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Canadians out to scare and shake up Sundance and Slamdance film festivals
Thursday December 11th 2014Sundance isn’t going to know what hit it.
Canadian firebrands Guy Maddin and Bruce McDonald are both world-premiering nightmarish new movies next month at Robert Redford’s annual indie filmfest in Park City, Utah.
They’re among a brace of Canuck films announced for both the Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 22 — Feb. 1) and its friendly local rival the Slamdance Film Festival (Jan. 23 — 29).
The emphasis on dark themes runs counter to the prevailing mood of Sundance 2015, which will feature an abundance of comic actors, in films both funny and dramatic. Among the debuts will be movies starring Kristen Wiig (The Diary of a Teenager, Nasty Baby), Sarah Silverman (I Smile Back), Jack Black (The D Train) and Bobcat Goldthwait (Call Me Lucky).
The plot synopsis for Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which will debut in the Sundance New Frontier program, makes it sound like a straight horror film: “A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that’s been trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage into the origins of their darkest fears.”
But the native Winnipegger is anything but conventional — as such previous genre-defying features as Keyhole, The Saddest Music In the World and Brand Upon the Brain! demonstrated — and New Frontier is dedicated to films that “explode traditional storytelling.”
With a large cast that includes Roy Dupuis, Géraldine Chaplin, Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Rampling, Karine Vanasse, Clara Furey and Louis Negin, The Forbidden Room is an offshoot from an interactive work called Seances that Maddin, co-director Evan Johnson and the NFB commenced in 2012. The big difference this time is that the film is in colour rather than black and white, a rare thing for a Maddin work.
Toronto’s Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo, Pontypool) is definitely out to terrify with Hellions, a Halloween-themed pulse-raiser bowing in the Park City at Midnight program.
Filmed partially in infrared, all the better to spook you with, it stars Chloe Rose (TV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation) as a teenager who “must survive a Halloween night from hell when malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door.”
Rose’s co-stars include Terminator 2’s Robert Patrick plus Rossif Sutherland, Rachel Wilson, Peter DaCunha and Luke Bilyk.
Continuing the Canadian creep-out of Sundance, the three-director Turbo Kid will also premiere in Park City at Midnight. The Canada/New Zealand co-production visits a postapocalyptic future: “The Kid, an orphaned outcast, meets a mysterious girl. They become friends until Zeus, the sadistic leader of the Wasteland, kidnaps her. The Kid must face his fears, and journey to rid the Wasteland of evil and save the girl.”
Co-directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, an ensemble known as Rkss (Roadkill Superstar), Turbo Kid stars Munro Chambers (Degrassi: The Next Generation), Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Aaron Jeffery and Edwin Wright.
The New Frontier program also features art installations, and Arcade Fire collaborator Vincent Morisset (Reflektor), will have one titled Way to Go. Designed to mimic a walk in the woods, it’s described as an “astonishing online and virtual reality interactive experience, a restless panorama, a mixture of handmade animation, 360-degree video capture, music, dreaming, and code; but mostly it is a walk in the woods, c’mon!”
Canuck gloom continues in the World Cinematic Dramatic Competition with Chorus, written and directed by François Delisle, which reunites a separated couple who “meet again after 10 years when the body of their missing son is found.” Sébastien Ricard, Fanny Mallette, Pierre Curzi and Genevieve Bujold star in a film that ultimately strives for reconciliation.
Two Canadian docs are premiering in the World Cinema Documentary Competition: Sophie Deraspe’s The Amina Profile, a love story turned “sociopolitical thriller” between two women set during the Arab revolution; and Jerry Rothwell’s Canada/UK co-production How to Change the World, telling the story of the environmental pioneers who in 1971 began the antinuke protests that led to the creation of Greenpeace.
Slamdance, meanwhile, has its own dark maple flavour in Diamond Tongues, by Brian Robertson and Pavan Moondi, one of 19 films screening at the smaller indie fest in the Treasure Mountain Inn on Park City’s Main Street. It stars Leah Goldstein, Nick Flanagan, Leah Wildman, Adam Gurfinkel and Noah R. Taylor and here’s the synopsis:
“Edith Welland is an actress. Things haven’t been going very well. When her ex-boyfriend becomes an actor on a whim and almost immediately books a leading role, Edith decides if she’s going to get ahead, she’ll need to get ruthless.”
Slamdance has been very good to Canadians. The 2014 fest saw Mark Raso’s road dramedy Copenhagen win an audience award (the film opens Friday at the Carlton), while Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau took the documentary prize for Kung FuElliot, their disturbing look at a Halifax action-star wannabe.
