Wreck-Beach 2007 Review, By Captain,
Openning night Friday August 3rd ,
The Wreck-beach Film Festival 2007 was the best ever..The people, the films, the bands,a fun time was had by all..The band ROCK MONSTER started the evening off ..as darkness fell The Rocketron projection system was fired up ..The presentation was prepared by New Domension Films starting with our welcoming clip.Nature was providing some sights as well,outburts of "AWESOME" could be heard from many ,as a comet zoomed past just over the top of the screen for everyones pleasure ...It was followed by some of the best animations ever "Natasha" by Signe Baumane of New York ,second film was a real whacky one from USA, on the topic of " The Funny Bone" from the professors vault...this awesome short ten minute film was created by Aaron Goldenburg and Neil Van Gorder of Boston USA...Next ,a favourite around here, a film by myself,Captain, and Dennis Logan ,actor/ filmmaker of Toronto called "Hot Rod Fever" a documentary about a souped up hot rod ..cool indeed.Next a short horror film "The Locksmith " by filmmaker Jason Stephenson of St Paul, Minnesota,USA was well received, really getting the audiences attention.The warm weather allowed for a laid back easy going feeling ,ovations followed each film putting smiles on the filmmakers faces big time..The Friday night short films were concluded with a presentation by Matthew Saliba of Montreal..his dramatic short film called "She Was Asking For It" was a big hit with everyone...Also in attendance was his associate Mario Carangl,a wonderful charismic character who did the camera work for Matthew .The finale was a feature film by Toronto ,Ontario,Canada,Filmmakers Brett and Jason Butler,called "Confusions Of An Unmarried Couple" starring Brett Butler,this comedic story topped off a perfect evening under the stars watching some of the best films ever!! ..Saturday Aug 4th
The Wreck-Beach film fest at Domecountry was even more fun on the second night ...The evening started early while demonstrations of the latest model airplanes by Klaus, flew over head dazzling everyone..Then Cheaper Than Therapy led by Ivan Judd rocking us out for over two hours..as dark fell the beach lit up with another Rocketron presentation.featuring United Kingdome Rock band Imogen,s Kisses recording of "Get Domed" as the background music leading to .the openning film . A second animation by Signe Baumane of new York..called "Five Fucking Fables" delighting the viewers ..follwed by an animation called "Still Life Flowers" by Leo Bridle of the United Kingdom...
"Lost In Heaven" was sent to us from the west coast filmmaker Scot Arron Hartman,,another delight! The large ovations for every film indicated the quality of the films being shown..
We all enjoyed these classic indie films sooo much!
Yes yes yes..as we then turned our attention to"Mysterious Michael A" also from the United Kingdom,Gordon Films.a sweet ten minute film."How To disappear Completely" was next ,a submission from Coffee Films in The united Kingdom as well,,can it get much better? Johnny Wu of Cleveland Ohio.sent a teaser in for his new film "The Rapture" it was so well done we included the three minute piece in our line up...it was followed by the classic comedy" RUU " submitted from Toronto, Ontario ,Filmmaker ,Shawn Goldenberg, at 72 Step Production Co & Dark Circle Pictures ..we all laughed our asses off as we sparked it up with Dougie!!
The evening of film even got better as we then watched Scope Entertainments newest film "Just One Cookie" more comedy ..more more yes Dennis Logan of Toronto Ontario, in the film" French Onion" It was the last film programmed but it got even better as guest actress Kim Bergart brought forward a film presented here 3 years ago "Elise"..whooo hoo ..we were all so excited seeing this wonderful piece again..the film by Matthew Sabina was requested to be show again .I obliged the audience as they watched this short film for a second time..cool stuff ,,Our feature, Rise Of The Ghosts" from SV Bell of Montreal,Quebec then played on unitl two AM keeping everyone on the edge of their seats..it was a glorious time for all !
Some things that I wanted to do ,but couldnt, due to time, were to play more films..its just so damn hard to pick from so many fantastic filmmakers..
These films I wanted to show,
RoadKill, Mike Conway...:...Arc, Steve Gelder...:...Ghosts in the Corn,Kevin Railsback...:...Lord of the Dead, Greg Parker...:...Horrors Of War , Peter John Ross...:...Frank The Barber,Jeff Palmer...:...Strangers In the Night ,James Cotter...:...Forgive,P Windridge, Rare Company...:...My Yacht ,Tom Wonter...:...Ring Of The Bishop ,Kathy Fitzgerald...:...Snowday Bloody Snow day..Dom Zooks...:...Girls Who Say Yes ,Dawn Wilkinson...:...A Jokers Card ,Johnny Wu
WOWeee,you can see the caliber of films ,Decisions decisions, decisions..
