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

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.

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)

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)

Canadian Cameos Archival Short Films, Tuesday April 29th Mayfair Theatre

The Canadian Cult Revue Series is proud to present a rare selection of Canadian Archival shorts from the Library and Archives vaults.

 All on 35mm film for National Canadian Film Day! April 29th, 9:15pm

Most are from the "Canadian Cameos" series directed by Gordon Sparling 1930's-1950's

Rhapsody in Two Languages, 1934

The most famous of the Canadian Cameo series, Rhapsody in Two Languages by Gordon Sparling depicts a 24-hour period in Montreal from sunrise to sunrise. Its rapid cross-cutting blends Howard Fogg's original music with a succession of positive and negative images and optical effects. The integration of music and visuals is remarkable.

Hockey Star's Summer, 1950  

Grey Owl's Little Brother, 1932

Bye Bye Bunting, animated short by Bryant Fryer, 1934

Canadian Headlines 1952

Fair and Cold, 1933

Push Back the Edge, 1952

Sitzmarks the Spot, 1948

Progress Parade, 1931

The program runs approx. 80mins.

Decasia, March 26th With Bill Morrison

Decasia, 2002, 35mm, March 26th, Bytowne Cinema,

with Director Bill Morrison in Attendance  

 

Decasia
Production year: 2002
Country: USA
Cert: PG
Runtime: 67 mins
Director: Bill Morrison
Format: 35mm






Decasia is a stirring, haunting feature film masterpiece composed
entirely of found footage- more precisely decaying early nitrate film
footage. Cellulose nitrate base was abandoned by filmmakers
around 1950, a technical improvement that really was justified. Nitrate
film is highly flammable and prone to rot. Yet it is the rot that
fascinates Morrison.

Morrison has found examples of old film, from archives such as
George Eastman House and the Museum of Modern Art, going back
to the beginning of the 20th century: some drama, some
documentary, screen tests, all kinds of peculiar images that have
decayed in intriguing ways.

Morrison not only researches and collects this footage, but he uses it
to create compelling montages with original soundtracks. He has
collaborated with some of the most interesting composers working
today–John Adams, Henryk Gorecki, Johann Johannsson, Steve
Reich, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon. In fact the music
begat the film. Decasia was commissioned for a multimedia
performance of Michael Gordon's symphony of the same name. The
end result of this artistic collaboration is mysterious, beautiful, and
highly unique.

Edited with an authentically poetic sensibility and delirious timing, the
images flow mysteriously into one another in what feels like a
necessary, meaningful structure, though inexplicable. Faces and
buildings dance in and out of random, abstract pools of black, grey
and silver; faces become chrome shadows; the sun turns black;
flames look like water. The effect of the nitrate film's decay is to
make everything seem fluid, while creating a strange landscape of
grotesque, pulsing shapes Decasia is on a death trip of its own.
In fine art and architecture, ruin has been regarded as picturesque
since the 18th century, but cinema's ruins are rarely visited. Rancid
and, in normal terms, unwatchable, these bits of film are gradually
fading into nothing in archives away from the light and away from the cinema.
They were never meant to flicker into life again.

This would not be such an original, engaging film, however, were it
simply an exercise in abstract cinema or avant-garde playfulness.
What makes Decasia so beguiling is that the film footage Morrison
has discovered is only partly destroyed. You can see images, and not
just any images. The dead and forgotten faces seen through the fog
are moving, striking, sometimes frightening.

Sometimes the effects are so expressive you can't believe chance did

this. But it did. Morrison's editing is so emotional that he makes you

see, always, something behind what is on screen, shadowy back

stories. Gradually the power of it mounts and from mild pleasure in

seeing something so unusual you become involved, tense, menaced.

It has a sculpted, sensual quality, a richness of texture missing from

most modern cinema: in place of all those clean, digital, precise

empty blockbusters here's something dense, deep, full of
unnameable spectral presences. It is film as landscape, as sublime
vista, and at the same time as history, as fact. It makes you feel that
the art, as opposed to the business, of cinema does have a future -
even if it has to be found deep in the past.

Over the past two decades, Morrison has built a filmography of more
than thirty projects that have been shown in museums, theaters,
concert halls, and galleries around the world, including Sundance and
the Tate Modern. His films are in the collection of the Museum of
Modern Art, The Nederland’s Film museum, and The Library of
Congress. He is a Guggenheim fellow and has received the Alpert
Award for the Arts, an NEA Creativity Grant, a Creative Capital grant,
and a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His
work with Ridge Theater has been recognized with two Bessie
awards and an Obie Award.

A Q&A will follow the screening with Director Bill Morrison

Also Bill will be at IFCO for a Master Class before the screening at 5:30pm info here.

Bill will also be at Daimon in Gatineau on March 28th at 8pm

For more on Bill Morrison's films go here http://billmorrisonfilm.com/

 

Brought to you with the collaboration of the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa.

