Of sense and nonsense

Obsolete films (the film production company that Mona and I run) have two short films "in the can". Yes, it is true. Mona and I have finished to short subjects that we are very proud of. Typewriter at 5 minutes, was conceived, shot and edited in a 24 hour period. Essentially little more than a fun romp through the "60's Miami" inspired architecture of West Vancouver. People have really responded to it. Departures at 9 minutes, is a meditation on the strains of teenage friendship/love. This was a year and a half in the making but we are finally free of it and ever so proud. This one takes a little more to get your head around but this is really the mood and the tone we are going for when we do our feature. These two films both star the radiant Bianca Versteeg; our own personal Monica Vitti. Departures also stars longtime collaborator Terry Stewart, who gets all the best lines. Typewriter Co-stars non-actor, software genius and all-American indie aficionado Ken Milne. We are packaging up and sending them off to several film fests; from Portland to Pusan.

In a couple of days David and I will have completed our third promo for the superdogs documentary. This one clocks in at 7 minutes (the other two were 2 and 10 minutes). We will then be sending it off to the BBC, Sundance Channel, CNN and of course the mothership: CBC.


Also, that crazy Thai (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang) who brought us Last life in the Universe has a new movie coming out soon. It's called Invisible Waves and he's once again paired up with Asano (actor) and Doyle (Godhead cinematographer). Saw the trailer and it looks like another stunner. Twitch gives it a great review so that's saying something. Go to the site.

Power, Corruption and Lies

No, I am not talking politics here but something far more soul enhancing: music. I know it's a little late for this revelation but the New Order album Power, Corruption and lies is a serious piece o' work. Ever since I started doing research for my new screenplay, I've been listening to it. It first re-emerged into my conscious through the gloriously anachronistic trailer for Marie Antoinette. The song age of consent was stuck in my craw for a good week...

"I'm not the kind that likes to tell you just what you want me to"

The aforementioned screenplay I am working on takes place in 1983 so I'm collecting all sorts of mainstream and underground songs from that era. This album by New Order is the idyllic transition piece between the techno-popers they would be and the doom-meisters that were Joy Division. All this and Anton Corbijn has just started filming the Ian Curtis Bio-pic. No better time to revel in the dark tones of these brilliant Mancunians.

Songs such as Your Silent Face, 5 8 6, The Village and Blue Monday (ubiquitous for years after it's intial release) really capture the other side of the 80's -- free of pastel polo shirts, rampant comsumerism and tanning beds. Through necessity this album still had a lot of the human touch that makes music really hit you. Unfortunately as technology evolved they went on to be a slave to "the midi". You can only be this great for one album, things are gonna change and usually not for the better. When so many teens are counting on you, you're bound to make a few missteps. At the time though I thought they were humming along nicely. Twenty some years on, their output in the mid 80's feels as sterile as a GP's rubber glove.

It's good that I still look back on my teenage years with some fondness, not just embarassment and shame. Hell, the screenplay will be all the better for it.

Fitting into your proper aspect ratio

Inspired by the movies Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck, Steven Spielberg now wants to make a low budget movie. What is it about the allure of independence that has made him step out of his cozy abode to throw his hat into the ring? I want to explore the ramifications of such a scheme. Are Hollywood heavyweights really interested in putting forth evocative messages or are they just working themselves up into a lather by the titular ecstasy of becoming an Indie-filmmaker?

He says he was willing to make Memoirs of a Geisha for 10 million in Japan with subtitles. As a matter of public record we know that another director (Rob Marshall) ended up making the movie that became a critical and financial disaster. It alienated fans of the book as well as Chinese and Japanese audiences.

While watching extra features on the THX 1138 DVD I listened to George Lucas talk about how glad he was to be done with the Star Wars movies so he could finally focus on doing his non-linear, low-budget personal films.

What up?

Open letter to Spielberg and Lucas,

or

Lucasberg, you ruined Hollywood and now you want to ruin independent cinema. Step off, you shallow fucks.

Stay the hell away from independent cinema. We don’t need you. We have our own institutions, sacred cows and wellsprings of talent. All slots are full and we’re doing fine without you. Further, you can keep your CGI because it’s not helping to bring forward our evocative images in a meaningful way. What we will do though is let you co-opt our style in about five years or so because that’s how long it’ll take you to realize how cool our style is. By then we’ll have moved onto something else that interests us. So, yes, we’ll give you our tired old acid wash jeans at that time.

