Canadian Film Festival at Electric Shadows

From this Thursday to Sunday at Electric Shadows you've got a chance to catch up on some alternative Canadian cinema. Sydney's Canadian Film Festival (which is just finishing its Sydney run) is bringing six of its films to Canberra, including:

* Bon Cop Bad Cop
* A Simple Curve
* Tales of the Rat Fink
* On the Trail of Igor Rizzi
* The Novena
* Midnight Movies

Matthieu Ravier was kind enough to send me advance screeners of some of the Festival's movies, although of the three films I received, only one is on show for Canberra viewers. It's a shame that Next: A Primer on Urban Painting and Sidekick aren't leaving Sydney, as those were both quite watchable despite some minor faults. Also missing from the tour lineup is Terry Gilliam's new film Tideland.

The only one of the six Canberra offerings I've seen is Midnight Movies, which purports to investigate the 70s phenomena of midnight cult movie screenings. It looks into El Topo, Night of the Living Dead, Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Harder They Come, complete with relevant writers and directors musing over their movies. Unfortunately it's a little light on content and comes across as more of a fan tribute than a particularly noteworthy documentary. Still, if you've enjoyed any of those movies there's some good nostalgia to be had out of it.

After leaving Canberra the tour is showing in Melbourne from 14-20 December, and Adelaide between 5-20 January.

Electric Shadows is closing down soon so this is one of your last chances to be a part of Canberra history. More details on the movies and the tour can be found here.