RIDM always has way more films that look fantastic than any one person with other commitments can reasonably see in the space of ten days, which is a great problem to have. These are a few suggestions of things we’ve seen and loved. The Chinese Mayor The Chinese Mayor (2015,
Continue readingAuthor: Kristi Kouchakji
Art Threat: Montreal Fringe: Three for the road
Cootie Catcher, written and performed by Lucas Brooks, focuses on Brooks’ close encounters of the transmissible kind. Using a cootie catcher, better known to some as a fortune teller, Brooks regales the audience with tales of all the times he thought he had been exposed to one STD or another,
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: The No Bull$#!% History of Canada and Bar Kapra the Squirrel Hunter: No-bullshit reviews
No bullshit, just coffee: Kyle Allatt performs The No Bull$#!% History of Canada to June 21st A tight, well-paced show, The No Bull$#!% History of Canada rips through 600+ years of history in what feels like ten minutes. Given the vast timespan explored in what is actually just under an
Continue readingArt Threat: Ethnography 101: La cour de Babel and La marche à suivre
The only thing I hate more than bad puns is bad ethnography, and La cour de Babel walks a fine line on that. Following an integration class for new immigrants at a Parisian high school, the entire film is shot from the teacher’s perspective. While this is not apparent at
Continue readingArt Threat: What does the word Polytechnique mean to you? – a review of The Anorak
The Anorak, written and performed by Adam Kelly Morton, goes beyond the pat answers and media sensationalism around the Polytechnique massacre and examines what made Marc Lépine a killer. Exceptionally well-researched, Morton’s text looks critically at the myriad factors that anti-feminists have attempted to derail the public discourse with, from
Continue readingArt Threat: The Look of Silence: breathtaking in every sense
A lot of people didn’t like The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2012 film exposing the impunity the perpetrators of Indonesia’s 1965 genocide continue to benefit from. The biggest objection was that the film focused only on the killers, leaving out almost any treatment of victims or survivors. One critic
Continue readingArt Threat: Just For Laughs: Gregg Proops & Paul F. Tompkins
The Just For Laughs Festival is taking place in Montreal, and Art Threat’s Kristi Kouchakji is there to review the politically-tinged humour for us. Greg Proops: “These are the bad old days.” The word on the street is that this Whose Line Is It Anyway? veteran has a remarkably intelligent
Continue readingArt Threat: Just For Laughs: Jerrod Carmichael, Nikki Glaser & Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It
The Just For Laughs Festival is taking place in Montreal, and Art Threat’s Kristi Kouchakji is there to review the politically-tinged humour for us. Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It: A One-lady Rape About Comedy Starring her Pussy and Little Else With a title like “Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It” and
Continue readingArt Threat: Just For Laughs: David O’Doherty & What Would Beyoncé Do?
The Just For Laughs Festival is taking place in Montreal, and Art Threat’s Kristi Kouchakji is there to review the politically-tinged humour for us. Luisa Omielan’s What Would Beyoncé Do? Despite some terrible promotional copy, Luisa Omielan’s What Would Beyoncé Do? seemed promising. A single 30-something woman moving back in
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: Hue Man & The Dysmorphia Diet
Hue Man: He Volution An exploration of socially constructed male gender roles through puppetry and video art, Hue Man: He Volution is an interesting concept that doesn’t quite work. The pre-show here includes a PowerPoint presentation about sexist terms that need to be retired, all of which pertain to concepts
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: God as Drag Queen, Big Gay Weddings, and Peeing on Stage for Poverty
God Is A Scottish Drag Queen II Where this God is concerned, nothing is sacred. Essentially an hour of stand-up performed by Mike Delamont in character as a Scottish incarnation of God in a floral power suit with a list of religion-related talking points, God Is A Scottish Drag Queen
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed Burlesque
“Butt sex should never be a surprise.” So begins the very catchy tune that opens Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed Burlesque. Alternating skits and burlesque numbers with vox pop video segements, this show aims to “educate through laughter”, and to some degree it succeeds. The safe sex aspects of the show
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: Ginger Slurs & Slut Shaming
Project Gingervitis Project Gingervitis is a smart, funny take on discrimination, eugenics, geopolitics, and media manipulation. A one-man show written and brilliantly performed by Jordan Lloyd Watkins and set in a dystopian future, the show tells the story of a lone redhead born years after redheads were thought to have
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: Kitt & Jane guide us through the ecological apocalypse
Kitt & Jane: an interactive survival guide to the Near-Post-Apocalyptic Future is environmental activist theatre disguised as charming comedy and shadow play. Created by the team behind the award-winning Little Orange Man, Kitt & Jane sees Kitt, still quietly mourning her grandfather’s death, teamed up with Jane (real name: Lucas)
Continue readingArt Threat: Montreal Fringe: Our Creation, Existence, & Destruction in 55 Minutes
Our Creation, Existence, & Destruction in 55 Minutes is a one-man show from recent John Abbott Theatre grad Ian Geldart. Supported by stage manager Natasha Gabriella Trepanier in minor speaking roles and the work of animator Dylan Alberts, Geldart sets out to explore the big picture laid out in the
Continue readingArt Threat: My Playwright Sister: a play about a play about a transgender sibling
My Playwright Sister, written and performed by James Diamond and Johanna Nutter, is a sequel of sorts to Nutter’s earlier work, My Pregnant Brother. My Pregnant Brother sets Nutter’s struggle to assert herself against her instinct to help her pregnant, transgendered brother. While this autobiographical piece is exquisitely well-performed, it
Continue readingArt Threat: Engaging and Enraging: A Review of The Secret Trial 5
The Secret Trial 5, director Amar Wala’s first feature, is an engaging and enraging look at five men labelled security risks by the Canadian government and detained without trial for a combined total of 30 years in prison, and another 20 years (and counting) under strict house arrest. Shot over
Continue readingArt Threat: Sheen and gloss, personal and political: A Review of We are the Giant
We Are the Giant, a powerful portrait of five human rights activists in Syria, Libya, and Bahrain, personalizes the multiple, simultaneous, and in many ways ongoing struggles often monolithically referred to as the Arab Spring. Through first-person interviews as well as archival, news, and cell phone footage, director Greg Barker
Continue readingArt Threat: Evaporating Borders explores asylum-seekers in Cyprus
“… it’s a place I call home, although I blend in only as a familiar stranger.” Evaporating Borders, written and directed by Iva Radivojevic, is a five-act exploration of asylum-seekers in Cyprus. Beginning with a personal, essayistic voiceover and lush compositions, the film’s first act also uses subtly executed re-enactments
Continue readingArt Threat: VoiceOver documentary reframes the 2011 London riots
VoiceOver | Riots Reframed (2013) is Fahim Alam’s first film, shot in the aftermath of the 2011 riots in London and other UK cities, while Alam was under conditional release and forced to wear an ankle tag after being arrested during a protest. The film mixes archival, CCTV, and cell
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