Fantasia 2010

Tuesday, Fantasia announced the highlights of its programming and posted all the details on its website.

The 14th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival, one of the largest events dedicated to genre cinema, will be held from July 8th to July 28th, at Concordia University's Hall Theatre and a few other venues in Montreal. This year, with more government subsidies, the festival has widened and diversified even more its impressive programming. It offers nearly 300 movies, including over 120 feature-length films and several hundreds shorts, as well as a variety of documentaries, panel discussions, stage plays, outdoor screenings and many guests will be there to introduce and discuss their work.

The festival will open with Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice and close with Eli Craig's horror film satire Tucker & Dale's vs. Evil. Other notable events of the festival are the screenings of Fritz Lang's restored Metropolis (with 25 min. of previously lost footage), Jean Cocteau's Le Sang d'un Poête, and Ken Russell's The Devils (who has a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Québécoise and will also receive an award for his unique contribution to cinema). Animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman will also receive a dual lifetime achievement award. Among the movies from the West that intrigues me, I must also mention Centurion, “a breathtaking rollercoaster” set in roman time, directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent).

Of course, the most interesting part of the festival for us is its Asian programming. It offers 55 Asian movies (including 24 from Japan, 14 from Korea, 9 from Hong Kong, 3 from Thailand, 2 from China as well as from Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia).

The Japanese movies include eight anime features (twice as much as last year): Evangelion 2.0: You Can(Not) Advance, First Squad: The Moment of Truth (a Japan/Russia co-production), Gintama: The Movie, King of Thorn, Mai Mai Miracle, Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror, Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection, and Summer Wars (best animated feature at the 2010 Japanese Academy Awards). Other notable animations are The Land Before Time (USA, Don Bluth), Technotise: Edit & I (Serbia) and What is not Romance? (Korea).

The live-action Japanese movies includes (click on the link for details): Air Doll (Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda), Alien Vs Ninja, Battle in Outer Space (a 1960 classic dir. by Ishiro Honda), Boys on the Run, Brass Knuckle Boys, Crows Zero 2 (Dir. Takashi Miike), Fish Story, Golden Slumber, Higanjima, Kuroneko (a 1968 classic), Mutant Girls Squad, Raise the Castle!, Rinco's Restaurant, Sawako Decides, Symbol, and Van Von Hunter (a USA/Japan co-production written & directed by Tokyopop's Stu Levy and Steven Calcote).

The Japanese and anime-related guests include: Yoshinori Chiba (Dir. of Alien Vs Ninja), Stu Levy (founder of Tokyopop and co-dir. of Van Von Hunter), Yuri Lowenthal (popular voice-actor (Bleach, Code Geass, Naruto) and actor in Van Von Hunter), Yoshihiro Nishimura (co-dir. of Mutant Girls Squad), Tara Platt (voice-actress (Buso Renkin, Naruto) and panelist), and Mai Tominaga (dir. of Rinco's Restaurant).

Finally, two of the panels might be of interest for the animation fans: “The Current and Future State of Traditional Animation Cinema: Death, Comeback and Resurrection” (Sunday July 18th 1:00 pm, at the EV-01.615 amphitheatre (1515 Ste-Catherine W), with Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, Gerard Potterton and Luc Chamberland) and “Voice Over, Voice Actor” (Sunday July 18th 3:00 pm, at the EV-01.615 amphitheatre (1515 Ste-Catherine W), with Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt).

Enjoy the festival!

Fantasia 2009

In a press conference held on Monday June 29th Fantasia announced the highlights of its programmation:

The 13th edition of the Fantasia Film Festival, North America's largest genre cinema event, will be held from July 9th to July 29th, 2009 at Concordia University's Hall Theatre in Montreal. This year the festival offers over 115 feature-length films, as well as an impressive selection of shorts, documentaries, panel discussions, outdoor screenings and more than fifty guests that will be there to introduce their movies. The programmation's details will be available online for free and the Program Book will be on sale Friday July 3rd at the cost of $5. Tickets will be available from July 7th for $8.00 or $70 for 10 tickets. There are also 8 “Fantastic Week-End” programs (including 6 to 13 films) available for $8 each.

The programming offers over 50 Asian movies (including 35 from Japan, 15 from Korea, 6 from China/Hong Kong and 3 from Thailand).

This year the festival is a little weak on the anime side as it includes only four Japanese animated features: Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers (Dir.: Tomoyuki Kyoda), Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (Dir.: Hideaki Anno), Genius Party Beyond (a shorts anthology by 4'C Studio) and Hells (Dir.: Yoshiki Yamakawa, Madhouse Studio). There's also Cencoroll (a short shown with Genius Party Beyond).

