New Film on Films Series! First up: Batman Begins (2005, 35mm, Cinemascope, DTS sound)

Capital Projection Services and the Lost Dominion Screening Collective Present

WHAT: 35mm screenings of ‘Batman Begins’

WHEN: Saturday May 25th, 7:30pm start. Doors at 6:30pm.

WHERE: At the Ottawa Art Gallery, Alma Duncan Salon (50 Mackenzie King Bridge)




Batman Begins marked the start of Christopher Nolan’s transition from critically acclaimed indie-auteur to Hollywood’s most dependable director of intelligent blockbusters. The first film in his multibillion dollar-earning Dark Knight trilogy it is notable for reviving Batman on the big screen after the franchise fizzled in the 1990’s with the campy George Clooney/Arnold Schwarzeneggar Batman and Robin. Nolan wisely decided to go in the opposite direction and grounded his hero in a more “realistic” universe. Instead of bright garish colours and over-the-top performances he drew upon the tone of classic 1940’s film-noir and 1970’s gangster films like the Godfather Parts I and II. It was a fan-pleasing approach certainly appropriate to the hero’s detective comics origins.

Starring the charismatic and intense Christian Bale, and co-starring Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes and Morgan Freeman it also features a wealth of talent in its smaller supporting roles, including Ken Watanabe and Rutger Hauer (perhaps a nod to Nolan’s well-known love of Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner). Batman Begins also marks the start of a six-film long collaboration between Nolan and his favourite cinematic “muse” Cillian Murphy that culminated in this past year’s Best Picture Oscar-winning Oppenheimer. Our “Almost 20th Anniversary” screening of Batman Begins will mark a rare opportunity to see Christopher Nolan’s first Batman movie presented in his preferred medium: FILM ON FILM.

The film will be followed by 30mins of classic 80's and 90's movie trailers on 35mm film.

Ticket online here

David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, Sept. 24th 2021 8pm

This Friday (Sept. 24th) 2021 at Cinema Cimetière

We are co-presenting David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.  Presented on 35mm film under the stars, 8pm start, $10. Mint condition print, DTS sound, plus retro trailers.

This is an outdoor screening so please bring a chair and warm clothes. Quyon is about 45mins from Ottawa and can be accessed via highway 148 or you can take the ferry from Ontario. 

Screening location

Big Meat Eater, April 18th, Canadian Film Day 2018

Big Meat Eater, Bytowne Cinema, 9:15pm, PG, 82mins

Actor Andrew Gillies will introduce the film

In addition to being in dozens of movies and TV shows since Big Meat Eater, including Orphan Black and 12 Monkeys, Andrew was at the Shaw Festival for 12 seasons and acted in numerous Stratford and other theatrical productions. Big Meat Eater was one of his first features.

"Pleased to meet you! Meat to please you!"

1982

Directed by:

Chris Windsor
Produced by Laurence Keane

Starring:

George Dawson

Andrew Gillies

Clarence 'Big' Miller

Sharon Wahl

Ida Carnevali

Stephen Dimopoulos

Georgina Hegedos

Howard Taylor

Screenplay by:

Phil Savath, Laurence Keane and Chris Windsor

 

This cult-comedy/sci-fi/horror/musical was filmed in White Rock British Columbia in late 1980 and early 1981. True to its kitschy intentions, Big Meat Eater plays like an Ed Wood film mixed with a punk rock musical. It pioneers similar satirical terrain later explored by The Kids in the Hall, and Canadian filmmakers John Paizs and Guy Maddin. Set in the fictional small town of Burquitlam, B.C., the plot features eccentric characters brought together by a series of unlikely events centring around the local butcher shop. 

 George Dawson plays local butcher Bob Sanderson, a man with unfailing faith in a brighter future for his community. His faith is tested when he hires a mysterious hulking assistant, Abdulla the Turk, who has a propensity for butchering that goes slightly beyond the normal range of professional behaviour. Abdullah is played by Edmonton jazz musician Clarence 'Big' Miller, with a genuinely frightening intensity. The film also stars Canadian T.V. stalwart Andrew Gillies, who audiences may recognize from his recent appearances on Orphan Black and Murdoch Mysteries. He plays a teenage science-genius from a family of Moldovan immigrants whose zeal to "fit in" to Canadian society causes him to overshoot and adopt a "More-British than the British" English accent. His strange experiments with a stolen car plays a key role in the plot, as do his sister Nina's more conventional desires to go on a regular teenage date. But that's just the vague outline of a plot that ranges from mildly bizarre to completely absurd. Yet it all holds together in a pleasing, and inescapably entertaining, Canadian way. Anyone looking for a deeper meaning can certainly find an intelligent exploration of the complexities of small town economics, political corruption, prejudice, and crime. With a heavy dose of music, of course.

