THEATRICAL - OPENS JUNE 15, TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX - TORONTO, FIFTH AVENUE - VANCOUVER & GLOBE WINNIPEG. OPENS JUNE 29 GLOBE CALGARY
2012 / USA/ 89 Minutes
Seductive, fearless, and outrageous, Marina Abramović has been redefining what art is for nearly forty years. Using her own body as a vehicle, pushing herself beyond her physical and mental limits––and at times risking her life in the process––she creates performances that challenge, shock, and move us. Through her and with her, boundaries are crossed, consciousness expanded, and art as we know it is reborn. She is, quite simply, one of the most compelling artists of our time.
THEATRICAL - OPENS JUNE 22, TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX - TORONTO / OPENS JULY 28, VANCITY THEATRE (VANCOUVER)
2011 / 93 min / Greece (In Greek with English Subtitles)
A nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast and her coach have formed a service for hire. They stand in for dead people by appointment, hired by the relatives, friends or colleagues of the deceased. The company is called Alps. Their leader, the paramedic, calls himself Mont Blanc. Although Alps members operate under a discipline regime demanded by their leader, the nurse does not.
THEATRICAL - NOW PLAYING
2011 / 91 min
Ebbo and Vera Velten have been living in Africa for a long time. Ebbo is managing a sleeping sickness program. His work is fulfilling. In contrast, Vera feels increasingly uncomfortable with her life in the expat community of Yaoundé and the separation from her daughter Helen, 14, who is attending boarding school in Germany.
Ebbo has to give up his life in Africa or he loses the women he loves. But he has become a stranger to Europe. His fear of returning increases from day to day.
Years later. Alex Nzila, a young French doctor of Congolese origin, travels to Cameroon to evaluate a development project. He hasn't been to Africa for a long time. But instead of finding new prospects, he encounters a destructive, lost man: like a phantom, Ebbo slips away from his evaluator.
THEATRICAL - NOW PLAYING
2011 / 72 min / Colour & B&W
Genesis P-Orridge has been one of the most innovative and influential figures in music and fine art for the last 30 years. A link between the pre-and post-punk eras, he is the flounder of the legendary groups COUM Transmissions (1969-1976), Throbbing Gristle (1975-1981), and Psychic TV (1981 to present), all of which merged performance art with rock music. Celebrated by critics and art historians as a progenitor of "industrial music", his innovations have transformed the character of rock and electronic music while his prodigious efforts to expand the boundaries of live performance have radically altered the way people experience sound in a concert setting.
But that's just the preamble to the story. Defying artistic boundaries, Genesis has re-defined his art as a challenge to the limits of biology. In 2000, Genesis began a series of sex reassignment surgeries in order to more closely resemble his love, Lady Jaye (nee Jacqueline Breyer), who remained his wife and artistic partner for nearly 15 years. It was the ultimate act of devotion, and genesis's most risky, ambitious, and subversive performance to date: he became a she in a triumphant act of artistic self-expression. Genesis called this project "Creating the Pandrogyne", an attempt to deconstruct two individual identities through the creation of an indivisible third.
THEATRICAL - NOW PLAYING
a film by Kris Elgstrand & Dylan Akio Smith
2011
Press Release, Toronto
Facebook Event Toronto screenings at THE ROYAL!
Follwing a near-death experience, Karl comes to believe that Paul is his doppelganger. When Karl finally reveals himself to Paul, a unique and troubled relationship begins to form, a relationship that is severely tested when Karl grants Paul the privilege of reading his 20, 000 page manuscript, A Book About How Much I Hate Myself. When Karl’s book is published 17 months later in a vastly edited version credited to two other author/doppelgangers, Karl and Paul hit the road to confront the plagiarists but end up confronting themselves instead.
THEATRICAL - STILL IN CINEMAS
2011 / 93 min / France (In French with English Subtitles)
Marcel Marx, a former author and a well-known Bohemian, has retreated into a voluntary exile in the port city of Le Havre, where he feels he has reached a closer rapport with the people serving them in the occupation of the honourable, but not too profitable, of a shoe-shiner. He has buried his dreams of a literary breakthrough and lives happily within the triangle of his favourite bar, his work, and his wife Arletty, when fate suddenly throws in his path an underage immigrant refugee from the darkest Africa.