The most interesting Japanese movies of the festival (interesting to us because they are anime & manga related) definitely are 20th Century Boys: Chapter One and 20th Century Boys: Chapter Two—The Last Hope (based on Naoki Urasawa's manga and directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi), M.W. (based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka and directed by Hitoshi Iwamoto) and Yatterman (based on Tatsunoko's 1977-79 anime TV series Time Bokan 2: Yattāman (or its 2008 remake); directed by Takashi Miike, it's the opening film of the festival hosted by producer Yoshinori Chiba).

There's also an anime & manga-related Korean movie: Antique (Dir.: Min Kyu-dong; based on the Japanese manga Antique Bakery by Fumi Yoshinaga).

The other Japanese movies includes Battle League in Kyoto (Dir.: Katsuhide Motoki, based on a fantasy novel by Manabu Makime), The Clone Returns Home (Dir.: Kanji Nakajima), Crime or Punishment?!? (Dir.: Keralino Sandorovich), Cyborg She (dir.: Kwak Jae-young), Fine, Totally Fine (Dir.: Yosuke Fujita), GS Wonderland (dir.: Ry˚ichi Honda), Hard Revenge, Milly and Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle (hosted by writer/director Takanori Tsujimoto), House (Dir.: Nobuhiko Obayashi), Instant Swamp (Dir.: Satoshi Miki), K-20: Legend of the Mask (Dir.: Shimako Sato), Lalapipo (Dir.: Masayuki Miyano), Love Exposure (Dir.: Sion Sono), Nightmare Detective 2 (Dir.: Shinya Tsukamoto), Orochi (Dir.: Norio Tsurata), Paco and the Magic Book (Dir.: Tetsuya Nakashima), Samurai Princess (Dir.: Kengo Kaji), Tokyo OnlyPic 2008 (Dir.: Riichiro Mashima), Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl (Dir.: Naoyuki Tomomatsu & Yoshihiro Nishimura) and With Rain (a short shown as part of “Celluloid Experiments”).

The festival, in association with the Cinémathèque Québécoise and Ciné-Asie, also presents “Behind the Pink Curtain,” a line-up of Japanese erotic films (pinku eiga): Blue Film Woman (1969), Gushing Prayer (1971), S&M Hunter (1986), Secret Hot Spring Resort: Star Fish at Night (1970) and Yariman (2008).

Fantasia also presents a “Classic Daikaiju Special” that will include a documentary, Bringing Godzilla Down to Size: The Art of Japanese Special Effects, a short, Gehara the Dark and Long Haired Monster, and a classic monster movie, Mothra (1961)!

As part of its “Fantasia Under the Stars” segment, the festival will also presents outdoor screenings of Tokyo Zombie (Dir.: Sakichi Sato) on 7/17 and Adrift in Tokyo (Dir.: Satoshi Miki) on 7/18 at 21:00 in the Parc de la Paix (St-Laurent boulevard between Ste-Catherine’s and René-Lévesque).

Notable is the recent French documentary by Yves Montmayeur: Yakuza Eiga: Une Histoire Secrète du Cinéma Japonais (“Yakuza Eiga: A Secret History of Japanese Cinema”).

The Japanese guests list includes Yoshinori Chia (Yatterman producer), Tomohiro Hayashi (Yatterman producer), Yoshihiro Nishimura (Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl director), and Takanori Tsujimoto (Hard Revenge, Milly writer & director).

We will add more details as they are available (updated: 7/4, 7/5, 7/8).

View a calendar of the Japanese movies' screenings.

Bon festival!

ANN will stream two anime TV series

Anime News Networks has announced on 2008-12-10 that it will stream two more anime, Girl's High and Ramen Fighter Miki. Starting December 15, both series will be available as free, ad-supported VOD streams, with one new episode being posted every Monday for 12 weeks. The series were licensed from North American anime publisher Media Blasters, and as such will only be available to viewers in North America (US & Canada). Justin Sevakis, ANN director of New Media, has stated that “There's more coming”.

ANN is already streaming the OVA Kite Liberator.

(Source: ANN).

ANN launches its streaming anime service

Anime News Networks has launched its streaming anime service on Tuesday 2008/12/09 with Kite: Liberator. The OVA, released on DVD by Media Blasters, is streamed (in six parts) in both subbed and dubbed versions, but only for North American viewers (US & Canada).

Give it a look!

(Source: ANN).