 

 

Lost films with the HILOTRONS March 28th @ Bytowne Cinema

The HILOTRONS in silent film mode

Lost Films with Live Music by the HILOTRONS, March 28th, 7pm, Bytowne Cinema,  Approx 70mins 35mm and DCP 2K

Collection of vintage & archival short films with brand new music performed and composed live by The Hilotrons.
The Canadian Cult Revue presents its second live music screening of the season with a selection of historically significant ‘lost films’ (well, nearly lost...) from the collection of Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Most of the films are silent shorts from the 1920’s, and will be projected from brand new 35mm prints created at LAC’s film conservation facilities in Gatineau.

To start off the evening, we’re showing a 1946 newsreel featuring many stories from the local area, including: a spectacular fire in Hull that destroyed the interprovincial bridge; the famous Dionne Quintuplets in Grade Five; Barbara Ann Scott at a skating championship; and, a spy ring uncovered by the RCMP. Then, local favourites the Hilotrons will play newly-composed soundtracks to our selection of silent short films with fascinating subjects such as: wireless telephony, preventing tooth decay, and graphite mining in Calabogie (seriously, they’re good!).

 

We will also be playing a reel from The Man From Glengarry (1922), also accompanied by The Hilotrons. The film, a spectacular silent feature shot in Ottawa in the early 1920s by director Henry Macrae, concerns a blood feud between the leaders of rival logging camps along the Ottawa River. This reel is one of only two that remain in existence.

 

Videodrome, Jan. 25th Bytowne Cinema

Videodrome, 1983, rated R, 90mins, 35mm Archival print, 7pm Jan 25th at the Bytowne Cinema

Anyone familiar with pioneering Toronto television station City-TV, particularly its daring, fly-by-the-seat-of-its-pants incarnation in the 1970’s and 80’s, will recognize the inspiration for the fictional CIVIC-TV station in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. CIVIC is where Max Renn (James Woods) works as a producer seeking out the most provocative programming to drive up the ratings, always keeping an eye on finding the next big thing to scoop the competition. It’s this search that leads Renn to uncover an international conspiracy involving a mind- and flesh- altering signal hidden within violent images originating from the United States.

Videodrome still has the power to provoke philosophical reflection and disturb in equal measure nearly thirty years since its release. Like many of Cronenberg’s early films, it’s constructed around tropes of out-of-control technology, physical mutation, and sex and violence as social contagion. It’s the triumphant culmination of the first phase of his career, blending elements of science fiction, horror, and film noir in a deftly executed mix of genres. It’s noteworthy for being the first film where he started getting respect as a filmmaker of real intellectual substance, and not just a shockmeister intent on delivering cheap gory thrills.

For Canadian viewers, the fact that the film is set largely in an identifiable Toronto, and makes such great use of uber-Canuck references like Moses Znaimer and Marshall McLuhan, makes it all the more fun. Oscar-winner James Woods, always an interesting actor, makes for a compellingly flawed anti-hero, and he shares the screen with a cadre of fine supporting players, including rock star Deborah Harry, Sonja Smits (CBC’s ‘Street Legal’) and the perfectly-cast Jack Creley (Dr. Strangelove and TVO’s ‘Write On!’), who plays the McLuhanesque video-theorist Dr. Brian O’Blivion. To that we say: Long live the New Flesh!

– Lost Dominion Screening Collective

Janis, Dec 7th 7pm at the Bytowne

Janis, 1975, 35mm, 96mins. A beautiful print provided by Library and Archives Canada.
One night only! December 7th at 7pm, Bytowne Cinema
Ottawa filmmaker Budge Crawley produced Janis through his company, Crawley Films, Canada`s largest independent film studio. This rock`n`roll documentary is one of the many highlights of an astonishing film career that lasted from the late 1930`s until the early 1980`s, with over 5000 films produced during that time.

In 1970, Budge Crawley decided to make the film after seeing Joplin during the Festival Express concert tour, which crossed Canada just months before Joplin died of a heroin overdose.

Crawley spent the next four years, and many thousands of dollars, securing the rights to concert performances, rehearsals and interviews — all of the footage available — including sequences from the Woodstock and Monterey Pop festivals.

Janis is a unique rock documentary that is as compelling for its musical sections as it is for its frank interviews with Joplin. The film was completed and released with the approval of Joplin's parents.

Janis won an Etrog as best nonfiction feature at the Canadian Film Awards in 1975 and was a considerable box office success.”

- Canadian Film Encyclopedia

Whispering City + Scanners Jan. 19th at the Mayfair Theatre $10

7pm Whispering City, 1946, Directed by Fedor Ozep, 91mins, 1.37, mono, Rated PG, 35mm new archival Black and White print.

