Canadian Cinema in Revue
Canadian Cinema in Revue is a screening series devoted bringing great Canadian films back to the big screen. Curated by blogger, critic and filmmaker Alan Bacchus, Canadian Cinema in Revue, recent winner of Best Revival Programming in NOW Toronto, showcases innovative and entertaining features, related short films and the people who made them.
Since June 2009, CCiR has hosted seven events at Toronto’s historic Revue Cinema. From Vincenzo Natali’s high concept sci-fi thriller CUBE to David Christensen’s art house psychological drama SIX FIGURES, CCiR looks to find those underappreciated or sorely neglected films of the past to bring back into the limelight and re-expose film lovers to our Canadian talent.
Each feature screening is preceded by a similarly themed short film and is capped with a question and answer session with the filmmakers. Not bound by barriers of distance, The Revue has been able to create live Skype link-ups on the big screen to Vancouver, Los Angeles and London in order to interactively connect the filmmakers with its audiences.
Wearing the bear suit.
There’s something about grizzly bears that just makes people go mad. Peter Lynch’s classic documentary Project Grizzly, which gets the Canadian Cinema in Revue treatment this month, would make a good companion piece to Werner Herzog’s equally great though more well-known Grizzly Man. Both films tell stories of psychologically-challenged mad men who, in the name of science, are motivated as much by a quest for personal fame as they are by the research they purport to be conducting.
Lynch’s hero is Troy Hurtubise who, after a chance meeting in the woods with a grizzly bear left him mesmerized with the animal, took it upon himself to build a suit of armour impenetrable to bear attacks, thus allowing him to study them up close. ‘Moby Dick’ this is not, but his hubris is as large as Captain Ahab's, and his perseverance may be greater. It makes for an irreverent and unintentionally hilarious peek into one man’s delusions of grandeur. After its release in 1996, Grizzly Man instantly gained a cult following not only in Canada but around the world. In addition to being parodied on The Simpsons, Lynch and the film gained even more cine-cred when Quentin Tarantino named it his favourite film of that year. Director Peter Lynch will be present for a Q&A after the screening.
This screening is presented with the support of The First Weekend Club, the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, and Daily Film Dose.com. Tickets for the screening will be $8 for members of The Revue and sponsoring groups; $10 non-members.
For more information: Contact Alan Bacchus at (416) 579-9109 or albacchus@hotmail.com