In this edition of The Weekender, a Japanese film festival, a naked bike ride and three other things to do in Toronto this weekend.
North By Northeast
The annual NXNE festival returns this weekend. The schedule of bands, films, comedy and art doesn’t really pick up until midway through the week, but early birds can catch some worthwhile stuff on Saturday and Sunday, including performances by Toronto’s Shawn William Clarke and Barrie’s Lyric Dubee. Another point of local interest will be Saturday’s screening of Steve Bodner’s At the Corner of Queen and Bathurst, a documentary about the demise of the Big Bop. June 13–22. Various prices. Various venues,nxne.com
Roncy Rocks Music and Arts Festival (FREE!)
Roncesvalles is playing host to a surprisingly elaborate, multi-stage music festival on Saturday, to be headlined by none other than Treble Charger (which you may remember from such decades as the 1990s). Conveniently, the event coincides with the neighbourhood’s annual garage sale. June 14. FREE.Roncesvalles Ave., roncyrocks.com
Toronto Japanese Film Festival
North American audiences have seen quite a bit of Japanese animation, but Japanese live-action film hasn’t achieved the same level of cultural penetration—with exceptions for movies by auteurs like Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. But Kurosawa, Ozu and their ilk are nowhere to be found on the schedule for this year’s Toronto Japanese Film Festival, which revels in the sometimes wacky, sometimes ultra-violent output of Japan’s pop-culture industrial complex. Opening-weekend attendees will be able to see films likeA Tale of Samurai Cooking—A True Love Story, which, true to its title, is a culinary-themed samurai romantic comedy. Most films that screen as part of the festival will have English subtitles. Until June 27. Tickets $12. Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, 6 Garamond Ct., jccc.on.ca
World Naked Bike Ride (FREE!)
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but here goes: a bunch of people get naked (or almost naked) and ride their bikes through the downtown core, ostensibly for a variety of activist reasons. Whether or not you want to “protest oil dependency and oil pollution,” though, this a rare opportunity to let the wind run through your hair. Like, all of your hair. June 14. FREE. Gather at Coronation Park, 711 Lake Shore Blvd. W., worldnakedbikeridetoronto.com
Angels in America
Soulpepper has revived its critically acclaimed production of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-winning “gay fantasia on national themes.” The sprawling play is set in New York City in 1985, during the start of the AIDS epidemic. It’s a two-parter, so theatregoers have the option of either going on separate days or sitting through one of five marathon, all-day performances. Until July 12. $29–$129. Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Ln. soulpepper.ca