Big Meat Eater was released theatrically in Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Shot on 16mm film, it was "blown up" and finished in 35mm for distribution. In the U.K. it received rave reviews and gained a cult following with decent box office. In the United States it also had positive reviews, notably in Variety, but the distributor, New Line Cinema, managed to lose the only 35mm internegative in existence, limiting the number of release prints in that country. Finally, after years of relative obscurity, Library and Archives Canada embarked on a full digital restoration of the film, painstakingly recreating the director's cut. The original 16mm film elements were scanned in 2k High Definition, scenes were re-synched, colour-timed and edited in proper sequence with a digitally remixed soundtrack, exceeding the quality of the original release. There's no better way to discover the magic, and the delightful horror, of the Big Meat Eater.

Presented by The Lost Dominion Screening Collective
Digital Restoration by Library and Archives Canada

Films from EXPO67 May 28th/29th Bytowne Cinema

The six panel film "We Are Young"

The Lost Dominion Screening Collective is co-presenting this series with Cinemaexpo67 and in collaboration with La cinémathèque québécoise

A collection of five shorts, all of which were made for pavillions at Expo 67, the centrepiece of Canada's 1967 centenary. To show off the country and/or provinces, these films used cutting edge split-screen technology and multiple projections in purpose-built auditoria. They're plot-free but dense with images – thousands of things to see per minute.

"Polar Life"

Here, the multi-image formats have been digitally remastered to be playable on a standard screen, but there's still a jaw-dropping amount of footage on display. The Ontario film, "A Place To Stand" won an Oscar. This is a unique opportunity to see these groundbreaking specialty films.

A frame from "A Place to Stand"

The shorts, not necessarily in this order, will be:

Polar Life (20 min.)
Canada Is My Piano (7 min.)
A Place To Stand (17 min.)
We Are Young (20 min.)
Plus a surprise bonus short. 
For more details on the films please go to cinemaexpo67

"Canada is My Piano"

The program runs about 85mins.

The films screen at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa on May 28th at 2pm and May 29th at 8:50pm
The screenings are free and open to all.

Newsreel Shorts by Associated Screen Studios, April 2nd and 3rd Bytowne Cinema

Associated Screen Studios was a major producer of informative shorts that played in cinemas of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, before television took over the news business. We have unearthed 8 fascinating examples for this compilation, including a 1933 film on Grey Owl, shorts on canines in the police force and on the sport of curling in the 1950s, a 1932 retrospective on events of the previous 10 years, and even a 1950s report on what jobs hockey players had to hold down during the off-season. All on 35mm film!

Newsreels include:

Grey Owl's Strange Guests, 1933

Headline News 1950

The Roaring Game (about curling), 1951

Canine Crime Busters (about police dogs), 1952

There too, Go I (about the Red Cross during the Second World War), 1941

Sitzmarks the Spot (about downhill skiing), 1948

Back in '22 (looking back 10 years at what happening in 1922), 1932

Hockey Star Summers (what hockey stars do during the summer to supplement their incomes), 1950

The Man Who Skied Down Everest, March 12-13th on 35MM film.

The Man Who Skied Down Everest, March 12th 1pm and March 13th 9:15pm, Bytowne Cinema.

The Man Who Skied Down Everest, produced by Ottawa's own Crawley Films, is a monumental movie in more ways than one. Founded by Budge Crawley in the late 1940's, Crawley Films grew into Canada's largest independent film studio, and even rivaled the NFB for cinematic output. It produced everything from Canada's second animated feature film (Return to Oz) in 1962, to industrial films, tv commercials, feature films and documentaries. Based in Ottawa/Gatineau, with a studio in Old Chelsea and a branch office in Toronto, it produced over 5000 films and won numerous awards over its 43 year history, including the Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 1976 for The Man Who Skied Down Everest (the first Academy Award ever won by a Canadian feature film).  This film follows Japanese adventurer Yuichiro Miura as he attempts to ski down the tallest mountain in the world. Very popular with both audiences and critics of the time,  this is a film that deserves being seen on the big screen.

