DOCUMENTARIES FROM THE EDGE ADDS A DUO OF DEEP-DIVE DOCS
Shamanic panic! Old legends and new myths, the genesis of memetic magick, and virtual pied pipers in docs from the edge mind-bending lineup
Winner of the Midnighter Audience Award at SXSW, Kier-La Janisse’s WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR navigates through over 200 films and 50 interviewees, including Robert Eggers (THE VVITCH), Alice Lowe (PREVENGE), and Piers Haggard (BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW). Starting with British cult classics of the 70s, then travelling to all continents and beyond, and landing in our era alongside the films of Ari Aster and others. A groundbreaking, extensively researched work made over a span of many years, truly no stone is left unturned in this definitive documentary on the expansive genre of folk horror. CANADIAN PREMIERE.
“How do we make sense of things when we collapse the infinite fidelity of information down into pithy sentences laid over ominous imagery ?” asks filmmaker Hayley Garrigus, who, over the course of three years, from L.A. to the Nevada desert, took a deep dive into the many layers of our precarious belief system. In her debut “anti-documentary” Garrigus pushes the envelope, both stylistically and narratively, as she meets a multitude of enigmatic characters— pied pipers of the web, alt-right trolls, and “lightworkers”— who all believe themselves the new prophets of our time. YOU CAN’T KILL MEME is a pertinent depiction of humanity as we are forming new unstable myths. WORLD PREMIERE.
AXIS BRINGS SAVAGE SORCERY, CRYPTID CREATURES, AND JAPANESE GEMS TO FANTASIA’S 25TH
Fantasia’s animation section unveils two American fantasies, a cinephile anime, a Satoshi Kon doc, and a classic’s new cut
A love letter to the art and industry of filmmaking, Takayuki Hirao’s funny, fast-paced, and entirely sympathetic anime adaptation of the much-loved manga POMPO: THE CINÉPHILE is a convincing crash course on how movies get made, and what makes them work. It’s also an outstanding work of animation, using clever transitions and other tricks and techniques to make the most of the storytelling process. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.
Beginning with PERFECT BLUE and MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, which Fantasia world premiered in 1997 and 2001, respectively, the late director Satoshi Kon’s brief but monumental filmography proved a dramatic paradigm shift for Japanese anime, and indeed for world cinema. French documentarian Pascal-Alex Vincent unveils SATOSHI KON, THE ILLUSIONIST, a poignant, detailed portrait of this unique and transformative talent, after whom Fantasia named its prestigious animation award. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.
A painstaking labour of love from animator Morgan Galen King and filmmaker/comic scribe Philip Gelatt (featuring the voices of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, and Patton Oswalt), the rotoscoped epic THE SPINE OF NIGHT is no less than a new, essential, fully realized work in the canon of animated sword-and-sorcery adventure for adults, full of warriors, wizardry, elder gods and esoteric wisdom. CANADIAN PREMIERE.
Graphic novelist Dash Shaw’s debut animated feature, MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA (2016), bore the hallmarks of a flourishing auteur. With CRYPTOZOO, Shaw paints a world in which cryptozookeepers strive to rescue creatures of legend and build a sanctuary for them. A melting pot of myths accompanied by strong social commentary. QUEBEC PREMIERE.
In 2017, Fantasia revealed to the world Takahide Hori’s one-man stop-motion project, the ambitious, existential, cyber-horror concoction JUNK HEAD. A surprise hit at the festival, it then vanished for five years. At last, this year, a tighter, meaner theatrical edit of JUNK HEAD has been produced, and Fantasia is proud to once again open this portal into Hori’s mind.