Until Next time this is
Captain wishing you all
Happy Sailing..........._/)..
Wreck-Beach 2007 Review,
By Matthew Saliba,Filmmaker ,Montreal.Quebec,Canada
Wow!
Granted, not the most original way to begin a film festival recap, but believe me when I say there isn't a single solitary word in the English language that can come close to describing one-eighth of the cultural Mecca that is Dome Country nor the totally transgressive cinematic extravaganza that is the Wreck-Beach International Film Festival!
But hey, I like reading my own words, so I'm damn well gonna try!
As some of you may know, this past weekend She Was Asking for It had its "Ontario Premiere" at the 2007 Wreck-Beach International Film Festival. I happened upon this festival through my friend and Quebec horror maestro, SV Bell. Having come off a pair of very successful screenings at the NFB Cinema and the Fantasia Film Festival, I was looking for other venues to unleash the latest Sinema Saliba creation upon unsuspecting audiences. I had noticed Bell's films had played at this particular event on more than one occasion, so I asked him to tell me about Wreck-Beach.
I should've known I was on to something special, when the typically gregarious SV Bell, grew even more animated with a smile that spread across his face and said, "let me tell you about Wreck-Beach!"
From there, he regaled to me a tale of an isolated village run by an enigma known only as Captain who lives in a giant mushroom dome that he constructed along with several other domes to create his very own country, which he calls (appropriately enough), Dome Country. He told me about film screenings held under the stars projected on a giant 40-foot screen with a "Rocket-Tron" (a home-made rocket with a removable nose cone in which a digital projector sits). He told of me beer, burgers and babes (consumed in that order) and all-night parties with live bands, midnight dips in the pool and next-day hangovers which could only be cured with a hearty breakfast at the Innisbrook Golf Course (courtesy of the Captain) and pretty much more of the same the following night!
What was my response to all of this?
Come again? Then I laughed because I said come.
But once I realized he was serious I made it a point to get my film into this festival, by any means necessary.
Thankfully the Captain was generous enough to take a look at She Was Asking for It despite my submission being WAY past the deadline and evidently he liked what he saw and agreed to show it!
So we were off!
By "we" I mean myself, and co-producer/director of photography,
Mario Carangi. It was a good 6-7 hour drive from Montreal to Innisfil, Ontario (which is a good hour north of Toronto) and at some point we weren't even sure this place existed as we followed the directions to the letter only to be told by a pair of Stepford Wives at the National Pines Golf Course that there's no such place as Wreck-Beach. Thankfully we followed our instincts and continued our trek down the road and eventually we were greeted by a giant, home-made billboard that said "HELL ROCKS" followed by another sign informing us that our journey had come to an end and we finally arrived at Wreck-Beach.
It should be noted that the "beach" in question is in fact truckloads of sand the Captain imported from the shores of Lake Simcoe, with a large above-ground pool, and the aforementioned giant 40-foot screen with rocket-tron projector, smack dab in the middle. There's also a very quirky homemade, Tiki Bar, ingeniously made up of cedar-wood.
Surrounding all of this are in fact a series of beautifully-constructed, very habitable and extremely comfortable domes. There's a giant mushroom dome where the Captain lives with an accompanying apartment (which the Captain graciously donated to Mario and I during our stay) as well as several guest domes that are rented out to the village's inhabitants. The domes are made of foam and concrete and are cool in the Summer, warm in the Winter, and have all the necessary conveniences one would expect from a swanky, modern downtown apartment. Dome dwellers just enjoy living in a home that reflects nature's hemisphere, which is circular. According to the Captain, the natural curviness on the interior of the dome is easier for the mind to process, and hence, more relaxing.
Ah yes, the Captain!
When you make films about women giving birth to giant toes, old men sexually fondling spaghetti squashes, spandex-clad mailmen getting spanked and young men getting orally raped by dildomes, (had to throw a dome-related pun in there somewhere!) suffice it to say you attract a very eclectic and eccentric group of friends.
After meeting the Captain, I think it's safe to say these friends are full-blown Republicans by comparison.