As Arletty at the same time gets seriously ill and is bedridden, Marcel once more has to rise against the cold wall of human indifference with his only weapon of innate optimism and the unwavering solidarity of the people of his quartier, but against him stands the whole blind machinery of the Western constitutionally governed state, this time represented by the dragnet of the police, moment by moment drawing closer around the refugee boy.
It’s time for Marcel to polish his shoes and reveal his teeth.
THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED!
2011 / 90 Minutes / France / In French with English Subtitles
In 2009, Michel Bras, at the head of a 3-star restaurant (Michelin guide), in the heart of the Aubrac region, decides to hand over to his son Sébastien.
A father and his son. Both at a crucial time in their careers.
Is it possible to pass on one’s life’s work? Is it so easy for a son to make a name for himself?
This film is the story of a family over three generations, a fine reflection on passing down know-how, on heritage.
THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED, COMING NOVEMBER 2012!
2012 / USA / 76 Minutes
In the spring of 2005, National Geographic photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth's changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change and a cynic about the nature of academic research. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.
Chasing Ice is the story of one man's mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers.
As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.
THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED, COMING FALL 2012!
2011 / 96 min / Norwegian with English Subtitles
Anders will soon complete his drug rehabilitation in the countryside. As part of the program, he is allowed to go into the city for a job interview. But he takes advantage of the leave and stays on in the city, drifting around, meeting people he hasn't seen in a long while. Thirty-four-year-old Anders is smart, handsome and from a good family, but deeply haunted by all the opportunities he has wasted, all the people he has let down. He is still relatively young, but feels his life in many ways is already over. For the remainder of the day and long into the night, the ghosts of past mistakes will wrestle with the chance of love, the possibility of a new life and the hope to see some future by morning.
THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED, COMING FALL 2012!
2012 / 110 min / Portugal / Germany / Brazil / France - In Portuguese with English Subtitles
A temperamental old woman, her Cape Verdean maid and a neighbour devoted to social causes live on the same floor of a Lisbon apartment building. When the old lady dies, the other two learn of an episode from her past: a tale of love and crime set in an Africa straight from the world of adventure films.
THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED, COMING FALL 2012!
Colour / 1:1.85 / Dolby Digital / Germany 2012 / 100 min / Original Language: German with English Subtitles
Summer, 1980. Barbara, a doctor, has applied for an exit visa from the GDR (East Germany). Now, as punishment, she has been transferred from Berlin to a small hospital out in the country, far from everything. Jörg, her lover from the West, is already planning her escape.
Barbara waits, keeping to herself. The new apartment, the neighbors, summertime, the countryside – none of that means anything to her. Working as a pediatric surgeon under her new boss Andre, she is attentive when it comes to the patients, but quite distanced toward her colleagues. Her future, she feels, will begin later.
But Andre confuses her. His confidence in her professional abili- ties, his caring attitude, his smile. Why does he cover for her when she helps the young runaway Sarah? Does he have an as- signment to keep track of her? Is he in love? But as the day of her planned escape quickly approaches, Barbara starts to lose control. Over herself, her plans, over love.
THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED, COMING FALL 2012!
2012 / 120 min / Germany
Berlin, today. Very urban couple Hanna and Simon have lived together for years. Love, work, sex and daily life have meshed into combative harmony.
Then Hanna meets Adam. And Adam meets Simon. Unexpectedly, all three fall in love.
Everyone remains oblivious to the other's affair. But the secret slowly begins to confuse all three lovers, and it threatens to rupture their fragile relationship.
"Three" is an investigation into the emotional life of a generation that is trying to reconcile new possibilities and old longings.
NON-THEATRICAL
Cast: Krysten Ritter, Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, Justin Kirk
2011 / USA / Canada
From director Kat Coiro comes L!FE HAPPENS, a comedy centered on three young women – Kim (Krysten Ritter), Deena (Kate Bosworth) and Laura (Rachel Bilson) – who all live under the same roof in Los Angeles. When one of Kim’s one-night-stands results in an unexpected pregnancy, things take a sudden turn for the trio. With the help of her girlfriends, Kim must cope with single motherhood as she jumps back into the dating scene amid the fear that toting around a tot can be a dating ‘buzz-kill.’ Also featuring Jason Biggs, Seymour Cassel, Rhys Coiro, Justin Kirk, Kristen Johnston, Andrea Savage, Geoff Stults and Fallon Goodson, L!FE HAPPENS takes a look at single living, friendship and the joys of life’s curveballs.
