Tag: Interviews

Canadian Indie “Stress Position” Aims to be a Genre Bender, An Interview

The independently produced Canadian film Stress Position spent most of last year touring the film festivals gaining accolades and it’s now available for a wider audience to examine as a video release.

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The independently produced Canadian film Stress Position spent most of last year touring the film festivals gaining accolades and it’s now available for a wider audience to examine as a video release. In North America, it can be either purchased as a DVDStress Position (complete with deleted scenes and commentaries) or streamed online through VOD.

This movie owes its debt to a strong group of collaborators to make it an art house success In special screenings across Canada, film-makers A.J. Bond and Amy Belling were on hand to answer questions and to connect with viewers in order to discuss the more intricate details afterwards.

“Very early on in the process of making this film, the plot veered into territory we did not expect. Although we kept a lot of the pivotal torture scenes the same, the overall kind of themes went in a much more personal meta direction,” reveals Bond.

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[Victoria, BC] The Rocky Mountain Express Returns to the IMAX at the Royal BC Museum

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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Throughout the years, IMAX filmmaker Stephen Low has made many a documentary about some of the world’s amazing vehicles. From planes and trains to automobiles, he has finally covered them all. His most recent work, Rocky Mountain Express, is making a return to Victoria, B.C’s National Geographic IMAX theatre August 1st, and it will certainly be a crowd pleaser.

This movie looks at the Empress (CPR 2816), the little train that could. It carried more than just supplies and people cross-country. It also symbolized hope, and it really carried the dreams of many to unite a nation. Since BC was the last to join the Confederation, without the initial train line to connect the two sides of the country together, this nation might have taken on a different shape.

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[Vancouver, BC] Finding Inspiration for Karen Lam’s Horror Flick, “Evangeline”

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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Karen Lam’s romantic horror genre-bending movie, Evangeline is set make its move deeper into the film festival foray in Asia and Australia beginning this Summer. It made its world premiere last year at Stockholm’s Monsters of Film festival in September, and it has seen a limited release in Canada. In Vancouver, British Columbia, it will receive a special screening on May 15th at The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St.) with a Q&A afterwards to discuss how this story was put together from an editorial standpoint.

This movie embraces several ideas that grew from ideas seeded in her previous works. Her experimental short, The Pit: A Study in Horror, helped develop the scenes where Purgatory is realized, and a few concepts in Doll Parts grew into becoming part of the origin tale established in Evangeline.

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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.

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[Victoria Film Festival ’14] Introducing Guy Maddin

The Do It Yourself (DIY) approach to filmmaking is at the heart of how respected artist and auteur Guy Maddin makes many of his films.

Guy Maddin

The Do It Yourself (DIY) approach to filmmaking is at the heart of how respected artist and auteur Guy Maddin makes many of his films. When he’s a first-wave post punk rocker – born in ’56 and growing up listening to the music of the Sex Pistols and Public Image – he lived and breathed everything that had to do with what that music revolution represented. When he started daydreaming about making films, the ethos of just picking up an instrument to play what you felt, or to be a brat at the time, and many of the thrills he felt from the music were in the audio textures and in the process of how they were recorded way more than in any melody.

“It just seemed to me that just by analogy people would love movies made of the same spirit,” said Maddin.

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