From the very second we pulled up in Dome Country, we were greeted by a man whose energy, creativity and knack for spinning a good yarn never ceased. In the span of 10 minutes we learned all about his struggles with the neighbouring golf courses that want his property (long story short, his village sits right in the middle of two very profitable pieces of land), the police (Geez Louise do the Fuzz have it in for this guy!), the village gossip (you wouldn't believe who's been sleeping with whom!) as well as the history and philosophy behind Dome Country. I don't think there was ever a moment where a smile left my face or my attention wasn't captured by this mysterious yet wonderfully charming and hospitable man.
Oh yeah...somewhere in all of this a film festival took place.
Now as you no doubt have already guessed, the term "film festival" took on something of a different meaning at Wreck-Beach. When you think of "film festival" you generally think of a very strict, stodgy process by which films begin and end at a certain hour, people file in and out, ad nauseam.
At Dome Country, things operate a little differently.
First and foremost, all screenings take place outside under the stars at night, which I especially enjoyed. It really adds a fun atmosphere to the proceedings and hearkens back to the old drive-in days, sans the cars and awkward attempts of getting laid in them.
Secondly, there's a lot of audience interaction that goes on during the screenings. It isn't uncommon to find audiences talking back to the screen a la the old grindhouse theatre days. Several times, especially during the screening of the closing feature for the first night, many audience members would actually talk to the characters on the screen. This got especially interesting once copious amounts of alcohol were consumed.
Of course, with audience interaction comes interaction amongst the audience and it was also not uncommon to find people talking with each other during screenings. Truth be told, this kinda ticked me off and it especially got me miffed once the screening of my own film She Was Asking for It began. On more than one occasion I wanted to turn around and tell people to shut the fuck up. However, it would turn out that I didn't need to as once a 9-inch cherry red dildo made its first appearance in the film, projected in digital clarity on a giant 40-foot screen, everybody (and I kid you not), EVERYBODY shut the fuck up in unison! It was by far, the greatest experience I've had with this film thus far. A collective hush fell on the audience as the rape sequence and subsequent murder set-pieces had them enthralled. By the time the end credits rolled, the film received a standing ovation with several demands of an encore, which the Captain duly obliged by playing the film on an endless loop all night as the band "Rock Monster" did their set. Interesting side note, the film's rape scene happened to coincide with the band's cover of Johnny Cash's Folsom City Blues.
By the end of the night, I was on cloud fucking nine! She Was Asking for It was a huge, huge, huge, did I mention huge, because in case I didn't, allow me to reiterate said point, HUGE hit with the audience and I never felt more appreciated and accepted as an artist than I did that night. Plenty of people came up to Mario and I that night offering their services on our next production, including a musician, a weapons expert and even a very hot actress/model. In fact, She Was Asking for It was so popular, the Captain showed it again on Saturday as the closing film!
Some highlights of the films we saw the first night included the charming animated short Natasha which answered my life-long query as to what would the offspring of a lonely housewife and a sexpot vacuum cleaner look like and the brilliant comedic feature, Confusions of an Unmarried Couple a quasi-mockumentary in which a separated couple (Dan and Lisa) is interviewed, documentary style, about what went wrong, intercut with the main thread of action in which Dan returns to their home and begins a lengthy conversation with Lisa that quickly turns into an emotional argument.
Unfortunately, due to commitments in the city, Mario and I couldn't stay for the 2nd night. But we did manage to have a wonderfully hearty breakfast with the Captain and his friends and they all bid us farewell as we made our trek back to Montreal.
Suffice it to say, I can’t recommend attending this event enough! If you are a filmmaker, submit your film TODAY! If you are a filmmaker and you haven’t made anything yet, MAKE ONE NOW and submit it TOMORROW!! If you’re not a filmmaker and are just looking to spend what will probably be one of the most interesting and esoteric weekends of your life, make it a point to visit Dome Country in the Summer. Hell at this rate, I may make another trip in the Winter as I can only imagine the goodies the Captain has in store during Christmas time!
Mario took several stills during our time there and I’ve included a link where you can catch a glimpse of what it might’ve been like to attend Wreck-Beach in person. Check ‘em out!
I would sincerely like to thank the Captain for his hospitality and for truly making us feel welcome. Rest assured dear sir, we will definitely be back next year with the sequel!
Thanks for reading!
ARCHIVES
 2006 Wreck-beach International Film Festival |
2005 Wreck-beach International Film Festival |
| 2004 Film Festival |
Review of 2005 Film Festival by Supergun Cinema |
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