While browsing a downtown used book emporium this afternoon, I chanced upon and scooped up the first two issues of Faber & Faber’s film annual Projections. Founded by film director John Boorman and Faber Film editorial director Walter Donohue as a “forum for practitioners of the cinema to write about their work,” Projections began in 1992 and ran for 15 volumes. It now appears to have moved online in a truncated form, hosted by Focus Features.
I’m sure I’ll be boring you soon with some of my discoveries. Just check out the table of contents for Projections 1:
- Bright Dreams, Hard Knocks: A Journal, John Boorman on the year 1991
- Film Fiction: More Factual than Facts, Sam Fuller
- The Early Life of a Screenwriter, Emeric Pressburger
- Demme on Demme, Jonathan Demme
- Masters of Photogenics, Nestor Almendros
- My Director and I, River Phoenix and Gus Van Sant on My Own Private Idaho
- Surviving Desire, a script by Hal Hartley
- Losing Touch, a poem by Tony Harrison on George Cukor
- Making Some Light, Michael Mann on the making of Last of the Mohicans
Projections 2 might be even better:
- Shadow and Substance, George Miller
- Movie Lessons, Jaco van Dormael
- Searching for the Serpent, Alison Maclean
- Freewheelin’, Gus Van Sant and Derek Jarman
- Acting on Impulse, Willem Dafoe on his craft
- The Early Life of a Screenwriter II, Sydney Gilliat
- Altman on Altman, Robert Altman
- Bob Roberts, a script by Tim Robbins
- I Wake Up, Dreaming, a journal by Bertrand Tavernier on the making of L.627
It seems like I’m posting nothing but film festival announcements these days. Fantasia, Shinsedai, and now the big little genre festival that is Toronto After Dark. Now in its fifth year, this intimate 8-day festival (August 13–20), held entirely at the Bloor Cinema, is really hitting its stride. The just-announced lineup is guaranteed to have folks lining up around the block, especially with these in the mix:
- Saturday August 14, 6:00pm: Doghouse — another politically incorrect entry in the burgeoning British horror-comedy canon (Shaun of the Dead, Lesbian Vampire Killers).
- Sunday August 15, 8:45pm: HIGH School — For the horror fraidy-cats (like me!), a stoner comedy featuring Adrien Brody as a pot dealer. Well, that actually sounds pretty scary.
- Monday August 16, 6:00pm: The Last Exorcism — I’ve been curious about this Eli-Roth produced film since it was still being called Cotton. Director Daniel Stamm directed the excellent but little-seen A Necessary Death.
- Wednesday August 18, 6:00pm: Centurion — I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about this violent sword-and-sandals tale, directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent).
- Friday August 20, 6:00pm: Rubber — a philosophical take on a murderous tire? Yes, it’s French.
- Friday August 20, 8:45pm: The Human Centipede: First Sequence (Closing Gala) — this notorious film will almost certainly sell out first.
And this isn’t even half of the lineup. Films screen just once, so you’ll need to buy your tickets as soon as possible. I suggest NOW. And I’ll see you After Dark.
Tagged as:
#afterdark10,
genre,
horror,
scifi