Remember that movie where Harrison Ford lived in some jungle with his family. He gets a bone-headed idea that ice is like that greatest thing in the world. Similar to what you thought when you saw all these indie films winning Oscars this year. Anyways, in the jungle is this godless tribe that has never seen ice. Ford’s character believes they need some ice. Stat. His first attempt is to bring these needy tribesmen an ice machine. That turns out to be a friggin’ disaster. Then, he decides to take them a huge block of ice. It’s wrapped up but the heat’s too much and the tribesmen end up with a dribble of dirty water. They are less than jazzed.

We thought it was funny how you cast Tom Cruise (as Tom Cruise) and the Colin Farrell (essentially a young Tom Cruise) in a Philip K. Dick story, Minority Report. We thought it was funny because Tom and Colin are such Hollywood types and, really, the antithesis of the types you would find in a K. Dick experience. When Scanner Darkly comes out you’ll see how even Keanu can appeal to the Keanu-phobic (this word may already be on Wikipedia). Further, you’ll see how Linklater, who is considered a truly independently-minded filmmaker, can spend 15 million and made it look like 150 million yet keep all the paranoia and humor of the novel. But when you see it, you won’t be able to admit that it’s a better movie than your precious Minority Report but that’s because you aren’t able to stretch beyond your own predictableness. No one will change your minds. What the both of you don’t realize is, it’s about D-I-R-E-C-T-I-N-G, not biding your time until you get the creature pre-visualizations from your effects. But you can relax fellas. With all the stuff flying around the big screen they won’t notice you couldn’t get a handle on your character.

I have more hope for you, Lucas, as you’ve already made three great movies - American Graffiti, Star Wars: episode 4 and THX 1138. But you aren’t 25 anymore and nowadays a lot of people are directly dependent on your computer rendered hand. This responsibility to the unions and to your 12+ plus work days only add to the budget and if the audience can’t see or hear the difference, they can’t feel it. Lucas, you’ve great visual style, a great grasp of mythology and an unparalleled imagination. However, you’re a terrible dramatic director (“faster and with more intensity” doesn’t exactly help to rally the troops now does it?) and have no ear for dialogue. Unfortunately, these are the two things that all great filmmakers must possess even after you strip away the millions of dollars of artifice.

Mr. Close Encounter, you bemoan that the studio wouldn’t let you do Memoirs of A Geisha the way you wanted to (for 10 Million with subtitles in Japan) so you didn’t direct it though you were happy enough to take the cash to produce it. Even though I love hearing Asians speak in bad English accents I consider this technique the highest form of Comedy, not Drama. Maybe wait before buying that island you’ve been eyeing (the one just beside Richard Branson’s) and instead bankroll something you believe in, and then we might talk. But I have a feeling we cineastes still won’t be impressed when we see your low-rent labour of love finally flickering on the screen. It’ll be a labour to watch we are sure of that.

And, really, I just want to tell you both that you’re doing just fine. You don’t need us.

Keep on keepin’ on and keep your hands off my power supply.

All for now.

Signed,
Rube Lubener
Belly of the Cineaste

Cusack at 40

Which John Cusack Are You?

John Cusack turned 40 yesterday.

How does this affect me? Over the last couple of days I've been thinking about it. I am offically old now. I am no longer valid, I don't carry the clout I used to. Sure, I am 38 and still have a couple of years to go but now that Cusack has gone into middle age, so have we all. I'm speaking for the Breakfast Club/John Hughes generation. Even though Cusack wasn't in any Hughes movies, he is still a big part of our collective memories of that time. The Sure Thing and One Crazy Summer, even though those are pretty lame teen movies at the time, they served their purpose. They were predictable flicks but at the time I was pretty predictable too. Cusack would go on to make classics like Say Anything, Bullets over Broadway, Grosse Point Blank, Being John Malchovich and Hi-Fidelity but I'll always remember him as being the everyman for the eighties. They're were others, like the guy from Pretty in Pink, but Cusack is the only one who endured through the 90's and into the present.

The main appeal of Cusack's characters was that they eschewed material gains for a higher calling. In The Sure Thing he gives it all up to travel cross country to be with a girl he knows is a sure thing only to realize that it's a truly empty endevour. In Say Anything he was such a breath of fresh air when everyone thought it would be a good idea to be just like Alex P. Keaton or Gordon Gecko. Here comes this guy who justs wants to live a life where he doesn't want to process, market or sell anything. A proponent of sustainablity well ahead of his time. I think their's even a scene of him recyling. Looking back at those movies, they are dated (Say Anything survives without as many scratches) but at the time they really gave me hope that once I got out of my teens things might be a little bit better.

If this world had allowed someone like Cusack to excel, things couldn't be so bad.

