Film appreciation 101
FILM + MUSIC STORIES AT THE BLOOR: Seasoned students of cinema may feel like they just wrapped up another crash course when TIFF finished last weekend. But even the city’s most committed cinephiles will have something to learn from a 15-part series that screens at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema over the next two months. The Story of Film was adapted by Irish critic and filmmaker Mark Cousins by his like-titled primer. Straying from the Hollywood-centric nature of many such surveys, Cousins’ series does not neglect the key contributions by filmmakers and innovators from Europe, Asia and many other parts of the world to the development of the art form. Nor is Cousins’ treatment of the subject excessively scholarly — instead, it’s as playful as it is insightful. Those who missed The Story of Film when it played in a marathon screening at TIFF in 2011 can see it in more manageable installments at the Bloor, starting with the first two episodes on Sept. 23 and 25. The theatre has two more new titles this week. In Wagner & Me — a British doc that has multiple screenings Sept. 21 to 27 — the ever-amiable Stephen Fry tries to reconcile his lifelong obsession with Richard Wagner’s music with the uglier side of the German composer’s legacy, which includes his historical association with Nazism and anti-Semitism. A look at a more contemporary musical figure, Wish Me Away tells the story of country singer and songwriter Chely Wright and the events leading up to her decision to come out of the closet, a tricky matter for a performer in a genre that tends to be politically and socially conservative. It plays Sept. 26-27.
LEGEND OF A WARRIOR AT THE METRO: Looking to connect with the father he barely knew, filmmaker Corey Lee chose an unusually arduous way to go about it. A new NFB documentary that opens at the Projection Booth’s East and newly revamped Metro locations this weekend, Legend of a Warrior recounts the six months that Lee spent training at the gym run by his dad Frank Lee, a martial-arts master who remains a fearsome fighter well into his golden years. A recent world premiere at Hot Docs, it returns for a theatrical run on Sept. 21. It has the honour of inaugurating a new program of arthouse offerings at the Metro, the longtime porn cinema at Bloor and Manning that has been thoroughly sanitized for its new duties.
ROLLER TOWN: Picnicface apparently have a thing for tight pants, tube tops and hot four-wheeled action. The first big-screen outing for the Halifax comedy troupe who have been hailed as successors to the Kids in the Hall, Roller Town is an affectionate and sometimes hilarious homage to Roller Boogie, Skatetown U.S.A. and other movies that capitalized on America’s brief but intense love affair with roller disco. Can you dig it? You really should. It opens Friday at the Cineplex Yonge-Dundas.
HEAD GAMES: Revelations about the dangers of brain traumas have rocked the sports world in recent years. Hoop Dreams director Steve James weighs in with Head Games, a documentary that makes its Toronto premiere this week. Sportscaster Bob Costas and NHL great Keith Primeau are among the interview subjects in James’ new film, which was based on the book of the same name by WWE wrestler turned concussion expert Christopher Nowinski. Head Games opens Friday at the Royal. (No helmets required.)
EPICURE’S REVUE: A 1992 Mexican hit that mixed matters romantic and culinary, Like Water for Chocolate plays the Revue Cinema this week as part of the Epicure’s Revue, the west-end cinema’s program of film-and-food pairings. Offerings from local foodie hotspots include tostadas from Balluchon, spicy Mexican chocolate taster bars from the Chocolateria and smoked chorizo sausage tostadas from Barque. Chef Joshna Maharaj serves as host for the licensed event, which takes place Sept. 27 at 6:30 p.m.
STRATFORD ENCORES: Though the Stratford Festival remains dedicated to maintaining the traditions of the stage world, it still had the good sense to preserve several recent productions using technology that most definitely postdates the Bard. Cineplex presents encore HD screenings of three productions, starting with the 2010 mounting of The Tempest starring Christopher Plummer. It plays Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. at eight area theatres including the Scotiabank Theatre. Viewers can also catch repeats of Caesar and Cleopatra (Oct. 18) and Twelfth Night (Nov. 15).
DEEP STATE: The recent history of political radicalism gets an appropriately provocative treatment in Deep State, a new film that makes its Canadian premiere in Pleasure Dome’s fall program. This 45-minute work was created by British film and installation artists Karen Mirza and Brad Butler in collaboration with science-fiction writer China Miéville. Drawing from new and archival footage of protests, pickets and street battles, this docu-fiction hybrid seeks to expose hidden structures and systems of power, violence and repression. So if your week is light when it comes to cinematic assaults on the tenets of neoliberalism, be sure to see Deep State on Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. at Cinecycle (129 Spadina Ave., rear) with Mirza and Butler in attendance. The screening is part of The House of the Unexpected, a series of events, workshops and an exhibition by the artists co-presented by SAVAC and the Blackwood Gallery, which runs until Oct. 14.