New York, NY (September 23, 2011)—New Yorkers can now celebrate Halloween a few days early. The Museum of Arts and Design hosts the 3rd edition of the short film fest Daggers, featuring 12 exquisitely creepy films that will share the spotlight on October 20, 2011, at 7:00 pm, and on October 22 at 3:00 pm in the Theater at MAD. Curated by noted critic Peter Gutiérrez, the all-shorts Daggers showcases work by up-and-coming talents, as well as contemporary classics by renowned filmmakers such as Denis Villeneuve and Jason Eisener. This mini-fest sports a macabre mix that is sure to please horror-hounds of all stripes.
“Horror is a much richer and more diverse genre than it is often given credit for,” observes Gutiérrez, who founded Daggers in 2008. “With Daggers we get to show off that range of artistry. In this year’s lineup, for example, we have surrealism, gothic mystery, psychological horror, a silent film, a musical, Cronenberg-style body horror, stop-motion animation, an experimental dance piece, and even gore-comedy. The goal is to represent the unsettling, the poetic, the thought-provoking, and yes, the stomaching-turning.”
Unspooling its dozen films in about two hours, Daggers will screen some of the best short-form horror from around the world, giving local audiences a chance to enjoy titles that are typically accessible only via major film festivals. Shot on the streets of Prague, “Prahands” recalls classic avant-garde cinema while “New Born” is an early effort of Israel’s Navot Papushado, co-writer and co-director of this year’s Tribeca favorite “Rabies” (“Kalevet”). Tasmania is represented by Briony Kidd‘s “The Room at The Top of The Stairs,” which makes its New York premiere. And of course there will be films by American, Canadian, and British filmmakers.
These include the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation “The Other Gods,” Matthew Garrett‘s “Beating Hearts,” Firas Momani‘s Fantasia-winning “The Adder’s Bite,” and the world premiere of “(Baby) It’s You,” a fun twist on the archetypal “mad scientist” film. Also making its New York premiere is Jerome Sable‘s acclaimed Sundance hit, “The Legend of Beaver Dam.” As always, the programming strategy seeks to combine fresh titles, many of which are new to Big Apple audiences, with ones that are well worthy of encores. Faye Jackson‘s “Lump” was shown directly before “Pan’s Labyrinth” at 2006′s New York Film Festival, and Jason (“Hobo with a Shotgun”) Eisener‘s “Treevenge” won the audience award for best short at the 2008 edition of the New York City Horror Film Festival. Moviegoers will know “Next Floor”‘s Denis Villeneuve as the director behind the Oscar-nominated “Incendies,” but may not have been able to catch this short, a prize-winner at TIFF, Sitges, and Cannes, not to mention a recipient of the Genie, Canada’s highest filmmaking award. The lineup also happens to boast another Genie-winner, Pedro Pires‘s unforgettable “Danse Macabre.”
“From last year’s Zombo Italiano and Jodorowsky series to this fall’s Sion Sono retro, MAD is proving itself to be a force in bold yet offbeat genre programming,” explains Gutiérrez. “That’s an approach that appeals to New York’s cinephiles and horror fans alike. It also happens to be very close to Daggers‘ sensibility, so I couldn’t be happier that this unique event has found such a great venue.”
ABOUT THE SERIES Daggers will screen in the Theater at MAD on October 20, 2011 at 7:00 pm and on October 22, 2011 at 3:00 pm.
Both screenings $10 General $7 MAD Members and Students.
Daggers is curated by film critic Peter Gutiérrez, frequent contributor to Rue Morgue and TribecaFilm.Com.
THE 2011 DAGGERS LINEUP All films will be projected digitally.
The Adder’s Bite (2010) Dir. Firas Momani 9 min
(Baby) It’s You (2011) Dir. David Cowles, Jeremy Galante, and Brad Pattullo 3 min
Beating Hearts (2010) Dir. Matthew Garrett 11 min
Danse Macabre (2009) Dir. Pedro Pires 9 min
The Legend of Beaver Dam (2010) Dir. Jerome Sable 12 min
Lump (2006) Dir. Faye Jackson 12 min
New Born (2006) Dir. Navot Papsushado 14 min
Next Floor (2008) Dir. Denis Villeneuve 11 min
The Other Gods (2006) Dir. Mike Boas 6 min
Prahands (2007) Dir. Charles Pieper 5 min
The Room at the Top of the Stairs (2011) Dir. Briony Kidd 15 min
Treevenge (2008) Dir. Jason Eisener 16 min
ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN The Museum of Arts and Design explores the blur zone that characterizes so much of art, design, and craft today. The Museum focuses on contemporary creativity and the ways in which artists and designers from around the world transform materials through processes ranging from the artisanal to digital. The Museum’s exhibition program explores and illuminates issues and ideas, highlights creativity and craftsmanship, and celebrates the limitless potential of materials and techniques when used by gifted and innovative artists. MAD’s permanent collection is global in scope and focuses on art, craft, and design from 1950 to the present day. At the center of the Museum’s mission is education. The Museum’s dynamic new facility features classrooms and studios for master classes, seminars, and workshops for students, families, and adults. Three open artist studios engage visitors in the creative processes of artists at work and enhance the exhibition programs. Lectures, films, performances, and symposia related to the Museum’s collection and topical subjects affecting the world of contemporary art, craft, and design are held in a renovated 144-seat auditorium.
