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• Superfeed

  The porn identity

  

  Posted by Superfeed Editor at 11:01 pm on October 14, 2009
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  From RSS – This Just In

  Despite what you’d think based on the name of his film festival, Darryl Gold isn’t a big drinker. Sitting across the booth from me, the founder of the Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival is washing down his burger and fries with a half-O.J., half-ginger ale concoction.

  “I’m working,” says Gold, by way of explanation, adding that he still has booze left over from the festival’s first edition, though he recently had to throw out a poorly aged bottle of vermouth that had turned brown in the years since 2000.

  (More …)

  More Toronto news

   

• Arts

  A mother’s love knows no limits in horror film

  

  Posted by L.C. Willis at 12:01 am on September 15, 2009
  No Comments 3 images
  

  The horror movie genre has tackled taboos and pushed boundaries for nearly a century, but nothing is quite so terrifying, in any genre, as the mortality of a pregnant woman or her unborn child.

  The latest release in the recent frenzy of zombie movies arrives on DVD today. In Grace, the first feature film from writer-director Paul Solet, a woman faces the frightening prospect of losing her fetus in the final trimester, only to discover that something far worse has occurred.

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• Lifestyle

  Cabbagetown celebrates its own

  

  Posted by Jocelyne Dignard-Saleh at 11:12 pm on September 14, 2009
  1 Comment 3 images
  

  It was a perfect weekend for a street fest: sunny, slightly breezy and not too warm.

  The three-day Cabbagetown festival offered various activities; a marathon, pub crawl, walking tour and even a film festival.

  Your physical, mental and even spiritual needs could all be taken care of within a few blocks, as groups from different religions, political parties, neighborhood associations, all vied for the attention of festival-goers meandering up and down Parliament, Carlton and Winchester streets .

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• Arts

  TIFF: Survival of the fastest during the Toronto Zombie Walk

  

  Posted by L.C. Willis at 10:00 am on September 14, 2009
  No Comments 14 images
  

  The streets of downtown Toronto were laden with blood on Saturday – or, at least, various concoctions of fake blood and faux rotting flesh.

  The Toronto Zombie Walk: Special Director’s Cut Edition assembled a couple hundred undead aficionados to lurch and shuffle their way from Alexandra Park to Yonge Dundas Square for a special presentation and free outdoor screening of Night of the Living Dead. The celebration was part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s recognition of legendary director George A. Romero. Romero, now officially a Canadian citizen, presented his newest film, George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead, as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness program.

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• Superfeed

  Friday’s TIFF party picks

  

  Posted by Superfeed Editor at 7:27 pm on September 11, 2009
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  From NOW Daily

  Friday night’s best bets for celeb spotting. Door crash at your own risk.

  That George Clooney bash for The Men Who Stare At Goats is being hosted by Vitaminwater. Good thing since you’ll need some serious stamina to schlep from Yorkville up to its uptown, hoity neigbourhood location on the Bridle Path.

  (More …)

  More Toronto news

   

• Superfeed

  Province moves ahead with film tax credit

  

  Posted by Superfeed Editor at 5:00 pm on September 3, 2009
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  From insidetoronto.com – News Feed

  Toronto’s film board is expected to ask the city next week to establish a working group to find ways to enhance Toronto’s diminishing stock of film studios and draw film production here.

  The film board voted to make the request Wednesday morning, in preparation for next week’s executive committee meeting.

  (More …)

  More Toronto news

   

• Arts

  TADFF 2009: Ghouls and goblins (dis)embody the holiday spirit

  

  Posted by L.C. Willis at 5:39 am on August 21, 2009
  No Comments 5 images
  

  An up-and-coming Hollywood filmmaker criticized the lack of originality and innovation in mainstream theatrical releases, and implored the audience to spread the word about lesser-known films during a rare screening of his directorial debut on Thursday night.

  Michael Dougherty, writer and director of the highly-anticipated horror film Trick ‘r Treat, discussed his beliefs with the capacity audience at the Bloor Cinema during the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Hollywood is hesitant to produce films that aren’t remakes, sequels or adaptations, he responded when asked why the film’s release was delayed for nearly two years.

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• Arts

  TADFF 2009: Undead soldier takes a bite out of crime

  

  Posted by L.C. Willis at 4:37 am on August 17, 2009
  No Comments 1 image
  

  If there is anything as predictable as the rising of the sun, it’s the loyalty of horror fans to zombie films.