A beautiful 35mm reprint from 2010 will be screened courtesy of Library and Archives Canada

The Viking on 35mm, Jan. 15-16th Bytowne Cinema

The Viking (1931) on 35mm, screening Jan. 15th 2pm and Jan. 16th 9:10pm at the Bytowne Cinema

Preceded by an Associated Screen News Short from 1931. 

Two Newfoundlanders – good guy Luke Oarum (Charles Starrett) and bully Jed Nelson (Arthur Vinton) – compete for the love of Mary Jo (Louise Huntington). Not wanting to leave Luke alone with Mary Jo, Jed ensures that his rival comes seal hunting with him on a ship skippered by Captain Barker (Bob Bartlett), even though Luke has a reputation as a 'jinker' – someone who brings bad luck to his shipmates.


After several misadventures on board ship – for which Jed always makes Luke appear responsible – the two become isolated on the ice during the hunt. Jed attempts to kill Luke, but when a fierce storm cuts them off from the ship and Jed becomes snowblind, Luke leads him back to land by crossing the ice-floes on foot. They arrive back in town just as a memorial service for them is being held. Jed tells how Luke saved his life and Luke wins the hand of Mary Jo.


This extraordinary portrait of the Newfoundland people’s 'dramatic struggle for existence' was produced by the Delaware-incorporated Newfoundland-Labrador Film Company, headed by twenty-eight-year-old Yale graduate Varick Frissell, an explorer and documentary filmmaker who by the age of twenty-three had already explored the interior of Labrador by canoe. The role of the ship’s captain was played by legendary Capt. Bob Abram Bartlett, the Newfoundlander who had captained Robert Peary’s 1908-09 expedition to the North Pole.


Not only was The Viking one of the first talkies, it was also the first location shoot outside Hollywood financed by Paramount Studios and, most notably, the first film to record sound and dialogue on location – on the ice-floes themselves, no less. Though Frissell shot all the extensive actuality scenes involving life aboard ship and the seal hunt, Paramount insisted that Hollywood director George Melford (Dracula) direct the fiction scenes. When test screenings confirmed Frissell’s concern that the overt melodrama of these sequences conflicted with and detracted from the power of the actuality content, he returned to Newfoundland to shoot more footage that would replace many of the clunky romantic scenes. He set sail on the Viking in March 1931, but six days later the ship exploded, killing twenty-seven men including Frissell and all but one of his crew. The cause of the explosion was never determined and Frissell’s body was never found – despite a handsome reward offered by his wealthy family.


The film was released in its initial form, including the awkwardly staged love scenes that do indeed detract from the authentic portrait that Frissell had wanted. To capitalize on the publicity, the film’s title was changed from White Thunder to The Viking and was advertised as 'the picture that cost the lives of the producers, Varick Frissel, and twenty-five members of the crew.' It enjoyed a good deal of success in the early thirties, then faded into obscurity.


Though The Viking is technically not a Canadian film, its particular mix of dramatic fiction with footage of the wild, hostile and foreboding landscape imbues it with an especially Canadian spirit and style that distinguishes it from many of the legally Canadian quota quickies' of the same era. It has much in common with the work of Robert Flaherty and is comparable to the contemporaneous The Silent Enemy in that the environment becomes a principal character in the drama.


– Andrew McIntosh, Canadian Film Encyclopedia

Check back in early 2017 for our new screenings series.

Check back in early 2017 for our new screenings series. Everything will be on film - 16/35/70mm!

Terminal Device plays Feb. 4th, 7pm Bytowne Cinema

Terminal Device, 2k DCP, 68mins, Directed by Ross Turnbull

Bytowne Cinema, Feb. 4th 7pm Co-presented with the MEGAPHONO Festival

A personal essay film, Terminal Device mixes autobiography, film critique, recreated scenes, and archival footage. When viewed through the oft-sinister, pop cultural lens of one-armed-man films, the director’s story as a lifelong amputee gains unexpected resonance.

Whether the nefarious comic villain, Captain Hook, the relatively benign outsider, Edward Scissorhands, or the monsters in various B-grade horror films, handless characters and their scary prosthetics consistently skew the narrative. A densely entertaining, subjective work that reworks mainstream cinema images in the manner of films like Room 237, The Clock, and 24 Hour Psycho, Terminal Device theorizes, describes and shows what it is to be one of the men with hooks.

