NXNE FILM FESTIVAL at the NFB Mediatheque (150 John), the Royal (608 College) and Toronto Underground (186 Spadina)from Monday (June 11) to June 17. $10, NXNE wristband or $25 films-only wristband. nxne.com.
The film component of NXNE brings some gleefully ragged programming to the staid NFB Mediatheque, with additional screenings spilling over to the Toronto Underground Cinema a couple of blocks west and the Royal up on College.
Of the more than 40 titles, most are documentaries, though room has been made for the odd dramatic feature. Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy is a Canada-UK co-production shot primarily in Sault Ste. Marie. Can director Rob Heydon top the hyperkinetic, hallucinatory brilliance of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting? Or will he go in an entirely different direction?
Gorman Bechard, who came to NXNE last year with a movie about the Replacements, returns with another rockumentary about a very different band: What Did You Expect? The Archers Of Loaf At Cat’s Cradle.
My Father And The Man In Black, making its Canadian premiere, looks at the relationship between Johnny Cash and his manager, Saul Holiff, from the perspective of Saul’s son Jonathan Holiff, who directed the documentary.
If you missed Jobriath AD at Inside Out last month, NXNE gives you another chance to catch it – and to discover the strange history of the openly gay singer who was briefly positioned to be the American answer to David Bowie, until it all came crashing down.
It’s not exactly rock and roll, but you’ll like Once In A Lullaby: The PS 22 Chorus Documentary, a guaranteed crowd-pleaser about the Staten Island children’s chorus that performed at the 2011 Academy Awards. It follows music teacher Gregg Breinberg as he prepares his ebullient charges for their trip to the Kodak Theatre.
And for a very different example of Hollywood’s life-altering qualities, there’s Slaughter Nick For President, about Serbia’s fervent love of the cheesy TV series Sweating Bullets – and, more specifically, for Rob Stewart, whose performance as hero Nick Slaughter made him famous in Belgrade. Because it wouldn’t be NXNE without at least one story that’s stranger than fiction.
