TEHRAN TABOO (Directed by Ali Soozandeh) ****

This exquisitely animated feature uses rotoscope to create a remarkably realistic rendering of characters caught in the jaws of Islamic hypocrisy. They include a musician in need of finding money to give to a girl he thinks he got pregnant; a woman who induces abortions to escape her husband’s hold; another woman who whores herself out to a judge to get papers to divorce her husband. Her child is mute but he, like us, watches the drama unfold. Restrictive Iran forces people to live well below the radar to survive. But some get caught or others take their own lives to avoid shame. Freedom and happiness are not within their reach. A wonderful film that daringly shows how bad things are, and how like everyone else, people can do awful things to fulfil their own agenda. Women are the ones who suffer under the male yoke there. This is a German-Austrian co-production.

ATTACK OF THE SOUTHERN FRIED ZOMBIES (Directed by Mark Newton) ***

 Meat pies and the killer corp kudzu seem to be a big part of the Zombie transformation.  This vicious crop is killing all and turning them into zombies. But Lonnie - who flies a dust crop plane -- leads his marginalized group of Zombie-fighters. They're stuck having to take them all out.  Fun horror but so gory, you'll never want to eat a meat pie again. What an entertaining kudzu-kitsch movie to watch! Great for Montreal’s Fantasia Festival if it’s selected. It should be. 

FESTIVAL ACCES ASIA: SIX FABULOUS CONCERTS

Oracle Bones , Friday May 4 at 8pm at  Sala Rossa 4848 St-Laurent  

Indivisible , From Thursday May 10^th to Sunday May 13^th, 8pm at MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) 3680, Jeanne-Mance

Eau douce, Eau trouble, Friday May 11^th 8pm, at Gesù – Centre de créativité 1200, de Bleury

Strings of Romance, INDIAN MUSIC CONCERT, Saturday May 12^th 7:30pm,  at  Bourgie Hall  Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal 1339, Sherbrooke W.

Golestan, Friday May 18^th 8pm, at Sala Rossa 4848, St-Laurent

Wind of Asia – 7^th edition, OUTDOORS EVENTS, Saturday May 26^th 2pm to 5pm, at Jardins Gamelin Place Émilie-Gamelin

PEEK PREVIEW OF MY NEW CREATION

TAPPING TANGO  is my new animation film about two payphones in a Montreal metro who tap and tango their way into love. 

Have a look

 

         Attention: Distributors and festival programmers! 

View TAPPING TANGO  in its entirety. 

Contact me at: hovecreekproductions@gmail.com   

 Looking forward to its public premier!

WINTER CALLING ME AGAIN AT CAP SAINT- JACQUES:

                                  BACK AGAIN EXACTLY A YEAR LATER
It was sunny - just as it was February 18^th one year ago - almost to the day. Once again, I was greeted with smiles and assistance. Christine, who is in charge of rentals right inside the welcome centre fit me out with Rossignol cross-country skis and boots. I tossed the ones I had brought from home into their inner room. I felt great knowing I was using the park’s top-of-the-line skis and was not fearful of going alone on the trails (last winter Diego, one of the park guides) accompanied me. This is one park whose signs of where you are with different trails (rabbit, beavers and squirrel) are well indicated and in colour.

In this office, I also met Eric, who grooms the trails. What an interesting guy! He’s a tree man, an arborist who also reads a lot about them. In fact, he’s right at home in this park, since the Cap is laden with them.  many are being tapped for maple syrup season.

The trails aren’t hilly but still form fun gentle mounds for a gliding that give a hint of an adrenaline rush. 

 The snow was melting; it was kind of crispy-sugary. I fell at one point on a small icy spot and couldn’t get up. Celine, whom I met on the trial five minutes earlier tried to pick me up. She too fell at the exact same spot. Fortunately, a young woman appeared and hoisted me back up; I was amazed at her strength. She blurted out laughing, “I’m a fire fighter. You have to be strong.” When I got back to the welcome centre, another woman who had seen it all, told me the fire fighter fell about a minute later. 

                                                                We laughed.

