Hot Docs: Recessionize! For Fun and Profit! [2011, Jamie Kastner]

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Ricky in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

recessionize!

Toronto – Recessionize! For Fun and Profit! is light hearted look at the worldwide recession and how people worldwide are dealing with it. Shot in 15 segments, director Jamie Kastner travels the world and visits some people who have a unique approach to dealing with the recession. We meet a goat herder in California, hamster hotel owners in France and a brothel in Germany among others. Each person has unique approach on how to make it in tough times. While the spirit of the documentary might be to let the viewers know that the recession isn’t that bad, I find that the director James Kastner often seem to take an almost condescending look at his subjects, presenting them in a “look what we got here!” tone. Maybe he wanted to present the documentary with a dose of humor, but when the humor is at the expense of the subjects of your documentary, then I’m not quite sure.

Recessionize! For Fun and Profit! is a breath of fresh air for most part. Most documentaries about the financial crisis are rather depressing and so it’s nice to see a documentary that sees the lighter side of things.

Screenings
Thu, May 5 9:45 PM @ The ROM Theatre
Sat, May 7 6:30 PM @ TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Concert Review: Yacht, May 2nd, Lee’s Palace

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Ricky in Concerts | Leave a comment

Toronto – It’s been two years since Yacht put on an epic performance at the Wrongbar. Sold out and buzzing with energy, the Portland duo put on a fantastic show featuring above all else, a prayer circle to expell the crowd of all evils. Yacht’s return to Toronto on Monday just happen to coincide with this little event called the federal election and produced a decidedly smaller crowd at Lee’s Palace, but that did not deter the group from putting on a stellar show. They were in town to preview their new record, Shangri-La off DFA Records

Dressed once again in contrasting black and white outfits, Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans rocked the stage on Monday night with a mixture of new material with songs off their hit album See Mystery Lights. Barefooted and dressed in a white dress, the wiry Claire was a mesmerizing force on stage – she danced, she sang, she climbed things and during parts of the song The Afterlife, went into the crowd and started tapping people on the head. As my friend put it “if I was in a band, I would be like her … just. do whatever I want on stage!” I was quite surprise with Jona’s decision to remain in the background for most if the set, content with playing synthesizer, guitar and providing the vocals when needed. Last time I saw them there seemed to be a lot more vocal interplay between the pair.

The new tracks blended nicely with the older material, which follows the classic formula of dance worthy beats and upbeat lyrics that eventually lead to singalongs. The disco-esque new single Dystopia (The Earth Is on Fire) got a great reaction and as usual the single Psychic City got the crowd singing. It’s impossible to not want to dance a bit when they are on stage. The energy and positive energy they radiate is infectious and the people who were at Lees ate it up. Let’s hope there’s a few more people here next time they roll into town.

Yacht – Dystopia by theQuietus

Song of the Day: Gypsy And The Cat – Jona Vark

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Ricky in Music, Song of the Day | Leave a comment

Toronto – Seeing how Australian music has been highly influential in my music tastes these days, it should be no surprise that another electro pop act has caught my eye.

Gypsy And The Cat consists of Melbourne DJs Xavier Bacash and Lionel Towers. At the tender age of 21 years old, they appear to be kinda new. This track started receiving heavy airplay from Australian station Triple J, and for good reason – it’s really catchy. The track reminds me of Empire of the Sun without all the drugs. Check it out.

Hot Docs: The National Parks Project [2011, 2 Many Directors]

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Ricky in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

national parks project

Toronto – 2011 marks the centennial birthday of Canada’s National Parks. In order to celebrate this birthday, 13 filmmakers were commissioned to create short films that captured Canada’s majestic landscapes in art form. The directors in question were Louise Archambault, Keith Behrman, Daniel Cockburn, Hubert Davis, Sturla Gunnarsson, Zacharias Kunuk, Stéphane Lafleur, Peter Lynch, Catherine Martin, Kevin McMahon, Scott Smith, Jamie Travis and John Walker. Each of them would represent a province or territory and create a vignette about that particular landscape that was to incorporate both visual and if need be, audio elements. Sarah Harmer, Sam Roberts, Melissa Auf Du Maur (who I always seem to see at airports) and Casey Mecija were among the artists involved in the project, which is also featured on Discovery television.

Seeing how this entire film was based on collaboration, I decided to do the same, and collaborate with my fellow twitter and facebook friends on this review. I guess the only difference is that I don’t have their consent. HAHAHAHA. So without further delay, here are some twitter reactions:

Much like a fourteen year old teenager, twitter overreacts to everything and so I think the criticism of the film were a bit harsh. With a running time north of two hours, The National Parks Project runs long, and when you give 13 different artists free reign to produce something to their liking, you have to expect a mixed result. I found the National Parks Project to be an uneven collaboration that created a roller coaster ride of a film. There were some exceptional moments, filled with great music, great footage and astounding shots that showed just how beautiful Canada is. However, these exceptional moments were bogged down by seemingly pretentious vague artsy moments by some directors trying to be overly creative. With nothing to drive the film besides music and imagery, these moments weigh down the film significantly and given it’s two hour running time, seem to extend the film even longer. It’s sad to say, but these moments are ones that will dominate the conversation in the end. Perhaps the discovery channel portion of this project, which see it broken down into different episodes, is a better outlet for this type of collaboration.

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