Slacker Counter-Culture Triple Bill @ The Mayfair Theatre
May 19th, $10.00 for 3 films!
For John Yemen's preview of the triple bill go to Unfolding Magazine.
Monkey Warfare, 2006, Directed by Reginald Harkema, 75mins, 1.85, Dolby Digital, Rated 14A, 35mm Studio print.
Steadfast Canadian actor on McKellar is one of the stars of Reg Harkema's Monkey Warfare, a tale of the counter-culture, or what remains of it. A love triangle of sorts about the romance of revolution, and what happens when that revolution fails, it asks the obvious question: can that spark be re-ignited? (if you're thinking molotov cocktails, then the answer might be yes). Also starring Tracy Wright, a supporting actress familiar from such notable films as The Five Senses, Blindness, and Last Night, who was widely praised for her lead performance here. This film won a Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and Katrina Onstad (CBC, Globe and Mail) named it one of the top ten films of 2006. Onstad praised its stylistic cribbing from the French New Wave and said “This is the sort of film that all young filmmakers with no money should aspire to”. That's the sort of endorsement we can get behind. Join the revolution.
Work, Bike Eat, 1971, Directed by Keith Lock and James Anderson, 40mins, 1.37, mono, Black and White, not rated, 16mm (filmmakers personal print) Keith Lock in Attendance!!!
“Work, Bike, Eat” is about youth and being young. The intention in making the film was to catch people and the relationships between things in as natural a way as possible, and to minimize the apparent intrusion of the filming process into the subject matter. The story is really a collection of vignettes from everyday life: getting a job, eating a meal at home with your parents, chance meetings with strangers, taking a nap. A carefree camaraderie pervades the film.. Lock and Anderson won a student prize for excellence for their documentary film Touched at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1970 and Work, Bike, Eat is similarly excellent. A companion film called Arnold was also produced.
Waydowntown, 2000, directed by Gary Burns, 83mins, 1.85, Dolby SR, Rated AA, 35mm Studio Print
Waydowntown is director Gary Burns' (Kitchen Party, Radiant City) humorous take on his home town of Calgary, told through a contest between a group of co-workers who are competing to see who can stay inside the longest. Anyone who's visited Calgary in the past twenty years will recognize the pervasive phenomenon of the “Plus 15” system of elevated walkways connecting nearly every building in the downtown. Similar in nature to Montreal's Underground City and Toronto's PATH system, the Plus 15 is what happens when the harsh Canadian climate meets the soft heart of Canadian civilization, and civilization decides to go shopping (so as to avoid the climate).