TIME magazine recently published a list of the 100 best films ever made. While the list is mainly populated by already canonized movies (“Citizen Kane”, “Star Wars”, “Dr. Strangelove” and my personal favourite “The 400 Blows”), it also features a film by the late montréal director Jean-Claude Lauzon. Léolo (1992) which got a very positive review in the magazine back in 1993 made its way to the top 100.

“For a movie that worms inside a child’s hopes and fears, that understands how kids can be both shaped by their family and in righteous rebellion against it, you should see—immediately—Leolo”. —TIME Magazine, Apr. 5, 1993

The complete list and the full review of “Léolo” are available at the following URL;

La prochaine rencontre de la Coalition cinéma se tiendra à la CASA OBSCURA LUNDI LE 23 MAI PROCHAIN À 19H00 (4381 PAPINEAU À MONTRÉAL). Nous invitons tous ceux qui nousnécrivent à venir pour participer aux différents groupes de travail qui ont été formé.
Comme vousle savez, les causes ne manquent pas !

Ces jours-ci, l’urgence est au documentaire et à l’animation, car le commissaire Jacques Bensimon a très sérieusement coupé les budgets de production à tel point que l’avenir du Programme français est menacé.

Plusieurs propositions d’actions à entreprendre sont sur la table de travail. Nous en discuterons lundi prochain. Dans l’urgence, une carte postale adressée à la ministre circule afin de signaler notre inquiétude vis-à-vis de l’application de certaines politiques qui mettent en péril la diversité artistique, ainsi que les conditions de création des artistes et professionnels du cinéma.

Shannon Bramer (The Refrigerator Memory), Stephen Cain (American Standard / Canada Dry) and Sherwin Tjia (The World is a Heartbreaker) read at Pharmacie Esperanza with Corey Frost, author of The Worthwhile Flux (Conundrum Press) and Genevieve McClean. Music by Amber Goodwyn.

The World Is a Heartbreaker inaugurates a new subgenre: imposter poetry. This collection is a set of 1600 pseudohaikus, bite-sized chunks of poetic goodness shotgunned at the distracted masses. What’s a pseudohaiku? It’s the poetry of pure indulgence, a three-liner without the constraint, the pretension or the 5–7–5 syllable form. The subject matter? Relationships, cats, insecurities – themes recur and build into a kind of non-linear narrative. These micropoems are easily digestible yet remarkably acute, a catalogue of scattered thoughts and pointed observations that go down like potato chips – betcha can’t read just one. Sometimes sexy, sometimes scandalous, sometimes sentimental, but always three lines long, these pseudohaikus are the future of poetry in a world awash with sound bites, news clips, catchphrases. There are no pleasures like the guilty ones.

Sherwin Tjia is a Montreal-based poet and painter. He has exhibited widely and works as a medical illustrator for McGill University. He is the author of “Pedigree Girls” (comic strips) and “Gentle Fictions” (poetry), both from Insomniac. Recently, he illustrated JonArno Lawson’s “The Man in the Moon-Fixer’s Mask” (Pedlar). A second “Pedigree Girls” collection will be published by UK-based Saqi Books in spring 2005.

“Quand il ne tournait pas, Gilles Carle peignait, dessinait, que ce soit dans sa maison du square Saint-Louis ou de l’île Verte. Des créations thématiques, des autoportraits, mais également des portraits de ses amis et de sa muse, Chloé Sainte-Marie. On peut voir ces oeuvres depuis le 16 dans une salle aménagée au rez-de-chaussée du siège social de Loto-Québec.”

Gilles Carle, le cinéaste, le peintre et l’homme…* est présenté jusqu’au 26 juin à Espace Création Loto-Québec, rue Sherbrooke Ouest. Les portes sont ouvertes de 11h à 18h, du mercredi au vendredi, et de midi à 17h, les samedis et dimanches. L’entrée est gratuite.

L’International du Cinéma Hip Hop is a collective seeking to encourage and exalt positive and inclusive Hip Hop culture, while cultivating the understanding of Hip Hop cinema and its connection to perception. We intend to create a safe and open environment for personal expression though films and docs that examine the diversities of modern Hip Hop culture: Music, Dance, Visual Arts and Scholarship.

The success of Canada’s first International Hip Hop Film Festival in Vancouver last September 1st-5th 2004 has given way to renewed enthusiasm amongst the Festival’s organizers. The diverse and unified collective, composed of young professionals, has cooked up a grandiose curriculum for the Montréal version. In addition to films & documentaries, the Festival will also host Art exhibits, book launches, panels, cocktails, spoken-word night and soirées with some of the City’s best Hip Hop acts, performers, emcees and deejays.

