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Looking over this year’s selection of films at Canadian Music Week’s Film Festival, I immediately flipped my lid over Streets of Fire! Then, once I calmed down, I tried to think of a less nerdy term for being excited than “flipped my lid”, but I couldn’t. The four-day annual Canadian Music Week (March 10 – 14) hosts a two-day film fest (March 12 – 13) at which music-oriented films (everything from fiction and documentary, to old and new, to big-budget and indie) come together to celebrate the pomp and power of the aural landscape. But why the fuss about Streets of Fire, you ask?

Undoubtedly, the highest-profile screening at the festival is going to be the Canadian premiere of British director Sam Taylor-Wood’s much-hyped John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy.  Taylor-Wood’s debut film depicts Lennon’s early life and muses over the factors that led him to pick up a guitar, eventually forming what is probably the greatest rock band in history. Critical reactions across the pond have been good for this one, and the familiar figure’s story is sure to re-ignite the inherent Beatlemania dormant in all of us.

But Streets of Fire!? When I was a kid, this movie was frequently on TV  and every single time it aired, my dad made me watch it while explaining how exciting and glamorous and dangerous and torturous it is to be a rock star (how he knew this, I don’t know — he’s a economist). This movie is probably single-handedly responsible for my irrepressible love of glam rock, pyrotechnics, satin leotards, gangs of outlaws, and rain-soaked city boulevards at night; it’s like Purple Rain meets Mad Max meets Grease meets Blade Runner. I don’t see what else anyone could possibly want from a rock-n-roll action melodrama; add to this a sleek and sexy mid-eighties Diane Lane, and you’re practically traveling through time.

The best news of all is that everything else on offer at the film fest looks like a ton of fun:  Brian De Palma’s glam-rock opus Phantom of the Paradise, BAFTA-winning director Shane Meadows’ latest project Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee, and Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys’ directorial debut Seperado! round out the schedule.

Tickets are $10 for each show, or free with a festival wristband. Click here for a schedule of the screenings and links to each film’s official site where you can watch trailers and read more about the films. Click here for more info on the Canadian Music Festival and to buy passes.