Goodbye Cumberland Cinema

Last night the Cumberland Cinema located in Yorkville in Toronto went dark. One of the first memories that comes mind was standing in line there during the Toronto International Film Festival and buying a copy of the documentary Loose Change of some dude -- which I think is the perfect way to buy a conspiracy documentary, off of some guy hocking blank DVDs with the title Loose Change written on the silver disc with a sharpie -- and than buying Sushi off the cart the Cumberland would wheel outside during TIFF. There was also that great walk down the alleyway from Bloor street and the movie posters hanging above as you walked towards the theater. Here are some photos I took of the theater in the Summer of 2008.

Double Exposure (1983) A Classic Portrait In Terror!

I love trashy cinema. Films that played at some run down second run theater for a night or maybe a week, a movie whose last stop on the circuit was a drive-in in Indiana. Movies that you cannot find a poster for while searching through images, a cast that may not have any imdb credits. Films with titles that are often preceded by aka.

We live in a world where all information is readily available everywhere and anywhere, we are always connected or so we believe. Recently I drove through the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee and was thrilled to look at my cellular phone and see no signal. It is rare I find myself not connected to the web and that rare feeling of not being connected extends to these "trashy", "drive-in" or the now post Tarantino, Rodriguez everything that was low budget, cheesy, or any kind of genre movie now becomes a "grindhouse" film. Movies that no respectable connoisseur of cinema would ever embrace, the kind of  movies that drift through bargain bin to bargain bin, one small film company to another distribution company, movies that wind up in a pawn shop or a thrift store with several price tags on the box. Which brings me to Lexington, Kentucky.

I was recently in a Half-Priced books in Lexington and came across the Mill Creek Entertainment 32 Drive-In Cult Classic Movie Collection for a price that would average around fifty cents per film. A small price to pay for cinematic lost treasure. As I watched the first film according to the back of the DVD box was entitled Blue Monday (1972) -- which once I put the DVD in -- I learned that the film was actually called Blue Money about a pornographer who is just trying to get by in a cruel business, it struck me that I should write a few things about these films. Why not? I'm not adverse to write about movies. It's just in this Internet information overload age who really gives a fuck what I write about films.

So here it begins, a few thoughts about a film called Double Exposure (1983) -- at least according to the good folks at Mill Creek Entertainment. Also according to those magical all seeing and all knowing gurus at imdb this film fuses together not one, not two but four genres. Comedy, Crime, Drama and Horror. I dimmed the lights and poured a glass of O.J. and prepared for the journey that lie ahead. It begins with a credit sequence that is so outstandingly annoying, so much so that I thought that perhaps the orange juice I was drinking was spiked with some hallucinogenic drug and that the trails I were seeing were not in fact the movie but were my own vision. For a film about a photographer and images I thought this was brilliant. Fuck up the audience early and keep those fuckers unbalanced.

When the Director of Photography credit came across the screen with a shot by the camera operator unable to keep up with an overhead shot of a sports car I knew this film had already endeared itself to me. The film centers around a photographer Adrian Wilde played by Michael Callan who has problems. So much so that when we meet Adrian he is on the couch in his shrink's office. "Every time I'm turned on and the chicks aren't and when they're turned on, I freeze. Every time I think I'm getting better I slide back." and that's just artistically, what about the dreams? "What dreams? The bizarre, crazy dreams."

Adrian may indeed have problems but picking up chicks ain't one of them. He is one smooth-talker... the title may be Double Exposure but the dialogue is pure double-entendre. Watching this film I thought to myself that watching a person go absolutely bat-shit crazy to the point that they may indeed be a serial killer is by a far a great cinematic device. Which makes me pose the query, "What makes good cinema?" Well according to Bill Yates an associate professor at Saint Joseph's college in Maine good cinema can be thought of as such, "If you can engage a person ... then it's great film." Which brings me back to Adrian our hapless photographer suffering from dreams that may or not be real and this movie Double Exposure, which is a compelling, engaging narrative and for my money becomes pure cinema.

As the film unfolds and the ominous music swells our photographer's grasp on sanity and reality begins to slip. What follows is a pretty decent thriller. I really enjoy films that play with the reality of the movie and folds into itself like an accordion. Director William Byron Hillman and Editor Lawrence Bridges do an admirable job playing with the dream and reality of the narrative.

Ultimately Double Exposure is a low rent Hitchockian, Depalma thriller that falls way short of the mark, but of course it falls short of the mark. Hell that's why I watched it in the first place. But where Exposure fails it also succeeds is a film with just enough sleaze, violence and nudity to ensure that in the early eighties it would be seen in a theater, than later the burgeoning home video market and eventually wind up on late night television. If the user ratings on all unknowing one-eyed seer of imdb garner any insight into the matter, you will either love this movie or hate it.

