By Jim Henshaw While writer muses come and go at their will, each of us is granted a mentor. Very early on I was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of the best screenwriter Canada has produced, John Hunter. I don’t remember how John and I first met. All I know is he […]
Radio Caroline, all over again
By Jim Henshaw By now, virtually every Canadian is aware of the stare-down going on between Netflix and our broadcast regulators, the CRTC. But there’s a similar confrontation concurrently flying under most of our media’s radar between the self-same CRTC and a group of radio stations in Vancouver. These stations, unlike Netflix, have their offices, […]
Alice Cooper, Canadian icon
By Frank Moher Did I miss the part where Alice Cooper became a Canadian? Because otherwise, HBO Canada’s new doc Super Duper Alice Cooper appears to mark some strange turning point in Canadian film funding. And believe you me, this is a Canadian film — at least if its list of financiers is anything to […]
United we watch
By Rod Mickleburgh My mother hated Labour Day. For her, a high school English teacher, it was not only a day to pay tribute to workers and unions, but a signal that the lazy, hazy days of summer were over, and it was time to go back to work. Every year, the prospect of facing […]
Immersed in the oil sands
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten “Fort McMurray, city of excess,” says the voice-over in the trailer for Fort McMoney. The documentary video game, produced by the National Film Board and the Montreal-based game developer TOXA, allows users to take control of the boomtown, and determine the virtual fate of the oilsands. Combining real footage and interviews with […]
The Video: Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Owning Mahowny”
The 2003 Canadian film Owning Mahowny, based on Gary Ross’s book No Limit, was made for pennies. It grossed pennies. But when Philip Seymour Hoffman wanted to play a role, wanted to make a film, he made it. Roger Ebert wrote of his performance: “Philip Seymour Hoffman, that fearless poet of implosion, plays the role […]
You call this festive?
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten Cinema is in the middle of a pandemic. Every day of the year, a film festival is taking place somewhere, or somewheres, in theatres, lecture halls, community centres. Vancouver alone hosts at least a dozen. There’s the Queer one, the Asian one, the South African one, the Latin American one, the Polish […]
Oil sands doc is on key
By Rod Mickleburgh A guy walks into a bar . . . That’s pretty much how film-maker Charles Wilkinson came to make his seductive documentary, Oil Sands Karaoke, about, of all things, a karaoke contest in the heart of you-know-what country, Fort McMurray. After being distinctly underwhelmed by two earlier forays during the Vancouver International Film […]
The Video: John and Tarek say hi
A Streetcar Named Disaster
By TJ Dawe Blue Jasmine, this year’s Woody Allen movie, is a pretty blatant reworking of A Streetcar Named Desire, but with a vital difference: the Blanche character doesn’t represent Tennessee Williams and his artistic sensitivity — she’s the personification of America, before and after the financial collapse. Here’s her story, in bullet points — […]
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