Cover Stories
Short film is the almost ideal vehicle for comedy. Comedy is about the bit, the joke, the punchline. Comedy is about surreality and visual incongruity. It does not require elaborate narrative and it does not invite deeper consideration. Comedy careens in, makes you laugh, and trips on its way out the door. Even now, in a culture where short film is devalued as a medium, comedy still comes to us in this format. What is a sketch in a comedy program or funny video clip uploaded to YouTube but a short film, however unpolished? But there was a time when...
James McNally is a real man-about-town. I first met him years ago when he invited me to his film blogger meet-up during TIFF, something that he organizes annually just for the fun of meeting other cinephiles over a pint. He writes about film at Toronto Screen Shots, and while I do see him online – on his site, on Twitter, and elsewhere – I also see James out in the real world quite a bit. He seems to always be at events, screenings, festival parties and receptions. He’s just one of those guys who, in addition to being a film lover, also enjoys...
If you happened to stick your head out of your window on the morning of April 4, 2012 in Toronto, you might have heard a faint groaning sound rolling across the city. That would be the sound of Toronto’s significant filmmaking and passionate film-going communities reacting to the National Film Board’s budget cut announcement. It’s one thing to know theoretically that the NFB was mandated to cut 10% of its operating budget, a real number of $6.68 million over 3 years. It’s another thing entirely to learn that Toronto loses 33 full and part-time jobs and the NFB Mediatheque as...
The enigmatic figure of Kate MacKay first caught my eye while I was attending Cinematheque Ontario screenings at the AGO’s Jackman Hall, something I did quite regularly from the age of 16 until Cinematheque‘s move to TIFF Bell Lightbox. (Yes, I know it was mostly an over-18 venue, but my dad snuck me in, and I’m eternally grateful.) At the back of the small auditorium, in the projection booth, I would often see a mysterious woman, clad in black, with dark eyes and a shock of dark curls to match, silently observing as the room filled up. Running the show from...
Experimental film exists in the middle ground between cinema and art. Often non-narrative, abstract and incorporating elements of other media, installations and so on, watching an experimental film programme is a challenge that’s different from sitting through, say, a Nicolas Cage film. Or even the artiest Alain Resnais film, for that matter. It demands a different kind of attention from the audience, and is not as open to easy, straightforward interpretation. Even the term “experimental film” is, itself, one of those that makes many an ardent film buff’s eyes glaze over. At worst, people avoid having to comment on it...
Canadian film has suffered ups and downs over the course of its recorded history, but few ups have been as important as the founding of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and its close connection to the National Film Act. Internationally known for its animated and documentary films, and easily identifiable by its “eye” logo, the NFB is a central part of the richness of Canada’s current cinema, creating opportunities for new filmmakers to explore their craft in an artistically free environment, with award-winning results....
Much as it is with all kinds, genres, and flavors of film making, Toronto (and Canada in general), is ripe with animation talent. However, as in other areas of film making, animators face the same Canadian disparity between production and distribution, between output and demand. Or rather, animators face those disparities when feeding content down the tried-and-true entertainment channels of festivals, theatrical releases, and television. But what if the Canadian animation community is uniquely geared to exploiting newer and more direct distribution channels? TFS recently sat down with Mike Valiquette, Director of Development at Smiley Guy Studios, publisher of Canadian...
There is an old wartime phrase that Orson Welles used to apply to filmmaking: “Success has a hundred fathers and failure is an orphan.” Since the late 1920s, the image of Mickey Mouse has been synonymous with success and, as such, there have been a number of people who have claimed credit for his conception. It’s hard to imagine now but, long before an affable mouse slowly transformed into a symbol of corporate monopoly on childhood happiness, there once was a time when Mickey Mouse was nothing more than an entertainer....
Cinema for children and families has evolved significantly over the years. While early Disney animation is revered for its artful execution of beloved fairy tales, it has often been criticized for its ability to singularly disturb or traumatize child viewers. Fast forward to today, in which North American animation studios seem to believe that since children are not adults, it follows that they are not sophisticated viewers. As a result, we have a seemingly endless stream of animated films that pander to the lowest common denominator, creating an ocean of simplistic, one-dimensional stories that completely fail to teach our children...
When the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCT) announced the nominations for this year’s Genie Awards last month, the press conference was hardly star-studded. People certainly didn’t gather around the water cooler at work and debate who got robbed of recognition or who’s sure to be best dressed like they did on January 24th, the morning that the Oscar nominations were announced....
Independent Canadian filmmaking might rightfully be compared to the myth of Sisyphus. In a system that’s unwelcoming to newcomers and fresh voices, young filmmakers are left to fund a production with little more than sheer grit and then endlessly push a boulder across lonely prairies from film festival to film festival, hoping to garner enough kudos along the way to attract a wider audience. This state of affairs might partially explain why Ryan Ward, director, lead actor, and co-writer of Son of the Sunshine, wasn't really planning on attending the 32nd Annual Genie Awards press conference during which nominees were...
The space race between Russia and the United States was responsible for many of the technological advancements of the last half century, but it was also the initiating action that allowed the narrative form of science fiction to become the primary language with which human beings express their hopes and concerns for our collective future. Playing now through April at TIFF Bell Lightbox, “Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain” is a retrospective which sheds light on the often unseen creative side of the Cold War equation......