Director Ross Turnbull will be present for a short Q&A after the screening

Isabel by Paul Almond Bytowne Cinema Jan. 20th

Isabel

Directed by Paul Almond
Bytowne Cinema, Jan. 20th
1968, Rated PG, 110mins, 35mm print!

dir: Paul Almond, 108mins, 1968, 35mm print (PG)

Starring Geneviève Bujold, Therese Cadorette, Gerard Parkes, Marc Strange, and Al Waxman.

Isabel is an intense and spooky psychological thriller written,
produced, and directed by Paul Almond. It stars the luminously
beautiful Geneviève Bujold as a young woman who returns to her
childhood home in the Gaspé region of Quebec to attend a funeral.
There, she starts experiencing a series of supernatural visions
forcing her to confront the dark secrets of her family's past. Her
co-stars include Therese Cadorette (La Famille Plouffe) as her sister Estelle, Gerard Parkes (The Boondock Saints) as her eccentric uncle Matthew, Marc Strange (The Forest Rangers) as a mysterious stranger,  and a young Al Waxman (The King of Kensington) as a creepy childhood
friend.

Isabel was the first Canadian feature film funded and distributed by
Paramount Pictures. Upon its release it received mostly stellar
notices and was favorably compared to the works of Ingmar Bergman and
Alfred Hitchcock, both for its stunning, stark photography, and its
dark psychological themes of sexual repression and violence. New York
Magazine film critic Judith Crist called it a "A beautiful and
exciting film...brilliantly cinematic". It won five prizes at the
Canadian Film Awards, including four of the top ones: Best Actress
(Bujold), Best Actor (Gerard Parkes), Best Editing and Best
Photography. The Directors Guild of America also nominated Almond for
their Best Director Award.


At the time of Isabel's release director Almond was best known as a
veteran TV producer and director who had worked in extensively in
Canada, England, and the United States. Over his long career he
directed six feature films and over 130 television TV shows and
teleplays, including a version of MacBeth starring Sean Connery. In
England he was the creator and director of the first film in the "7Up"
documentary series. The production of Isabel in the late 1960's was
his attempt to build a sophisticated art cinema in Canada comparable
to what was going on in Europe. Isabel was the first of a loose
trilogy of films including The Act of the Heart (1970) and Journey
(1972). Almond was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors
Guild of Canada in 2007.

During the 1970's Isabel lived on in screenings on CBC, but it slowly
fell into obscurity. Despite its acclaim, it remains unavailable on
streaming services or DVD. This screening will be projected from an
archival 35mm film print from the collection of Library and Archives
Canada, screened with permission from Paramount Pictures and presented

by the Lost Dominion Screening Collective.

Kandahar Journals, Nov. 11th Bytowne Cinema

Kandahar Journals (2015, Canada 76 minutes)

Bytowne Cinema, Nov.11th, 9:10pm, 2015

Directed by Louie Palu and Devin Gallagher

Written by Murray Brewster
Murray Brewster and Louie Palu will be in attendance

Produced by Louie Palu in association with the documentary Channel
Q&A with Louie Palu and Murray Brewster after the show.

Tickets can be bought at The Bytowne Cinema box office starting at approx 4pm on Nov. 11th.

Photo © Louie Palu

Kandahar Journals is the story of a photojournalist who reflects on
the events behind his psychological transformation after covering
frontline combat in Kandahar, Afghanistan from 2006 to 2010.

April 2006. Photojournalist Louie Palu, finds himself in the midst of
body parts and the smell of burned flesh. On his first visit to
Kandahar he is covering a suicide bombing. Arriving in the country as
the wars violence spirals out of control, Louie is unaware that he
will spend the next five years covering the conflict. He begins
writing a series of journals reflecting on his personal experience and
what the war looked like and felt to him.

This film explores a photojournalist’s firsthand account of his
psychological state while covering a war. The film follows Louie’s
journey covering the war in Kandahar from 2006 to 2010 and its
aftermath. The narrative spine of the story is built around Louie’s
personal journals written in Kandahar. The visual narrative weaves
back and forth from the chaos and experiential side of the war using
combat footage shot and directed by Louie to the banality of everyday
life back home in North America directed by Devin Gallagher. These two
narratives have been combined into a single film to give a personal
and up-close view into the experience of a combat photographer. The
film pivots between these two contrasting experiences which Louie
struggles to bridge. Over the years Louie meets soldiers, civilians
and is witness to violence and trauma, all of which is weaved into the
story.

