The Front Runner circles lapse of judgment in a losing cause
Movie Review: The Front Runner
Jason Reitman recreates the late-80s political landscape to survey the moment when the sober Republic turned into All-American spectacle: Gary Hart’s soiled Presidential bid, spoiled by sex scandal and the rise of tabloid TV.
Lisa Beare nods to #metoo in new funding announcement
News: BC Politics, Gender Equity
Minister Lisa Beare puts up $175,000 to promote education and awareness of systemic bias, while Oscar-winner Geena Davis drove the message of gender equity home at recent Women on Top Conference.
By The Ex-Press
VANCOUVER, BC -- British Columbia’s coalition government is putting some money where the #metoo movement is by funding $175,000-worth of new initiatives to improve workplace safety and awareness regarding abuse, discrimination and harassment.
Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture made the announcement at Whistler Film Festival’s “Woman on Top” Vancouver luncheon Friday. “The #MeToo movement has elevated awareness that abuse, discrimination and harassment are serious problems globally,” said Beare. “Our government is deeply committed to ensuring that the people working in B.C.’s creative industries are protected. That’s why I’m implementing new measures to promote safe, respectful workplaces for workers in the ...
Aloha A-bomb! A Postcard from the Edge of Armageddon
News Comment: Nuclear Scare in Hawaii
A seasoned reporter faces the End on holiday in Kauai as locals either shrug off alerts or hide behind palm trees
By Rod Mickleburgh
KAUAI, Hawaii -- It’s a while since I’ve been caught up in a world-wide news event, especially one where I MIGHT HAVE DIED. But there we were, after a five a.m. wake-up call by Kauai’s ubiquitous red roosters, on the first day of our holiday, groggily sipping our coffee in the Saturday morning sunshine. All of a sudden, the island quiet was pierced by an urgent loud buzz on our cellphone. It sounded like an Amber Alert on steroids. “What the heck was that?” I said out loud to other breakfasters gathered on the patio of our inn. No one looked up from their buttered toast. Thinking it was just some sort of glitch, we didn’t investigate further. Then, my companion reported back from the office. The woman behind the front desk had said something about a missile threat, as she busied herself with the ...
Konelïne drills deep into the dark heart of colonialism
Movies: Available Light Film Festival
Veteran documentary filmmaker Nettie Wild heads North to explore a motherlode of ugly conflict unfolding against a backdrop of pristine beauty in her latest film, Konelïne: Our Land Beautiful
By Katherine Monk
(Feb. 8, 2016. Updated Oct. 29, 2016) WHITEHORSE, YUKON — “We didn’t want it. We still don’t want it. But it was a done deal when they called us to the table.”
Tahltan elder Lillian Moyer was speaking about a transmission line along the once-scenic Highway 37 in Canada’s Yukon, but the comments she uttered at the premiere of Nettie Wild’s latest documentary, Konelïne - Our land Beautiful, seem applicable to just about every situation that pits traditional First Nations’ values against the continuing colonial reality.
From resource extraction in pristine wildlife habitats in the North to condos and casinos on traditional lands in the South, Canada’s colonial history clearly didn’t end with when Europeans ...
Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, Sarah McLachlan to jury new refugee film prize
News: VIFF, Radcliffe Foundation sponsor new short film competition
Former mining entrepreneur Frank Giustra hopes to inspire and engage Canadians about the 'greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our generation' through original, 'call-to-action' short films
By The Ex-Press
Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, Sarah McLachlan and Atom Egoyan are just a few of the big names putting their clout behind a new film competition conceived as a “call to action” for the global refugee crisis.
Sponsored by the Radcliffe Foundation in collaboration with the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Refugee Crisis Film Competition will award a $20,000 prize to the best short film – up to 60 seconds in length – to a film that “inspires, engages and empowers Canadians to take action on the global refugee crisis.”
The competition is open to all filmmakers across all genres and will feature a nine-member jury that includes the Prime Minister’s partner, McLachlan and Egoyan, as well as ...
Sharlto Copley: Never a cop out
People - Interview with Sharlto Copley
The recently transplanted South African talent focused on staying alive as he donned a variety of hardhats in the new, boundary-pushing action movie Hardcore Henry
By Katherine Monk
VANCOUVER, BC – “Let’s not die today.” According to Sharlto Copley, those four words were a daily mantra on the set of Hardcore Henry.