When Hi-Fidelity came out, I saw it in the theatre 5 times. It was my Titanic and I was the lovesick girl waiting for the ship to finally hit the iceberg. Just as she was surprised every time it happened I was surprised when he got back together with his girlfriend (especially after hitting so many icebergs along the way). At the time, my life mirrored his in many ways (sans owning the record store, I owned a recording studio). Something about the perpetual Slacker appealed to me deeply. Sure he wanted to have opinions on wine and jet lag but in the end he was happy to put his energies into what others considered worthless. Anyone who can do anything without the promise of monetary gain, I Love.

Now that I am offically invalidated, what does that mean? It means the pressure is off. No one is paying attention to me. I can go about my business as usual and if I do manage to say something to a person in their teens that's considered worthy then cool. But as for now, I will write my stories, make my films and live my life as if their is no biological clock looming in the distance. All this with the presence of mind to put as much individuality and creativity in all that I do. Pretty well the same existence Lloyd Dobbler or Rob Gordon had fashioned for themselves.

Up to no good

Just got through The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Dear Wendy, Syriana and the commentary track on Good Night, and Good Luck. FATF:TD was similarly themed to The Last Samurai but infinitely more entertaining. File it under: to bad to be actually awful. It's a great Drive-Movie. As far as Syriana goes, I love hearing the Director Steve Gahgan speak but I think he's too intelligent for his own good. I really couldn't get emotionally involved in this movie. Critic Armond White said we learn more about world politics from watching Sahara (Yes, the one with Penelope Cruz) than we do from sitting through Syriana. I want to see Sahara now cause lord I wants to learn.

Dear Wendy is one of my current cinematic crushes. The combination of Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg works famously. The visual style, concept and musical choices (The Zombies) are the strengths of this movie. The only minor flaw I found was in the overly expository voice over at the start. Granted they had a lot of ground to cover but once that sequence passed my senses were held prisoner for the remainder of this great flick. If I was 16 I would watch it over and over again and if a prospective girlfriend didn't like it she'd be toast. As Mona said "it works on so many levels".

I've been writing two screenplays (one with Misli, one with Mona) and trying to get a 10 minute dog promo down to 5 minutes. Other than that I'm trying to decide whether I am getting a sinus infection again or if I'm allergic to something.

Dangerously close to the P-word

I spewed this out during my weekly writing group. Posting this is either brave or...well, you decide.

I am co-opted sentiment for the masses pre-digested for your particular demographic. I am a graphic representation of a soul that has been dragged behind a car for its entire journey through South America in the rainy season. I am Melba toast that has been reconstituted with heat and fluid. I am the fluidity of analogue impulses, the way it was before digital codes took the place of real emotion. I am the Kilometer from Granville Island to Science World, where we see the city in flux. We hope it will be so much more but are expecting the worst. I am child-like co-ordination when doing a skillful act for the first time. I am the ball and gag on the oppressor of youth. I am terrible soup that can’t decide if it really wants to be stew. I am perturbed by impatience but not persistent enough to do anything positive or earth changing. I am two people walking in the desert looking for their twins when really they should be content with each other. I am the Canada arm on the space shuttle, which is ever powerful in zero gravity but on earth in can'’t even lift its own weight. I am Priscilla before she met Elvis and before she experienced the gaudy wonder of Graceland. I am Bob Dylan before he plugged in and got booed. I am a hybrid car that will save you 5000 dollars over 5 years. I am the 5000 dollars you saved only to spend it on expensive Lattes at Starbucks. I am a Robot that does all the things a human does only better. I am a pitch for the best movie in the world but I’m too time consuming and cost prohibitive. I am puppy’s breath before it turns into shit scented gob. I am a Velvet curtain in an old lounge that hasn’t seen daylight in 32 years. I am taller than a giraffe yet quicker than a cheetah. I am the resonance you feel after watching an Italian movie from the early 60’s. I am the de-saturated colour you pull from the overstated 1950’s Hollywood Epic. I am to long in the tooth to be short sighted. I am pleased to report that fat is still tasty. I am so much more than a jiggling ass and a great set of tits writhing up and down a brass pole as the lights randomly illuminate my soul. I am the tigress that eats her young because her DNA won’t let her go. I am a CSI lab sequence that needs expensive editing techniques and pumping music to make it more palatable. I am sturdy as a fireplug and used just as rarely. I am Peter Parker before he gets bitten by the spider. I am the geek in the Dugeons and Dragons club after he discovers booze and pot. I am leather chaps that don’t cover the really important parts. I am Monday night football that gives hope to America’s dull work-a-day existence. I am 60’s French pop that gets its message across without making any of its lyrics comprehensible. I am vocal chords that have been strained beyond repair yet still sing like they did 29 years ago. I am the perpetual oyster movement in a Rolex watch; all smooth, no click. I am joining the ranks of the disenfranchised fast food franchise owners.