Directed by both Louie and his co-director Devin Gallagher the film
explores Louie’s lifelong interest in understanding war connected to
his family's experience and his formative years as a photographer.
Over time Louie is transformed by the war as the violence increases.
The longer he covers the war, the more he realizes the disconnection
that exists with the public back home, the war and himself. By the end
of the film he must come to terms with the impossibility of
photography to convey the reality of war because it is a personal
experience.

This film includes footage of combat, physical injury, and death. Some
visitors may find this material disturbing and unsuitable for children

Writer Murray Brewster will introduce the film.

Q&A with Louie Palu and Murray Brewster after the show.

POV Magazine article with Louie Palu

More on the film here

On the Trail of the Far Fur Country, Bytowne Cinema, May 24th

On The Trail Of The Far Fur Country, Bytowne Cinema May 24th 6:25pm

This is a documentary about a documentary.

In July 1919, a film crew set out on an epic journey across Canada’s North to capture the life of the fur trade for a silent feature-length documentary commissioned by the Hudson’s Bay Company.
For six months, their expedition travelled by icebreaker, canoe, and dog sled, capturing every aspect of the trade as well as extensive footage of daily life in the North. In all, they shot roughly 75,000 feet of film.

The Romance Of The Far Fur Country premiered on May 23, 1920, in Winnipeg, before touring Western Canada and screening in Europe, constituting the first real exposure of most Canadian and European audiences to the reality of Canada’s North and its Aboriginal peoples.

Although well known in its time, within a decade the film disappeared from circulation and from public consciousness. The canisters of film sat undisturbed for nearly eight decades in a British film archive.

In 2011, an effort began to restore the film and bring it back to the communities where it was originally shot.

Nikkel’s new documentary captures a remarkable event: people watching the footage from 1919, seeing images come to life, and recognizing their family members, their landscapes, and their lost traditions. Contrasting the present and the past, On The Trail Of The Far Fur Country is an intimate portrait of Canada and its Aboriginal peoples, and a chronicle of how life in the North has changed in the last century.

Director Kevin Nikkel will be in attendance to introduce his film, and he will be available to answer questions from the audience after the screening.  Film website is here.

Skip Tracer April 21st Bytowne Cinema 9:15pm

SKIP TRACER

dir: Zale Dalen, 1977, Canada, DCP, 14A, 95mins

Starring: David Petersen, John Lazarus, Mike Grigg, Rudy Szabo, Sue Astley

Skip Tracer is a free-wheeling private detective story set on the mean streets of Vancouver in the late 1970's, with the twist that the detective is a loan agency's debt collector hunting down “skips” who have stopped repaying their loans. The film stars David Petersen (The Grey Fox) in the role of John Collins, a collector trying to regain his status as his agency's “Man of the Year” while reluctantly mentoring a young protegé in the business. Propelled by Petersen's wry performance, the film plays like a post-hippie critique of capitalism and “The Man”, mixing together elements of social satire and film noir. The lighter comic touches help to highlight the harsh realities of people living beyond their means in a ruthlessly monetized society, where the bonds of debt tie together debtor and creditor in a precarious dance of ambition, greed and (largely masculine) pride and shame.

Skip Tracer was the feature film debut of director Zale Dalen, who went on to a long career in Canadian television. The film played at the Toronto International Film Festival and in major cities around the world, earning its money back in its initial run, but since then it has suffered from haphazard distribution and has mainly been kept alive as a cult title through VHS distribution (often under the alternate title “Deadly Business”), or16mm screenings, and rare appearances on TV. More well-known in England and Germany than in Canada, it has nevertheless been rediscovered by Canadian audiences in recent years thanks to select revival screenings such as the one held at the Ontario Cinematheque in December 2006. At the time they described Skip Tracer a “Canadian classic”, and we're not going to argue with that description.

In cooperation with Zale Dalen and Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Ottawa's Lost Dominion Screening Collective has procured a brand new 4K digital transfer from the 35mm preservation master print held in LAC's film collection. This will be the best print of the film screened since its 1977 debut, and the audience at the ByTowne Cinema will get to see it first. It will be a great chance to see an under-appreciated West Coast cinematic gem.

