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Slamdance 2011: Interview with Ben Brewer, Director of Beneath Contempt

As a final tribute to the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival and its nurturing of first-time, independent filmmakers, here’s one last interview. We’ve gone back and talked with the filmmakers of Beneath Contempt, whose initial January 21st interview with Sound on Sight can be found here. In this unique interview, Director Ben Brewer and Executive Producer …

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Slamdance Announces 2011 Lineup

The Slamdance Film Festival which takes place each year in Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival has just announced its program for the 2011 edition. The festival was founded in 1995 by Dan Mirvish, Jon Fitzgerald, Shane Kuhn and Peter Baxter and has since become a year-round organization championing emerging filmmaking …

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Paul Jenkins’ ‘Inhumans’ Offers Insights on Humanity at its Best and Worst

Using the Inhumans as a mirror, Jenkins and Lee project the best and worst that humanity has to offer. Like humans, the Inhumans try to mask a prejudiced and divided society beneath a veil of equality and tolerance. They are capable of great disdain, and at times it seems as if their support and love are conditions, yet they are also capable of great sympathy and trust. Despite having tremendous power, the Inhumans still fight at the dinner table, call each other names, and play jokes on each other just like any family would, and at the end of the day, they are indeed a family. Even though they may be Inhumans, Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee prove that, for better or for worse, they’re people too.

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Cluttered Winehouse doc, ‘Amy,’ focuses on explanations instead of artistry

The new documentary, ‘Amy,’ attempts to use archival footage, interviews, and performance highlights to better understand the woman behind the lyrics. Unfortunately, director Asif Kapadia’s kitchen-sink approach isn’t suited for such a complicated subject. In the end, what should have been a celebration of Winehouse’s unique talent becomes a cliché-ridden obsession to explain her downfall.

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‘Harakiri’ blends action with a philosophical and critical look at the bushido code

Harakiri Written by Shinobu Hashimoto and Yasuhiko Takiguchi Directed by Masaki Kobayashi Japan, 1962 In the early 17th century, the Iyi clan abides by the bushido code to the letter in all its facets, sepukku, the traditional samurai suicide ceremony by which a warrior disembowels himself before being decapitated, being no exception. It is on …

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The Field Guide to Netflix Canada: ‘A New Leaf’

A New Leaf Written by Elaine May Directed by Elaine May USA, 1971 Fellow Canadian cinephiles know that our local version of Netflix has a terrible wheat-to-chaff ratio. The thin library, coupled with the still-not-great UI, makes it so that a disproportionately large amount of legwork has to be put into just browsing for movies. …

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‘Sweet Smell of Success’ is a scathing look into the vicious world of 1950s press and gossip

Watching Sweet Smell of Success is also a tricky venture for those diving in for the very first time. The film takes a few minutes to make clear what the characters are doing, dropping hints that in hindsight are quite clear but on first glance could mean anything. The opening 10-15 minutes see a typically energetic, bustling Sidney Falco rampage in and out of various Manhattan nightclubs, talking to characters for a few seconds about this and that, entering his office, sarcastically barking orders to his personal secretary (Jeff Donnell) before

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Re-Introducing…Body Count

Body Count: Volume 1 Horror. The much maligned, hard partying, estranged uncle of cinema. Being the reasonably presentable professional that I am by day, it often shocks people that I, a man in his thirties of above-average intelligence devotes such a large portion of his free time mentally cataloguing some of the worst movies ever …

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Introducing…Body Count

Body Count: Volume 1 Horror. The much maligned, hard partying, estranged uncle of cinema. Being the reasonably presentable professional that I am by day, it often shocks people that I, a man in his thirties of above-average intelligence devotes such a large portion of his free time mentally cataloguing some of the worst movies ever …

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