blog Archives - cléo

“The More Honest We Are, The More Useful It Is”: A Brief Oral History of the Scarborough Pictures Episodic Directing Program

cathleen evans — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 10:51:57 +0000

Following the success of his acclaimed first feature, The Secret Trial 5 (2014), Amar Wala found himself facing a dilemma many directors know well: “My first feature checked off all the boxes for a small political Canadian doc. It got into the festivals it needed to get into. It got reviewed by all the major […]

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cléo reviews: Locarno 2019

Manuela Lazic — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 10:00:32 +0000

The Locarno Film Festival is renowned for its focus on true art cinema—films made by auteurs and designed to trigger profound responses in viewers. The festival’s 72nd edition followed through on that promise while also leaving space for some surprises. The best films all demonstrated deeply empathetic yet uncompromising outlooks—the kind of cinema that is […]

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An Interview with Sophie Robinson about her film Me, My Mouth and I

cathleen evans — Fri, 31 May 2019 15:06:01 +0000

First staged in 1972, Samuel Beckett’s dramatic monologue, Not I, is stark by design—consisting only of a woman’s mouth, hovering about eight feet above the floor and illuminated by a single spotlight. Speaking in rapid, tangential sentences, the voice belongs to a character called, simply, Mouth. In her 2018 film, Me, My Mouth and I, […]

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cléo reviews: Hot Docs 2019

Chelsea Phillips Carr — Fri, 10 May 2019 15:05:32 +0000

Last year, on the 25th anniversary of the festival, Hot Docs reached gender parity in its programming for the first time in its history. For the 2019 edition, it surpassed that waypost, with 54% of its films being helmed by women. Naturally, many highlights of the festival come from the diversity of women’s voices. A […]

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Everyone Else: Showcasing Maren Ade’s pre-Toni Erdmann wit

Esmé Hogeveen — Mon, 06 May 2019 15:03:29 +0000

This May, the Goethe-Institut Toronto is presenting the series Past Forward: Directors Before Cannes, a celebration of early works by major contemporary German filmmakers Maren Ade, Valeska Grisebach, and Ulrich Köhler. Screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the series includes features and rare short films made before the directors’ international success at the Cannes Film […]

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Notes on Being: Exploring Identity at the Images Festival

Chelsea Phillips Carr — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 00:11:48 +0000

The annual Images Festival begins this week in Toronto, and we are very excited to be co-presenting the program Notes on Being. Featuring works by Onyeka Igwe, Cauleen Smith, Basma Alsharif, Chantal Akerman, Abigail Child, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Zeinabu Irene Davis, Kevin Jerome Everson and Christopher Harris, the selection is—in the words of programmer […]

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An Interview with Hot Docs Forum Producer Dorota Lech

cathleen evans — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 14:39:13 +0000

Dorota Lech is a Polish-born, Toronto and Los Angeles-based film programmer and independent curator. Since 2013, she has worked for the Toronto International Film Festival, where she is currently the Section Head of the Discovery programme and an International Programmer. She holds a double M.A. in Political Science and Gender Studies from McGill University and […]

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An Interview with Black Gold Programmer Sarah-Tai Black

cathleen evans — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 14:47:30 +0000

Sarah-Tai Black is a programmer and arts writer based in Toronto. Since 2017, she has curated Black Gold — a monthly screening series at The Royal Cinema dedicated to celebrating black screen icons and filmmakers. On March 7th, to celebrate its second anniversary, Black Gold will be screening a rare 35mm print of Claire Denis’ little-seen […]

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Masturbation: it’s free!: Willow Maclay on Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore

willow maclay — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 15:33:46 +0000

On March 3rd, cléo will be co-presenting Sarah Jacobson’s film Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore at Toronto’s What the Film Festival (click here for event details). In anticipation, Willow Maclay—who wrote about Jacobson’s 16mm debut I Was a Teenage Serial Killer for our SHORTS issue—has penned an ode to Mary Jane and orgasmic self-realization. […]

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An Interview with Filmmaker and Artist Nazlı Dinçel

cathleen evans — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:37:17 +0000

When Michael Sicinski wrote about Turkish-American experimental filmmaker Nazlı Dinçel for our SHORTS issue, he described the discomfort that her films can elicit in audiences as imperative to the radical politics of her work: “they are strategic interventions of sorts, bringing sexual bodies into a space where they still have the power to be disruptive.” […]

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