I took the yellow beaver trail that’s just a bit more than 6 kilometres. I was glad to see how much snow there was, to see the lakes again that give expansive views to other towns, including Oka.

Here I was, only 30 minutes from Montreal, but the relaxed treed landscape , cut through by winding trails edged in stream and lakes,  transported me into a realm of peace, prettiness and awfully friendly folk inside the park.

Read about last winter and summer at the park

ARION BAROQUE ORCHESTRA INVIGORATES WITH ITALIAN PROGRAM

Bourgie Hall. February 11^th concert 

From the very first concerto highlighting the Teatro Alla Moda theme in Arion’s third concert of the season, the composer Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco  proved to be the perfect choice to contrast  February’s dreary weather.  Sweet subtle inflections of delicately executed pairings of strings with harpsichord- harmonizing  created a stylish French lightness . Rhythmically uplifting, this concerto in D major put us all in a spirited mood exemplified by the guest violinist Amandine Beyer. 

 Indeed, her casual manner of dress  and winning, warm smile made us feel we had been invited to an informal  cheerful gathering of gorgeous  baroque music.

The second offering was by Francesco Maria Veracini . Moving into a minor key, it was really interesting as the two flutes - beautifully played by Claire Guimond and Alexa Raine-Wright -  profoundly delved into plaintive emotions that lushly contrasted with sparse yet impeccable plucking on the strings.  

We were introduced to composers whose works swelled both with joy quelled by passages of melancholy. These gifted Italian-born geniuses included Albinoni, Marcello, Locatelli and Gallo. In each work the orchestra expressed a cohesive instinctive understanding in the music. This affinity stunningly conveyed varying emotional intensity.

The final piece highlighted Ms. Beyer’s virtuoso playing as she tackled Vivaldi’s Concerto in E minor for violin, strings and double bass. Tempestuous in parts, ghostly, moody, and furiously feverish, this,  exciting work  surely embodies the prolific composer’s dramatic side. We must remember that though styles of music have changed throughout the centuries, human beings’ emotions have not. What a thrilling combination to hear 400-year-old music performed by brilliant musicians – artists whose emotional depth captures this span of centuries the moment their bows touch their instruments!

Arion Baroque Orchestra’s next concert takes place April 11 -15. Bach, Handel, Quantz and Telemann are featured along with guest soloist Boris Begelman. 
The website is www.arionbaroque.com.

Call (514) 355-1825.

2018 OSCAR NOMINATED 2018 ANIMATION FILMS

Lots of fun pickings here, but my favourite is from the UK. In Revolting Rhymes by Jakob Schuh  and Jan Lachauer, these two directors took Roald Dahl's  kids' book and merged Snow White's daughter. Sleeping Beauty Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little pigs into a one-story-line connection where all these characters conspire to have what they want, and they will go to any ends to get it. Narrated in verse, the narratives are utterly compelling and rawer than any child would want to witness, especially at bedtime.

 

Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball was a tribute to his basketball which he loved and cuddled since he was  six years old. Primitive line drawing with some outlines in colour give a nostalgic eternal look to the film. Bryant directed it with Glen Keane. It is the basketball star’s swan song executed with restraint yet emotion too. 

  

Another touching piece titled Negative Space shows a boy talking about how to pack his suitcase in the way his father taught him. This is how they bonded, but hid dad was so often away. Before he would go, his son would pack his suitcase for him, and when his father called him he would say, “perfect”. That was how love was expressed each to the other – in a suitcase. 

There are more delightful creative ones to enjoy, but these were the ones I liked the most.

 Cinema du Parc in Montreal announces these Oscar contenders.

Dear Basketball – Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant, USA, 5 minutes

Negative Space – Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata, France, 5 minutes

Lou – Dave Mullins and Dana Murray, USA, 7 minutes

Revolting Rhymes – Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer, UK, 29 minutes

Garden Party – Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon, France 7 minutes

Lost Property Office (additional film) – Daniel Agdag, Australia, 10 minutes

Coin Operated (additional film) – Nicholas Arioli, USA, 5 minutes

Achoo (additional film) – details TBD