REEL CANADA Blog : Tags : Fido

Seycove Secondary School students

With popcorn churning, box office humming and couches front and centre in classrooms-transformed-into-theatres, the Grade 11s and 12s at Seycove Senior welcomed REEL CANADA into the heart of Deep Cove in North Vancouver, BC, for their first film festival!

 

Students had opportunities to meet a variety of guests. They heard behind-the-scenes collaborations to movie-making, were privy to personal journeys into the craft of acting, screenwriting and producing/directing and were encouraged to unpack the issues and stories told through a diverse programme of Canadian films of different genres, lengths and themes with the help of guests, REEL CANADA facilitators and their teachers.

 

NOT ANOTHER DAMN MUSICAL actor, Frank Zotter

Guests included Frank Zotter, actor and star of NOT ANOTHER DAMN MUSICAL, a short film made during the Crazy8s filmmaking competition in Vancouver. Despite its strong festival life, this was Frank's first time screening the film with an audience! Robert Chomiak, co-writer of FIDO, attended and spoke to a packed room about his experiences developing, making and following the distribution of FIDO. And via Skype, Paul Saltzman connected to attentive students following the screening of PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI, full of anecdotes on the making of a documentary and on the art of capturing sensitive subject matter.

 

PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI filmmaker, Paul Saltzman

The principal, David Overgaard, spoke to us about how this festival props up his school’s themes for 2013: community and experiential learning. He was clearly thrilled at the event’s production value and joined the audiences at a number of the screenings throughout the day. Lead teacher Sean Clancy was impeccable to work with, taking care of so very many details to make this day run as smoothly as possible. Kerry Henderson, the Seycove teacher facilitator, jumped in to provide set-up and discussion points on THE TROTSKY and C.R.A.Z.Y. Her students were overheard in deep discussion into the lunch hour about the films, and the issues they raised.

 

For REEL CANADA, it was a chance to continue our gradual infiltration of the entire Lower Mainland, another notch on our belt of “RC/BC” communities.

 

It's that time of year to break out the scary movies and why not add some Canadian horror films into the mix?! Canada has been producing horror films since the 60s that have both shaped and challenged the horror genre. Here are 13 of REEL CANADA's favourite Canadian horror films to add to your Halloween movie marathons.

 

GINGER SNAPS

The Fitzgerald sisters Ginger and Brigitte, fascinated by the macabre, have sworn an oath: "Out by sixteen, or dead in the scene, but together forever". Outsiders at school, their only friends being each other, they live in a querulous world of their own. When they set out to take revenge on a girl who sleighted them, Ginger is attacked by a wild animal: The Beast of Bailey Downs. Later that night, as Ginger's wounds miraculously heal, it is clear she is changing. Ginger wants to believe it is nothing more than the onset of puberty; but her sister Brigitte knows better...

 

 

PONTYPOOL

A psychological thriller from Bruce McDonald, in which a deadly virus infects a small Ontario town.

 

 

TREEVENGE

A comedy horror short film from Hobo With A Shotgun director Jason Eisener and starring Jonathan Torrens. Christmas trees ripped out of their forest plan revenge against people enjoying the holidays.

 

SCANNERS

From director David Cronenberg is the 1981 cult hit Scanners, about a scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.

 

MY BLOODY VALENTINE

A decades old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine's Day, turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer's order and people start turning up dead.

 

THE GATE

Three young children accidentally release a horde of nasty, pint-sized demons from a hole in a suburban backyard. What follows is a classic battle between good and evil as the three kids struggle to overcome a nightmarish hell that is literally taking over the Earth.

 

FIDO

Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when Fido eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido a part of the family. A zombie comedy directed by Andrew Currie.

 

CUBE

A science fiction psychological horror film about 7 complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics who are involuntarily placed in an endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps.

 

Saints-Martyrs Des-Damnés

An eerie and playful supernatural thriller about a tabloid reporter Flavien and his photographer buddy Armand who are dispatched to a rural Quebec village to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances. Almost immediately things begin to go awry, as Armand vanishes on their first night in town.

 

PIN

A doctor has a lifelike, anatomically-correct medical dummy, with muscles and organs visible through its clear skin, named Pin (after Pinocchio). Via ventriloquism, Pin explains bodily functions in a way kids can relate to. When the over-strict doctor and his wife are killed in a car crash, his son (Leon) transfers his alter-ego into Pin, whom he always believed was alive. He starts using Pin as an excuse to over-protect his sister (Ursula) from admirers and deflect unwanted intrusions, even to the extent of committing murder.