“It was a big discussion: No one must die making this film. We talked about it because we were pushing the boundaries and the rules and we had very little money. On the days where there was a very high risk, we’d fly the Jolly Roger – skull and crossbones – in a prominent place to make sure everyone was on guard and alert,” says Copley, sitting down for a chat at a high end Vancouver hotel.
“Everything you see in the movie happens. When you see a guy getting blown up and the van beneath him, that’s actually happening… It was by far the most risk I’ve taken as an actor, which sounds so lame ...
Handing out Canadian Candy
News: The Canadian Screen Awards 2016
Room cleans up with nine wins in the film category, including best picture, while Schitt's Creek, Book of Negroes and Orphan Black dominate the TV side of Canada's annual awards show... now called The Candys?
By Katherine Monk
It was pretty good, eh? They had a big stage. A band. Gold statuettes. A host that wasn't William Shatner. And people in the audience -- some of whom were even recognizable. More importantly, this year's Canadian Screen Awards also included a few titles with proven international appeal, such as the TV show Orphan Black and the film Room, the Oscar-nominated drama that cleaned up with nine wins at Sunday night's gala, including best picture, best director, best actress, best actor, best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay for Emma Donoghue.
For an awards broadcast that's struggled with audience ambivalence and stumping films with no box-office visibility, this year's show, hosted by Norm Macdonald and ...
News: The National Film Board and Vimeo launch new service
News: Streaming Services
New platform showcasing short films from the Oscar-winning studio is available now
By The Ex-Press
It’s the first rule of drug dealers and encyclopedia salesmen: The first one is always free. And now, the National Film Board will be adopting a similar strategy hoping to get you addicted to short films.
Partnering with Vimeo, the on-line streaming service, the NFB has created NFB Shorts on Demand. The subscription-based, on-demand platform (SVOD) was unveiled in a press release late Wednesday — declaring it available immediately.
One newly added film will always be available for free, but after that, there’s a $4.99 subscription fee for monthly unlimited streaming, a $1.99 single streaming fee, or a $3.99 charge for download-to-own.
The new outlet is designed to showcase the latest work coming out of the acclaimed studio, unlike the current film board website, which allows access to a great deal of the deep and decorated short film ...
The Ex-Press Oscar Predictions 2016
Movies: Oscars 2016
Our expert guide -- and some good guesses -- about who will win the little man with the gold complexion come curtain time
By Katherine Monk
Chris Rock is in a hard place. Hosting this year’s Oscars isn’t a task for amateurs who get by on dimples, he’ll need to do an entirely different song and dance and address, and hopefully undress, the diversity issue that continues to ripple through every corner of the industry, putting legendary stars in embarrassing situations.
Poor Meryl Streep. You know she’s going to get some zinger about about how “we all come from Africa.” And poor Sylvester Stallone, having to represent Creed as the white guy, and poor Bryan Cranston and Michael Fassbender who handed in spectacular performances as two different brands of genius in Trumbo and Steve Jobs but will not take home the big prize.
It was a year of great performances in so-so movies, or at least movies that never fully connected with audiences in the ...
Luke Kirby takes another waltz with romance
People: Luke Kirby
He played a problematic brand of Prince Charming in Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz and now Canadian-born Luke Kirby is walking a tightrope of sanity as a bipolar Romeo in Paul Dalio's Touched With Fire
By Katherine Monk
He played a pedicab-driving Romeo opposite Michelle Williams in Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, and now he plays a bipolar brand of Percy Bysshe Shelley in Paul Dalio’s Touched With Fire, but if you think Luke Kirby has a thing for playing the problematic prince charming, it’s just optics.
The Guelph-raised Kirby is also a regular on the Sundance Channel crime drama Rectify, did several seasons of the Astronaut Wives Club and recently appeared in The Good Wife. And for those who weren’t paying attention to Canadian cinema at the turn of the present century, Kirby starred as the gay son of traditional Italian parents in Emile Gaudrealt’s Mambo Italiano.
“Right now, I’d like to work on my tan if I could find the ...