All movies and documentaries, unless indicated otherwise, will be showed at the JA de Sève Cinéma,located in the Library Building (Ground floor) of Concordia University. 1400, de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montréal. Tickets will be sold in the foyer of JA de Sève Cinema prior to each showing, at $6.00 per ticket. Tickets will be available as early as one hour prior to projections.

The full schedule is available on their website.

Early 70’s US-based Video Collectives presented by Dara Greenwald

A talk about the early decentralized television movement in the US and a screening of rare, recently preserved clips of videos documenting political and cultural movements – including Fred Hampton’s last interview, the first Women’s Liberation March, and a pirate TV station. The discussion will also explore the challenges of archiving and preserving video – a quickly degrading medium. Including Fred Hampton’s (Black Panthers) last interview!

Dara Greenwald has worked at the Video Data Bank since 1998 (http://www.vdb.org). She is an educator, artist, and engaged cultural worker. She has been working on preserving a large collection of obsolete format videos from the early 70’s. You can see her other projects at http://www.daragreenwald.com and http://www.pinkbloque.org.

Stencil Pirates: A History of Street Stenciling

An in-depth slide presentation on the 15,000 year history of street stenciling. From caves in France to 1930’s Spain to 1970’s South Africa to 1980’s New York City to the present, this presentation delves deep into the uses, motivations and practices of hundreds
of years of stencil artists and activist. Josh MacPhee is a street artist, designer, curator, author and activist. His first book, Stencil Pirates: A Global Survey of Street Stenciling, was published in July 2004 by Soft Skull Press. He is currently working on a number of other books, including a book about political street art to be published in 2006 on AK Press. He also runs a radical art distribution project, justseeds.org and organizes the Celebrate People’s History Poster Project.

See his work at http://www.justseeds.org, http://www.stencilpirates.org and http://www.counterproductiveindustries.com.

La mort lente (et planifiée) du Programme français de l’ONF
Par Marie-Claude Loiselle (Rédactrice en chef, revue 24 Images)

Vous pouvez consulter l’article de Marie-Claude Loiselle sur l’abolition du Programme français de l’ONF publié dans le Devoir du 17 mai au lien ci-dessous.

“On n’installe pas sans couvrir un sombre dessein un tel régime de terreur. Il y avait un plan à exécuter, qui n’est rien de moins que de nier la spécificité du Programme français en le noyant dans une vaste structure onéfienne coast to coast, indifférenciée, nivelée. Or, comme cela n’aurait évidemment pas reçu l’assentiment général, il fallait donc faire en sorte de l’imposer… de force. Une atteinte radicale à l’autonomie du Programme français a été décidée et mise en oeuvre sans que personne, à aucun moment, ait été consulté ni même informé de ce qui se préparait !”

Les amateurs du cinéma will be taking over the Cinema l’Amour for a spectacular soirée of films from emerging cinéastes.

The Cinema Students’ Association (CSA) presents the best works made in the undergraduate film production and film animation departments this year! A special jury will choose among the 12 films presented to award prizes from our sponsors: Technicolor, La Boite Noir, Cinema du Parc, American Apparel.

$6 students
$7 everyone else
(tickets at the door)

SPECIAL JURY
Peter Wintonick – documentarist (Manufacturing Consent) Astria Suparak – superstar curator Jay Baruchel – actor (Million Dollar Baby, etc) Shira Avni – NFB animator Julie Huguet – Silence, on court! & ONF

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 are available at the NFB box office for $10 ($7 for students).

Presented as part of the Montreal Jewish Film Festival

On Friday, MAY 13, 2005 we’ll be celebrating the release of SYNOPTIQUE 9 with a benefit concert and short-film programme (curated by Brett Kashmere) at Main Hall, 5390 St. Laurent, Montreal.

When: Friday May 13th, 2005; doors go at 8:00

Where: Main Hall, 5390 St. Laurent. Just below St. Viateur.

What: At 8:30 a film program selected by Concordia’s Brett Kashmere, entitled Original Copy will be screened. Then, music with Alden and Adam, The Remains of Brian Borcherdt, and The Besnard Lakes.

Tickets are cheap ($5 in advance and $7 at the door) and on sale at: CD Esoterik and Cheap Thrills.

*** PRESENTED BY CJLO ***

ORIGINAL COPY
PROGRAMMED BY BRETT KASHMERE

EYE MYTH EDUCATIONAL :: STAN BRAKHAGE
BACKSTROKE :: TROY RHOADES
CINEMA AND VISUAL PLEASURE :: ANNIE MACDONELL
CHIASMUS :: DAICHI SAITO
BREATH :: KELLY EGAN
CHASMIC DANCE :: DAICHI SAITO
BUFFALO LIFTS :: CHRISTINA BATTLE
PLANE :: KARA BLAKE
WATERWORX :: RICK HANCOX
PARADISE FALLS, NEW MEXICO :: CHRISTINA BATTLE

AND MORE