festival events including the opening night, Q&As, panel discussions, and an exhibition at Artspace.

GreenUP sees the urgent importance of climate action reflected in the many environmentally themed films featured at ReFrame this year. Read on to learn more about 10 must-see films from near and far which will be featured in the 2023 lineup.

VIDEO: “Bigger Than Us” trailer

Films at the festival this year highlight youth voices and stories.

Bigger Than Us by Flore Vasseur features 18-year-old Melati, a young Indonesian woman who works towards tackling the plastic pollution issue that is impacting her country. Sometimes risking their lives and safety, the youth in this film passionately and courageously protect people, the climate, and access to education and food.

Organizing climate movements as a young person has a steep learning curve. High Tide Don’t Hide, filmed in New Zealand and directed by Niva Kay, Emily McDowell, Nia Phipps and Phil Stebbing, follows the struggle of young people empowering themselves to take climate action in their communities.

The shorts program “Confronting the Climate Crisis” features four films that show people and places impacted by changes in the environment. A standout film in this program, Rewilding the Classroom, looks at the Youth Leadership in Sustainability program developed by local educator Cam Douglas. In the film, we learn about youth as they explore the reality of environmental crises in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough.

One of the pertinent issues the festival hopes to highlight this year is the opioid crisis, a challenge we may not immediately think of when taking action for the environment.

Devil Put the Coal in the Ground, directed by Peter Hutchison and Lucas Sabean, shows that the overdose crises and the environment are interconnected. Uniquely structured upon the personal storytelling of West Virginians, this film is a meditation on the suffering brought on by the coal industry and its decline.

VIDEO: “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground” trailer

Environmental documentaries at ReFrame also touch on stories of hope and inspiration. These next two films are light-hearted and inspirational.

George Tsougrianis’ Wild Prairie Man is an intimate look at the life of a man enthralled with the endangered ecosystem of Grasslands National Park. Located in the Northern Great Plains of Canada, capturing the beauty of the Grasslands has been a 20-year odyssey for wildlife photographer James R. Page.

As well, try The Colour of Ink by Brian Johnson, which uncovers the mystery of an old art medium through the eyes of Toronto inkmaker Jason Logan. Harvesting colours from the natural world — weeds, berries, bark, flowers, rocks, rust — Logan makes ink from just about anything.

Environmental films highlight the interactions between people and the environment, reminding the audience that we are connected with nature, no matter where we are.

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, a feature-length documentary directed by Jim Becket and Camilla Becket, presents the remarkable life story of the Gandhian eco-activist and agro-ecologist Vandana Shiva. A classic David versus Goliath tale, the film shows how Vandana, a brilliant scientist, became a star of the international organic food movement.

Premiering in Canada for the first time is Norwegian Headache by Rune Denstad Langlo. This film looks at how Norwegian government decision-making can be the difference between environmental protection or environmental detriment. It follows the precedent-setting legal battle of Article 112 of the Norwegian Constitution, which speaks to the right for future generations to have a clean environment.

VIDEO: “The Seeds of Vandana Shiva” trailer

ReFrame also features documentaries that address environmental racism and advocacy for Indigenous communities.

Resita Cox’s Freedom Hill connects the dots between climate change, race, and poverty in a film that highlights the historically significant town of Princeville, North Carolina. As a result of racism, a black community has settled in the flood plain that is now Freedom Hill. This community will be directly impacted by increased extreme weather events and is a strong example of how marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change.

The perspective of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation is shared in Luke Gleeson’s The Scattering of Man – DƏNE YI’INJET. This community suffers from the environmental, cultural, and social repercussions of the W.A.C Bennett Dam being built on Peace River in the Rocky Mountain Trench, territory that has been inhabited by Tsay Keh Dene for millennia.

“ReFrame is excited to present the stories of people and communities fighting for environmental justice at the local, national, and global levels,” says ReFrame Creative Director Amy Siegel. “We hope these films will incite audiences beyond the festival. We are facing a climate emergency, and I believe film and art can play a part in informing, inspiring, and galvanizing the community to take action.”

GreenUP is once again excited to be a sponsor supporting the ReFrame Film Festival. Audiences can purchase ticket packs of 5, 8, or 10, or a virtual festival pass for those who want to take in all the films. Pay-what-you-can standalone tickets are also available for every film. Opening night tickets are sold separately.

Purchase your ReFrame passes or tickets at reframefilmfestival.ca/festival/passes-tickets/

VIDEO: “Freedom Hill” trailer