Toronto After Dark: Short Sharp Shocks in Summary

It’s only fitting that October 31st sees this final blog post about Toronto After Dark Film Festival as Thursday saw the celluloid creature rewind back in to it’s movie canister grave for another year.

Small, mighty and messed up, these were my pick of the bloody bunch of stumpy shorts.

Taking small bites out of your cinema psyche each feature has had a red right hand man supporting the feature presentation as well as a separate programme showcasing the world.

Before these shorts another mini courtesy message from Fan Expo visiting icons instructed us to power down our pagers.  Funnily only Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) & Richard  Crouse (Film Critic Hero) were the only stars to follow the script & add a f-bomb.

After the 5th birthday bumper contest last year where a multitude of  film makers were asked to submit small trail intros featuring 5′s, the most memorable – under age Alien love’s author, Chris Nash returned to provide year 6 with all of them as well as two longer  pieces.

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Phjoshua On Sports – Movember In Sports!

Movember is almost here – that glorious, wondrous, hilarious month when men all over the world grow out their cookie dusters for a good cause.

That cause, if you weren’t aware – is fighting Men’s Cancers.

This is the 3rd year that I will be participating by growing our my soup strainer for donations.

However, there have been amazing mustaches in sports for decades. If you aren’t a big sports fan or weren’t in the 70′s and 80′s you may not recognize the 3 ‘staches in the first banner…

First is Rollie Fingers – a dude with a mustache that ruled the baseball world. Look at those glorious curls. Next is Lanny McDonald, Stanley Cup winner and even a former Maple Leaf. This pic was snapped while Lanny played for the Calgary Flames – that ginger ‘stache is and always will be amazing! And on the right is Goose Gossage. Another major league pitcher with a major league lip-liner.

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Highlight: The Colours of Chagall

It’s all about colour at the new AGO Exhibit Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde“.  Running from October 18th 2011 – January 15 2012, with a concentration on the lucious art pieces of Marc Chagall (32 works total), the exhibit also features works of Wassily Kandinsky (a personal favourite), Kasimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, Natalia Goncharova, and Sonia Delaunay.  The AGO does a tremendous job detailing historical occurances of Chagall’s world and illuminating the artist’s inspirations. Accompanying photographs and video footage deepend the understanding of the artists’ world and motifs.

Colour Is The Pulse Of A Work Of Art – AGO

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Toronto After Dark: Deafened & Defend

Day Two:

Waiting for second day double feature to begin the Kill Bill soundtrack blared a little too loud leaving a ringing  tinitus apt for Exit Humanity‘s war time trauma.  Jaded from every “…of the dead” this movie kept the rotten flesh fresh with a health injection of innovation in the form of animated sequences & beautiful motion graphic illustrations documenting the story of an outbreak during the American Civil War from the perspective of a broken man.

I lost track of the amount of emotional bearded screams in to the air but as soon as the lead got himself together by connecting with other characters they story really took shape.  The score was also an unexpected pleasure to be passing through my bloodied lobes along with another audio star turn, this time from Brian Cox.

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Phjoshua On Sports – Lessons I’ve Learned From Sports Movies!

I love sports a lot and I also love movies – so logic dictates that I adore sports movies.

The thing about sports movies is that they come with a lot of great lessons that can be taken and translated into real life. In fact, ignoring these lessons is a dangerous and foolish act that can only lead to bad things.

There are a lot of sports movies and a lot of lessons, many of which will not be listed here today. If you feel like I have dishonored you by not including something please let me know.

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Toronto After Dark: Brawls & Bowels

Tis the season to be gory as Toronto After Dark Film Festival rolled like a severed head down Spadina to it’s new home a little closer to hell at the Underground Cinema for it’s 6th year. Horror, Cult movies, Sci-fi & Action in the order of preference had me chomping at the bit like a classic Romero zombie for Thursday’s opening night.

Riding the wave of anticipation in a line shaped like a game of snake on a Nokia phone everyone seemed surprisingly calm to be packed along side one another waiting to flood the theatre. A gift from above in the shape of a roof was more than welcome adjustment from queuing outside the former Bloor Cinema site for the nocturnal viewing veterans.

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CRUSH : LG Fashion Week Edition : Jason Howlett

I’ve been at LG Fashion week all week, and pretty much every day I’ve run into the dashing Jason Howlett. Definitely, not a stranger to fashion, Jason stays in shape, does his yoga and always is dressed to kill it. This week was no exception. This shot was caught on Wednesday, all accessorized with boots and umbrella. You can follow Jason on Twitter @bohunkCA and read his blog here.

Surrogate Valentine

Where would you least expect a film festival to take place? A beautiful sun drenched volcanic island with perfect beaches and blue skies is an unlikely location to encourage hiding in the dark of a matinee yet Hawaii said aloha to it’s 31st movie showcase.

With the airport landing card surveying those arriving with the first assumption being honeymooners I checked “other” and checked out Surrogate Valentine.

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