Utopia Media Buys Documentary ‘Dope Is Death’

By Brent Lang. Photo: EyeSteelFilm. Source: variety.com

Utopia has acquired “Dope Is Death,” a look at the establishment of an unconventional detoxification program in the Bronx in the early 1970s to deal with the heroin epidemic.

The sale took place in advance of the film’s screening in November at DOC NYC. Mia Donovan, who previously helmed “Inside Lara Roxx” and “Deprogrammed,” directed the film.

“Dope Is Death” centers on Dr. Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of Tupac Shakur, and a coalition of left-wing activists from the Young Lords and Black Panthers, who combined community health with radical politics to create Lincoln Detox, the first acupuncture detoxification program in America.

Read more…


Hot Docs: ‘The Walrus and the Whistleblower’ Wins Top Audience Award

By Etan Vlessing. Photo: Hot Docs. Source: hollywoodreporter.com

Nathalie Bibeau’s The Walrus and the Whistleblower, about a former trainer at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, turned whistleblower, on Sunday picked up the top Audience Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, which was forced online this year by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Read more…


Tim Roth To Exec Produce British Dance Feature ‘Hilda’; Premieres At Raindance Film Festival

By Peter White. Photo: Odds On. Source: deadline.com

The film, which is directed by Rishi Pelham, stars Megan Purvis (The Audition), newcomer Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Tessa Hatchet, Catherine Adams (Fears), Stanley Rawlings (Boiling Point) and Alex Humes (Britannia).

Hilda is a gritty drama set in modern-day London. Nearing her final year of school, Hilda must contend with the abandonment of her parents and the dependency of young siblings. With fiery determination locked behind a deadpan stoicism, Hilda depends on dance to keep the enclosing chaos at bay. Nassim Mniai and Tomos Roberts produce.

Read more…


Some ‘Superpower Dogs’ get the star treatment in a new IMAX film

By Susan King. Photo: IMAX/Cosmic Picture. Source: latimes.com

Not all superheroes wear capes or have powers that enable them to leap tall buildings with a single bound or wield a heavenly hammer. Sometimes they just have cold noses and four strong paws.

But man’s best friend’s devotion to getting the job done, courage and empathy have saved countless lives, whether it’s rescuing survivors from disaster areas or helping war veterans with their psychological issues.

The new IMAX movie “Superpower Dogs,” opening Saturday at the California Science Center, follows six brave and accomplished canines.

Read more…


The Lion’s Path

By Marc Savlov. Photo: Funfilm. Source: austinchronicle.com

This debut feature from Québecoise director Stéphan Beaudoin gets high marks for its excellent ensemble cast and its clever and occasionally alarming portrait of a communal psychotherapy group in rural Canada and the manipulative mind games that go on there.

In that regard, it’s a second cousin/cousine of sorts to David Cronenberg’s The Brood, although audience members hoping for the therapeutic and gore-drenched histrionics of Oliver Reed’s Dr. Hal Raglan will come away disappointed;

Read more…


Jutra Quebec film nominations

By Montreal Gazette. Photo: Sylvain Légaré. Source: montrealgazette.com

Corbo and La Passion d’Augustine each got 10 nominations for the Jutra Quebec film awards and will compete with Félix et Meira, Les être chers and Les démons for the best film.
[…]
L’amour au temps de la guerre civile: 3 nominations
Best actor (Alexandre Landry), supporting actress (Catherine-Audrey Lachapelleet), supporting actor (Jean-Simon Leduc)

Read more…


‘Love,’ Gaspar Noé’s Romance Told Through Sex

By Jeannette Catsoulis. Photo: Alchemy. Source: nytimes.com

“Love,” the fourth, and easily the least unsettling, feature from the Argentine director Gaspar Noé, has but one goal: To tell the story of a romance entirely through sex. This ambition may be straightforward, but it is far from simple, as will become abundantly clear if you closely monitor your responses to its unsimulated explicitness.

You’ll have plenty of opportunity, as Mr. Noé gets down to business immediately with an interlude of mutual masturbation that introduces Murphy (Karl Glusman), an American film student living in Paris, and his lover, Electra (Aomi Muyock).

Read more…


Patrick Bernatchez: Absurd scenarios and meditations on time

By John Pohl. Photo: Patrick Bernatchez. Source: montrealgazette.com

[…]
In the film Lost in Time, the watch is discovered buried in an Arctic landscape. The film opens with a man on horseback, whose costume suggests both a knight and an astronaut, a scene borrowed from Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. Lost in Time includes Bach’s Goldberg variations, which Gould interpreted.

Bernatchez sees the film as a confrontation between subconscious urges and the conscious mind that tries to inhibit them. The horse, which represents instinct, leaves on its own when it disagrees with the rational man. Both freeze, but it’s the horse that is reborn when a block of ice is found and thawed out.

Read more…


TIFF 2015 to open with Jake Gyllenhaal in Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition

By The Canadian Press. Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images. Source: cbc.ca

Quebec director’s Jean-Marc Vallée’s collaboration with Jake Gyllenhaal, an outer space thriller starring Matt Damon and a gangster film topped by Johnny Depp are among the films heading to the Toronto International Film Festival this September.
[…]
Gyllenhaal stars in Demolition, Vallée’s first movie since the Oscar-nominated Wild. The film will open the festival.

Read more…


‘Self/less’ returns to movie immortality

By Brian Truitt. Photo: Hilary Bronwyn Gale. Source: usatoday.com

Who wants to live forever? A bunch of ambitious movie characters.

Juan Ponce de Leon may have been looking for the Fountain of Youth back in the 16th century, but pop culture more recently has offered all sorts of ways to explore immortality, from the search for the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to pretty much every vampire movie ever.

The new thriller Self/less (in theaters Friday) puts a scientific spin on those themes. Directed by Tarsem Singh (Immortals), the plot centers on wealthy New York industrialist Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley), who is constantly reminded how his cancer-ridden body is failing him.

Read more…