Pushing Boundaries: Independent Canadian Cinema of the Sixties and Seventies
Showing a daring, bohemian sensibility that we don't typically associate with Canada's history, the Calgary Cinematheque is pleased to present four films which are not only valuable cultural artifacts from the 1960s and 70s, but are enlightening works of art.
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Screenwriting Panel Film critic and writer Geoff Pevere moderates a screenwriting panel with four Canadian filmmakers: Allan King, Larry Kent, Allan Moyle, Frank Vitale.
Featuring 4 legendary Canadian filmmakers -
Allan King's A Married Couple (1969)One of the key films to test the boundaries of documentary and fiction in this period. Shot over ten weeks in Toronto, as a documentary about a couple experienceing problems in the seventh year of their marriage, it was released as a fiction feature. In focusing on moments of conflict, King fashioned a very dramatic film out of the seventy hours of footage obtained. -
Larry Kent's High (1967)A young, amoral couple living amorously in Montreal and Toronto, and unable to make ends meet, take to seducing men and robbing them. Kent's most experimental film to date, leaping between black and white and colour stock and featuring a hallucinogenic credit sequence, it was banned by censors on its premier screening at the Montreal Film Festival, but subsequently supported by Festival jury members Jean Renoir and Fritz Lang. -
Frank Vitale's Montreal Main (1972)Frank Vitale stars as a gay, misunderstood, 1960's-ish artist living on Blvd St. Laurent, who befriends a gay teenage boy from the suburbs. His friends and the boy's parents struggle to come to terms with the relationship. Notable for dealing with members of Montreal's marginalized gay and artistic communities, this film is an exploration of age difference in a homosexual relationship in a very personalized way. -
Allan Moyle's Rubber Gun (1977)The sequel to Montreal Main, featuring many of the same characters playing themselves, with Moyle playing Bozo, a sociology student who believes that drugs have a positive effect on group dynamics. He becomes involved with Steve, a gay artist/drug dealer who is also guru to a street community. Bozo completes his thesis on Steve while the film's audience is left with a very negative impression of the drug culture.