The Luck of Ginger Coffey, March 31st, Bytowne Cinema

The Luck of Ginger Coffey

Bytowne Cinema, March 31st, 9:15pm

dir: Irvin Kershner, 100 min, 1964, Canada, 35mm black and white 35mm print, Rated PG

Preceded by the short film "Joan" by Pixie Cram, 2014, 7mins, Pixilation and stop motion short
A surreal and minimalist version of the story of Joan of Arc.

Starring: Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Liam Redmond 

The Luck of Ginger Coffey  is a compelling drama about the travails of a high-spirited Irish immigrant trying to make his way in Montreal in the early 1960's. The film is based on Northern-Irish-Canadian author Brian Moore's Governor General's Award-winning novel, The Luck of Ginger Coffey. The title character is portrayed by legendary actor Robert Shaw (Jaws, A Man for All Seasons) in a performance that explores the bluster and fragility of a man bent on quickly improving his station in life in what he sees as “The Promised Land”. Shaw's real-life spouse Mary Ure holds her own as Coffey's wife in an equally well-pitched performance. There are few, if any, English-language Canadian films of that era that match The Luck of Ginger Coffey's quality and emotional heft. It won the Canadian Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1965. 

 The film is also notable today for the talented production team that helped bring it to the big screen. It was the second feature-length drama produced by renowned Ottawa film producer F.R. “Budge” Crawley.  By the 1960's his and his wife Judith's production company, Crawley Films, was the largest independent production company in Canada, producing a slew of television shows, commercials, documentaries, animation and training films. Crawley was determined to break into the feature film business, and after a first attempt with his 1963 surrealistic satire Amanita Pestilens, he followed up with The Luck of Ginger Coffey.

 Crawley wisely hired author Brian Moore to adapt his own novel for the screenplay. Crawley then found a seasoned American TV-director, Irvin Kershner, to helm the film. Both later went onto careers of great distinction. Over his career Moore was nominated for the Booker Prize three times. He later went on to write the novel Black Robe, also adapted into a film, and he also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain.  Kershner famously went on to direct the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back and Sean Connery's 1983 comeback film as James Bond, Never Say Never Again. Crawley himself later won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for The Man Who Skied Down Everest in 1976. As a result of such a confluence of talent, and the performances of the lead actors, The Luck of Ginger Coffey has stood the test of time.

The film will be screened on a high-quality 35mm film print from the collection of Library and Archives Canada. Presented by the Lost Dominion Screening Collective.

Ottawa Indiefest talks with John Yemen about the film and collective here.

Carry On, Sergeant! Tour with Live music by the HILOTRONS

Carry On, Sergeant! (1928) 35mm, 107mins with a live score by the HILOTRONS

CARRY ON, SERGEANT! was shot at Trenton Studios in Ontario and in the surrounding countryside by British Director Bruce Bairnsfather, with legendary Canadian filmmaker Gordon Sparling working as his assistant director. With a budget of $500,000, it was the biggest-budget film produced in Canada up to that time. Much of that budget went to recreating WWI-era France, with sprawling sets and battlefield scenes featuring hundreds of extras.

The story follows a group of workers from Hamilton who join the army to fight in WWI, and the travails and temptations that befall them during the war. The film has excellent production values and presents a drama that may feel surprisingly modern to today’s audiences. Bairnsfather’s insistence on portraying the soldiers as flawed human beings resulted in some criticism from those who expected a straightforward glorification of Canada’s war effort. The main character has an affair with a French bar maid and dies on the battlefield. The veterans of the Great War were not impressed; in fact the whole subplot of the affair was edited out of the later version of the film.

Produced as a silent film just as theatres were transitioning to sound, it had only a brief run at the box office before it was removed from circulation in January 1929. It fell into obscurity for many years before Gordon Sparling donated a print to Library and Archives Canada, resulting in a complete restoration of the film. 

Tour dates and locations:

Oct 28 - La Vitrola (Montreal, QC)

Oct 29 - The Screening Room (Kingston, ON)

Oct 30 - The Kiwanis Kineto Theatre (Forest, ON)

Nov 8 - Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 6:30pm (Toronto, ON)

Nov 9 - The Zoetic Theatre (Hamilton, ON)

Nov 10 - The Regent Theatre (Picton, ON)

Nov 11 - The ByTowne Cinema, 7pm (Ottawa, ON)

Home Movie Day 2014

OCTOBER 18 IN OTTAWA

The Lost Dominion Screening Collective and IFCO present

12th International Home Movie Day

        Show your home movies! or come just to watch.
16mm, 8mm, Super 8 film, Video 8, Hi-8, Digital 8.
Pre-event film drop off at IFCO, Suite 140,
2 Daly Ave., Ottawa, 613-569-1789.

