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Fantasia 2015: ‘The Hallow’ is hollow horror
Irish legends are rich with horrifying monsters, painful realities and a genuine sense of despair. Perhaps rooted in the Irish struggle, many of the lessons from their myths evoke inequality and injustice – it does not matter who you are, what you believe or what you do, you are not above nature’s law. What is nature’s law? It is a perverse combination of God’s will and an amoral natural world. Set in the mostly undisturbed forests of Ireland, The Hallow is about a conservationist (Joseph Mawle) and his young family. Despite many warnings from the locals, he persists in investigating the forests, eventually inspiring its wrath. More
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London Human Rights Film Festival – ‘Life Is Sacred’ (2015)
Life is Sacred Directed by Andreas M. Dalsgaard Columbia, 2015 Chances are when one conjures Colombia to mind a less than salubrious image springs to mind – staggeringly wealthy drug kingpins, endemic kidnapping plots, paramilitary foisted crime and corruption. Andreas M. Dalsgaard challenges these preconceptions with his instructive documentary Life is Sacred, a welcome opportunity to learn and see the quiet and hard-fought […] More
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‘Burden Of Peace’ (2015) is one of the centerpieces of this year’s festival
Burden Of Peace Written & Directed by Joey Boink & Sander Wirken Netherlands/Guatemala/Spain, 2015 One of the centerpieces of this years London Human Rights Film Festival is the domestic premiere of Burden Of Peace – a behind the scenes, four years in the making biography of activist turned Guatemala Attorney General, Claudia Paz y Paz. Following the first […] More
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RVCQ 2015: ‘Les Loups’ is the first great Quebec film of 2015
The dark unforgiving waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the mouth of the St. Lawrence river provide the backdrop to Les Loups, a beautifully crafted melodrama. Set in a small island Quebec town during the spring thaw, a stranger arrives during the height of the controversial seal hunts. Vibrant and mysterious, many suspect that Elie, the young woman from Montreal, is not who she says and is likely a reporter or an activist bent on portraying the townsfolk in a bad light. More
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Melanie Laurent’s ‘Respire’ probes the depths of a toxic friendship
What is love? Love is a pain, love is death, love is a bitch. But friendship, that’s even worse. Friendship is nebulous; it’ll steal your affections, spread rumors about you, scrawl dirty lies on your locker. Life-affirming and, ultimately, life-ending, friendship is like coffee laced with slow-acting poison. At least that’s how it works in Melanie Laurent’s gorgeous Respire, an unsettling usurpation of your usual coming-of-age story, and one of the most confident sophomore films of recent memory. More
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Notes from FNC 2014 #2: Harsh Realities and Musical Passions
For the second time this year, my festival coverage is interrupted by an uncomfortable abscess on my tail-bone. It is not a particularly serious condition but it is very painful, in particular when I sit down. The only position that is remotely comfortable is lying on my stomach, which is not very conducive to the […] More
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Notes from FNC 2014 #1: Blurring the line between fact and fiction
The Festival du Nouveau Cinema has barely started and I already feel behind. Press screenings have been going on for over a week, and I missed many due to work. It doesn’t help that the first I show up to, a screening of Jauja, was cancelled due to a problem with the digital file. I […] More
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Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema unveils world-class line-up
From October 8 to 19, the 43rd edition of the Festival du nouveau cinéma will run. This year’s lineup of 380 films (152 features and 228 shorts from 55 countries) includes 40 world premieres, 51 North American premieres and 41 Canadian premieres. The festival opens with the English language debut of Philippe Falardeau, The Good […] More
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Montreal Film Pop line-up puts focus on American Independent Film
Pop Montreal has never been a festival to settle in it’s laurels and coast on it’s popularity. Having long fostered an identity as a boundary pushing musical festival focusing on young and emerging talents, over the past decade the festival has challenged it’s identity by expanding its scope. Added in 2004, Film Pop was a […] More
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London Chinese Visual Film Festival 2014 Lineup and Schedule
The full line-up of films for the 2014 Chinese Visual Festival (CVF) has been announced, screening from May 7th – 18th at King’s College London, with events also held at Riverside Studios with DocHouse and the BFI. Tickets are now on sale via the festival website: chinesevisualfestival.org The festival is thrilled to welcome two of […] More
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Sundance London 2014: ‘Fruitvale Station’ a candid and gripping true-life tale
Fruitvale Station Written and directed by Ryan Coogler USA, 2013 One of this year’s more volatile transfers, from Utah’s shivering mountains to the corporate malls of London’s O2 centre, was Fruitvale Station, the blistering debut from Sundance Labs alumni Ryan Coogler. His inaugural film ignited a inferno of political debate in the wake of its North American festival […] More
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Sundance London 2014: ‘They Came Together’ a funny skewering of the rom-com genre
They Came Together Written by Michael Showalter and David Wain Directed by David Wain USA, 2014 The course of true love never runs smoothly for everyone, but the premise of the new romantic comedy They Came Together sounds suspiciously familiar. Molly (Amy Poehler) is a slightly kooky, ditzy blonde thirty-something who somehow manages to maintain a pastel-coated candy store […] More
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