Dare you enter the dark, twisted cabaret of HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED – the UK’s first live show devoted to the eldritch works of New England’s dreamer of unspeakable terrors?
In this humdrum modern world where adolescent vampires, brutish werewolves and dumbass zombies dominate mainstream horror – and our beloved creatures of the night have been reduced to bit-players in garish movies and TV dramas – HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED flies in the face of convention to celebrate the absurd imaginings of the man who unleashed From Beyond, The Call Of Cthulhu, At The Mountains Of Madness and other tales of cosmic dread, and plays fast and loose with the mythos, magic and monsters he created.
Staged by Wake Up Productions in association with The HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast – and with support from the publishers of the At The Mountains Of Madness and forthcoming The Lovecraft Anthology: Volume I graphic novels, SelfMadeHero – our mission with HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED is to take everything that’s great about live entertainment and give it a deviant, Lovecraftan twist.
The first HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED will take place in The Horse Hospital, near Holborn, central London, on FRIDAY 15 APRIL 2011.
And here’s a taste of the necrophagous terrors we have in store…
***LIVE LOVECRAFT READINGS***
The cornerstone of HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED will be live readings of Lovecraft’s most notorious tales. The stories will be performed by The Fitzrovia Radio Hour; a group of actors who conceive, write and perform theatrical radio plays in a 1940s style. The Fitzrovia Radio Hour – who have featured many times on BBC Radio 4 – perform all their shows in evening dress, behind period microphones and with live sound effects and music.
***LOVECRAFT GRAPHIC NOVEL LAUNCH***
HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED will host the London launch of SelfMadeHero’s latest graphic novel based on the short stories of HP Lovecraft, The Lovecraft Anthology: Volume I. A handful of the artists and editors of The Lovecraft Anthology will also be on hand to sign copies of the book, two weeks before its official UK release.
***LAUGHS WITH LOVECRAFT***
You won’t find many laughs in a Lovecraft book – but with HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED we want to have fun with the diabolical world he created. And they don’t come any funnier than HP LOVEBOX – a tentacle-headed crooner wearing a natty suit and belting out indie hits… like Frank Sinatra from Lovecraft’s darkest nightmare.
***TWO EXCLUSIVE FILM SCREENINGS***
• THE OTHER GODS: A long-lost silhouette animation, purportedly made in the 1920s and based on one of Lovecraft’s most enduring stories. Presented for the first time in the UK on a cinema-quality print.
• THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS: An EXCLUSIVE clip from the forthcoming The Whisperer In Darkness big screen movie – this will be the first time a scene from the flick has been publicly screened in the UK.
***AND MORE LOVECRAFT THRILLS…***
• Hosted by Chris Lackey, HPL expert and host of the insanely popular HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast
• HP Lovecraft quiz, with valuable prizes and artwork from SelfMadeHero to be won
• Geek out! Plenty of drinking time with fellow Lovecraft fans after the cabaret ends
• Great period music, all of which was available during Lovecraft’s lifetime. Nothing after 1937!
We’re aiming to finish the cabaret by 10.30pm, to give Lovecraft fans time to hang out, have a beer, and debate the finer details of The Cthulhu Mythos.
So now you know the truth. Whisper it if you dare… CTHULHU LIVES! After eons dreaming on the ocean floor, the cyclopean sleeper has finally awoken and is rising from the depths. Before long, those cursed with psychic sensitivity will be driven insane by unspeakable nightmares, heralding the end of humanity as we know it.
But don’t be scared. Join us at HP LOVECRAFT: REANIMATED as we celebrate the return of Great Old One from his ancient slumber, and take our hand as we flee screaming into the peace and safety of a new dark age!
The award-winning impresarios at Wake Up Productions, who brought you the ‘Bizarre Ball’ and ‘Alice Cooper’s Halloween Nights Of Fear’. Creating yet another unique and inspirational event!
Evil spirits and skin-crawling chills await you at the Montreal premiere of James Wan’s critically-acclaimed horror epic INSIDIOUS.
Fantasia will be co-presenting this unholy unveiling on Wednesday March 30 7pm (time subject to change) 2 days before it possesses North American screens on April 1 2011.
For your shot at damnation, be among the first 25 people to send your real name and mailing address to contest@fantasiafestival.com. Fantasia Festival is not responsible for any glitches caused by Facebook poltergeists. To ensure the privacy of the ritual, only the haunted 25 will be contacted.
From the mind-blowing team of director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell who brought you the original SAW, not to mention DEAD SILENCE. Produced by PARANORMAL ACTIVITY makers Oren Peli, Steven Schneider & Jason Blum and featuring a beat-perfect cast that includes Patrick Wilson (WATCHMEN), Rose Byrne (28 WEEKS LATER) Ty Simpkins (WAR OF THE WORLDS) and Barbara Hershey (BLACK SWAN, THE ENTITY, LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST… the reasons to love her are endless).