Saturday, October 18, 3pm-5pm, free!

NECTAR Centre, 39 Dufferin Rd., Ottawa, Ontario

The Lost Dominion Screening Collective and IFCO are happy to announce that Ottawa will participate in this year’s International Home Movie Day on Saturday October 18, 2014 at the NECTAR centre on 39 Dufferin Rd. from 3-5pm. Home Movie Day is an annual event celebrating amateur film and filmmaking. The audience is invited to bring their own “home movies,” which will be shown on the big screen. The event provides an opportunity for attendees not only to view their own home movies in their original format (since many people don’t own their own projectors anymore), but also to learn more about our community and cultural narratives through the personal histories revealed within these shared films.

Films can be dropped off at IFCO in advance of the screening so they can be inspected and selected.  IFCO will take the films up till Oct. 15th.  You may also just bring the films on the event day but we cannot guarantee that they will all be played.

Home Movie Day is free and open to the public. The event will include a discussion on the best ways to preserve film and videotape. Attendees are encouraged to bring films and videotapes in the following gauges for inspection and screening (when possible, although some material might be too damaged or delicate to project):

·         Film: Regular 8mm, Super 8, 16mm

·         Videotape: Video8, Hi8, Digital 8

Trained archivists will be in attendance to answer questions, and prepare material for screening.

Home Movie Day was started in 2002 by a group of film archivists concerned about what would happen to all the home movies shot on film during the 20th century. They knew many people have boxes full of family memories that they’ve never seen for lack of a projector, or out of fear that the films were too fragile to be viewed. They also knew that many people were having their amateur films transferred to videotape or DVD, with the mistaken idea that their new digital copies would last forever and the “obsolete” films could be discarded. Original films (and the equipment required to view them) can long outlast any version on VHS tape, DVDs, or other digital media. Not only that, but contrary to the stereotype of the faded, scratched, and shaky home movie image, the original films are often carefully shot in beautiful, vibrant colour—which may not be captured in a lower-resolution video transfer.

Home Movie Day has grown into a worldwide celebration of these amateur films, during which people in cities and towns all over meet their local film archivists, find out about the archival advantages of film over video and digital media, and—most importantly—get to watch those old family films! Because they are local events, Home Movie Day screenings can focus on family and community histories in a meaningful way. They also present education and outreach opportunities for local archivists, who can share information about the proper storage and care of personal films, and how to plan for their future.

For more information about Ottawa’s Home Movie Day, please contact lostdominion@gmail.com For more info on International Home Movie Day, please visit www.homemovieday.com

Carry On Sergeant! Screening with Live Music by the HILOTRONS

CARRY ON SERGEANT! w/LIVE MUSIC by the HILOTRONS

In honour of the 100^th anniversary of the First World War, the Lost Dominion Screening Collective is giving local film fans a rare chance to see the biggest-budget Canadian film of the 1920's on the big screen.

Carry On Sergeant! (1928) (not to be confused with the later British comedy series of the same name) was shot at Trenton Studios in Ontario and in the surrounding countryside by British Director Bruce Bairnsfather, with legendary Canadian filmmaker Gordon Sparling working as his assistant director. With a budget of $500 000, it was the biggest-budget film produced in Canada up to that time. Much of that budget went to recreating WWI-era France, with sprawling sets and battlefield scenes featuring hundreds of extras and the use of real high-explosives.

Produced as a silent film just as theatres were transitioning to sound, it had only a brief two-month run at the box office before it was removed from circulation in January 1929. It fell into obscurity for many years before Gordon Sparling donated a print to Library and Archives Canada, resulting in a complete restoration of the film in 1990. It is now considered one of the most important films in Canadian film history.




This screening continues Ottawa musician Mike Dubue's recent tradition of composing new scores to classic films such as Metropolis (1927), The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920),  Adventure of Prince Archmed (1926) and the earliest surviving Canadian feature film, Back to God’s Country (1919)

This time Mike is back with his band the HILOTRONS and the score is based on Ennio Morricone classics.

