FILM | Sharkwater: Film Screening with Rob Stewart
Decades of horror movies have convinced us that sharks are dangerous predators who would love nothing better than to take a bite of an unsuspecting swimmer. But in his landmark 2007 documentary Sharkwater, Canadian filmmaker Rob Stewart set out to prove that not only are sharks not as dangerous as we think, but they actually play a crucial role in regulating the ocean ecosystem. By preventing other fish from over-consuming plankton, Stewart believes they may even help prevent global warming. In making the movie he set out to film some of the world's densest shark populations in their underwater habitats, but ended up uncovering a black market in shark fins that is threatening to drive the beautiful predators to extinction. Stewart comes to the ROM tonight for a special screening of his film and to convince us that the plight of the misunderstood fish is also our own.
Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park, Free, 7 pm

DANCE | Ballet Creole presents Sankofa
For two decades Ballet Creole has been blending African and Caribbean musical traditions with European dance styles to create unique performances that entertain and inspire. Focusing on the process of "creolization" or cultural fusion, the company uses polyrhythmic Afrocentric drumming to accompany contemporary dance. Since its creation in Toronto in 1990, Ballet Creole has expanded into a touring and teaching company while maintaining its status as a non-profit charitable organization. For the next three nights they celebrate their 20th anniversary with Sankofa, a retrospective show that spans the company's eclectic repertoire. Runs til Saturday.
Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay West, $20 - $45, Thursday to Saturday 8 pm

GALLERY | Explication
When most people look at the objects strewn across the city's streets, they see garbage. But Toronto-based artist Anthony Koutras sees art. Traffic cones, park benches, and telephone pole graffiti all find their way into his photo-based installations, where they're interlaced with sculpture to create new meaning. The objects are so ordinary in and of themselves that Koutras's work becomes about the photographic process itself rather than the subject, compelling viewers to think about how the medium operates to create new spaces in everyday life. A new exhibition of Koutras's installations begins today at the Stephen Bulger Gallery, with an artist reception on Saturday night.
Stephen Bulger Gallery, 1026 Queen St. West, Tuesday to Saturday 11 am - 6 pm, Reception Saturday 2 pm - 5 pm

FILM | Toronto Silent Film Festival Closing Night
An event that will hopefully become an annual fixture wraps up tonight when the first ever Toronto Silent Film Festival presents its final screening. While the fest began with some familiar fare in a Buster Keaton flick, it closes with a pair of obscure German features. An early masterpiece of animation, The Adventures of Prince Achmed stunned audiences with its incredibly lifelike figures when it premiered in Germany in 1926. Based on the Arabian Nights stories, Lotte Reiniger's film is an erotic and thrilling adventure told through entirely animated silhouettes. It will be followed tonight by Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, an invaluable document of daily life in Weimar Germany in 1927, a time of great social upheaval in the country.
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., $15, 7:30 pm

GALLERY | Petits Geants
The motto of the Distillery District's Thompson Landry Gallery is "All Quebec All the Time." The gallery's mission is to bring Torontonians the best in Quebecois visual art, and beginning today its curators present Dominique Fortin's first solo show in our city. In Petits Geants, or Little Giants, Fortin uses portraits of her own daughters as well as text, drawing, painting and photography to create mixed media works that blend fantasy and reality. Vividly coloured and unabashedly youthful, the paintings capture young female forms in the midst of a childhood dreamworld, complete with swans, tiaras, and pretty dresses. Though her art has been accused of being naive, Fortin's work captures rather than imitates the childlike mind. Runs til May 9.
Thompson Landry Gallery, 55 Mill Street, Building #5, Unit 102, Tuesday to Saturday 11 am - 6 pm, Sunday 12 pm - 5 pm

GALLERY | Babiole.Bibelot
The tag line for this art exhibition at the Gladstone is "Baubles. Trinkets. Squirrels." If that doesn't sell you on it, then there's nothing I can do. But you might also like to know that the show is the work of six artists: Corey Bruyea, Lyndsay Wright, Patrick Newmark, Brendan Ko, Beth Frey, and Christopher Johnson. The sextet have created an original, fable-like narrative that explores themes of consumption, fantasy and morality using painting, photography, animation and sound. And as with all good fairy tales, there's a moral at the end of the story. The surreal exhibition will be installed at the Gladstone Hotel Art Bar until April 21st.
Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. West, Free, 12 pm - 8 pm daily

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Photo: "Hanging Bike Sign" by neilta, member of the blogTO Flickr Pool.