 

JACK BROOKS, MONSTER SLAYER

As a child Jack Brooks witnessed the brutal murder of his family. Now a young man he struggles with a pestering girlfriend, therapy sessions that resolve nothing, and night classes that barely hold his interest. After unleashing an ancient curse, Jack's Professor undergoes a transformation into something not-quite- human, and Jack is forced to confront some old demons... along with a few new ones.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a grueling set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey. Could it be her? She suffers from blackouts due to a freak accident one year earlier. We soon learn the truth behind her accident and what is going on...

 

PROM NIGHT

A masked killer stalks four teens responsible for the accidental death of a child six years earlier at their high school's senior prom.

 

 

REEL CANADA made its first-ever stop to Saskatchewan on Monday, May 7^th. Students from six different high schools in the Saskatoon Public School Board joined us at The Broadway Theatre in downtown Saskatoon for screenings in the morning and afternoon. 

The morning saw an audience of 250 students viewing Neil Diamond’s 2009 documentary REEL INJUN. Prior to the feature, the students were treated to a screening of Melanie Jackson’s short animation DANCERS OF THE GRASS. A Saskatoon filmmaker herself, Melanie was in attendance to speak to the audience about her film, her work on WAPOS BAY and about filmmaking in Saskatchewan and in Canada at large.  After the screening, REEL CANADA’s production coordinator and facilitator, Ravi Srinivasan, led a great discussion about Hollywood’s portrayal of Native peoples, and other issues illuminated in REEL INJUN.

 

Saskatchewan filmmaker Melanie Jackson

Following lunch, we screened Andrew Currie’s 2006 film FIDO, a REEL CANADA fan-favourite. A crowd of 150 enjoyed the zombie comedy and had the opportunity to speak to Currie after the film via Skype. Students lined up to ask questions about anything from art direction to film financing, as well as asking about the film’s inspiration.  The students made surprising connections between FIDO and REEL INJUN, raising parallels between the treatment of zombies in Currie’s film and the treatment of First Nations characters in Diamond’s.

We were thrilled by the enthusiasm of the students and teachers and the warm hospitality extended to us by everyone we met. A big thank you goes out to the staff at The Broadway Theatre and to our lead organizing teacher, Joel Dietrich. We had a wonderful day and look forward to returning to Saskatoon next year for round two!

 

On Monday May 7^th, REEL CANADA we’ll be adding another province to our National Tour – Saskatchewan. An event for 400 students from several schools in Saskatoon will be hosted at the beautiful Broadway Theatre downtown.

 

In the morning, students will be treated to the documentary REEL INJUN, by Neil Diamond, which deals with representations of native people in Hollywood. The film will be preceded by a beautiful animated short film, DANCERS OF THE GRASS, by local, Saskatoon-based Aboriginal filmmaker Melanie Jackson, who will be attending the event in person and talking to the students about her work.

 

After lunch, students will return to the theatre to watch satirical zombie comedy FIDO, and participate in a Q&A with director Andrew Currie and writer Dennis Heaton via Skype from Vancouver.

 

The event is going to be staffed by people from our Toronto and (fledgling) Vancouver offices – east and west meeting in the middle to bring some awesome Canadian films to Saskatoon teens. 

 

Our third annual Cineplex day with the Peel District School Board will be taking place on today at the SilverCity Brampton. Over 650 secondary school students from across the Peel DSB will participate, selecting from three feature film screenings in the morning and three in the afternoon. AM films include THE ROCKET (with NHL publisher and hockey mega-expert Dan Diamond in attendance), ONE WEEK, preceded by some comedy shorts by Adam Brodie and Dave Derewlany (with the always hilarious Adam & Dave in attendance) and SHARKWATER (with eco-warrior and filmmaker Emily Hunter in attendance, who's been setting students on fire with her enthusiasm and passion throughout REEL CANADA's seventh season, making stops on our national tour in Montague PEI, Montreal QC, and soon, Winnipeg MB).

 

 

In the afternoon, students will watch the zombie comedy FIDO, preceded by the short film EVELYN: THE CUTEST EVIL DEAD GIRL (with star Nadia Litz in attendance), the documentary PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI (with producer Patricia Aquino in attendance), and IRON ROAD. 

 

This event kicks off the "Ontario leg" of our national tour, which will include one more large Cineplex Day in Toronto on the 18th, and six other Do-It-Yourself festivals between now and mid-May.