Viastar gets 17.5% stake in Yaletown

L.A.-based Viastar Holdings has acquired 2.65 million shares (or 17.5%) of Vancouver-based Yaletown Entertainment, an integrated company with high-definition production, post-production and audio post services.

At press time, the value of the shares acquired was about $292,000, based on share prices of $0.11 on March 24. The 52-week high of $0.55 earlier in the year followed a flurry of news releases related to business transacted by Dadon. The year low is $0.09.

Banff signs on for broadcast news confab

The Banff Television Foundation has been licensed by London-based Media Ventures to manage the broadcast news conference News World, kicking off with the 2003 event Oct. 21-23 at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.

The Banff Foundation will handle marketing and management, while News World’s U.K. crew will focus on program content for the conference.

Aside from the Dublin event, BTF will also be lending a hand to the third News World Asia conference, taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia May 30 to June 1.

In other news, the Foundation will be launching its first annual World Congress of Arts Producers and Performance Forum at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa Nov. 5-8.

ReelWorld set to unspool

The ReelWorld Film Festival is returning to Toronto April 2-6 for a third celebration of culturally and racially diverse film, TV and new media.

Organizers report that last year, over 10,000 filmmakers, international media and filmgoers attended the event, and ReelWorld is expecting the same numbers this year.

Countries represented at the festival will include Canada, the U.S., Australia, Japan and Mexico.

Gould doc tops art festival winners

Yosif Feyginberg’s documentary on Glenn Gould’s 1957 visit to the former Soviet Union, Glenn Gould: The Russian Journey, has won the Grand Prix Pratt & Whitney Canada, top prize at the 21st International Festival of Films on Art, held March 13-23 in Montreal.

The one-hour production features the 24-year-old pianist’s concert performances in Moscow and Leningrad and never-before-heard concert recordings. The Russian Journey was produced by Atlantic 4 Productions, Aevid Productions and CBC.

Other festival winners include Paul Cox’s The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (Domtar Jury Prize), Werner Volkmer’s Roussil ou le curieux destin d’un anarchiste (the $5,000 Telefilm Canada Prize for best Canadian work) and Wim Vandekeybus’ In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (the $3,000 National Film Board Prix de la Creation).