Mormons VS. Scientologists

As we know, celebrities have a propensity for bat-shit crazy behaviour. So to stave off this madness they must search for some meaning in life. What's the salve, the balm, the panacea? The two most interesting are Mormonism and Scientology. So which camp holds the most street cred? Well lets take a look...

Scientologists
Tom Cruise
Beck
Jenna Elfman
Jason Lee
John Travolta

Mormons
Low
Neil Labute
Napoleon Dynamite
Fay Wray
Aaron Eckhart

On the Mormon side you must be thinking "holy shit these people know how to compartmentalize". To me, Mormons generally are more depressed and doom-centric. A band like Low questions those big questions in life just like Neil Labute does. As far as Napoleon Dynamite, well that cat is funny and that's because he keeps a cache of canned goods and emergency supplies in his basement plus he's allowed to have several wives. Fay Wray, an inspiration to Peter Jackson, needs no introduction. When King Kong is about to mash her in his jaws she knows she's one of the chosen and she's guaranteed to go to Mormon Valhalla.

I spent most of my formative years surrounded by Mormons in Lethbridge and Edmonton. They all had tons of kids and most of them where these gorgeous Aryan creatures that wouldn't be out of place on Laguna Beach. If you wanted that hot pussy all you had to do was dive head first into the rich talent pool Joseph Smith cooked up. At what cost though? Yes, you would have to deny yourself every joy man has concocted: Caffeine, Coca Cola, booze, cigarettes, Premarital sex (you could be in close proximity to the pussy but you just couldn't utilize it to it's full potential) and masturbation (can't get to the pussy; can't relieve yourself either). All the Latter-Day Saint boys would have to prepare for their missionary work which usually consisted of them sinning as much as they could before such task took place. I remember these kids were usually the first to get laid, drunk, toke up and come out of the closet. Directly after these life changing spirtuality questioning experiences they would repent hard and denounce any one who could slip that low, cause they'd been there and now they're so much above it. They were all so cute in the way they were hypocritical. Latter-day amnesia would wash away their sins after a Saturday night of debauchery, leaving them only a faint glimmer of guilt in the Sunday morning church light.

On the Scientologists side, Ok, you’re thinking Beck and Jason Lee are pretty cool. If you think that, you must have been in a coma since the 90's cause their output as of recent is less than engaging. When we take an even closer look the Scientologists don't fair too well. First of all, legend has it, Kurt Vonnegut had a bet with L. Ron Hubbard that he couldn't start a religion. At the time it must have been the most outrageous thought ever; that a Science fiction writer could have loyal minions following his insane ramblings.

Now look at the followers and you'll understand.

It's one of the few cults that actually legitimizes these people's inappropriate behaviour. When you're jumping on a couch in "Cruise control" or telling Brooke Shields she shouldn't be going to psychotherapy you need a fucked up support system to back up these preposterous claims. Or, to quote Top Gun - Your mouth is writing cheques your ass can't cash. I've hated Jenna Elfman's perky disposition for years. I couldn't put my finger on her source of inspiration but now I know and fuck it makes me happy. I couldn't wish Scientology on a nicer person.

What's great about Mormon artists is that no subject is taboo. Aaron Ekhart has played every manner of amoral misogynist sleezeball imaginable; usually under the tutelage of Neil Labute. Low sing about Whores, Clinical Depression and all the great sins of the secular world. Scientologists are simply swelling the ranks of bad action films, chick-flicks and turgid sit-coms. They would rather perpetuate the idea of this escapist dreamworld that mainstream media champions than delve into the grittier alcoves of real life.

When I do become famous don't be surprised if I'm waving my Latter-Day Saints flag with great vigor.

Vegas, I abhor you, though I know you not.

