Once again, Michael Hawley helps the Twitch readership keep abreast of one film festival after the other in the San Francisco / Bay Area. Thanks, Michael!
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) turns a ripe young age of 29 this year, continuing its reign as the oldest and largest festival of its kind in the world. Over the course of 18 days (July 23 to August 10) SFJFF will present 71 films from 18 countries—showcasing the best Israeli and Jewish Diasporan cinema to emerge in the past year. Although I missed last week’s press conference announcing the line-up, I’ve poured over the catalog and compiled this list of ten programs I don’t want to miss.
Continue Reading "SFJFF09—Michael Hawley Anticipates the Line-Up"...
Once again, Michael Hawley privileges the Twitch readership with his preview of YBCA’s upcoming calendar. Thanks, Michael!
Norwegian Black Metal, Graphic Sexual Horror and a Headless Woman. Jeez, is it Halloween already? No, it’s just this summer’s insouciant film/video line-up at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. But before we dig into what curator Joel Shepard has in store through September, here’s exciting news for YBCA filmgoers. Starting July 6, ticket holders will be allowed FREE admittance into YBCA’s exhibition galleries, whose days and hours of operation have been adjusted to align with evening film and video screenings.
Continue Reading "Michael Hawley Previews YBCA’s Summer 2009 Lineup"...
You can do little wrong when you decide to go to Montreal for the Fantasia International Film Festival and this year’s lineup proves to be no exception. Want a taste? David Morley’s MUTANTS, Adam Mason’s BLOOD RIVER, José Mojica Marins’ EMBODIMENT OF EVIL, Tom Shankland’s THE CHILDREN, Park Chan-wook’s THIRST and Satoshi Miki’s INSTANT SWAMP are just some of the titles at this year’s festival.
There is a lengthy announcement after the break. Take your time and we are sure you’ll find some must-sees. Then we’ll see you in Montreal between July 9th and 27th.
Continue Reading "FANTASIA 2009 announces lineup. She be a doozy!!!"...
The second and final batch of films were announced this weekend for the inaugural Shinsedai Cinema Festival happening here in Toronto between August 21st and 23rd. The second wave of titles are in red. And in other good news Jasper Sharp from Midnight Eye will also be coming to town from across the pond to be a part of the festival that weekend.
After a busy few weeks The Shinsedai Cinema Festival is proud to announce the final round of films of our inaugural line-up. Highlights include the Canadian premiere of Yuya Ishii’s surreal father/ daughter comedy Girl Sparks (left), Touru Hano’s moody and sexy indie horror film Thunderfish (Raigyo), plus a very special co-presentation with Toronto’s Reel Asian International Film Festival of the works of Kyoto-based video artist and composer Takagi Masakatsu including the North American premiere of Aruongaku, Takashi Tomohisa’s documentary of Masakatsu’s Tai Rei Tei Rio concert held on November 13th, 2008 at the Grand Gallery of the Iwate Museum of Art.
Bunny in Hovel - Mayumi Yabe (2009) short
Csikspost - Yumiko Beppu (2009)
Electric Button (Moon & Cherry) -Yuki Tanada (2004) feaure
emerger - Aki Sato (2008)
Freeter’s Distress - Hiroki Iwabuchi (2007) feature
Hottentot Apron: A Sketch - Kei Shirichi (2006) feature
Naked of Defenses - Masahide Ichii (2008) feature
Now, I… - Ysautomo Chikuma (2007) feature
Suzuki & Co. - Kazuo Kono (2008) short film
The New God - Yutaka Tsuchiya (1999) feature
Vortex & Others: 5 Short Films by Yoshihiro Ito (2001-2008) short film
Girl Sparks - Yuya Ishii (2007) feature
Little Birds - Takeharu Watai (2005) feature
Aruongaku - Tomohisa Takashi (2009) feature
Thunderfish - Touru Hano (2005) feature
The Evening Traveling - Akino Kondoh (2002) short film
Wiener Wuast & Israel Mix - Maya Yonesho (2008) short film
The Rule of Dreams - Naoyuki Tsuji (1995) short film
Right Place & Maledict Car - Kosai Sekine (2005) short film
A Woman Who is Beating the Earth - Tsuki Inoue (2007) short film
The finalized schedule for The Shinsedai Cinema Festival will be posted July 15th and tickets and passes will go on sale on July 20th!
There is no shortage of documentaries on the infamous Norwegian black metal scene, but it seems until now there has yet to be one that gathered together the figures that truly mattered on film, and got the key players in the movement to speak without censoring themselves. Filmmakers Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites have pulled off the nearly impossible task of penetrating the inner circle of a very secular scene with their new documentary, Until The Light Takes Us. Moving from their homebase of New York city to Norway for two years, Ewell and Aites have not only put together what looks to be the most cohesive and fleshed out documentary on the subject, but have also made something that is much more beautiful to look at than it’s counterparts, which all seem to suffer from a VH-1 Behind The Music asthetic.
