Tonight on Showcase the town of Defiance has a new problem to deal with… Hell Bugs. I love this episode’s intro, as the first victim changes from his everyday shoes, to a pair of ADIDAS that he’s traded for and has kept in near mint condition, you know he cleans them after every run……
Hot Docs: Dragon Girls – Inigo Westmeier
Even a late start and sound issues couldn’t ruin this doc that screened last night at the Royal. The entire audience was swept up in the opening shot, which features a massive parade ground and a huge rush of hundreds, no thousands (35,000 – to be a little more exact) kung fu students running in…
Hot Docs: Our Nixon – Penny Lane
Oh Mr. Nixon. Last night the Royal screened Our Mr. Nixon by Penny Lane, and it proved to be an entertaining, occasionally angering, and often humorous look at one of the most infamous of all American presidents. After the Watergate scandal the federal government seized over 500 reels of super8 film and kept it locked away for…
Hot Docs: The Ghosts In Our Machine – Liz Marshall
Jo-Anne McArthur is a talented and passionate photographer with a determination and drive rarely seen in people at all, let alone in someone so young. McArthur is also an activist, and uses her photographic skills to document and share her empathetic view of animals in captivity. From the appalling conditions of slaughterhouses and factory…
Hot Docs: The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear – Tinatin Gurchiani
The best documentaries can amaze and move you, and some leave you in stunned silence at the beauty of what you have just seen. Tinatin Gurchiani’s The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear does all of these things. Halfway through this feature I realized exactly what it was. It’s your grandmother’s patchwork quilt, some pieces…
Hot Docs: Last Woman Standing – Lorraine Price and Juliet Lammers
The film opens with three important facts. Women’s Boxing has been added as an official medal event at the 2012 Olympics for the first time in history. The world’s two best female boxers reside in Canada. Only one can be selected to compete for Olympic gold. All that in itself would make for a captivating…
Doctor Who S07E10 – Hide
I realize I’m a week behind on this one, but hey, I was on vacation and covering a film festival! But what an ep! The cloister bell rings, there’s a knock 4 times, there’s ghosts and monsters, some fun banter, and a little more investigation into the mysterious companion. Neil Cross penned this episode,…
Hot Docs: William and the Windmill – Ben Nabors
Hot Docs screened this engaging film last night at the Scotiabank theater. William Kamkwamba is a young, pensive, and protective man. He made waves on the world stage when he appeared on TED Talks, and we all learned how this young man was forced to drop out of high school in his Malawian village…
Hot Docs: Expedition To The End of the World – Daniel Dencik
My first Hot Docs film of 2013 was a beautiful Danish/English piece about a group of artists and scientists who get to explore an area of north-eastern Greenland, a location usually inaccessible due to ice and glaciers, but with global warming, they have a window of time that will allow them to see sights rarely seen by man. I…
Airport (1970) – George Seaton
The disaster movie. You knew it was going to show up on the 101 Action Movies list sooner or later… well here it is, with this star-studded, engaging film based on the novel by Arthur Hailey and adapted for the screen and directed by George Seaton. It was also nominated for a slew of Academy…
The Mind Reels 