My grandfather Victor Leickner in the desert near Vegas, 1958

I have never been to Vegas but people are always telling me to go to Vegas. First off they all know what type of person I am so they make excuses for Vegas. They add substance to Vegas. If that fails they go on to say Vegas is a vacation from substance (and too much substance is just plain boring). They don’t actually say all that but that’s their general synopsis of the Vegas experience. What is it about Vegas then, that makes the enlightened babbling apologists? Is it an Oasis that Bugsy Seagel created out of sand as an ode to a woman he adored? Sometimes I think Vegas is all that’s wrong with North America. It’s too much make-up, too much development, too much glitz and mega-consumption. It’s cacophonously loud and open all night. All this is bound to bring out the worst in people. Then again I’m not so sure about that last point. This is all speculation; it’s all a priori. I don’t think I can judge the veracity of this city’s intentions unless I am there. Will I love it or will I just be disgusted and bored. Is the lack of substance going to overwhelm me or will I fall for Cirque Du Soleil’s latest offering: Love by the Beatles. It probably won’t change me in any great way. I’m 38 and relatively set in my ways. So do I even need to go to Vegas to feel what everyone tells me to feel? Will I find this ecstatic truth that Werner Herzog speaks of? He laments there are no pure images left, that if we want such a thing we must go to another planet. So must we then search out the most impure, inorganic images ever crafted by man? Probably. Vegas does not have a monopoly on these manufactured images but it’s a good place to start. Perhaps through progressive images we may find truth. Through a Frank Gehry Building or a Miami Skyline we may see snatches of ecstasy. This is not so hard to find these days, now that every centimeter of our planet contains man’s enormous carbon footprint. So the place to start really is Vegas. All spokes are attached to this hub. So yes, I will go to Vegas and yes something will be reinforced in me and I will learn cause that is all we really want; to be better than we were last week. And if we can pass this knowledge unmangled to others so much the better. I won’t go tomorrow or in the near future but I will report back to you when I’ve accomplished my mission.

Holding out hope

I hold out a lot of hope for the future of Cinema. It's good to hope for something and then to finally discover a work of art embodies the sentiments and sensibilities you find most compelling in fiction. Two films I am looking forward to this summer are The Puffy Chair and Little Miss Sunshine. The former because this movie seems to exemplify what indie filmmaking is all about. Supposedly the budget was 10 grand; which won’t even cover the coke and hooker per diem in a Hollywood production. It was shot on mini DV and visually it looks like poo. The real draw to this is the acting, which further proves you can film on any format as long as you have a great script and compelling performances. The latter because it contains the brilliant Steve Carrel, (40 year old Virgin, Daily Show, The Office) a stellar supporting cast and a funny-as-hell script. Alan Arkan does well in his comedic roles and he seems to have a few zingers in this one. This of course is from the trailers I have seen (plus the 8 min featurette for the Puffy Chair) so I could be way off. Garden State is a perfect example of a movie that I had high expectations for that let me down big time. I hate all movie endings that have a chase to stop the lover from getting on a plane. The Airport scene must die. Zach Braff, stick to making great mixed tapes cause that’s all the good that came out of this little vanity project. So we will see if either of these are this years Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or just mindless wastes of time.

Gorky's break up

It gives me great sadness to announce one of the great Welsh bands of our time, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, have broken up. I give you Poodle Rockin to remember them by.


Someday, I will do that movie where I use songs exclusively from their sublime album How I long to feel that summer in my heart.

Top 9 Docs (couldn't come up with 10)

Top 10 Documentaries
Since I’ve been on this Documentary trip for about 9 months now I should probably list my 10 favourite Docs of all time. As you can see, overt politics has no place in Documentaries for me. When you take out the topical you get to the deeper truths. I dare you to show me an Iraq Doc that can compare to any of these for pure entertainment value alone.

These are in no particular order:

Grey Gardens : Maysles Brothers – The ultimate mother daughter team. So glad they made a Broadway musical out of it.
Gates of Heaven: Errol Morris – Why do dogs make people so crazy?
American Movie: Bad Horror + Headbangin’ Director = Funny as shit doc. This is the movie Fubar was trying to be. You can’t fake a Mike Schank (god knows I’ve tried).
Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment: Peter Wintonick – A great doc about the history of documentaries.
Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus – Exploring the virtues of the deep south through the lens of a Brit with Jim White (alt country star) as our guide. Great structure to this offbeat film.
Half Japanese: The band who would be King – A great story of perseverance over lack of musical talent. This strangely moving tale of a couple of naïve brothers who made serious waves in the early days of indie rock.
Project Grizzly: Peter Lynch – On man’s vision to build the ultimate Bear-proof suit for wildlife preservation---I don’t think so. This guy is one f—ed up cookie but highly watchable. He’s Kind of the Hobbit version of Patrick Swayze.
Hell House – For Christians and those of the secular world this movie has something for you. It can be viewed as anti or pro depending on your faith. Essentially it is a tale of a famous Haunted house that is set up every year in Texas, to literally scare the hell out of impressionable Christian teens, thus leading them onto the path of redemption and salvation. Mel Gibson must have got the idea for the Passion of the Christ from this little movie (at least the gore elements).
Grizzly Man: Werner Herzog – Why do bears make people so crazy?

