A while back we heard about "Platform" one the new initiatives for the 40th running of the Toronto International Film Festival. Platform is designed to "champion director's cinema" around the world with a $25,000 prize.
The recent news is that a three-person jury has been announced to oversee the selection of a winner. The chosen few certainly know a little about "director's cinema."
The troika of luminaries starts with Chinese director Jia Zhangke, known for 2006's Golden Lion winner Still Life, French-maestro Claire Denis who has directed films like Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum and Bastards, and last but not least, the director of Europa Europa, Poland's Agnieszka Holland.
“We are thankful to these visionary filmmakers for making the time to join us this September. We can’t wait for the conversations they’ll have about the Platform films,” said Cameron Bailey, artistic director for TIFF in a press release.
You could do worse.
Screening Round-up
The Revue Cinema has a screening of Monte Hellman's cult classic Two-Lane Blacktop Sunday July 19 at 7 p.m. There's nothing better than gritty 1970's American melancholia, the open road, and classic cars. Warren Oates in his GTO races James Taylor and Dennis Wilson in their '55 Chevy to New York with each other's wheels on the line.
Penelope Spheeris's The Decline of Western Civilization is one of the great cult music docs and you can catch it at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Saturday at 9:30 p.m. As you may well know, it goes into the punk subculture of Los Angeles at the end of the 1970s. You get footage of bands like Black Flag, X and a whole lot of nihilism to go with it. And you know that Spheeris went on to direct Wayne's World, right?
Full disclosure: I have never seen Light Blast, but you have to give these Video Vengeance folk credit for some inspired dumpster diving. Light Blast comes from director Enzo G. Castellari (he also directed the 1978 flick The Inglorious Bastards with Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson – someone must have seen it at some point while working in a video store, maybe one called Video Archives?) and stars Erik Estrada, blood and cars. Arrive at 8 p.m. at 229 Geary Ave. this Sunday at the aptly named venue of Kitch. The [s] is silent(?)
We covered TIFF's awesome Dreaming in Technicolor summer programme a few weeks back, but I would be remiss not to mention again that Guy Maddin is "teaching" a master class on Douglas Sirk's Magnificent Obsession Saturday at 6 p.m. Tickets here.
Toronto Screengrab of the Week
No takers from last week so I will offer up a second-chance in the form of the film's less successful sequel.
