Annual New Toronto Works Show

The Annual New Toronto Works Show at Pleasure Dome featured a variety of new film and video works by Toronto artists. The music video, In Every Dream Home a Heartache by Kids On TV and Johannes Zits proved to be a particularly furtive collaboration. Performed with a disarming camp sincerity, their cover of the Roxy Music song remained true to the original while becoming something decidedly queer. Utilizing a condo advertising aesthetic inhabited by vapid silhouettes emblazoned with gay porn, the video painted a hilarious and pointed critique of consumerism and conformity. Andrew Zukerman and Winston Hacking put together a killer short called Tex Mex Wolfman. An intense two minutes of radioactively psychedelic hemorrhaging ad infinitum and nauseum but really fast, which we are obviously still recovering from. There were many other good ones too, like Aram Collier's The Others, a handsome tribute to the exotically indigenous Lou Diamond Phillips. Overall: wicked awesome.

November 4th, 2008

Diary Of The Dead

It seems uncanny that we would happen to rent George A. Romero’s latest zombie flick just after taking in the first lecture for SOCS300 Web 2.0, which deals with blogging. Uncanny not only because the story revolves around a group of film students who happen to hail from our professor’s alma matter, the University of Pittsburgh, but also because the film itself almost reads like a ‘filmmaking in the age of the internet’ course. When the students (who are shooting their own zombie film) are interrupted by sketchy news of some sort of pandemic, they decide to take matters into their own hands and investigate with cameras in hand. The students’ constant dispute over what is more important: the making of their documentary or escaping to safety propels the film into a state of reflexive meta-ness that serves to further its pedagogical agenda of media literacy. While zombies can serve up any number of metaphors, in this film they seem to embody an underlying truth that is unattainable through traditional broadcasting outlets. The students realize that they have the power to convey this truth by posting their videos online and quickly find an audience and community of thousands around the world who are engaged in the same pursuit. In a moment of philosophical pondering, one character asks whether all these voices (in the vlogosphere) just end up becoming ‘noise’ – now that is some deep questionin’. Now as if this was not enough, Romero went ahead and made a contest where the general public could submit their own Diary of the Dead videos to his MySpace website so check it out.

Benjamin Smoke

A brilliant slice of unseen Americana. Directors Jem Cohen and Petter Sillen's sensitive portrayal of their musician subject, Benjamin does justice to his unique persona.

WALL-E

Once upon a time we were going to animate a scenario about robots mining through former landfill sites for recyclable materials. But then we didn't because we thought people would be less inclined to recycle if they realized this could happen. Thankfully, Pixar solved our dilemma with this very good, dystopian sci-fi parable.

The Benny Goodman Story

A flawless film, as smooth as the music itself. How dreamy is Steve Allen?

Zizek!

Zizek makes cultural theory fun. Director Astra Taylor's coolness is a nice pairing with Zizek's perpetually excited mad scientist demeanor. He's really quite endearing and he knows about love and desire, but don't hug him or he will feel patronized. We liked his apartment and how he kept it organized.

Encounters At The End Of The World

Herzog at his funniest. The seal music scene was unbelievable - in the sense that we don't really believe they actually sound like that. Which isn't to say we don't think sonar technology should be terminated for its devastating affect on sea mammal communications.

Hogtown Homos

Highlights from the program of local shorts at the Inside Out festival... There was a number of Kent Monkman fans in the audience, including ourselves. His new film Robin's Hood is a bit of a curve ball. As in his previous works, Monkman adopts the silent era treatment for a camp critique of colonialism. But whereas there is a reversal of power in those films that is easy to laugh with, doing so in this one implicates the audience in a unsettling but poignant way. Lesley Loksi Chan's Compost Mon Amour is a smart blend of humour and pathos. The stylish DIY aesthetic complements the blurring of fact and fiction nicely.

Cry Baby

Ceaselessly hilarious. No one does camp like John Waters. The soundtrack rules. In researching what ever happened to Kim "Hatchet Face" McKeen, we found out about the David Lynch TV series On The Air.