Source: Toronto Star
Front Page, Industry News
Canadians out to scare and shake up Sundance and Slamdance film festivals
Thursday December 11th 2014Sundance isn’t going to know what hit it.
Canadian firebrands Guy Maddin and Bruce McDonald are both world-premiering nightmarish new movies next month at Robert Redford’s annual indie filmfest in Park City, Utah.
They’re among a brace of Canuck films announced for both the Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 22 — Feb. 1) and its friendly local rival the Slamdance Film Festival (Jan. 23 — 29).
The emphasis on dark themes runs counter to the prevailing mood of Sundance 2015, which will feature an abundance of comic actors, in films both funny and dramatic. Among the debuts will be movies starring Kristen Wiig (The Diary of a Teenager, Nasty Baby), Sarah Silverman (I Smile Back), Jack Black (The D Train) and Bobcat Goldthwait (Call Me Lucky).
The plot synopsis for Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which will debut in the Sundance New Frontier program, makes it sound like a straight horror film: “A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that’s been trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage into the origins of their darkest fears.”
But the native Winnipegger is anything but conventional — as such previous genre-defying features as Keyhole, The Saddest Music In the World and Brand Upon the Brain! demonstrated — and New Frontier is dedicated to films that “explode traditional storytelling.”
With a large cast that includes Roy Dupuis, Géraldine Chaplin, Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Rampling, Karine Vanasse, Clara Furey and Louis Negin, The Forbidden Room is an offshoot from an interactive work called Seances that Maddin, co-director Evan Johnson and the NFB commenced in 2012. The big difference this time is that the film is in colour rather than black and white, a rare thing for a Maddin work.
Toronto’s Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo, Pontypool) is definitely out to terrify with Hellions, a Halloween-themed pulse-raiser bowing in the Park City at Midnight program.
Filmed partially in infrared, all the better to spook you with, it stars Chloe Rose (TV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation) as a teenager who “must survive a Halloween night from hell when malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door.”
Rose’s co-stars include Terminator 2’s Robert Patrick plus Rossif Sutherland, Rachel Wilson, Peter DaCunha and Luke Bilyk.
Continuing the Canadian creep-out of Sundance, the three-director Turbo Kid will also premiere in Park City at Midnight. The Canada/New Zealand co-production visits a postapocalyptic future: “The Kid, an orphaned outcast, meets a mysterious girl. They become friends until Zeus, the sadistic leader of the Wasteland, kidnaps her. The Kid must face his fears, and journey to rid the Wasteland of evil and save the girl.”
Co-directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, an ensemble known as Rkss (Roadkill Superstar), Turbo Kid stars Munro Chambers (Degrassi: The Next Generation), Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Aaron Jeffery and Edwin Wright.
The New Frontier program also features art installations, and Arcade Fire collaborator Vincent Morisset (Reflektor), will have one titled Way to Go. Designed to mimic a walk in the woods, it’s described as an “astonishing online and virtual reality interactive experience, a restless panorama, a mixture of handmade animation, 360-degree video capture, music, dreaming, and code; but mostly it is a walk in the woods, c’mon!”
Canuck gloom continues in the World Cinematic Dramatic Competition with Chorus, written and directed by François Delisle, which reunites a separated couple who “meet again after 10 years when the body of their missing son is found.” Sébastien Ricard, Fanny Mallette, Pierre Curzi and Genevieve Bujold star in a film that ultimately strives for reconciliation.
Two Canadian docs are premiering in the World Cinema Documentary Competition: Sophie Deraspe’s The Amina Profile, a love story turned “sociopolitical thriller” between two women set during the Arab revolution; and Jerry Rothwell’s Canada/UK co-production How to Change the World, telling the story of the environmental pioneers who in 1971 began the antinuke protests that led to the creation of Greenpeace.
Slamdance, meanwhile, has its own dark maple flavour in Diamond Tongues, by Brian Robertson and Pavan Moondi, one of 19 films screening at the smaller indie fest in the Treasure Mountain Inn on Park City’s Main Street. It stars Leah Goldstein, Nick Flanagan, Leah Wildman, Adam Gurfinkel and Noah R. Taylor and here’s the synopsis:
“Edith Welland is an actress. Things haven’t been going very well. When her ex-boyfriend becomes an actor on a whim and almost immediately books a leading role, Edith decides if she’s going to get ahead, she’ll need to get ruthless.”
Slamdance has been very good to Canadians. The 2014 fest saw Mark Raso’s road dramedy Copenhagen win an audience award (the film opens Friday at the Carlton), while Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau took the documentary prize for Kung FuElliot, their disturbing look at a Halifax action-star wannabe.
