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From TIFF to OIAF to ImagineNATIVE. TheNFB’s The Hidden Island of Ethics

The Hidden Island of Ethics about contrasts is beautiful in its construction. This young girl and her world are brought to three-dimensional life as fully realized puppets and set pieces.

Official Selection at
TIFF (Sept 9-18), OIAFF (Sept 22-Oct 3) and
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (Oct 19-24)

Please check links for showtimes

Anyone who has followed the media reports about the discovery of a mass grave on the grounds of a residential school in Kamloops, BC, may find Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics disturbing. Children from local tribes were plucked away from their families because someone thought it was best to teach them a different way of life. These places were operated by the Catholic Church, and it didn’t change hands until much later. The Canadian Government never knew what went on, and was left holding the bag.

This stop motion animated work by Terril Calder is evocative, powerful and moving. The story she constructed is an eerie look at what may have happened back then. Thankfully, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in this tale.

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch Psychoanalyzed!

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is set to debut May 4, with a special 70-minute premiere, and may well prove to be the new Rebels of a growing Alliance.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Disney+
May 4th, 2021

Star Wars: The Bad Batch will debut with a special 70-minute premiere, and this team may well prove to be the new “Rebels” to join a growing Alliance. That’s my take on this renegade team of Clone Troopers with genetic defects who have broken their programming. They are the only warriors willing to take on dangerous missions, ala Mission Impossible, for the glory of the Empire. This tale takes place in the aftermath of the Clone Wars. Somewhere along the line will be a breakdown of their conditioning so they can be totally independent, true to the spirit of this franchise.

The action is more in line with Fast and the Furious, but for the characters involved. They’re generally well adjusted-well sort of. Whatever’s wrong with their neural pathways can’t be fixed in Kamino since being activated. I’m betting there was subterfuge to cause this group to be what they are. That’ll be revealed in later episodes when we look to their past. Hunter, Echo, Tech, Wrecker and Crosshair aren’t Transformers. They’ve earned their nicknames because each member is talented in their own unique way.

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Halloween isn’t Over Yet with Amazon Prime’s Truth Seekers!

This series is less about the paranormal in the classic sense, but more about where spirituality can lead us to trans-humanism.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

SPOILER ALERT

Nick Frost is the lead in the team of Truth Seekers on Amazon Prime. Together, with Samson Kayo, Emma D’Arcy and Susie Wokoma, they make up the quad of would-be paranormal investigators, Gus Roberts, Elton John, Astrid and Susie. They don’t realize the places they are exploring are related. The setup is everything I believe Ghost Wars on Netflix wanted to be, but didn’t ultimately take off. The only difference is with how comedy is injected into the characterizations than the situation.

By the end of series one, just what this gang has to deal with goes beyond chasing down ghosts around South England. They don’t even realize they are stumbling into a global sized conspiracy of Dalek-sized proportions! Pop culture references aside, I think Pegg took an idea from a classic Star Trek episode and went further with it. In reality, it all boils down to what the Draecepta Mortnorum, a book of spells, represents as a tome of untold power.

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Breaking B, the Beginning Down Before Home Video Busts The Demons Loose!

Koku is an enigma. He’s an alien of sorts and has lost his memory. The only thing that keeps him going is a search for his beloved, someone who knows what his mission is, and the trail of breadcrumbs he leaves behind is rather bloody. Keith is a Royal Investigation Service agent (RIS) and the two are close to butting heads more often than not. The detective believes the Koku is B the Killer.

Truth Seekers — B: The Beginning – Season One available to pre-order on Amazon USA [Blu-ray]

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Release Date:
Oct 6, 2020

Shout! Factory

Before Netflix acquired the license to air B the Series, the animation made on spec certainly teased at a techno supernatural crime thriller. The pilot was very short, but it was very teasing of what feels like Highlander meets The Incredible Hulk meets X-Files because of a certain berserker wandering around the kingdom of Cremona and secret conspiracies going on.

Kazuto Nakazawa created this universe, and when considering his impressive resume includes creating the animated sequence in Kill Bill Vol 1 and he’s the character designer of El Hazard, I became intrigued. There were moments where I couldn’t help but think of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Well, that’s how I read this anime so far, especially after watching the second disc of the blu-ray release, which contains episodes five to seven and includes an interview with this creator who gives us a better breakdown of what he had in mind for the series. We have an introduction of who Killer B is–an anti-hero.

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Going From the Streets of Fire to a Road to Hell at 24 MPH

Streets of Fire Movie Poster By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Although action/sci-fi filmmaker Albert Pyun created a spiritual successor to Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire, not everyone is going to take the Road to Hell right away. It’s a distinct type of film—more confusing than anything else—until the last act, where the connections to the original are made. This director certainly has a fondness for Hill’s work, but I have to ask if the creators would endorse the direction in “part two.” Most likely not when considering they had ideas in place for a trilogy had only the movie been a box office success.

I was reminded of this cult classic not too long ago and found an interview with Michael Paré on Forbes from last year saying he was open to giving new life to this neo-noir wild west romp. Whether Cody and McCoy would both return after riding off to the sunset is debatable. They left “The City on the Edge of Forever,” for a tougher life. In Pyun’s work, Cody went back to serve his country one more time and Ellen became that legend Fish promised. But somewhere along the line, she died. Her musical legacy is remembered when her daughter decided to follow in mom’s footsteps.

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in Star Trek: Picard, There’s New Threats are in Store

There’s lots to like in season one of Star Trek: Picard. As for whether it delivers what The Next Generation fans want, well….

On CBS All Access, Crave
and speciality channels.

Spoiler Alert

Star Trek: Picard brings back a franchise some fans believe to have strayed far from everything in this world that was beloved. Whether it’s about space exploration or making a social commentary about the times, I love the series for the characters. Jean-Luc is stern; over the seven-year run of Next Generation, we saw how he suffered and we saw how he developed. Sir Patrick Stewart seems to be showing his age and it works to highlight the golden years of his life.

Part of the new series relies on viewers recall of the films which continued the series in an extended form. With a story that picks up many years after the movie Nemesis, the captain retired. He’s having nightmares, and the life thereafter is a little more rough than kosher. That’s until Dahj (Isa Briones), a young lady appears at the family vineyard begging for help.

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