Emerging Vancouver artists present their work at Launch! Festival Friday night

Sarah Jickling, one of the performers at the 2015 Launch! Festival. Bethany Menzel photo.

This Friday night, the Launch! Festival once again spotlights some of Vancouver’s most talented emerging artists.

Each year, Launch! selects a number of applicants from different artistic disciplines to showcase their work. Those selected also receive advice and guidance from professionals in their respective disciplines, which include music, theatre, film and dance.

For the Launch! Festival 2015, 10 artists have been chosen to perform and/or show their films on June 19 at the Fei Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W. Hastings St.). Here are some expected highlights.

Christine Reinfort – A recent graduate of Langara’s Studio 58 Acting Program, Reinfort performs her original theatre piece Le Petite Mort. In it, Reinfort draws on her skills in theatre, comedy and mime for a story about a medical examiner who finds love in the lab.

Laurence Fortin Gagnona – The Vancouver Film School graduate will show “Le Rêveur,” an animated short that “follows a young dreamer whose attraction to the moon propels his life forward,” according to the festival program.

Diego Romero and Ileanna Cheladyn – Choreographers Romero and Cheladyn present Infinite Digressions, a dance piece performed by Ileanna Cheladyn. The piece is inspired by the lives and addictions of writers like Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Malcom Lowry.

Ileanna Cheladyn’s laughing now, but that’s because she hasn’t read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Sarah Jickling – The frontwoman of Vancouver pop-rock sensations The Oh Wells is currently recording/performing as Sarah Jickling and Her Good Bad Luck, along with bandmates Shevaughn Ruley and Greg McLeod. On “When I Get Better,” Jickling brings her looking-at-the-bright-side sense of humour to a serious subject – living with a bipolar condition.

Besides work from these and six other artists, the evening will include live feedback from professional such as actor Jay Brazeau and filmmaker Mina Shum. Musician Warren Dean Flandez hosts, and the $1000 Disruptive Imaginings Award will be presented to one of the artists. A reception will be held afterwards.

Tickets are $20 ($10 for those under 25) at eventbrite.ca.

Article source: http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2015/06/18/launch-festival-2015/