Night Mayor Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Guy Maddin Talks Night Mayors, Filmmaking, and Sissy Boys
Filed under: Shorts », Interviews », Toronto International Film Festival »
Guy Maddin is not your everyday director. Over the last twenty years, he's made a name for himself with his beautifully hazy black and white shorts and features, from the docufantasia wonder of My Winnipeg to the hops-filled thrills of Isabella Rossellini and The Saddest Music in the World. These projects have inspired many to call him the Canadian David Lynch, but while the two create rich fantasies for their films to thrive in, Maddin's always have a clear-cut narrative. The path might be surreal, strange, and utterly fantastical, but it's also easily understandable. With his latest, Night Mayor, Maddin turned an ode for the NFB's 70th anniversary into the tale of an immigrant who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to help teach Canadians their national identity.
During TIFF, Cinematical had a chance to talk to the filmmaker about how Night Mayor came to be, Maddin's cinematic process, the magic of collaboration, and his next project (a choose-your-own adventure!). On top of more timely chatter, Guy also took a moment to share the story behind Sissy Boy Slap Party (my favorite guilty pleasure), and how a moment of spite turned into a memorable short.
TIFF Shorts Roundup: From Night Mayors to Runaways
Filed under: Festival Reports », Shorts », Toronto International Film Festival »
Toronto might have its own short film extravaganza -- the Worldwide Short Film Festival -- a week rife with pithy pieces of cinema. But every year, just a few months later, there's a second serving at TIFF with the collection Short Cuts Canada.
This year, the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) had a bunch of shorts in the mix, and when I got a handful in the mail, it was like an Oscar-led explosion. Talent abounds in these films. That's not entirely surprising considering the fact that we've got the latest from Oscar-winner Chris Landreth and Oscar-nominee Cordell Barker, plus a slew of other notable talent. Talent, I must say, that's topped with Night Mayor, the short the NFB commissioned Guy Maddin to do as part of the board's 70th anniversary.
Read on for the details of Night Mayor, Vive the Rose, The Spine, and Runaway.
Oh, Canada - Kicking Off the 9 Days of TIFF
Filed under: Fandom », Exhibition », Lists », Toronto International Film Festival »
The Toronto International Film Festival is definitely starting off with a bang this year. First,we learned that TIFF was ignoring the tradition of opening the fest with a Canadian film when Jon Amiel's Creation was selected to kick things off. (Even though there are a few free screenings earlier on Thursday's Day One, plus Lone Scherfig's An Education, which is starting a half hour before Creation around the corner from the opening-night Elgin Theatre.) But at least, while not official, the first TIFF film is actually a screening of Lian Lunson's Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, so some Can-Con informally starts things off.
But this twist was only step one. Next came the protests.
See, the festival is starting a new program this year called City to City, which showcases a group of films that are focused on a particular locale. The inaugural location: Tel Aviv. Soon, many began to protest the lack of Palestinians in the program, likening the choice as part of "the Israeli propaganda machine," and inspiring a group of famous names from Jane Fonda to Danny Glover to sign a statement against the choice. Toronto documentarian John Greyson withdrew his film Covered. Jon Voight spoke out against the statement and Jane Fonda. A Jewish professor in Halifax praised the protest, while others site it as a step towards more Anti-Semitism. And a press conference for the protest is scheduled to compete with the festival's opening day.
Nevertheless, TIFF soldiers on...
Guy Maddin's New Short to Premiere at TIFF!
Filed under: Shorts », Exhibition », Toronto International Film Festival »
If there's a director out there who is deserving a larger audience, it's Guy Maddin. I plan to write more about that another time, but for now, I wanted to direct you to this piece of awesomeness. The Toronto International Film Festival is already planning a pretty killer line-up, and it's now been boosted by Mr. Maddin himself. The NFB has announced that Night Mayor will have its world premiere at the festival. (The picture above is one of the stills from the film.)
As I told you back in March, Night Mayor is a short drama that came out of Maddin's experiences immersed in the NFB archives. That might suggest that this will be some sort of creative montage, but nothing is typical in Maddin's world. The film is set in 1939, when Scottish immigrant John Grierson (father of Brit and Canadian documentary film) founded the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). "The deliberately implausible story portrays Nihad Ademi, a Bosnian immigrant, serving also as Winnipeg's 'night mayor,' who recruits his family to harness the multi-coloured waves of the Aurora Borealis, and use its power to broadcast images of his beloved adoptive country to its identity-starved citizens from coast to coast."
Alas, it's only a short, but hopefully another Maddin fantasia will be on the way soon.
Guy Maddin Celebrates the NFB with a New Film
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Deals »
Usually the insane brilliance of avant garde filmmakers would suffer under outside influence, but thus far, that hasn't been the case with Guy Maddin. On the heels of Brand Upon the Brain!, he gave us My Winnipeg, just about the best feature-length public service announcement or ode to a city one could imagine. It was meant to be part of a Canadian city collection that never materialized, and we can thank our lucky stars that his take ever made it to fruition.And now he's showing the Canadian love again! The NFB has announced that Maddin is making a film called Night Mayor for the NFB's 70th anniversary. There are no details on what this film will entail (not that details ever help describe a Maddin world), but it will be a short drama created after Maddin immersed himself in the NFB archives. "What he has envisioned is an imaginative cinematic riff on the significance of a public film producer."
The Canadian public moviemaking model has created a lot of unique visions over the years (Atom Egoyan, Sarah Polley, David Cronenberg, Don McKellar, Deepa Mehta...) and can you imagine Maddin riffing on any of them?
Follow me on Twitter!
Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 11/24_thumbnail.jpg)
Exclusive 'Nine' Poster Premiere!
Exclusive: Title Track for 'The Road' Soundtrack
Movie Popcorn is Bad for You? Who Knew?
_thumbnail.jpg)