NON-THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED
2011 / USA / 115 Mins
After swearing off relationships, a fiercely individualistic artist named Sarah (Lily Rabe, daughter of the late Jill Clayburgh) takes to the woods with the dual goals of surveying a stream and finding herself. As she ventures deeper into the wilds of southwestern Oregon, a series of strange incidents lead her to suspect that she isn’t alone, after all.
Before long, Sarah’s mysterious neighbour reveals himself to be none other than Sasquatch himself, whose gruff exterior hides a mighty intellect and the soul of a poet. As their metaphysical, telepathic communication deepens, the encroaching threat of deforestation—as well as the attentions of a handsome fellow camper with his own hidden motives—lead Sarah to decide where her true allegiances lie.
One of the strangest and gentlest Bigfoot movies ever made, idiosyncratic filmmaker Christopher Munch (The Hours and Times, The Sleepy Time Gal) has crafted a witty, lyrical, and eco-minded fable about trust, inner strength, and The Great Wide Open.
NON-THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED
2012 / USA
"Me @ the Zoo" is an intimate look at a controversial young video blogger regarded by millions as an Internet folk hero.
Chris Crocker was bullied out of school in the 8th grade and was, by his account, raised on the Internet. Crocker's online videos have been viewed over 270 million times to date and is part of the first wave of young people coming into adulthood under constant self-surveillance.
In 2007 Crocker made the infamous YouTube video declaration "Leave Britney Alone!". At that time, all media outlets had photographers glued to Britney Spear's every move. Chris Crocker's fate intersected with his icon when he offered an emotionally raw video defense of his pop idol and became a whipping boy in mainstream media. To this day his name calls to question the authenticity of that video.
Chris Crocker is now one of thousands selected into the YouTube partnership program. Youtube Partnership allows individuals to make an income through Adsense and Revenue Sharing programs. Everyday more users are signing on to monetize the content of their digital lives.
Over 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Our film takes its title from the first ever Youtube video uploaded by the young founders of the site. ME @THE ZOO explores how video sharing and social platforms have shaped the way we tell our stories and mediate our lives. When we "Like" and '"Share" a video we are creating a market for that specific type of content.
This unconventional documentary excavates a personal story that is written on the Internet. It follows a line through Chris Crocker's public videos, response videos and the echo chamber of haters, friends and fans.
NON-THEATRICAL - RECENTLY ACQUIRED
2012 • Iceland/ Denmark • 62 Mins
At the tender age of 70 she started recording and releasing her own music straight from her living room. 7 years later she had 59 albums to her name with more than 600 song; an eccentric myriad of catch compositions mixing in her pets' purrs and coos, found toys, kitchen percussion and casio keyboards. Before long the musician and visual artist, Sigríður Níelsdóttir, became an adored cult figure in the Icelandic Music scene, represented here by her young apprentices Mugison, múm, Sin Fang, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Mr. Silla and Kría Brekkan who pay tribute to the grandma's irresistible tunes and charm.
Shot mostly on Super-8 and 16mm film, Grandma Lo-fi was created over a period of 8 years by three musicians debuting as directors, capturing the most creative period in the life of Sigríður Níelsdóttir.
In many ways Sigríður is like a cartoon character. Poetic moves such as taking in broken-winged pigeons that in return sing along to her tunes, or transform a cream whisk into a helicopter, all call for animated sequence that bridge the obscure space between her exemplary imagination and a delightfully peculiar everyday existence.
Grandma Lo-fi is a cinematic tribute to an amazing musician and her boundless creativity.
IN CINEMAS, ON iTUNES, ON DVD...
a film by Jonathan Lee
2011 / HDCAM / Blu Ray / 83 Mins / USA / Colour & B&W
a film by Carlos Carcas and Norberto López Amado
2010 / 78 mins / Colour / 1.85:1
Pre-Order it Now! Available June 19th.
a film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2010 / 114 min / Thailand/ UK/ Germany/ France/ Spain
