By: Trevor Chartrand Many B-Movie enthusiasts are likely familiar with the squib-bursting insanity of Who Killed Captain Alex?, the Ugandan action movie with a violent – and loud – viral trailer on YouTube. Shot in an impoverished slum, the film is creative with its budget, which reportedly was less than $200. The movie is absurdly violent. It’s goofy, it’s strange, and it looks and sounds terrible. But, Captain Alex is also a film with a…
Writer/director Geordie Sabbagh, as a storyteller, has a real grasp on the importance of conversations and, as a filmmaker, he’s figured out how to convey these discussions with flavour.
The Toronto Youth Shorts festival is a great platform for aspiring filmmakers and for storytellers with a lot on their mind. I can usually count on the selections to cover themes from cultural reflections to personal discoveries, with an occasional fluffy piece to break up the weight of these programmes.
Hal Ashby is undoubtedly one of the underrated greats of American cinema. While he never quite became a household name, his films frequently had a certain magical quality to them; never quite being the film that people think of when referring to the great works of an actor, but rather that other film that always comes out in the second or third breath. Films like Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Bound for Glory and Being There ensured that he would…
The Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a variety of well-realized works, made by young filmmakers worth keeping watch for. The festival’s whopping total of 47 films are split into four programmes – the kids presentation Sparks (screening on September 21), followed by Forging Our Own Discourse, Moving Forward, and Searching For Belonging (screening, in order, on September 22).
Stanley Kubrick was a peculiar anomaly. He was a world famous filmmaker with a classic catalogue, yet he lived an elusive life. Allegedly, it was rare to be granted access into Kubrick’s personal life, and it was more rare to find someone who would be willing to put themselves that close to him considering Kubrick’s infamous reputation.
By: Addison Wylie Many will recognize Max Joseph from his co-hosting gig on MTV’s Catfish, a modern mystery program featuring Max and Nev Schulman helping online romantics track down their ambiguous lovers. Faithful viewers of Catfish, however, were given episodes early on in season 4 that were absent of Joseph. This was because the filmmaker was still busy working on his feature film debut, We Are Your Friends. We Are Your Friends followed a group of pals trying…
By: Shannon Page Paul Weitz’s Grandma manages to cover a lot of emotional territory in its short run-time without feeling rushed or over-reaching itself. Lily Tomlin plays lesbian poet Elle Reid who is still mourning the recent death of her life-partner Violet when her teenage granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner), arrives at her door pregnant. Together, the two women embark on a day-long quest to find the money for Sage’s abortion. It has been twenty-seven years since…
By: Addison Wylie Spike Lee took to Kickstarter to fund his latest joint Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. It was a bold move that opened up the floodgates for skeptics to start criticizing the filmmaker. Zach Braff endured the same with his campaign to make Wish I Was Here. Lee brings more of an argumentative crowd compared to Braff’s followers and naysayers. Some see Spike Lee as a self-serving loudmouth, but loyal fans believe he has…
By: Addison Wylie As much as technology has progressed and storytelling has creatively evolved, the film industry still remains on a playing field where movie goers – all too easily – can look at a project and label it as something that’s either for males or for females. Of course, there are exceptions, but this sort of divvying haplessly exists. Moviemaking thankfully advances as films open themselves for its audience to overlap. When I sat…