Dork Shelf talks to Toronto After Dark Film Festival Programming Director and Founder Adam Lopez about his genre festival's eighth year, the move from rep houses to Cineplex, why accessibility and the opinions of his fans mean so much to him, theme nights, and why they decided upon We Are What We Are for the opening night film.
Kate Drummond, the voice of Grim in Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Blacklist and a former grade school teacher, is uniquely qualified to speak to issues concerning video games, violence, and children’s education.
Dork Shelf talks with heavy metal icon Slash to talk about his first foray into feature film production, Nothing Left to Fear, the differences between film and music business, why his life has always been following a learning curve, balancing life on the road as a musician with being a producer, how filmmaking plays into his more impulsive desires as an artist, scoring a film he helped produce, and the real life legend of Stull, Kansas.
Dork Shelf talks with recent Emmy winner and TV icon Julia Louis-Dreyfus about her starring role in the comedy Enough Said and creating chemistry with the cast, how she brought her own personal feelings about her eldest leaving for college to the production, why she never really actively sought out work in film prior to this and stuck to TV, and what sports movie contains her favourite cinematic moment.
Dork Shelf talks to all nigh B-movie maven and host of Shock and Awe (happening at Toronto's Revue Cinema this Friday at 11:30pm) Dion Conflict about this year’s selections, the work that goes into the festival, his love for Shock and Awe crowds, spaghetti westerns, sex flicks being on the cutting edge of technology, being duped into seeing Mac and Me a second time in theatres, programming shorts between the features, how the mystery feature stays under wraps (with a slight tease for this year), and finding the right times to run certain movies that might not have gone over as well a year or two prior.
Dork Shelf talks to Enough Said director Nicole Holofcener about how she draws inspiration from real life, the passing of James Gandolfini, how the late actor wasn’t her first choice, why it took so long for anyone to give Julia Louis-Deryfuss a starring role, and the difficulties of modern filmmaking as a female director who likes making age appropriate movies about real women.
Dork Shelf talks to Enough Said co-stars Toni Collette and Catherine Keener about the differences between female characters written by men and those created by women, the reality that writer-director Nicole Holofcener brings to her productions, and why they see both of their characters’ professions as somewhat crazy.
Dork Shelf talks to Don Jon writer, director, and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt about how he came up with the message for his debut feature, how much pornography he thought was appropriate to show, creating the film’s unique family dynamic, producing this film outside of a major studio, and how the casting of Scarlett Johnansson fit into his particular vision for the film.
Don Jon actress Scarlett Johansson talks to Dork Shelf about the differences between pornography and romantic comedy, her collaboration with Joseph Gordon-Levitt for the first time, how her decision making process has evolved over the years, what it’s like watching a sexualized film in front of family and loved ones, and her own (somewhat surprising) addiction.
Dork Shelf sits down with first time filmmaker (and former Major League Baseball Pitcher and doctor) Drew Taylor and veteran documentarian Larry Weinstein about their collaboration on the film Our Man in Tehran, which looks beyond the events depicted in Argo and looks at the Iranian Revolution and the ensuing American hostage crisis as a whole.
We talk to visual artists and directors of the offbeat animated TIFF selection Asphalt Watches Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver about burgers, road tripping, crazy people who think they are Santa, the things they do for money, animation, staying true to the feeling of the trip, believing in the good in people, foul mouthed families, and not wanting to necessarily be the spokesmen for burgers.
Dork Shelf chats with Jason Michael Paul, executive producer of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, which makes its return engagement at Toronto's Sony Centre this Saturday.
We talk to Danis Goulet, director of the Cree inspired science-fiction short Wakening, filmed at the Winter Garden Theatre and screening prior of the TIFF opening night gala of The Fifth Estate on Thursday night to help honour the theatre's 100th anniversary. We talk about transforming the Winter Garden and the surrounding area into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, her film’s role in the resurgence of aboriginal cinema, and getting the cops accidentally called on the production for being too realistic.
We talk to When Jews Were Funny documentarian Alan Zweig (whose latest film debuts at TIFF this week) about the challenges of getting a comic to open up on camera about real topics, the generation gap he noticed, how Mel Brooks making his father laugh opened up his eyes to Jewish humour, how to deal with a difficult interview, and what he hopes his daughter can take from him after he’s gone.
We talk to Siddharth director Richie Mehta (whose new film debuts in Venice before coming to the Toronto International Film Festival next week) about how a failed project led to him finding this story, writing characters that don’t necessarily align with his own beliefs or logic, returning to shoot in India, the goodness in people, and how he thinks the film will be perceived in India.
