Oh là là.

For those of you out of the francophone-music-loop, Serge Gainsbourg is often considered to be one of the world’s most influential popular musicians. He experimented with every genre of music, from jazz to reggae, to rock and roll to mambo, to so many more. And he did them all well.

So, basically, we have a ridiculously talented French man who somehow manages to look fierce in a pinstripe suit jacket. I guess it’s true that le français est la langue de l’amour, because I have fallen hard.

Excuse me while I swoon.

blogUT is teaming up with the wonderful members of EFUT (check out their new shirts – sont-ils pas magnifiques?) to give away five double passes to an advanced (subtitled) screening of Gainsbourg: Vie Héroïque at the Cumberland Cinema (159 Cumberland Street) on Wednesday, September 14 at 7pm. The film depicts Serge Gainsbourg’s life, from his childhood in Nazi-occupied France to his rise to fame, as well as his steamy love affairs with Juliette Gréco, Jane Birken and Brigitte Bardot, who’s played by French beauty Letita Casta. César Award-winning actor Eric Elmosnino is featured as the title role.

The perfect movie for date night? I think so.

All you have to do to enter your name into the draw is post a YouTube video of your favourite French song as a comment. Comments will be accepted up until 11:59pm on Sunday, September  11th and we’ll be emailing the contest winners on Monday, September 12th. Please note that we will only accept entries from those who provide us with a utoronto email address.

So post a comment so that you can whip out le champagne, throw on your beret, and marchez on over to the Cumberland Cinema with that quelqu’un de spécial!
Or you can just bring a friend. That works too.

On Friday the 29th, Hot Docs, North America’s largest and most important documentary festival, revved up for its 17th year. In the past, documentaries have been stigmatized as boring, staid, and educational in the worst “this is a bad 50′s educational school video” sense. However, reality is indeed often weirder than the more popular and box office-grossing fiction.

As each permutation of reality unfolds on tabloid websites, increasingly for better or worse, documentaries have continued to give greater depth and context to both the sensational and the often-forgotten. Documentaries have become better, more potent, diverse, and engaging than ever. Hot Docs as a festival has also evolved, becoming an event for world and Canadian debuts of new and challenging films while increasingly trying to dispel the unglamorous past of documentaries by reaching out to younger viewers.

(more…)

“Oh, bless their souls, they’re using dial-up!” I exclaim as I watch You’ve Got Mail, but if we really put this into perspective, our generation has experienced a rapid change in the technology we use in our daily lives in the last two decades. This is a bit of an ambitious blog, so please don’t get huffy if I miss anything. (more…)

You won’t be know how much it takes to make a music video until you get yourself involved! Just before the end of 2009 drew near, I got a chance to help out on a set of shooting a music video for U of T’s upcoming film festival. It was my first time getting involved in events like this and boy what a pleasant experience that was. Being on a set of video shoot can be chaotic sometimes, but you have to be pleased with the effort everybody puts in!

The theme of the music video is social justice and was directed by award-winning Iranian film director Babak Payami, who studied cinema at the University of Toronto decades ago.

Some technical stuff: When shooting a music video, usually the same sequence will be shot around 11 times so that it will provide enough material for the editors to edit during the post-production stage. However, the song will be played over and over again! By end of the day, almost everyone who worked on the set has the song inked in their heads!

Some additional photos:
(more…)

The U of T Film Festival celebrates the University of Toronto’s rich contribution to the arts through its student and alumni film and video makers. Now in its ninth year, the festival also welcomes films and videos from all emerging and established filmmakers, through we have not lost our focus on student work. For the 2010 edition our special guest will be Babak Payami.

The types of submissions the festival is looking for are:

• short films and videos of any length, genre and topic
• “Super 8″ films that are silent and played with live music
• 1-minute long “Shitty Films” for the annual Shitty Film Contest
• installation art, including site-specific proposals
• film and videos of any length that address social justice issues, especially social entrepreneurialism, providing innovative solutions to social problems.

The deadline is February 8th, and the festival takes place March 13 but early submissions encouraged. For a submission form and details, go to www.uoftfilmfest.ca or send an e-mail to info@uoftfilmfest.ca.

Image from Wikipedia

Warning: This contains spoilers after the jump!

We all know how tough it can be growing up and figuring out who are, which is why, I think, we can all somewhat relate to Water Lilies. Made in 2007, it’s a French film (originally titled Naissance des pieuvres) essentially about two young girls reluctant to come to terms with the fact that they are both lesbians. Okay you’re probably thinking, this is the perfect movie for guys to get horny but I assure you it is much more than that. I was so moved and felt just as much sadness, happiness and shame as the characters did. I know that sounds completely fruity but it’s true.
(more…)

The 13th annual edition of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is almost here! It will happen November 11-15. Many of the films will take place at Innis College here on campus while the rest will occur at various theatres around downtown Toronto. There is also an industry series program to attend a variety of lectures by qualified guest speakers for those of you who are interested in The Art of Film Making. The industry pass is unbelievably inexpensive and let’s just say you get much more than you bargain for. Check out the full programming at www.reelasian.com

Here are the short descriptions of just a few of the great films that will be showing at the RA Film Fest: (more…)