Bergman Central

Being a huge Bergman fan, I am wildly excited to report the English version of the much awaited Berman site is now up. This site gives you a real feel for what type of person he is as well as all those tasty tidbits we all yearn for...

Here is Bergman's top ten list -

The Circus (Charles Chaplin, USA 1928)

Port of Shadows (Quai des brûmes, Marcel Carné, France 1938)

Orchestra Conductor (Dyrygent, Andrzej Wajda, Poland 1979)

Raven's End (Kvarteret Korpen, Bo Widerberg, Sweden 1963)

The Passion of Joan of Arc (La passion de Jeanne d'Arc, Carl Th. Dreyer, France 1927)

The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen, Victor Sjöström, Sweden 1921)

Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, Japan 1951)

The Road (La Strada, Federico Fellini, Italy 1954)

Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, USA 1950)

The German Sisters (Die bleierne Zeit, Margarethe von Trotta, BRD 1981)

Andrey Rublyov (Andrej Tarkovskij, Soviet Union 1969)


This site is the most comprehensive on the web and a must for all of his fans. Go there and Learn.

Ingmar Bergman Face to Face

Overheard at the Hotel

I was given this on a disgruntled employees last day. Wherever you see a series of 4 asterisks feel free to insert that person that causes you grief on a daily basis.

This is your notice that I no longer accept you as my employer. Time and time again your employee, ****, has been unfair, rude, and atrocious in her behaviour to me. We have discussed this situation in the past, several times, and after brief respite **** returns to her foul behaviour towards me. **** is incapable of normal human relationships in the workplace and I cannot work with such a vengeful and inept supervisor/manager, or whatever her title is! I am heartbroken - I love the ****** *****, its guests, location, history and staff, but **** makes it unbearable with her constant lack of correct protocol. I am tired of giving her chances and hearing excuses for her digesting behaviour. I am tired of her calling me down in front of the other staff for imagined offences. I am tired of her contemptuous cronies and I am tired of being lied to and unjustly accused! Clearly **** is not going anywhere, so I am. I will not indulge a sociopathic tyrant anymore and do not understand why you do! Send my remaining paycheque and any money owing to ----

Soft Confection

Just a short vitriol about a lackluster piece of physiological horror I had the misfortune to sit through yesterday. Go to IMDB if you want to know what this movie is about. I don't have the energy to recount it here on my blog. Hard Candy is dull beyond belief and with all it's CSI style editing it becomes so visually invasive I became numb to any drama that they were trying to offer me. Ellen Page's performance is so one dimensional it's almost a caricature and Patrick Wilson mostly winches when she starts monologuing (As I did) and groans or grunts for a bit of variety. Even though this is just my personal opinion I think anyone who likes subtlety or the Northern European approach to heavy subject matter will dismiss this nasty piece of kitsch faster than you can say Misery. That is giving this movie too much credit actually, for as inert as Stephen King's Misery is, it's still exists in a higher class of filmed Drama. Sorry to tell you, David Slade (the Director), independent is not synonymous with small budget. Like Whale Rider and Bend it Like Beckam all this movie exists for is as a demo real for his big bloated Tent-Pole movie we'll have to suffer through next year. Go see this if you enjoyed Identity, Butterfly Effect or anything where Ashley Judd plays a Detective.

Wes Anderson

Great American Express ad (I can't believe I actually wrote that). I think this was done for the Tribeca film fest. M. Night Shyamalan did one but that sucks huge.

Of ubiquity and chicken skin

Atom Egoyan, not known for non-fiction filmmaking, had a high profile doc at Hot Docs this year. Here is the blurb on it:

"Things in this city are never what they seem," says Atom Egoyan of Beirut. He's traveled to Lebanon with his wife, the actress Arsinée Khanjian, and their son, Arshile. It has been 28 years since Khanjian has been here, where she lived as a child. Egoyan has purchased a new Mini DV camera for their family vacation, and he's "still trying to work things out." The result is a playful, provocative film hinging on Egoyan's "peculiar alchemy" with Khanjian, but with curious diversions into religion, history, politics and the nature of documentary itself. Peppered with tender family observations and self-deprecating humour, somewhere along the way a modest journal effortlessly morphs into an engaging travelogue and astute personal essay. In particular, Egoyan's interrogation of the ubiquity of captured images, and their availability for mediation and construction, firmly places Citadel within the director's impressive body of work.

Do we really need to see his Vacation video? This review is typical of a film that has no redeeming qualities and thus substance must be added to the selling of said shit.