ActionFest 2012 A Collection Still Photographs

I have recently returned from Asheville, NC and the third annual ActionFest. Here are some of my still shots culled from my footage of various panels and Q&As.

                                  
                                        Director of Sinners and Saints William Kaufman

                                     Director William Kaufman with Actor Tom Berenger

                                     Actor Jonny Strong with Director William Kaufman

                                       Legendary Stuntmen Mickey Gilbert and Jack Gill

                                                                Stuntman Jack Gill

                                   Festival Director Colin Geddes with Fight Director J.J. Perry

                                                              Actress Gina Carano

                                                           Actress Gina Carano

                                                    Festival Co-Founder Arron Norris

                                                                      Actor Cung Le

The 2011 Rue Morgue Festival of Fear - Video

Last August saw me return as a videographer for Rue Morgue Magazine. Here is a video featuring some quick intrviews I did with Tom Savini, Victoria Price (daughter of Vincet Price), John Waters et al.

David Cronenberg meets Ken Russell

I have been a videographer capturing many film events from Toronto, Ontario to Austin, Texas for quite some time. Last August at Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear I had the great honor of recording the first time two great filmmakers met. David Cronenberg was the guest of honor at this convention and was speaking at a panel with Rue Morgue's Editor in Chief Dave Alexander when it was brought up that Cronenberg had always wanted to meet fellow filmmaker Ken Russell who was also in attendance. I walked up the aisle with Mr. Russell as he was wheeled up to present Mr. Cronenberg with a lifetime achievement award. Below is my footage, raw unedited, capturing a great moment of two master filmmakers meeting. This footage has taken on greater importance as Mr. Russell passed away on November 27th, 2011.

PETROPOLIS: Ariel Perspectives of the Alberta Tar Sands

                                                Image From treehugger.com 


"The Alberta Tar Sands is now the world's second largest oil reserve." 
                         From The Opening of Petropolis: An Ariel View of the Alberta Tar Sands

The opening shots of PETROPOLIS are of the Northern Boreal Forest of Alberta enshrouded in low cloud cover I was mesmerized. There was no music only the sounds of the birds and nature uninterrupted. The film immediately reminded me of one of my personal favorite films of all time, Koyaaisqatsi my second thought was this film was made by a true Soldier of Cinema. That soldier was Canadian film director Peter Mettler. 


The Tar Sands are very much in the news but recently even more so with a two weeks long sustained protest in Washington D.C. aimed at pressuring the Obama administration with stopping Calgary-based TransCanada Corporation's proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline which would be a contentious pipeline from Alberta to Texas. Canadian writer, journalist Naomi Klein was one of more than a thousand people arrested. 


"Peeling back the forest surface has already displaced more earth than the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramid of Cheops and the ten largest damns of the world combined." 
                                                         
                                                 From Petropolis: Ariel Views of the Alberta Tar Sands

Still From PETROPOLIS: Ariel Perspective of Alberta Tar Sands

Peter Mettler has taken to the air with cameras in what can be the only way to truly show the scope of this vast project which could eventually industrialize an area the size of England. This film is not only a documentary but truly a horror film, a film on par with Gasper Noe's Irreversible. This film is truly showing the rape and plunder of a part of Canada's beautiful wilderness. 


Here is yet another disturbing fact from the film, "Per day, the tar sands operations release as much carbon dioxide as all the cars in Canada."


In a country with such great intellectual wealth should our collective focus not be on the short term plunder of our natural resources for the economy and energy needs but a much more sustained focus on the the environment which can provide not only sustainability but also create new jobs as well as protecting our natural environment?

ActionFest 2011. A small collection of still photographs.

In April I attended the second ActionFest in Asheville, North Carolina as a videographer/blogger. I fell in love with Asheville and the surrounding area immediately. As I write this I have finally begun the process of editing and uploading my footage. Looking through my stills I figured I would share some here:

           Festival Director Colin Geddes with the "Foam Warriors" at the opening night ceremonies.

Legendary Stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker at the tribute to Buddy Joe Hooker panel.

 

Actor/Director Michael Jai White at the NEVER BACK DOWN 2 Q&A

Richard Ryan (Swordmaster on TROY, stunts on THE DARK KNIGHT, Fight coordinator on SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009)

Kung Fu Expert Ric Myers (right) at the introduction for FILMS OF FURY with Festival Director Colin Geddes.

Fight coordinator Larnell Stovall at the Modern Day Fight Coordinators panel.

Trish Stratus, Andrea James Lui and director Patrick McBrearty at the BAIL ENFORCERS Q&A

Buddy Joe Hooker (left) with his lifetime achievement award with Festival Founder Aaron Norris.

Festival Founder Aaron Norris working the crowd during the Stunt Show.