NFB @ "Luminato" 2009...

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The National Film Board of Canada has partnered with "Luminato", Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity for the third consecutive year.

From June 6-13, the NFB Mediatheque presents free screenings/workshops as part of 'Luminato Reel', a film program inspired by the 2009 "Luminato" lineup.

Screenings include "Roadsworth: Crossing the Line", detailing a Montreal stencil artist’s clandestine campaign to make his mark on the city streets. As he is prosecuted at home and celebrated abroad, Roadsworth struggles to defend his work, define himself as an artist and address difficult questions about art and freedom of expression;

"Breaking a Leg", from director Robert Lepage. In the spring of 1989, LePage joined forces with a new Montreal theatre company, 'Theatre 1774', to direct its first production. This doc follows the project from its first workshop to opening night;

"Family Program" includes a 48-minute selection of award-winning animated short films celebrating literacy. featuring "The Girl Who Hated Books", "Tzaritza", "I Want a Dog", "Blackberry Subway Jam", "The Friends of Kwan Ming" and "Oma’s Quilt".

Marking its 70th anniversary this year, the NFB produces and distributes social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, alternative drama and digital content with a unique Canadian perspective.

In collaboration with international partners/co-producers, the NFB is 'expanding the vocabulary' of 21st century cinema, breaking new ground in form and content, through community filmmaking projects, cross-platform media, interactive cinema and stereoscopic animation.

Since its founding in 1939, the NFB has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 12 Oscars...

TFCA Presents "The Limits Of Control"...

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Friday, May 29, Toronto's Yorkville-based Cumberland Cinemas will host the inaugural edition of "TFCA Presents", a new series presented in partnership with the Toronto Film Critics Association.

TFCA President Brian D. Johnson, film critic for Maclean’s magazine and Eye Weekly newspaper critic Adam Nayman will present/discuss director Jim Jarmusch’s newest feature "The Limits of Control", entering its second week of release.

The critics will introduce the film, followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.

The new film screening series, expected to run once a month, was devised to afford TFCA members a new platform to discuss local releases, "...giving audiences the chance to put faces to the bylines of film critics they read every week and to add their own voices to the fray..."

The Cumberland's commitment to screening the best of international and art-house cinema made it a natural partner for the TFCA, which broke from the mainstream earlier this year by giving its 2008 Best Film award to the independently produced drama "Wendy and Lucy".

Given its polarizing reception among critics, "The Limits of Control", stars actor Isaac de Bankole as a taciturn criminal stalking 'unknown prey' through a series of picturesque Spanish locations.

"The best films are like unfinished conversations, that you’re dying to resume as soon as the lights come up,” said Johnson.

"With ‘TFCA Presents,’ we want to create that opportunity. The poetic intrigue of The Limits of Control—a drama that’s willfully oblique and open-ended—is an ideal choice to launch this new initiative of taking film criticism off the page and into the theatre."

"We are hoping to create an ongoing dialogue with the audience," said Graeme Maitland, Operations Manager, Cumberland Cinemas.

"We present a variety of smaller films that sometimes get lost in the fray of Hollywood blockbusters. We feel they deserve to be recognized for their artistic achievements, and the partnership with the TFCA is the perfect way to move towards this goal. It is our hope to develop this into a monthly event where people can interact with the presenters and each other. It is a perfect venue to strengthen Toronto 's film-watching community..."