Michael Dent

Nash The Slash was deliciously surreal, verging on demented. A mummy wrapped in surgical bandages, an invisible man in full formal white tuxedo and top hat buzz-sawing his violin through endless reams of electronics, melodies and distortion. His music and image were demanding. His life was rock fantasy. ‘NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN!’ uncovers the sinister Canadian electronic music innovator. A classically trained violinist and multi-instrumentalist, he created music that was an unlikely combination of prog-rock, punk-rock, classic-rock, psychedelic fused with techno and industrial before they had names. The end result is an unearthly life drenched in film history, enveloped in a wall of sound that would do Phil Spector justice. A career embodied in artistic integrity, courage and the price-tag that comes with it. ‘NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN!’ unwinds the bandages of a ground-breaking, mad musical scientist whose career decomposed before the world caught up.

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A dark comedic caper centred around a community of barflies at a Hamilton dive bar. When the patrons get word that Foggy, one of the bar’s regulars, is on the run with a fanny pack full of money, they each scheme, backstab and claw at one another to be the first person to find Foggy and take the money.

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A man inherits his estranged father’s prized possession — a derelict porno theatre — in Kire Paputts’ second feature, about gentrification and finding love and compassion in unlikely places.

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Life Is About Losing Everything is a hybrid documentary, equal parts feminist artist portrait and fantastical memoir, exploring loss and love through the lens of pop culture and art. Based on Canadian poet Lynn Crosbie’s memoir of the same name, the film follows multiple fictionalized incarnations of Crosbie as they embark on a delirious journey through the writer’s memories and imagination, encountering celebrity lookalikes, an inch-tall man, uncanny high schoolers, and a Zombie Sylvia Plath along the way. Drawing on a wealth of pop and literary references, Life Is About Losing Everything reflects on the role of art and storytelling in finding kinship and giving meaning to our lives.

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