Featured image: Kali Reis as Kaylee in Catch the Fair One. (Courtesy of IFC Films.) Here are some interviews for films that were released this past weekend, including boxing thriller Catch the Fair One, music documentary Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York, and sci-fi thriller Cosmic Dawn. Find the links to the … Continue reading Interviews with Filmmakers: “Catch the Fair One,” “Cosmic Dawn,” “Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York”
As I’ve started to watch more documentaries, my favourite kinds of documentaries end up being documentaries on subjects I know absolutely nothing about. That’s true with food activism, explored in the informative documentary Food for the Rest of Us, about four different groups of people from different walks of life, living off the land and each leading a food revolution. These stories are set in Hawaii, Kansas City, Missouri and the Northwest Territories; with each group featured with sometimes similar goals, but completely different stories. The story set in Hawaii, for instance, is set on an organic farm where many employees are teens 17-24 who are signed to two-year contracts, pay their tuition and give them stipends. The theory goes, “When youth cultivate the land, the land cultivates them.” I was able to speak with the minds behind the film, with the film’s director, co-writer and producer Caroline Cox, as well as producer and co-writer Tiffany Ayalik. In our conversation, we talked about their backgrounds, what brought them to a story like this one, and what food activism actually means.
As I’ve enjoyed more and more documentaries over the past little while, the documentaries made for entertainment, or behind-the-scenes documentaries, are some of my favourites. That’s exactly the case with Surviving Supercon, from director and editor Steven Shea, which takes us on a behind-the-scenes look into the Florida Supercon. Founded by by husband-and-wife team Mike Broder and Sandy Martin, their event has grown to attract over 60,000 fans, and this documentary focuses on their 2018 Fort Lauderdale event.
Featured image: The alien bows on stage after Alien on Stage. (Courtesy of Alien on Stage.) Directed by Lucy Harvey, Danielle Kummer. Starring (as self) Jason Hill, Lydia Hayward, Jacqui Roe. Runtime 1h 26 min. Alien on Stage had its latest festival stop as part of the Nightstream Film Festival. Some spoilers follow. Alien on Stage … Continue reading Nightstream Review: Alien on Stage (2021)
Cannon Arm and the Arcade Quest follows a group of friends who are united by their love of video games and the Bip Bip Bar. They’re also united by the loss of a friend named Thomas who committed suicide some years prior. At the centre of the friend group is our main character, Kim Cannon Arm.
A video game legend, Kim is known for playing the 1983 arcade game “Gyruss” for 49 straight hours on one coin. Obviously a very long time, but for further context, the average game of “Gyruss” lasts 3-4 minutes. Even crazier, Kim sets out to be the first person to play an arcade game for 100 hours straight.
The Rescue is the first documentary I’ve seen at TIFF, as part of their TIFF Docs programme. It’s a documentary about the rescue efforts in Thailand in 2018, when a soccer team of 12 kids and their coach found themselves trapped in the complex Tham Luang cave system.
I have a terrible memory, but I’m sure I tracked this story when it made global headlines in 2018. I must have missed some important factors about it, as I was picturing them being lost deep in a cave, or being caved in somehow, where I was picturing a 127 Hours or Kirk Douglas film Ace in the Hole kind-of scenario. I didn’t realize it was flooding that trapped them. These are some of the perfect details tracked.
Featured image: 14-year-old Zebiba lifts weights at a competition in the documentary Lift Like a Girl. (Photo courtesy of Route 504 PR.) In the new documentary Lift Like a Girl, a 14-year-old female weightlifter named Zebiba trains in Alexandria, Egypt, on a street corner that looks like an abandoned construction site. This doesn’t look like the spot … Continue reading “Lift Like a Girl” Interview | Director Mayye Zayed | The Filmcraziest Show
Featured image: Levi and Kailyn Nahirney for the documentary Levi: Becoming Himself. (Photo credit: Mina Lumena.) One’s own identity is such a tricky thing to figure out. That’s just one of the many aspects of the new CBC documentary Levi: Becoming Himself, about Levi Nahirney, a 19-year-old trans man where we follow his journey of finding his … Continue reading “Levi: Becoming Himself” Interview | Levi Nahirney, Shannon Kaplun | The Filmcraziest Show
In Aurora Brachman’s short documentary Joychild, it explores an 8-year-old child coming out as transgender to their mother. Through voice-over narration trying to put their feelings into words over footage of them playing, it’s a compelling short doc told in a unique way. Through e-mail, I was able to chat with Aurora about her short documentary, which is now available to watch on The New Yorker. Find that conversation here.
For The Holy Game, I was able to speak with the film’s co-directors Brent Hodge and Chris Kelly, as well as one of the film’s documentary subjects Father Michael Zimmerman, now a priest in Boston. This was also the first time I had a priest on my podcast The Filmcraziest Show, so that was rather neat.
In the conversation, we talked about what got the directors on the film, some of the background for the Clericus Cup and its fanbase, deciding what voices from which best team could best help tell this story, finding the audience for the film, filming the sports scenes and a lot of other conversation topics in between. As well, Father Michael talked about his reactions to watching the film for the first time.
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