So I'm here at Hotdocs in Toronto and what a ride this is. This is probably the only film fest I've attended where I haven't seen a film; I'm restricting myself to the trade forum this time around. It's all about selling, selling, selling. We sat through 30 Documentary pitches and had several meetings in hopes of flogging our Superdogs Doc. There are hundreds of commisioning editors from all over the world here and it's all a little overwhelming. Pitching the show has been hard for me because I'm not naturally extroverated. I need time to warm up and this world is still very foreign to me. David is a vetran of this world so he's helping me out quite a bit.

My three favourite pitches were Basement tapes, Scott Walker: 30 Century Man and Up the Yangtze. Basement Tapes is a film about these ever popular mash-ups ala Dangermouse and it'as basically an ode to open-source culture. The Scott Walker film is basically self explanitory. I met the director Stephen and he's a great guy. Up the Yangtze is about the flooding of a valley to provide power for many needy Chinese. It takes place on cruise ship and one of the villages that is going to be flooded. The characters are great and it's a huge historical event, so yes, I will see it when it comes out. During a pitch for a film about Jazz pianist Bill Evans a European broadcaster said: This music of Bill Evans gives me Chicken Skin. Shit, I thought that was priceless. The cross-cultural differences are running rampant here all week but that just topped it off.

I've been able to meet three of my heros of Candaian Documetary - Peter Lynch (Project Grizzly), Peter Wintonick (Manufacturing Consent, Cinema Verite: Defining the moment) and Allen Zwig (Vinyl, I Curmudgeon). I had a long talk with Peter Lynch and we have a lot in common. I will email him and hopefully we will form some sort of correspondence.

Toronto itself is a large, sprawling piece o' crap. There are all these piles of trash on the streets and assorted junk lying all over the place. It's very different than the experience that we are accustomed to in Vancouver. This is the first time I've been here in over 20 years and I think it's better than most people say. I don't hate Toronto I just hate the idea of it.

On my last night we went to a party hosted by one of David's friends. It was held a really cool loft in an older part of Toronto. Everyone was friendly there and having been a part of this world for nine months now I'm starting to feel comfortable around these filmmakers. Velcro Ripper (Scared Sacred) was there and I just thought he was going to be the biggest freak/prick ever to commit his ideas to film. He was actually approachable and pretty normal. We talked about problems with broadcasters and budget concerns; just standard stuff all filmmakers bitch about. I probably won't see his film cause it's not really my taste but good to know the "it boy of the moment" isn't what you'd think he'd be.

In the end there was a lot of positive response for our film and I look forward to taking it into production. The Dog movie marches on.

Stop Smiling

I just discovered this magazine. Where have I been? Touted as "The magazine for High-Minded lowlifes" it was just prententious enough to perk my interest. This particular issue (no. 25) is all about Documentaries. There are great interviews with Errol Morris, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles. It's well written (better than it needs to be) and it's got a minimalist layout. Far better than Res Magazine, which was trying to be the coolest magazine in the world, only they forgot to put in the all important ingredient known as substance. A friend of mine bought me a subscription a few years back and I held out hope for that rag for the longest time since every issue came with a DVD. More often than not the DVD had only one or two interesting things on it. Nowadays I only flip throught it halfheartedly as I pass by the magazine rack. Stop Smiling is more of a lifestyle magazine as far as I could figure as they don't really focus on just film and music but art, politics, books and humor. I noticed Vince Vaughn was on one of the back issues so they aren't afraid to go mass market as long as it's the best of the A-listers (Vince still has some street cred). It's more accesible than The Believer which I find a little too elitest but still in the same stylistic vein.

In the music section I found a spot-on and somewhat lenghty review of Cat Power's The Greatest CD. This issue had a lot of what I crave and reminded me that it's not all about the internet, print still has it's strengths. Hopefully the next issue will be as good.

July Inspires

Here is a fabulous piece of Apple propoganda starring Miranda July. She was responsible for one of my favourite movies last year so you should watch this.

What Up?

Been back to work now since the 14th. The month off was pretty great. Got some good stuff for the Doc, went to Whistler and just managed to relax.

Next week I'm off to The HOTDOCS Documentary Forum in Toronto. Werner Herzog will be there, don't think I'll get to talk to him though. What'll I say "Hey man, did you really eat that shoe?" We hope to pitch our Superdogs idea to broadcasters and get some much needed funding. Then and only then can we start seriously making this thing. We've got some great footage already but need a lot more if we want it to be a feature. So I'll post more about this after the forum.