HILOTRONS are a band hailing from Ottawa. They are known for their funky pop and experimental sensibilities and have been releasing critically acclaimed albums since 2002. They are also known for composing and performing live and new original scores for films from the silent era. This year, to commemorate the 100yr anniversary of WWI, HILOTRONS are presenting the 1928 Canadian classic Carry On Sergeant with an score comprised entirely of music by film composer Ennio Morricone, which include selections from A Fist Full Of Dollars, Danger: Diabolik and The Thing. This year, Ennio Morricone turns 86 yrs old

Oct 28 - La Vitrola (Montreal, QC)
Oct 29 - The Screening Room (Kingston, ON)
Oct 30 - The Kiwanis Kineto Theatre (Forest, ON)
Nov 8 - Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (Toronto, ON)
Nov 9 - The Zoetic Theatre (Hamilton, ON)
Nov 10 - The Regent Theatre (Picton, ON)
Nov 11 - The ByTowne Cinema (Ottawa, ON)

The Bitter Ash, September 24th, Bytowne Cinema

The Bitter Ash Larry Kent, 80 min, 1963, Canada, 35mm, Bytowne Cinema, Sept. 24thStarring Philip Brown, Alan Scarfe, and Lynn Stewart. 26 year-old UBC student Larry Kent directed The Bitter Ash in the early 1960's in Vancouver at a time when English Canadian feature films were rarely produced anywhere in the country, let alone on the West Coast. The plot concerns a young man, Des (Alan Scarfe), who abandons his girlfriend on a whim to explore the seedy counterculture at the fringes of Vancouver's otherwise “respectable” society. It's an ambitious tale of class conflict, social upheaval and generational change, punctuated with sex, drugs and jazz music. Kent, who had moved to Canada from South Africa when he was 20, produced the film with almost no money, so he was forced to stretch every dollar to get it made. His actors were students from UBC's drama department, the opening credits are hand-drawn illustrations, and the film was shot on black-and-white 16mm film without a budget for live sound recording, so all the sound had to be added in during post-production. Though it looks and sounds somewhat “rough” by today's standards, it still manages to pack a powerful dramatic punch, owing mostly to its audacious editing, and its bold, clear-eyed, and critical look at the sexual and cultural revolution about to sweep the nation. Provincial censors in B.C. didn't like the racy content and banned it from appearing in theatres in the province. Deciding to bypass Canada's theatrical distribution system entirely, Kent took the film on a roadshow screening tour of schools across the country. It was enthusiastically received by university audiences, but, dogged by censorship, Kent only managed get it shown in four schools after numerous others decided it was too subversive to screen. Kent went on to direct many other independent Canadian films, notably When Tomorrow Dies (1965) and Mothers and Daughters (1992). For years, the master print of The Bitter Ash was thought lost, but it re-emerged serendipitously in the possession of Kent's old landlord and a restoration process was initiated. A restored version of The Bitter Ash will be screened for the first time in Ottawa on a newly-transferred 35mm film print courtesy of Library and Archives Canada. Director Larry Kent will be at the screening and will be available for a Q&A with the audience after the film. For more on the film go here

Cinema Under The Stars V Aug. 9th Raven's Knoll Campground

 

For all the info go here

Trust the Unknown: A Tribute to Ed Folger, Thursday May 1st Club SAW

Trust the Unknown: A Tribute to Ed Folger

Thursday, May 1st 2014, 7:30pm

Club SAW, 67 Nicholas Street

Free admission

Edward Folger was a filmmaker, nomad, pioneer, mentor, father, and friend. A technologically inquisitive artist, his experimentations with film, video and computers were tempered by a soul steeped in poetry, philosophy and music. His sudden and premature passing in November 2013 left a hole in the fabric of our community. Join us in paying tribute to Ed’s artistic legacy and remarkable spirit as we screen his groundbreaking 1977 feature film Nanook Taxi, the first dramatic feature made in Northern Canada featuring an Inuk cast. Nanook Taxi will be preceded by a compilation of videotaped interviews with Ed and a selection of his short films including The River of Life and Lessons in Democracy.

For more about Ed Folger go here.

Presented in partnership with SAW Video

Trust the Unknown is part of VideoCity at SAW Video. In 2014, SAW Video will devote its entire programming year to celebrating media artists from the Ottawa-Gatineau region, past and present.