The fact that Varg Vikernes, of the one man band Burzum, incarcerated for years after being found guilty of arson and murder, appears in the film is no small feat. He has, until now, refused to take part in any of the aforementioned films on the subject. As co-director Ewell put it “Making a black metal documentary without Varg is like making a Rolling Stones documentary without Mick Jagger.”
While one may or may not appreciate the genre of true black metal, one thing is for sure, the sociological apsect of the movement is as deep as anything that has occured in rock and roll. Moving from the psuedo Satanic stance of its origins to a Nationalist movement as the teenaged progenitors grew to manhood (yes, the original true black metal scene is completely male dominated) there is a lot of material to mine here for Ewell and Aites, both visceral and intellectual. Until The Light Takes Us is sure to blow many people preconceived notions to hell (or Valhalla, take your pick) with it’s engrossing tale of anti-Christian activism and extremely articulate interview subjects. I for one am seriously looking forward to seeing Until The Light Takes Us in its entirety.
Screening Dates and Trailer after the Jump.
Continue Reading "Trailer for black metal doc UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US"...
Though this program has already screened once already at the Worldwide Short Film Festival there is still one more chance for you to catch this breathtaking collection of short films looks as much at the fragility of life as much as the joy of it and what we do to capture, preserve or remember it. Reminded and spurned on by James’ prior post about Pedro Pires’ short film Danse Macabre by stroke of luck this program was amongst the screeners on my desk or the day job would have kept me from seeing some of these gorgeous creations. You Can’t Take It With You screens again on Saturday, June 20th at the ROM.
Continue Reading "WSFF09 You Can’t Take It With You"...
Yes, we do love ourselves Australian cult film documentary Not Quite Hollywood around these parts, having heaped much love on it over the past year as it has appeared at different festivals around the world. But festival time is over for this one and the US theatrical release is coming and that can mean only one thing: a new trailer. And with a film like this, there can be only one trailer option: it’s red band all the way, baby. Check it out below the break.
NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD is the wild, wonderful, untold story of “OZPLOITATION” films. It irreverently documents an era when Australian cinema got its gear off and showed the world a full-frontal explosion of sex, violence, horror and foot-to-the-floor action. Free-wheeling sex romps! Blood-soaked terror tales! High-octane action extravaganzas! They’re the main ingredients of NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, the first detailed examination and celebration of Australian genre cinema of the 70s and 80s. In 1971, with the introduction of the R-certificate, Australia’s censorship regime went from repressive to progressive virtually overnight. This cultural explosion gave birth to art house classics, such as PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and MY BRILLIANT CAREER, but also spawned a group of demon-children: maverick filmmakers who braved assault from all quarters to bring films like ALVIN PURPLE, THE MAN FROM HONG KONG, PATRICK, TURKEY SHOOT and MAD MAX to the big screen. As explicit, violent and energetic as their northern cousins, Aussie genre movies presented a unique take on established conventions. In England, Italy and the grind houses and drive-ins of America, audiences applauded Australian homegrown marauding “rev heads” with brutish cars, spunky well-stacked heroines and stunts - unparalleled in their quality and extreme danger. Full of outrageous anecdotes, a large cast of local and International names and a genuine, infectious love of Australian movies, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD is a fast-moving journey through an unjustly forgotten cinematic era.
NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD will release in Los Angeles July 31 at the Nuart theatre.
Continue Reading "NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD. Not Quite PG."...
A brand new festival has popped up the Twitchfilm radar this weekend. The inaugural Shinsedai [New Generation] Festival has just announced the first wave of titles playing this year here in Toronto. Co-programmed by Midnight Eye’s Jasper Sharp and Toronto’s greatest Jfan Chris Magee from JFilm Pow Wow their purpose and goal with Shinsedai is to turn the spotlight on some of Japan’s great independent filmmakers that have emerged this past decade.
Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Oshima, Kitano - around the world these names immediately bring to mind the best that Japanese cinema has to offer, but now that we’re at the beginning of a new century many film fans are wondering who the next generation of great filmmakers from Japan will be. Toronto’s first Shinsedai Cinema Festival tries to answer that question by bringing some of the best work by independent Japanese filmmakers to Toronto, many for the very first time.
For three days between August 21st and 23rd the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre will be hosting a program which will have everything from insightful dramas, quirky comedies, hard-hitting documentaries, experimental shorts, and beyond. Along with the festival announcement they just announced their first wave of titles for this year’s festival.
Bunny in Hovel - Mayumi Yabe (2009
Csikspost - Yumiko Beppu (2009)
Electric Button (Moon & Cherry) -Yuki Tanada (2004)
emerger - Aki Sato (2008)
Freeter’s Distress - Hiroki Iwabuchi (2007)
Hottentot Apron: A Sketch - Kei Shirichi (2006)
Naked of Defenses - Masahide Ichii (2008)
Now, I… - Ysautomo Chikuma (2007)
Suzuki & Co. - Kazuo Kono (2008)
The New God - Yutaka Tsuchiya (1999)
Vortex & Others: 5 Short Films by Yoshihiro Ito (2001-2008)
Just a quick heads up that DavidLynch.com is hosting episode #1 (of 121) as of yesterday, with a new episode up every three days for, well, quite some time.