  Throngs of the walking dead invaded the Bloor Cinema for Zombie Appreciation Night, featuring the international premiere of the latest critically acclaimed undead comedy. The hordes lurched, shuffled and strolled in costume to the third day of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, where festival director Adam Lopez joined forces with Toronto Zombie Walk organizer Thea Munster to honour the living dead with half-price admission. (More …)

   

• Arts

  TADFF 2009: Sadism, survival and insanity dominate film festival’s second day of programming

  

  Posted by L.C. Willis at 3:36 am on August 16, 2009
  No Comments 1 image
  

  Horror fans ventured out to the Toronto After Dark Film Festival for the final installment of a Brazilian exploitation trilogy that marks the end of the filmmaker’s self-imposed 20-year hiatus.

  Director Jose Mojica Marins reprises his role as satanic undertaker Coffin Joe in Embodiment of Evil – the follow up to the wildly popular sixties films At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul and This Night I Will Enter Your Corpse. The trilogy follows Coffin Joe as he rapes and brutalizes women while searching for one who is worthy of carrying a son – maintaining “continuity of the blood” and bringing him immortality.

  (More …)

   

• Arts

  TADFF 2009: Fans explode with laughter on film festival’s opening night

  

  Posted by L.C. Willis at 12:58 am on August 15, 2009
  2 Comments 2 images
  

  Laughter erupted from hundreds of film fans who packed the Bloor Cinema for the start of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival on Friday night.

  Festival founder Adam Lopez introduced Black Dynamite to the enthusiastic crowd. Best described as a parody of popular blaxploitation films from the 1970s, the film was co-written by the star, accomplished actor Michael Jai White, and directed by Scott Sanders. Sanders answered questions from the audience following the film, and discussed the movie’s reception at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

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• Arts

  Worldwide Short Film Festival awards works from France, Canada

  

  Posted by Jeff Cottrill at 12:04 am on June 22, 2009
  No Comments 3 images
  

  Two short films from France won top prizes at the 15th annual Worldwide Short Film Festival, which held its awards ceremony yesterday afternoon during a picnic at the Canadian Film Centre.

  Nicolas Silhol’s My Name Is Dominic, a 20-minute French drama about a single mother who discovers the consequences of weak parental discipline, received the C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures Award for Best Live Action Short. The award makes the film eligible for an Academy Award nomination next January. (More …)

   

• Arts

  Short Film Festival series examines deceptive realities

  

  Posted by Jeff Cottrill at 11:20 am on June 21, 2009
  No Comments 2 images
  

  Film is a great narrative form for depicting situations that aren’t what they seem. Think Psycho, or Fight Club, or The Sixth Sense: directors always have fun fooling the audience and setting up surprise revelations.

  The Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Official Selection #5, What You See Is Not What You Get, intended to focus on the deceptive-reality theme. But the surprise twist here was that the series’ shorts were largely disappointing – and failed to exploit this theme to its potential. (More …)

   

• Arts

  Short films offer grab bag of tech-neuroses

  

  Posted by Jeff Cottrill at 8:52 pm on June 19, 2009
  No Comments 3 images
  

  In the age of YouTube, cell-phone video cameras and downloadable feature films, it’s a wonder the masses still go out to cinemas. Our gizmo obsessions influence even the content of movies these days.

  “Tech-Neurological”, Official Selection #11 in this year’s Worldwide Short Film Festival, presents a mixed bag of shorts exploring how modern technology factors into the human condition.

  (More …)

   

• Arts

  “Edge of Reason” at Short Film Fest offers disturbing screen therapy

  

  Posted by Jeff Cottrill at 12:19 pm on June 18, 2009
  No Comments 2 images
  

  Madness, murder and marriage: these are the focus of “The Edge of Reason”, the first Official Selection series at this year’s Worldwide Short Film Festival.

  No, it’s not a Hitchcock retrospective. But a few entries in this psychologically-themed series – which screened yesterday and repeats tomorrow evening at the Cumberland – may owe some inspiration to the Master of Suspense. (More …)

   

• Arts

  Short Film Fest opens with diverse selection of award-winners

  

  Posted by Jeff Cottrill at 2:37 am on June 17, 2009
  No Comments 2 images
  

  Short films come in as many shapes, sizes and genres as feature-length films do. Last night’s opening gala for the Canadian Film Centre’s 15th Worldwide Short Film Festival proved it, with “Award Winners from Around the World” as varied in theme and style as they were high in quality.

  Screened at the Bloor Cinema before a full house (including veteran director Norman Jewison, the CFC’s founder), the films ranged from technically sophisticated to simple and low-budget, and from all-out absurdity to blunt realism. (More …)