Dance
Underplayed
By: Trevor Chartrand Director Stacey Lee raises some important questions in Underplayed, a documentary about diversity in the music industry. Specifically, the film focuses on electronica (or dance music) and the women who make it. Often left behind on a concert schedule predominately populated by men, these artists are underappreciated and underrepresented, especially in this particular genre.
The Accompanist
Director, writer, and star Frederick Keeve demonstrates a strong imagination but a weak sense of dramatic ability in his feature The Accompanist, a story about a gay piano accompanist who becomes infatuated with a male ballerina amidst a series of tragedies that befall both men.
The Dancer
Stephanie Di Giusto’s The Dancer is one of the more interesting biopics in recent memory. It’s by the book in terms of the genre’s formula and narrative structure but Di Giusto finds another way to look at her film’s biographical material.
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan
It stings to call Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan an indistinguishable documentary because of who the film is about.
Wylie Writes @ The 2017 ReelAbilities Film Festival
The ReelAbilities Film Festival returns to Toronto on Wednesday, May 10 after a successful debut. The festival, centring around noble stories of disability cultures, will screen feature films and shorts around the city until Thursday, May 18.
48 Hours to Live
At this point in his career, music video director Benny Boom is more of an imitator than a filmmaker. His feature film debut Next Day Air, a violent crime/comedy driven by half-baked druggies and misunderstandings, was definitely inspired by the early work of Quentin Tarantino. Boom’s latest project 48 Hours to Live plays as a three-way collision between the trippy in-your-face antics of Argentinian provocateur Gaspar Noé, your average American television crime drama, and dance sequences seen in…
ReFrame 2016: ‘OutSideIn’
The ReFrame Film Festival couldn’t wait to begin. On Thursday, January 28, the festival held an exclusive sold-out Ontario premiere of Anne Troake’s OutSideIn, an experimental 3D film that featured choreography in its rawest form from two partially nude performers (Carol Prieur and Bill Coleman).
A Ballerina’s Tale
The works of people like Norman McLaren (Pas de Deux, Ballet Adagio, Narcissus) and Wim Wenders (Pina) have shown that ballet can be useful subject matter for beautiful cinema. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, this pleasurable quality somehow cannot find its way into documentaries. The most recent example of this failure to showcase ballet in the genre is A Ballerina’s Tale, Nelson George’s portrait of noted ballerina Misty Copeland – the first African-American woman to be…
Paul Taylor: Creative Domain
By: Shannon Page Emmy-award winner Kate Geis has directed, produced and edited Paul Taylor: Creative Domain, a narrowly focused look into the mind and creative process of one of the most interesting choreographers alive today.