As Queers prepare to celebrate Stonewall’s 40th anniversary next month, it’s fitting that films spotlighting LGBT elders be at the center of this year’s Frameline festival. That was the summational spin placed on this year’s event by new Executive Director K.C. Price and longtime Festival Director Jennifer Morris, as they walked us through the 2009 line-up at last week’s press conference. The festival turns 33 this year, and here’s an acknowledged fact that always bears repeating—Frameline is the oldest and largest LGBT film exhibition event in the world. Appropriately, 2009’s rousing theme—“The Power of Film”—is emblazoned upon a purple, fist-pumping Socialist-Realism inspired logo, and the festival’s trailer features THE original Super-8 projector used at the very first festival in 1977.
At a time when many arts organizations are struggling to retain funding, Frameline has emerged relatively unscathed. Price explained that while many of the festival’s corporate sponsors have slashed all arts bankrolling, when it came to Frameline, “they just couldn’t do it.” Happily, this enabled a hold on ticket prices which are already among the lowest of all Bay Area film festivals. There’s more good news for the wallet. For those with weekday afternoons free (whether because of a job layoff or otherwise), the festival is introducing a $35.00 Weekday Matinee Pass good for all 15 Castro Theater screenings, Monday through Friday before 5:00PM. This breaks down to roughly $2.35 per show. Also new in 2009, audience members can eschew paper ballots in favor of voting for films by text-messaging. I’m mighty ambivalent about this one and hereby issue a warning: anyone seen texting their vote (and emitting that horribly distracting light) before a film is finished, will be smacked upside the head with a rolled-up Frameline catalogue by one very annoyed LGBT elder.
Continue Reading "FRAMELINE33—Michael Hawley Anticipates the Lineup"...
As part of their annual Race & Hollywood series and this year’s ongoing month-long exploration of Latino images in film, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) commissioned an interstitial on Latino stereotypes in film, featuring Rita Moreno, Héctor Elizondo, Edward James Olmos and John Saxon.
Illustration of the bandido courtesy of David Ryan Paul
Continue Reading "TCM: LATINO IMAGES IN FILM—On Stereotypes"...
What’s that? You didn’t know that Canada had demigods of Metal? For sure we do.
At fourteen years old, best friends Lips and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band Anvil, hailed as the “demi-gods of Canadian metal,” influenced a musical generation including Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. Though Anvil never made it, they never stopped playing or believing. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now well into their fifties, set off to record their thirteenth album, “This is Thirteen,” in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dream.
And their movie, Anvil! The Story of Anvil is going to be making it rounds south of the border. The complete list is below. Some of them are single night gigs, others for as long as a week, so make sure you’ve got those dates circled in the blackest of metal black on your calender!
Continue Reading "A smack of U.S. dates for Canadian metal doc ‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’"...
Bless Entertainment Weekly for posting the first episode of David Lynch‘s 131 part Interview Project. A simple yet intimate look at a cancer survivor as he lays bar his soul discussing his mother and the New York Times crossword. It is captured no nonsense; sweet and to the point. The brief segment captures part of the soul of the man by merely looking at his face and body language. The full series starts June 1st.
Commissioned by Lynch, and compiled by a team of filmmakers who criss-crossed the states gathering dozens of personal histories, the series—to be premiered every three days throughout the year until next June—is available only at interviewproject.davidlynch.com
Love it or hate it, the culture war in the United States has been raging at a fever pitch for a decade, in the media, on the political stage and certainly in the back-rooms of policy making. Kirby Dick’s latest documentary lobs a shrapnel grenade right into the centre of things with the question: “Why are many gay politicians, who choose to ‘live in the closet’ (presumably out of concern for losing their public office - but it is likely not that simple) some of the toughest anti-gay policy makers?” Of course to ask this question, Dick and company are essentially outing several governors, senators and mayors on screen which will lead, more likely than not, to a slander law-suit or three. The film on the surface is destined to be written off by hard-core Republicans (who will, I’m guessing, not bother seeing the film before writing it off) as a scarlet-letter gossip piece. Which it kind-of sort-of is. Except that, in its sensational way, it is asking the right questions. So thus it also tangentially asks if the ends justify the means for these sort of situations where “people who are not subject to the law will of course make harsh law.” Which in itself is a highly symbolic threat to the practice of democracy as kings and kingmakers sidestep their own nature in a ‘thou dost protest too much’ sort of way to deal with their own psychological hang-ups, either in their political arenas, their attempt to hang on to their own wealth and influence, or simply the upbringing of many of these folks in a time when homosexuality was treated like a brain-disorder. Perhaps Dick’s film is a demonstration of capitalism (and ‘me-ism’) at its finest: When a member of a certain group sells out that group for personal and selfish gain. Many may see the worst politicians as ‘self-promoting assholes,’ but here we have several gents willing to have a moral compromise against their own identity. One apt comment is the comparison to the job of the politician and the dance of staying in the closet. Both require crafty language, spin, and a delicate balancing of a great number of needs and obligations.
Continue Reading "HotDocs: OUTRAGE Review"...