In other creative news - Mona and I plan to do a series of 1 minute shorts. This is a way to keep our creative muscles pumping. As we finish them I'll find a way to post them on the web.

Movies and shows I've been watching:



V for Vendetta - Mona dragged me to it but I thouroughly bought into what they were laying down. This coming from someone who really found the matrix trilogy to be one of the sillier film events of the last 10 years. Portman was just great in this and they used a Cat Power song.


Brick - Film Noir set in a High School. Never done seen nothin' like it. The film creates a world we've never seen, commits to this crazy notion, and pummels us with truly unique colloquilisms, situations and dangerous females. They pull all this off in an organic way just like Donnie Darko did before it. The real coup is that it was made for 500 000 US$. Lukas Haas, who was great in Last Days, continues to surprise in this dark piece of magic.


Battlestar Galactica - Yes, I've lost my indie-cred. A recommendation from Kevin Smiths Blog, this new series totally reinvents the original sans the camp. Cylons are now soft, supple, sweaty and sometimes smokin' hot babes. They don't have those metalic silver shells and moving led eyes, thank god. Speaking of god, the Cylons are all hard-core Christians and if they're female they're thankfully nymphos. Oh, yeah and they're mostly Candadian. It's just a ruse that we're all friendly up here. Anyway, this show is totally compelling because of the strong female leads, great acting and fantastic dialogue - all rarities in Sci-Fi. Did I mention I abhor Science Fiction? See it and get back to me. Also, this is of local interest - it's filmed in Vancouver, making it the best series to be filmed in our fine city. No, I'm not forgetting X-files...cause' I wasn't a fan o' that roswell obsessed piece of poo.

The Hive: #2 - P:ano, When It's Dark and It's Summer

...most of October I had trouble remembering your name...

NICK KRGOVICH and LARISSA LOYVA are the only constant from the early days of P:ano. There's been lineup changes and incarnations since 2000 but they're still making the same great music they did when we recorded them in that damp East Van Basement.

They came to us at a young age (similar to the Ids). Nick was a 17 year old highschool student and Larissa was a little bit older. We saw them at the Brickyard with a couple of bands but the only one we could remember was P:ano. They had elements of all the bands we were into: Low, Yo La Tengo, Belle and Sebastian. One thing that Colin and I were fascinated by was the maturity of his song writing. To us, it was crazy that no one had recorded this band or even approached them to record.

Over the next 6 months Colin recorded their debut album: When It's Dark and It's Summer. He brought in all his friends from the Vancouver music scene: Josh Wells, Ida Nilsen, Andy Herfst, Stefan Udell and others I can't recall. We recorded this one on our 16 track 1 inch to achieve that munchy dark sound we so love on all our favourite albums. Colin knew what he was doing this time as 5 years had passed since the Id's and he'd recorded dozens of great bands in the meantime. From the start it was clear Nick was endlessy creative and wasn't interested in the status quo. Colin and Nick pushed each other to make something they could never have achieved on their own. Highlights from that album were All of November, Tut Tut and Dinosaurs but honestly this is an entity unto itself not just a collection of singles. Languidly beautiful intros and codas bookend stunningly written pop songs on this amazing debut. I was just far enough removed from the proceedings to fully comprehend the magnitude of this musical watershed of form and function.

After we had finished the album no labels were interested in putting it out. Today the mere thought of this seems ludicrus but back then nobody gave a shit. We had to take things into our own hands so Terry started our label Hi-Fidelity with the sole purpose of making this amazing piece of art availble to the public. We were very proud to have this as our first proper release. This time around it was one of the highest selling albums on our indie distributor, Scratch Records (a little different scenario from Nettwerk).

People loved this album and even though it's now out of print it's one of the best albums to come out of Vancouver in the last 6 years. Like Sean (the Ids), Nick also started off as a nice naive kid from the burbs whose personality changed but is now back on track and he's even turned into a respectable adult - albeit one who writes amazing songs. They toured the west coast of the USA with this album and even though many substantial offers were dangled before their eyes none ever transpired. No, they didn't get a coveted spot on the OC soundtrack but Nick eventually wrote a song called OC.

When it came time to record their sophomore album, The Den, things got a little tense but we won't get into that here. It's all behind us and we're glad to say this tale didn't include drug addiction but instead it was about big budgets, late nights and gargantuan ambitions.

Hive-Fidelity put out those two albums before they buckled to the pressure of the much maligned major-indie label. Thankfully they didn't sign to Nettwerk but the much superior (ethically and aesthetically) Mint Records. At present they are happily churning out pop gems for that imprint and we are all still friends.