Essays
While there has always been an urge to experiment with the medium of film, including such early-to-mid-20th century examples like the works of Maya Deren and Man Ray, a notable increase in the production (and institutional recognition) of so-called experimental film came about in the 1970s. Whether it was the medium-specific concerns of the burgeoning semiotic/psyhoanalytic/Marxist strains of theory emerging at that time, or perhaps the generally daring and unconstrained atmosphere of the post-Vietnam era, the 1970s were a time to break utterly free of the conventions of filmmaking that had been established in the 20th century, and Canadian filmmaker...
After a decade of heartache and heat-vision, Smallville ended its astounding 10-year primetime run with a two-hour series finale airing this past weekend. The time has come to board up the Talon, put the Kent farm up for sale and burn Luthor Mansion to the ground because it’s all finally come to an end – and not a season too soon. Over the years, the superhero soap opera has indulged in the outrageously heartfelt excesses of television melodrama, but the series has also achieved some interesting deviations from the Superman cannon....
With the up and coming Mary Pickford Weekend at TIFF Bell Lightbox, it’s important to remember not only Mary Pickford, but to remember those who helped shape the film industry and art form as we know it. Sometimes referred to as “the company that changed the film industry” or “the company built by the stars,” United Artists (UA) was founded in 1919 by Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. They started the company in order to create high quality, independent motion pictures by having better control over their work as artists and as producers. At the time,...
This summer, TIFF Cinematheque will bid farewell to their old home within the AGO and move to their swanky new digs of King St. West. Before that, however, they will look back to one of their first ever director retrospectives — arguably one of the largest programs in their history — celebrating seminal Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Details on screening dates and ticket information can be found here. I recently spoke with James Quandt, Senior Programmer for TIFF Cinematheque about the labour of love that is assembling a Kurosawa retrospective for a second time in the city of Toronto....
