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Movies & TV

No wizards? No bears? No problem.

If you were first in line for the midnight show of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and you think you’re too old for Winnie The Pooh – trust me, you’re not – then you’re in need of further cinematic stimulation this weekend.

Well, wouldn’t you know it? I have a whole column’s worth of stuff for you.

Tickets are still available for tonight’s TIFF Cinematheque screening of John Cassavetes’s Faces at 6:30 pm, introduced by the film’s star (and the filmmaker’s widow), Gena Rowlands. And that, as they say, is something you should see. (You can read my interview with Rowlands here, if you need the context.)

If you’re looking for something a little more musical, the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival is reviving their 2009 closing-night gala, Checkpoint Rock: Songs Of Palestine, for a free outdoor screening at Christie Pits.

Directed by Javier Corcueran and Fermin Muguruza, Checkpoint Rock strings together a series of performances by Palestinian musicians, most of whom sing pointedly about life under Israeli occupation. To underscore that point, Corcueran and Muguruza give the artists plenty of time to explain their political positions in interview segments. The musical styles range from soul to punk to hip-hop, but the message is basically the same – which does get a little monotonous, as a viewing experience. But if you’ve been waiting for years to see Habib Al Deek or Amal Murkus on a big screen, this is your moment.

Checkpoint Rock screens as part of the TPFF’s Pre-Festival Program, intended to start building excitement for the festival proper, which starts Sept. 30. The show starts at 9 pm you can find more details here.

What else? Well, Toronto’s newest independent movie house, the Projection Booth on Gerrard just west of Jones, has its soft opening this weekend. Formerly known as the Gerrard Cinema, and indeed still bearing that name on the marquee,, the 295-seat venue – its 35mm rig newly supplemented with an HD projector and booming digital surround sound – will screen six hours of cartoons Saturday and Sunday, introducing a new generation of neighbourhood children to the joys of the weekend matinee.

Both shows starts at 9 am and run to 3 pm admission is just $2.99. Also showing Saturday: Magnifico, from Filipino director Maryo J. De Los Reyes. (Tickets for that one are $3.99.)

And there are two more notable Saturday screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox. At 2 pm, the Family Classics matinee program presents Brad Bird’s triumphant 1999 animated adventure The Iron Giant, which for my money can’t be shown on a big screen often enough at 11 pm, the ongoing Midnight Madness retrospective barfs up Shinya Tsukamoto’s body-horror freakout Tetsuo: The Iron Man, which will haunt the dreams of anyone who sees it – especially if they manage to confuse it with the movie where that nice Robert Downey Jr. builds a superhero suit. You’ve been warned.

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