2nd annual edition of eccentric Fest to salute Canadian kickboxing duo The Twin Dragons”
Veteran film programmer and enthusiast Peter Kuplowskys most recent gig has been running with the bulls at TIFFs Midnight Madness and Vanguard programs, but that blissful burden hasnt stopped him from launching his own cinematic celebration.
Coming back to Toronto for its second berserk year is Kuplowskys WHAT THE FILM FESTIVAL (WTFilm Fest) a mind-bending blow-out of the latest and strangest in outsider art and cult cinema running June 30 through July 2, 2016 at The Royal Cinema and other neato TO locations .
The three-day festival plans to introduce audiences to 7 unconventional feature films, including 2 World Premieres, and 2 retrospective anniversary screenings for obscure Canuxploitation classics.
Rejecting lazy qualifying classifications like so-bad-its-good, Kuplowsky prefers to describe its line-up as an intersection of genre cinema and the avant-garde, and its filmmakers as sincere artists who are merely working outside the traditional parameters of taste and convention.
Says Kuplowsky: If its weird, well show it. If you think it’s terrible, well defend it. If you realize it’s genius, well have told you so. But above all, we will always leave our audiences slack-jawed, on the precipice of paraphrasing our namesake: WTF?!!
Headlining this year’s line up is a 30th anniversary celebration of the cinematic persona of Irish-Canadian kickboxing brothers Michael and Martin McNamara (aka The Twin Dragons) whose martial art films TWIN DRAGON ENCOUNTER and DRAGON HUNT were late-night television staples throughout the 1990s. The McNamara Brothers will be in attendance on opening night of the festival for a screening of DRAGON HUNT, which pits the twin dragons against a sadistic woodland militia in the wilderness of Pointe au Baril, Ontario. Complimented by an infectious rock n’ roll soundtrack courtesy of Southern Ontario rocker Billy Butt, the film’s delirious mix of comic-book villainy and epic martial arts mayhem place it in the same tradition as popular cult classics like MIAMI CONNECTON and DEADLY PREY.
The festival lineup also includes the World Premiere of SPACE BREAKERS, an anarchic DIY comedy from Toronto comedy collective JAZ (Zak Tatham, Aaron Manczyk, Jacob Wiebe & Efehan Elbi) reminiscent of both JOHN CARPENTER’S DARK STAR and JOHN WATERS’ PINK FLAMINGOS, a rare work-in-progress screening of NOVA SEED, a sci-fi fable in the tradition of HEAVY METAL hand-animated by emerging Canadian artist Nick DiLiberto.
Our other World Premiere is TANGO EUROPA, the newest film from cult comedian Bennet Jones (I AM A KNIFE WITH LEGS).
The Canadian Premiere of DON’T LET THE RIVER BEAST GET YOU by the filmmaking duo of Charles Roxburgh and Matt Farley, the latter of which is better known in the press as the most prolific song-writer in the world, having recorded and released over 18,000 songs on Spotify through his label MOTERN MEDIA.
On July 1, the WTFilm Fest will pay tribute to Canadian cinema with a pay-to-leave marathon at Dundas Video (831 Dundast St. West), a Toronto bar dedicated to VHS and retro video games aficionados. Admission will be free with a $5.00 deposit, returned only to those who endure a collection of eccentric short films and three of the most notorious Canadian films ever made, including the cult classic SCIENCE CRAZED, which will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. The marathon is sponsored in part by Canadian cult distributor VIDEONOMICON.
The opening and closing night of the festival will take place at the historic Royal Cinema (608 College St.), home to The Laser Blast Film Society’s monthly series, with July 1st programming occurring all day at Dundas Video (831 Dundas St. West). The July 1st programming at Dundas Video will include musical performances from alternative artists including Konig, Atolia Star, The J. Arthur Keenes Band and International Rockstar Bené, the star of TROPICAL EUROPA.
And buckle in for the positively feral festival trailer below:
