Documentary Archives | Otaku No Culture

[VFF’15] “Gone South” to Look at the Rise of Hollywood, A Review

Gone South Poster — **6:00pm Feb 6**
**The Vic Theatre**
**Special Guest in Attendance: Director Ian Ferguson**

The documentary Gone South: How Canada Invented Hollywood is a very informative and tongue in cheek look at a different kind of invasion that’s still infiltrating the entertainment industry today. It’s only fitting that this movie is part of the opening night of movies to start the 2015 Victoria Film Festival. This movie is part of the Canadian Wave program.

Film historians will enjoy the retrospective that begins by describing how Hollywood began. For example, Jack Warner (born in London, Toronto) formed Warner Bros and with his brothers Sam, Albert and Henry (all born in Poland). Jack was the studio head.

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Adding a Li’l Spookiness to Christmas Eve

ghost_stories_for_xmas_600 Winter chills can mean deathly thrills for the horror entertainment enthusiast. Just what does Christmas mean for them? There’s plenty of products to choose from, and this list is going to look at what’s truly ghostly to really send shivers done one’s spine. Some history and family friendly watches are also offered.

Ghost Stories for Christmas

Originally broadcasted on BBC One between 1971-78, and revived in 2005, this program hosts a wide collection of shorts by notable authors like, to name a few, M.R. James with “Whistle and I’ll Come to You” and Charles Dickens with “The Signalman.” Although Dickens was the writer who brought the tradition of telling ghost stories back to the fore on Christmas Eve, this fascination by the public with the supernatural during this season existed long before his contribution. The tradition for enjoying a spooky tale at this festive time may trace its roots to as far back as the 16th century, with Christopher Marlowe making references to spirits in his play The Jew of Malta (1589), in Act II, Scene 1 where the character Barabas states:

Now I remember those old women’s words,
Who in my wealth would tell me winter’s tales,
And speak of spirits and ghosts that glide by night
About the place where treasure hath been hid:
And now methinks that I am one of those;
For, whilst I live, here lives my soul’s sole hope,
And, when I die, here shall my spirit walk.

Thankfully, the British Film Institute has packaged the seminal episodes of this series into a video release. Fans interested in the film version can purchase this item through Amazon or look at the original works in this M.R. James collection, “Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories (The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Vol. 1)“

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Trip the Light Fantasm-ic, Going on a Convention Documentary Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Fantasm

Fans of horror fandom have plenty of choices these days when considering there’s a wide array of conventions for them to get their spook on. Some are multi-faceted enough to include a section just for them and others are 100% focussed. In the world of horror entertainment, this niche market is mainstream enough to allow them to run independently or be part of a larger show. In Canada, Rue Morgue Magazine runs Festival of Fear as part of Fan Expo Vancouver, and in the United States, Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors occurs in various cities throughout the year. Those are perhaps the most recognized conventions in North America.

In Kyle Kuchta’s documentary, Fantasm, he looks at a host of other shows — Monster Mania, Rock and Shock, Spooky Empire and HorrorHound — that takes place in the Eastern part of the United States. Here both he, fans, producers, vendors and performers explain why attending horror conventions have become a rite of passage. This 55 minute program does not always focus on the appeal of horror to the masses. It looks at the reasons why fandom likes to gather at these events. Through all the interviews that Kuchta has collected in the 2012 and 2013 year at these particular shows, he nicely reveals that the desire to attend these festivals is more about nurturing a passion. Some attendees forge lasting relationships while at these events. Kuchta does a great job at putting together an extended discourse about the passion everyone has instead of going in-depth.

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Cosmos: An Epic Remake

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

cosmos eye

One of the best documentaries ever made to encourage exploration of the self and the world around us, as humankind, is Cosmos: A Personal Journey. Carl Sagan had an exuberance that was infectious and it encouraged many to pursue an education into the sciences. To think that it can be followed up by a sequel, Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey, has to be a challenge. Can anyone demonstrate the same zest that Sagan had as a presenter? Who is able to do the job? Patrick Stewart, the man who came to fame as the Captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation or Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist who has presented many an invigorating documentary about the universe around us, are very capable.

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[Victoria Film Festival ’14] Behind the Scenes: Cyber Seniors. An Interview with Director Saffron Cassaday

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The documentary Cyber-Seniors is getting special sneak previews at film festivals around the world, and at the Victoria Film Festival, it screened February 11th. An added show will also happen on the 15th. On May 2, it will be making its theatrical premiere.

Saffron Cassiday

For the young actress turned director, Saffron Cassaday, this film marks her debut. Many stories are intertwined here: from explaining the origins of what the film title is about — an education program that started in Toronto for showing seniors how to use a computer to effectively communicate — to what these people can do with it, there is even a personal note added to this film.

When Saffron’s sister, Macaulee, and grandfather were diagnosed with cancer during production, that did not bring making this film to halt. Their journey is also chronicled. Having started two years ago, the teaching program called Cyber-Seniors was well underway. When medical issues only showed how effective online communication works for two very close family members, the ties that bind are expressed online too. But that should not stop people from meeting for real.

participate

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[Victoria Film Festival ’14] A Story of Children and Film, a Documentary Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

story_of_children_and_film_xlg

The documentary, A Story of Children and Film might be better off named The Role of Children in Cinema, and it can easily become a textbook for the next cinema studies course at a university campus if Mark Cousins, Irish director and occasional critic, wanted it. He shares to the world his excellent knowledge of this subgenre.

In Cousins’ video essay, he delves into a nearly complete history starting from Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid (1921) to Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and wraps it around his own little video shoot of his visiting neice and nephew playing with a marble toy set. The juxtapositions he makes are interesting. When he delves into actual cinema, a few movies, like Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) is missed for good reason – it’s an adaption of a book. But with more than a century’s worth of movies to sift through, this narrator successfully finds the movies from many countries (25 in fact) and representative of different eras to make his point with. He also uses it in a compelling juxtaposition when he includes footage of his neice and nephew visiting his flat and playing with a marble run.

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