The Girls of Meru Sunday, September 16, 1:30pm Cineplex Park Lane, 5657 Spring Garden Road $12.50 ($11.25 stu/sen) finfestival.ca “I just wanted to focus on the case,” says Andrea Dorfman of her documentary The Girls of Meru. She says it multiple times, speaking with empathy and care for the 160 girls she made the movie […]
Atlantic Film Festival
Posted inArts + Music
The year in film
Andy Hines’ Grammy nomination The Nova Scotia-born Hines—his father is the photographer Sherman—already has a few awards for his music videos, including an MTV Moon Man. His clip for Logic’s “1-800-273-8255″—a sensitive, six-minute coming-out story starring Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán—is up for the big time, a Grammy Award, in February. Black Cop This timely […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Become a master of arts this fall
Fall in Halifax is something special, as festivals and art organizations brace for the colder days a-comin’ with a packed calendar of events that’ll challenge, educate and entertain you. Here are a few that are a great intro to the local arts scene. Keep an eye out for more in our Fall Arts issue September […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Atlantic Film Festival is FIN it to win it
The Atlantic Film Festival is launching into its 37th year with a new name and big plans. From here on out, the annual event will be referred to as FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival. The festival teamed up with Revolve for the rebranding. FIN doesn’t stand for anything, but festival director Wayne Carter says its […]
Posted inArts + Music
Werewolf, Ashley McKenzie’s fearless debut feature
“I do what feels right to me, and I follow my instincts,” says Ashley McKenzie, the director, writer and editor of Werewolf, her debut feature. “I had a feeling, writing the script, knowing we should never see the ocean. Growing up in and now living in a town where I can look out a window […]
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10 other films to see at the 2016 Atlantic Film Festival
With the Atlantic Film Festival launching its eight-day marathon of 200-odd movies Thursday night, you will already have a sense of a few of the hyped offerings. There are the Atlantic gems, Weirdos, Maudie and Werewolf (see accompanying story), the international pictures beloved of European festival-goers Julieta and I, Daniel Blake, and Kristen Stewart continuing […]
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Halifax stop-motion heading to TIFF
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is just around the corner, and local filmmaker Tim Tracey is gearing up to premiere his second stop-motion movie, DataMine, in the 6ix on September 14. The animated film is about privacy and surveillance in the digital age, striking a chord with Big Brother in George Orwell’s novel 1984. […]
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The Atlantic Film Festival announces its 2016 program
The 36th Atlantic Film Festival’s full program was announced this morning at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. This year’s fest features premieres by many domestic and international established filmmakers, as well as new voices. It also marks a return to screenings at the Oxford Theatre, for the first time in four years. AFF will […]
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Annotated Photo: NSCAD’S Art District
With this week’s relocation of the Atlantic Film Festival office, NSCAD’s “art district” vision is complete. Here are some of the key tenants that should help turn the arts university’s Fountain campus into a renewed downtown arts and culture destination—at least until NSCAD decamps to a new “integral campus” sometime in 2019. 1. Art Bar […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Local boosterism is killing the Atlantic Film Festival
[Image-1] A lot of us Canadians squirm in our seats in shame as we are obliged to sit through half an hour of sponsor promotion and self-indulgent speeches before each gala film presentation at the Atlantic Film Festival. European visitors must conclude that Halifax is a hick town where there is no respect for the […]
Posted inArts + Music
AFF Review: Sloan at The Marquee
On Saturday night, Toronto-Halifax’s Sloan returned home to celebrate the 35th Atlantic Film Festival at a pass-holders special event at The Marquee Ballroom. There were also performances by The Brood, Rose Cousins and Buck 65 but I only made it for my Sloan dogs. Just after midnight, Sloan appeared and jumped right into “If It […]
Posted inArts + Music
AFF Reviews: Bound, Undone, The Stanford Prison Experiment
This weekend, several selections at the 35th Atlantic Film Festival explored human psychology through various narrative styles. On Friday, I rolled into the Lord Nelson Hotel at 1:30am to catch 1980 sci-fi musical, The Apple, which was one of the best worst movies I’ve ever seen, a terribly awesome, tacky romp through the exploitative music […]