There are moments in this film that will scare the life out of you.
Midnight Madness-Toronto International Film Festival 2010
Official Selection – SXSW 2011
Official Selection-Film Comment Selects 2011
Many thanks to the kind spirits at Alliance VivaFilm1
Alliance VivaFilm + The Fantasia International Film Festival present HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN – THE CANADIAN PREMIERE! Hosted by director Jason Eisener and producer Robert Cotterill!
March 21st – 7:30 PM
Scotiabank cinema
4 days before it hits theatrical release!
PLUS! Bonus Second feature: STORY OF RICKY (RIKI-OH) and a smorgasbord of 35mm grindhouse trailers from the 70s and 80s!
The only way in to this screening is by winning a ticket! Fantasia will be giving away over 30 double passes through our Facebook page, and there will also be ticket giveaways over the next few days at Arrow in the Head, Ioncinema, Fangoria, Montreal Mirror, Rue Morgue, Sinistre Blogzine, Sound on Sight and Twitch!
————–
Alliance VivaFilm is joining forces with the Fantasia Film Festival to give HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN the spectacular Canadian launch it deserves!
The story of a kind-hearted, lone-wolf raggedy man (Rutger Hauer, in his most show-stopping role since 1986’s THE HITCHER) who takes on an evil crime kingpin Travis Bickle-style, HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN is more funny, crazy, bloody and brazen than any film in recent memory – and it’s coming to Montreal with a vengeance!
The HOBO saga started with a contest. SXSW’s ‘Grindhouse Trailer contest’ to be exact: As part of the promotions for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE in 2007, Ain’t It Cool News announced a three week deadline to come up with a “grindhouse” style trailer for a fake movie, and Jason Eisener, Rob Cotterill and Jon Davies spent the next six days running around Halifax with no budget, no permits and a blood-soaked vagrant carrying a real shotgun. Contestants around the globe waited as their posted entries battled it out on the internet, and the HOBO creators watched as their trailer soared in the audience ratings department and became a Youtube phenomenon. When Rodriguez announced HOBO as the winner, the trailer not only ended up as a special feature on the Blu-Ray edition of GRINDHOUSE, but Alliance’s Jim Sherry decided to strike 186 35mm film prints of the trailer to release it Canada-wide, in every theater where GRINDHOUSE screened. And from there, the idea of a feature film version was born.
HOBO Producer Rob Cotterill is a former Montrealer who is a longtime Fantasia friend and regular; his first taste of working on a film set was on Karim Hussain’s SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY as well as several of Mitch Davis’ projects at Infliction Films. When he completed school at Concordia, Rob began working in the industry as an Assistant Director and met his future partner Jason Eisener on the set of TRAILER PARK BOYS. After the HOBO trailer won the hearts and minds of genre fans around the globe, the two followed it up with the now-obligatory cautionary Christmas tale TREEVENGE, which had its World Premiere at Fantasia, won the audience award and later because a major cause celebre at Sundance!
Sundance continued their support of our Canuck wunderkinds with the World Premiere of HOBO at Sundance earlier this year, where it took Park City by storm, leaving audiences gobsmacked and amazed and garnering rave reviews in every kind of media – from the leading cult / alternative press to Hollywood Reporter and Esquire!
The film boasts more of the red stuff than we’ve seen in any Canadian film since SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY (which is perhaps to be expected since HOBO was lensed by CRUELTY’s director Karim Hussain, who also directed LA BELLE BETE, wrote Nacho Cerda’s THE ABANDONED, and served as one of Fantasia’s key film programmers from 1997-2001) but at its heart is also an underdog story: the kind of story that any Canadian independent artist can relate to when faced with bigger and badder competition south of the border. The kind of story that our national film industry was built on.
HOBO reclaims Canada’s standing as a hotbed of original and subversive genre cinema. Like 2008′s festival sensation SWEET KARMA (which World Premiered at Fantasia and went on to win numerous awards throughout the circuit) HOBO brings Canada back to the glory days of the tax shelter era, when independent companies like Cinepix, Quadrant and Astral Films gave genre cinema a national identity (once upon a time we made more horror films that the US did!) HOBO was funded by Telefilm, which until 1984 was known as the CFDC – the primary investor in over a decade of amazing genre cinema. And after almost 30 years of trying to clean up the ‘face’ of Canadian cinema, cheers to Telefilm for acknowledging the massive genre potential of our country. Like I always say: there are two kinds of people in the world: those who want to see the bus go over the cliff, and those who don’t. There are a lot more Canadians in the former camp than you might think.
While HOBO will undoubtedly be a hard act to follow, our guests have curated a bonus second feature: an eye-popping uncut 35mm print of Ngai Kai Lam’s insane 1991 grindhouse classic STORY OF RICKY (Riki-oh)! PLUS! rare 35mm exploitation film trailers from the ’70s and ’80s, and other surprises! Don’t miss your chance to be part of Canadian genre film history – be there!
(Kier-La Janisse)
HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN will be in theatres across Canada March 25.
