In Case Anyone Cares

Enter the D.o.S. #17 is up.

Long Live the Revolution

Found out Thursday night that there was a coup-like regime change at local weekly Terminal City and our lovely friend Bess Lovejoy had been made the new Editor in Chief. Not making too much of this at the time I simply noted that Bess knows that I write and wouldn't it be cool if I was asked to contribute something since it sounds like half of their writers got up and left with the old editor. But I certainly wasn't counting on anything as I'm still in the process of committing to my writing and trying to figure out how to make a career out of it. Well, I was sitting at home last night waiting for Damon and Andria to show up when all of a sudden I get a call from Chris Eng, editor of the Terminal City film section. The boy and I are both big fans of Mr. Eng and I knew from reading his columns that he and I are on the same page, culturally speaking. So you'll pardon me if I plotzed a little when he told me that he'd read some of my Film Threat stuff, liked my writing and wanted me to start contributing columns, biweekly like. Granted I'm still not getting paid for it, but being in a publication with circulation like Terminal City and with a general audience (not just film nerds) will be excellent experience, as will actually collaborating with an editor on pieces.

Needless to say, I'm stoked. Now I just need to get off my ass and write something...

Wait a Minute...

So, it's Saturday so I'm doing some chores, and when I do chores on Saturday I like to listen to music. Being bored with my iTunes selections (and still trying to find an efficient way to avoid the three billion Frank Black songs the boy downloaded when I hit "shuffle") I decided to try out some internet radio. I like internet radio. I like that there are no commercials, and especially I like that there usually aren't any inane DJs babbling about how funny they are. I also like that you can listen to stations from all over the world, with all kinds of interesting and unusual programming. One of my current faves is The Green Lounge. They play a great mix of old crooners, movie hits from the golden age of Hollywood (who else plays Mario Lanza on the radio!?) and contemporary lounge. But today I decided to be a little nostalgic and try out an "alternative" station. One that plays all the music I used to listen to in high school. Guess what, it's still boring. So I decided to try this Dutch station called Zeilsteen Radio, naively thinking that it would all be pop-y fun Euro-alternative. And what are they playing?

Tom Fucking Cochran.

WTF?!!?

More of my self-important babble

Film Threat has finally posted Enter the Den of Sin #16.

Stayed tuned for my film fest recap: VIFF 04 -- Sixteen Days of Meh

Mark Your Calendars

Because I'm making a concerted effort to get my shit together I present the schedules for October and November. Please note that screenings now happen on Wednesday nights, except for October 26 which is a Tuesday since Cinemuerte starts on the Wednesday that week.

Also, I am accepting suggestions for the second annual Den of Sin Xmas Massacre...

This is for the Nerdy Girls

Enjoy.

filmgurl's VIFF picks

Despite not being given press accreditation, I was able to score some ticket vouchers through work and do plan on attending and reviewing a number of films. Listed below is what I have tickets for so far:

Sun Sep 26 9:30pm: A Hole In My Heart -- New film by Lukas Moodysson ("Fucking Amal"). Sure to be heartbreaking.

Mon Sep 27 8:45pm: Pink Ribbon -- Documentary on Japanese subgenre of softcore movies where many respected Japanese directors started out.

Fri Oct 1 9:45pm: Izo (!) -- Miike Takashi film about a time traveling samurai. 'Nough said.

Sat Oct 2 4:00pm: The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess -- Remember her? Bruce MacDonald ("Roadkill", "Hard Core Logo") made a movie about her. And Hugh Dillon is in it.

Mon Oct 4 9:30pm: Terkel in Trouble -- Danish computer animated feature described as being kinda like "South Park", only darker.

Tue Oct 5 7:00pm: Time of the Wolf -- Michael Haneke's ("The Piano Teacher") take on post apocalypse.

For theatre locations and other info check out the Vancouver International Film Fest website

It's Baaaaack....

Yes, it's true. There will be a Cinemuerte VI. It will run from Oct 27 - 31. The program has been announced and is viewable here. It's kinda like Christmas in July for the boy and I since much of what is playing is stuff we missed at Fantasia. Especially exciting is the Canadian premier of "The Manson Family" (previously "Charlie's Family") with director Jim Van Bebber in attendance. Those who caught the work print of "Charlie's Family" at last year's Torture Garden will especially not want to miss it. A true work of art it is both fascinating, disturbing, intelligent and exploitively graphic.

Other highlights include the latest Miike Takashi new-school Japanese horror movie "One Missed Call", a bizarro Japanese indie called "Gusher No Binds Me", the Indonesian action overload "Lady Terminator" and a (rare) uncut print of the 1973 TV movie "Frankenstein: The True Story".

I will likely be all over the festival as I fully intend to volunteer for the fest and document it for Film Threat so I hope to see lots of you there.

Foods For Thoughts

I have always preferred the British school of film criticism and analysis over most of what is going on over here. When given a choice between a film book published here or in the UK, even if the subject is North American in origin I will always choose the British option. American film journalism is either exclusively intellectual or vapidly gossipy, and Canadian film journalism either apes American examples to the point of parody (because the fact is no one cares what Nicholas Campbell ate for breakfast, if they're even aware of who he is), or only appeals to the 200 people the constitute the Canadian "industry". However, in the UK even the fluffy "entertainment" sections of British newspapers include numerous intelligent, well researched and intriguing articles. I found a great one recently from The Independent about the new trend of transgressive sex and violence in contemporary French film. It is a very good primer on the subject and is able to put the trend in the context of both French film history and French art in general.

While I was searching for the article to link to, I stumbled across The Guardian film section which also includes some intriguing articles, especially in the context of re-examining Hollywood and American celebrities that we take for granted in North America as being "stars". I recommend checking them both out as I hope to do so more in the future.

The rest of September

Being that school is back in session we have noticed a considerable drop off in attendance, but I'm hoping that once we get into a better rhythm with the schedules things will improve. So, here is the program for the second to last week in September.

Tuesday September 21/04
Back to Classics... classic perversion that is!

7pm: Doctor X [1932] -- Thanks to the financial triumph of "Dracula" at the box office, movie studios in the thirties were desperate to jump onto the horror bandwagon, some with more success than others. The engineers of the Hays Code frantically tried to play catch up, but things still fell between the cracks. This was MGM's Michael Curtiz's shot at things, and he didn't shy away from anything: sadism, blood, implied incest... it's all here folks. Also notable for Fay Wray ("King Kong") and the use of an early two-colour Technicolor process.

9pm: Freaks [1932] -- Extremely controversial when it was released and something of a hot button to this day, many people consider this Tod Browning's ("Dracula") masterwork (well it certainly wasn't "Dracula", IMHO). A beautiful but cruel trapeze artist marries a circus midget in an attempt to inherit his fortune. When the rest of the side show learn of her treachery, they inflict an even crueler vengence. Surreal and troubling still. Features real side show freaks.