There is a serial killer running around in Sadie Cunningham (Deadpool’s Brianna Hildebrand) and McKayla Hooper (X-Men Apocalypse’s Alexandra Shipp)’s town, but the two teenagers are not afraid. In fact, they are downright excited. Creators of the Tragedy Girls crime blog, which covers local murders, the duo sees this as their opportunity to go viral. […]
October
18
TADFF 2017: Latched
posted by Matt
A recently single choreographer heads up to the cottage with her hungry toddler in tow and you can tell right from the opening shots, and the unnerving score, that they’re headed for trouble. Directors Justin Harding and Rob Brunner have only 17 minutes with which to tell their tale so I’d rather spoil as little […]
October
18
Talking imagineNATIVE on Frameline
posted by Courtney Small
As the imagineNATIVE film festival kicks off this week, the most recent episode of Frameline delved into some of the films playing the festival. In the episode Barbara Goslawski, Matthew Price and I discuss: Waru, Nuuca, Creatura Dada, Our People Will Be Healed, Thirza Cutland is an Indian Within the Meaning of the Indian Act, […]
October
18
imagineNATIVE 2017: Twilight Dancers
posted by Sean
Far too often, an indigenous community makes the news because it’s dealing with a suicide epidemic. Cross Lake, Manitoba is one such community. In 2016 there were 140 suicide attempts in Cross Lake within a two week period. Six people were successful. Those staggering numbers are even more devastating when you consider that the population […]
October
18
imagineNATIVE 2017: Sweet Country
posted by Francis McKay
Set in 1929, Sweet Country walks the razors edge of race relations between aboriginals and whites deep in the Australian. The relationship between the communities span from being treated with respect and dignity to being seen as property depending on whose land you’re on. The aborigines work as ranch hands and domestic help on white […]
October
17
New on DVD: Lady Macbeth
posted by Courtney Small
In the Behind the Scenes of Lady Macbeth feature on the Lady Macbeth DVD, which arrives today courtesy of D Films, director William Oldroyd remarks that he was taken by the idea of a woman defending herself via whatever length that might entail. It is this mixture of perseverance and ruthlessness that makes Oldroyd’s film […]
October
17
imagineNATIVE 2017: Out of State
posted by Matt
The prisons in Hawaii are getting so overcrowded that many inmates who were charged and convicted in their home state are flown out of state to be incarcerated. This has started to happen so frequently that eventually an entire institution has been built in Arizona just for Hawaii’s prisoners. A disproportionate number of these prisoners […]
October
17
imagineNATIVE 2017: Birth of a Family
posted by Derek Jacobs
Tasha Hubbard’s Birth of a Family documents the first meeting of a family torn asunder by racist government policies, decades after their separation. As infants, Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie, and Ben were taken from their indigenous mother and placed into separate white homes across North America as part of Canada’s “Sixties Scoop”. The story of […]
October
17
New on Blu-ray: The Films of Studio Ghibli
posted by Courtney Small
Studio Ghibli has been responsible for some of the most iconic animated films in cinema history. Their films have captured the imagination of fans of all ages, while tackling themes on the environment, isolation, and issues related to coming of age just to name a few. Today, and throughout the fall, Studio Ghibli and GKIDS, […]
October
16
imagineNATIVE 2017: Waru
posted by Courtney Small
The death of a young boy hits a community like a tidal wave in the riveting film Waru. While the audience is not provided with much detail about the deceased child, the picture slowly begins to form when observing how eight vastly different women react to the news. All linked to the child in some […]
October
16
imagineNATIVE 2017: Holy Angels
posted by rmpixie
Most of us have heard about the terrible treatment of First Nations children when they were sent to residential schools. However, it’s only when we get a firsthand account of the harsh memories from a survivor do we realize exactly how much strength these children needed to get by in their day-to-day lives. The Holy […]
October
16
TADFF 2017: Defective
posted by Courtney Small
Imagine a world where respect law and order was priority above all else. One where those who enforced the law did so as they saw fit without constantly being judge by those they were charged to protect. Some might argue that such order would make countries “great again.” However, what if the cost for such […]
October
15
TADFF 2017: Eat Locals
posted by rmpixie
What happens when a vampire meeting gets ambushed by a military detail hell-bent on destroying the ancient undead? You get Eat Locals, well-known actor and now first-time director Jason Flemyng’s feature film. Eight vampires from different walks of life come together to discuss the rules and regulations of their existence. When they reveal one of […]
October
15
TADFF 2017: The Drop In
posted by Sean
I enjoy short films because they are their own genre with their own rules. Unlike feature-length film, there’s no standard runtime, only an upper limit of 40 minutes (including credits) in order to qualify for Oscar consideration. The fact that shorts usually jump right into the action makes the genre feel freer and less predictable […]
October
14
TADFF 2017: Rabbit
posted by rmpixie
Director and writer Luke Shanahan’s first feature film Rabbit is an ambitious blend of genres exploring the mysterious connection twins have that will leave audiences chilled, uneasy and slightly confused. Maude (Adelaide Clemens) is a med student in Germany, many miles from her native Australia. She has escaped family drama that ignited after her sister […]
October
14
TADFF 2017: The Villainess
posted by rmpixie
With more action than you can take and a many-layered story, Jung Byung-gil’s The Villainess is full of love, betrayal and definitely no honour among thieves. Sook-hee (Kim Ok-bin) is a woman with a mission. After witnessing her father’s murder as a young girl, she is kidnapped with the hopes of revealing where her father […]
October
13
Interview: Alexandre O. Philippe on “78/52”
posted by Derek Jacobs
Alexandre O. Philippe is a practiced documentarian with a decided penchant for pop culture phenomena, especially films. In The People vs. George Lucas, he looked at the interaction between filmmakers and fans. In The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octupus, he commented on an octopus named Paul that correctly “predicted” eight consecutive World […]
October
13
Goodbye Christopher Robin
posted by Francis McKay
London playwright Alan A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) suffered from a serious case of shell-shock, known today as PSTD, when he returned to England from The Great War. Loud noises, corks popping, bright lights and especially bees would bring him back to horrors of the trenches on the Western Front. During one of his episodes, his […]
October
13
TADFF 2017: Sixty Minutes to Midnight
posted by Courtney Small
Neil Mackay’s latest action film Sixty Minutes to Midnight finds him once again reteaming with character actor Robert Nolan. This time around Nolan stars as Jack Darcy, a former soldier-turned-construction work who is filled with Y2K paranoia. Living a quiet life in East Texas, his only friend is his co-worker Markus (Arnold Sidney), he wants […]
October
12
TADFF 2017: Cult of Chucky
posted by Courtney Small
The Cult of Chucky is the seventh film in the Child’s Play franchise. Let that skin in for a moment. As a fan of the original film, I have always been a little conflicted at the various paths that this lengthy series has taken. What started out as a taut slasher film that had subtle, […]