Source: Toronto Star
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Front Page, Industry News
Canadians out to scare and shake up Sundance and Slamdance film festivals
Thursday December 11th 2014Sundance isn’t going to know what hit it.
Canadian firebrands Guy Maddin and Bruce McDonald are both world-premiering nightmarish new movies next month at Robert Redford’s annual indie filmfest in Park City, Utah.
They’re among a brace of Canuck films announced for both the Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 22 — Feb. 1) and its friendly local rival the Slamdance Film Festival (Jan. 23 — 29).
The emphasis on dark themes runs counter to the prevailing mood of Sundance 2015, which will feature an abundance of comic actors, in films both funny and dramatic. Among the debuts will be movies starring Kristen Wiig (The Diary of a Teenager, Nasty Baby), Sarah Silverman (I Smile Back), Jack Black (The D Train) and Bobcat Goldthwait (Call Me Lucky).
The plot synopsis for Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which will debut in the Sundance New Frontier program, makes it sound like a straight horror film: “A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that’s been trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage into the origins of their darkest fears.”
But the native Winnipegger is anything but conventional — as such previous genre-defying features as Keyhole, The Saddest Music In the World and Brand Upon the Brain! demonstrated — and New Frontier is dedicated to films that “explode traditional storytelling.”
With a large cast that includes Roy Dupuis, Géraldine Chaplin, Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Rampling, Karine Vanasse, Clara Furey and Louis Negin, The Forbidden Room is an offshoot from an interactive work called Seances that Maddin, co-director Evan Johnson and the NFB commenced in 2012. The big difference this time is that the film is in colour rather than black and white, a rare thing for a Maddin work.
Toronto’s Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo, Pontypool) is definitely out to terrify with Hellions, a Halloween-themed pulse-raiser bowing in the Park City at Midnight program.
Filmed partially in infrared, all the better to spook you with, it stars Chloe Rose (TV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation) as a teenager who “must survive a Halloween night from hell when malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door.”
Rose’s co-stars include Terminator 2’s Robert Patrick plus Rossif Sutherland, Rachel Wilson, Peter DaCunha and Luke Bilyk.
Continuing the Canadian creep-out of Sundance, the three-director Turbo Kid will also premiere in Park City at Midnight. The Canada/New Zealand co-production visits a postapocalyptic future: “The Kid, an orphaned outcast, meets a mysterious girl. They become friends until Zeus, the sadistic leader of the Wasteland, kidnaps her. The Kid must face his fears, and journey to rid the Wasteland of evil and save the girl.”
Co-directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, an ensemble known as Rkss (Roadkill Superstar), Turbo Kid stars Munro Chambers (Degrassi: The Next Generation), Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Aaron Jeffery and Edwin Wright.
The New Frontier program also features art installations, and Arcade Fire collaborator Vincent Morisset (Reflektor), will have one titled Way to Go. Designed to mimic a walk in the woods, it’s described as an “astonishing online and virtual reality interactive experience, a restless panorama, a mixture of handmade animation, 360-degree video capture, music, dreaming, and code; but mostly it is a walk in the woods, c’mon!”
Canuck gloom continues in the World Cinematic Dramatic Competition with Chorus, written and directed by François Delisle, which reunites a separated couple who “meet again after 10 years when the body of their missing son is found.” Sébastien Ricard, Fanny Mallette, Pierre Curzi and Genevieve Bujold star in a film that ultimately strives for reconciliation.
Two Canadian docs are premiering in the World Cinema Documentary Competition: Sophie Deraspe’s The Amina Profile, a love story turned “sociopolitical thriller” between two women set during the Arab revolution; and Jerry Rothwell’s Canada/UK co-production How to Change the World, telling the story of the environmental pioneers who in 1971 began the antinuke protests that led to the creation of Greenpeace.
Slamdance, meanwhile, has its own dark maple flavour in Diamond Tongues, by Brian Robertson and Pavan Moondi, one of 19 films screening at the smaller indie fest in the Treasure Mountain Inn on Park City’s Main Street. It stars Leah Goldstein, Nick Flanagan, Leah Wildman, Adam Gurfinkel and Noah R. Taylor and here’s the synopsis:
“Edith Welland is an actress. Things haven’t been going very well. When her ex-boyfriend becomes an actor on a whim and almost immediately books a leading role, Edith decides if she’s going to get ahead, she’ll need to get ruthless.”
Slamdance has been very good to Canadians. The 2014 fest saw Mark Raso’s road dramedy Copenhagen win an audience award (the film opens Friday at the Carlton), while Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau took the documentary prize for Kung FuElliot, their disturbing look at a Halifax action-star wannabe.
Source: Toronto Star
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