Ivory Tower September 28th 7pm Bytowne Cinema

Wednesday September 28th 7pm, Ottawa Premiere, Director in Attendance, 2k Digital Cinema Presentation. 5.1 sound


Ivory Tower is Canadian director/musician/puppeteer Adam Traynor’s feature film debut. The Ottawa-born Traynor treats this ‘existential sports comedy’ as an exercise in high silliness, with just enough family drama to give the action some emotional heft.

Set in the world of international chess competition, it features the sibling rivalry between two chess prodigies fighting over the game and the same woman. The film is infused with the rhythms of both chess and music, and stars a roster of talented Canadian musicians, including multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-nominated producer Chilly Gonzales, Juno-Award winning DJ/producer Tiga, and internationally-renowned raunch rocker Peaches. Music fans should also watch for appearances by indie-pop superstar Feist and underground pop sensation The World Provider.

Gonzales, best known for producing Feist’s albums and having his music appear in the Apple iPad commercial that launched the product last year, stretches himself here not only as a musician (by providing the film’s soundtrack) but also as an actor and writer. Traynor and French filmmaker Céline Sciamma – writer and director of the provocative 2007 film Water Lilies – also share scripting credits. Their combined talents result in a comedy thatCahiers du Cinema compared (positively!) to the work of both Will Ferrell and Wes Anderson, and which Toronto.com described as ‘sweetly nutty’.  Perhaps having doubted that a group of non-actors and a first-time director could pull off such a high-concept comedy with any degree of success, the Montreal Gazette ended up declaring it ‘a hilarious and surprisingly accomplished satire.’  With such a talented group of collaborators, perhaps it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise after all.

    –  Lost Dominion Screening Collective

This screening marks the debut of the Canadian Cult Revue film series at the ByTowne, presented by the Lost Dominion Screening Collective.

Regular admission prices apply, or you can buy a series pass: 11 movies for $45.

Canadian Cult Revue Starts Sept 17th with Deadly Eyes

Deadly Eyes, Rated R, Sept. 17th at 10pm, Mayfair Theatre

 The Lost Dominion Screening Collective presents a gorgeous 16mm print of the Canadian camp classic "Deadly Eyes" (1982), in which Toronto is overrun by giant killer rats!

Disgruntled maintenance worker Scatman Crothers wants a vacation, scream queen Lisa Langlois wants to bed the gym teacher, and noted rat-ologist Cec Linder just wants to talk your ear off, but these losers are no match for the swarm of genetically mutated rodents - actually dachshunds in fur coats! - who set out to eat their extremities for dinner.

In spite (because?) of a forehead-slapping screenplay and an overweening preponderance of love interests, this howler is by far the most entertaining Canadian killer-rat movie of the 80s. Import director Robert Clouse, best known for his many Bruce Lee flicks, makes the most of his tax-shelter budget; the film keeps on catching you by surprise with unforgettable set pieces in bowling alleys, movie theatres and subway tunnels. They even eat a baby.

Jonathan Culp - programmer at "Toronto's Classiest Cinema". Trash Palace - will be there in person to introduce this rare gem, one of the most entertaining films ever to be utterly forgotten by its nation of origin.