Brett Kashmere’s notes for the upcoming short-film programme ORIGINAL COPY are now available. ORIGINAL COPY screens tomorrow night at 8:30 pm at Main Hall, as part of the SYNOPTIQUE BENEFIT show.

ORIGINAL COPY Notes:
http://www.synoptique.ca/archives/edition9/o_copy_notes.htm

Synoptique Benefit:
http://blog.synoptique.ca/lib/blog/unq/198/

From Laurel Wypkema:

“Albert Maysles will be giving a master class and presenting part of his upcoming film, a work-in-progress, “The Jew on Trial” this Sunday, May 15 at 3:30 at the NFB Cinema. Tickets go on sale today, May 11 and are available at the NFB box office for $10 ($7 for students). Maybe we can all take him to lunch and pick his brain after….”

– Since 1995, the Montreal Jewish Film Festival (MJFF) has presented an array of outstanding films that have left their mark on all peoples of the world. How can one forget that life is beautiful after watching Roberto Benigni’s film, or that a man’s struggle to survive can be so poignant, as Roman Polanski’s pianist reminds us, or that marriage can come late in life, as Hatuna Mehuheret demonstrates? We have experienced a spectrum of emotions, we have travelled great distances, and this year’s festival will take viewers even further. For its 10th edition, the MJFF is presenting films focus on the theme of humanity. The objective? To offer another way to see the world!

Susan Alper, the director and founder of the MJFF, has assembled her most ambitious program yet: 41 films from 15 countries, including 5 from Canada, and for the first time, 2 films on Brazil. Twenty-one shorts and 20 feature-length films, including 7 films in French or subtitled in French and 34 films in English, Spanish, Arab, Italian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Flemish and Norwegian, subtitled in English, will be presented at Montreal’s four most striking theatres. LOST EMBRACE by Daniel Burman (Grand Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Actor—Daniel Hendler—at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival) will open the MJFF at the Imperial Cinema on May 10, after which the festival will continue at the Cinémathèque québécoise, the NFB Cinema and Ex-Centris until May 19. Now a fixture on Montreal’s cultural landscape, the MJFF will unfold from May 10 to 19, 2005. For further information, phone (514) 448-5610 or visit our website at http://www.mjff.qc.ca

For its 6th edition, Elektra is still set on introducing works and artists that crossbreed leading electronic music and visual art. Tonight, the acclaimed Sheffield, England duo Autechre will open Elektra as part of their ongoing North American tour. They will treat Montrealers to live manipulations of the angular, disjointed rhythms found on their new album. Autechre will be preceded by a live performance by snd and a set by Rob Hall. Presented in collaboration with Gillett Entertainment Group.

As one of the largest events in North America dedicated to the digital arts, Elektra is broadening its horizons for this new edition by integrating into its program interactive works set in public venues, sound installations, new media and conferences on motion design. So, Elektra also welcome Belgium’s Front 242 to Metropolis on May 14. This will be their first performance in North America in several years, a benefit show marking the eagerly awaited return of one of electronic music’s most influential groups. These pioneers of “EBM” (electronic body music) will undoubtedly wow fans with their blend of synthesized voices, military marches and pop.

Over the entire course of the event, a number of audio and interactive installations will be presented across the city.

Animation Students present their 2005 Animation Festival at Hall Building, Tuesday, May 10th from 7pm to 10pm EDT, although please give generously at the door as they modestly suggest a $2 donation.

Preparations are still underway for the SYNOPTIQUE BENEFIT: A night of short film screenings, music, indecorum, cinema community. We received this pithy e-mail from Brett Kashmere, the curator of the short film programme he calls Original Copy:

ORIGINAL COPY
Rework, re-edit, reroute. Transform, translate,
disrupt the surface. Speed up, slow down, zoom in,
superimpose. Multiply, magnify, erase. Repeat.
Start over.

Films by Christina Battle, Kara Blake, Stan Brakhage,
Kelly Egan, Rick Hancox, Annie MacDonell, Troy
Rhoades, Daïchi Saïto and more.

Advance tickets are cheap: 5 bucks at CD Esoterik and Cheap Thrills. $7 at the door.

On Monday, May 9th 2005, there will be a showcase of Experimental and Documentary work from Concordia’s production programme. A $5 donation is suggested.

So, this is Montreal’s new cinema events blog. SYNOPTIC CINEMA MONTREAL (or synopticinemontreal as we affectionately prefer to type it) is part-blog-part-events-calendar: it’s designed as a one-stop-shop for a comprehensive view of what’s happening week by week in Montreal’s cinema community. It is currently maintained by staffers of Synoptique, the film journal that hosts the site. But that’s just for starters. We’re looking for blogger-meisters from all over Montreal. We want different perspectives, fresh perspectives. The idea is to provide a synoptic sense of cinema happenings in Montreal.

If you have a cinema event you’d like posted (including casting calls), please e-mail us at events@blog.synoptique.ca

If you’d like to become a blogger on this site, please e-mail a short letter to info@blog.synoptique.ca telling us why cinema is worth sharing.

We publish in both French and English.

Two things happen on this site:

1. Events posting. Those appear in reddish/pinkish. Clicking on any day on the calendar to the right will list events for that day. Above the calendar is a list of all the upcoming events. Events are “posted” to appear on the day they occur.

2. Announcements/Commentary/Everything else. Our cinema related blogging appears in yellow. We’ll be posting extra information on events, commentary on past events, commentary on current films and DVDs, picks of the week, interesting sites to check out, and just about anything that crosses our minds.

And this will also be a forum for long and hard looks. Funding for the arts, government policy, institutional bottlenecks, stagnant scenes, what-were-they-thinking?. Cinema is art, entertainment, politics. This is a place to keep informed. To keep inspired.

Enjoy. And we look forward to reading your comments. (Click here to leave your comments).

Sunday, May 8th offers a night of Student Narrative Fiction Films at the Hall Building, at Concordia University. It begins at 7pm EDT.

Dan Cross’ Third Year Film Production year end screenings, held on Saturday, May 7, 2005 AD, at Concordia University’s Hall Building beginning at 7pm EDT.