Whispering City is a film noir mystery set in Quebec City in the late 1940's.  Directed by Russian-born director Fédor Ozep (also known as Fyodor Otsep), English and French versions were produced with different casts at the same time (in French it was called La Forteresse).  A modest hit at the time, Whispering City very effectively uses Quebec City as a dramatic setting, taking advantage of the city's long history and imposing architecture to heighten the suspense and add visual interest. The film is also notable for its excellent musical score. Starring Mary Anderson (from Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat) and Paul Lukas (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Best Actor Oscar-winner from 1943's Watch on the Rhine).

For more on this Quebec Noir double bill see John's writeup in Unfolding.

8:45pm Scanners, 1981, 35mm print, Rated R, directed by David Cronenberg, the print is supplied by the Library and Archives Canada.

How best to describe Cronenberg’s tale of an underground organization of people with telepathic abilities bent on taking over the world? How about "mind-blowing"?

 

Lest We Forget Double Bill Nov 10th @ the Mayfair

Canadian Army News Reels 7:00pm + Guy Maddin's Archangel 9:10pm
Mayfair Theatre, Nov. 10th, Ottawa, Ontario 

Canadian Army News Reels, 1942-46, 90mins, 1.37, Non rated, 35mm archival prints.


In honour of Remembrance Day, we are proud to present a series of rarely-seen Canadian Army Newsreels from the Second World War.  Some of you may recall a special screening of Casablanca at the Mayfair a couple of years ago that was preceded by a newsreel that film conservator Paul Gordon retrieved from Library and Archives Canada. The rapturous reception by the audience convinced us that Ottawans were ready for more.  The prints we are going to show have been fully restored (cleaned up, and re-printed from their original sound and film elements) and will give the audience a chance to experience the progress of the war the way the so many on the home front would have done at the time.  There's nothing quite like seeing a newsreel on the big screen to experience the real-life drama and struggle of war. We invite you to bring your Remembrance Day to life and join us in honouring our veterans and their sacrifice in this unique and moving tribute. We will be screening 8-9, 10 minute newsreels many that were only seen by Canadian troops and never to the general public back home.


For the complete DVD box set of the newsreels produced by the Canadian War Amps go here 



For a Toronto Star article on the War Amps News Reel box set go here


A a more detailed preview by John Yemen go here

 

Archangel, 1990, Directed by Guy Maddin, 82mins, 1.37, mono, rated AA, New 35mm print from the Winnipeg Film Group

Set in World War One, Archangel is a strange and atypical war movie brought to the screen by the king of arch-stylization, Winnipeg's own Guy Maddin. Filmed in the style of a silent film, Archangel is at once dreamlike and disturbing. Using the trope of amnesia to explore the horror of war, Archangel is about as far away from a standard war movie as you can get without floating into pure abstraction. Yet, it is precisely this lack of sense that makes perfect sense, because with war, after all, is the least sensible creation of the human mind. A worthwhile journey, for those prepared to enter the dream.

The companion booklet on the film by the Winnipeg Film group is here

Oct. 20th Ginger Snaps + American Psycho

Mayfair Theatre,  Halloween Double bill  $10

Ginger Snaps, 2000, Directed by John Fawcett, 108mins, 1.85, 35mm print, Rated R

A darker Canadian counterpart to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ginger Snaps, directed by John Fawcett in the year 2000, explores the darkness lurking in the Canadian suburbs where teenagers know that things are not all well. If you ever thought adolescence had a monstrous side, Ginger Snaps is for you. A tale of two sisters, and the things go bite in the night, Ginger Snaps is both an effective scary movie and smart social commentary, exploring the world of the modern teenager with a wit  seldom seen outside of the films of John Hughes. It's a biting wit, and to its credit, it's a film that's not afraid of the horrific underbelly of high school.  

American Psycho, 2000, Directed by Mary Harron, 101mins, 2.35 Cinemascope, 35mm print, Rated R

Bret Easton Ellis’s best selling novel is transformed by Canadian director Mary Harron into the first cult classic of the 21 century. Set in the 80’s world of big business Patrick Batemen (Christain Bale) takes no prisoners and whips out all competition in his strive for power and perfection in the corporate world. Mary Harron puts a female spin on the story and adds a lot of humour to this serial killer romp. 

 “The film regards the male executive lifestyle with the devotion of a fetishist. There is a scene where a group of businessmen compare their business cards, discussing the wording, paper thickness, finish, embossing, engraving and typefaces, and they might as well be discussing their phalli. Their sexual insecurity is manifested as card envy". Roger Ebert.

The cinemascope photography, shot in Toronto, also perfectly suits the film. The Director of Photography used the lowest speed film stocks and almost all the lights available to him on set to give the film a deep focus, sterile look. The end result is a film that is visually stunning on the big screen. Also starring Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon and Jared Leto.


For a more detailed review by collective member John Yemen go here.