A blog for the voice of Minmei

Rebecca Forstadt, probably better known for being the voice of Lynn Minmei in Robotech (under the name Reba West)—but she is also credited for over eighty voiceworks on the IMDb, has just started a blog and a Facebook group:

http://rebeccaforstadtanime.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22293804834

Fantasia 2008

The 12th edition of the Fantasia Film Festival, North America's premier genre cinema event, will be held from July 3rd to July 21st, 2008 in three theatres (Hall, J.A. DeSeve and D.B. Clarke) of Montreal's Concordia University. This year it offers more than 100 feature films, over 200 shorts, 7 documentaries and there will be also more than fifty guests present to introduce their movies. The Program Book will be on sale Sunday June 29th at the cost of $5. Tickets will be available from July 3rd for $8.00 or $70 for 10 tickets.

The programming includes 56 Asian movies: 23 from Japan, 1 from China, 10 from Hong Kong, 16 from Korea, 5 from Thailand and 1 from Vietnam.

The selection of anime is rather thin this year: Batman: Gotham Knight (a USA/Japan coproduction that give the Animatrix treatment to Batman with six animated shorts directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, Futoshi Higashide, Toshiyuki Kuboka, Hiroshi Morioka, Shoujirou Nishimi and Nam Jong-sik) and Genius Party (the experimental animated anthology from studio 4'C that we talked about in PA#96).

However, the selection offers more live-action movies based on manga. The most obvious is L: Change the World (Hideo Nakata's [Ring] prequel based on Death Note), but there's also Akanbo Shoujo (directed by Yudai Yamaguchi based on the popular Kazuo Umezu's popular manga), Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (dir. by Takashi Yamazaki and adapted from Yohei Saigan's manga Sanchome no Yuhi: Yuyake no Uta), Be a Man! Samurai School (dir. by Tak Sakaguchi, based on Akira Miyashita's manga Sakigake! Otoko Juku) and Le Grand Chef (a Korean movie dir. by Jeon Yun-su and based on a popular Manhwa).

The festival will also show three Nikkatsu action movies from the 60s: A Colt is my Passport (1967), Gangster VIP (1968), and Velvet Hustler (1967).

The other Japanese movies are: Accuracy of Death, Adrift in Tokyo, Black Belt, Chanbara Beauty, The Chasing World, Gachi Boy: Wresling with a Memory, Machine Girl (a coproduction with the USA), The Most Beautiful Night in the World, Negative Happy Chain Saw Edge, Robo Rock, Sasori (a coproduction with HK), The Shadow Spirit, Shamo (a coproduction with HK), Sukiyaki Western Django (the latest Takashi Miike), Tokyo Gore Police and X-Cross.

Another notable movie is The Midnight Meat Train (a USA movie dir. by Ryuhei Kitamura [Versus, Aragami] and based on a story by Clive Barker).

The Japanese guests will be Tak Sakaguchi (Tokyo Gore Police, Be a Man! Samurai School), Isao Karasawa (Be a Man! Samurai School), Ryuhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train), Eihi Shiina (Tokyo Gore Police), Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) and we must also mention Mark Schilling (the movie historian, who will present A Colt Is my Passport).

Happy Festival!

Fantasia to get subsidies from the SODEC [updated]

The free newspaper 24 Heures announced today that the Festival Fantasia will finally received governmental subsidies from the SODEC (Société de développement des entreprises culturelles / Society for the development of cultural ventures).

The subsidies were announced by the SODEC yesterday.

Six movie festivals in Quebec (including four in Montreal) will share subsidies of $825, 000.

The other festival include the Montreal World Film Festival (getting $225,000), le Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (getting $220,000), le Carrousel International du Film de Rimouski (getting $120,000), le Festival du Cinéma International D'Abitibi-Témiscamingue (getting $115,000) and Les Recontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montreal (getting $95,000).

Fantasia will receive a $50,000 subsidy from the SODEC. It is an improvement since they only got $35,000 in 2007 from the Municipal & Regional Affairs Ministry. It is a little disappointing, since the festival deserves more, but it will certainly means a few improvement to the festival this year (more movies? more guests?). Fantasia has yet to comment or emit a press release on the SODEC announcement.

The 12th edition of Fantasia, the North American Premier Genre Film Festival (known for showing lots of edgy Japanese live-action and anime), will be held July 3-21 2008.

[updated 2008/04/17 with details from The Gazette 2008/04/16: D5]

Otakuthon 2007

I would like to remind you that Otakuthon, the only anime convention in Montreal, will be held at Concordia university on August 4 & 5. Check their website for details and, if you live in the Montreal area, come meet us there!

The Best Way To Sample The New Full Color Format!

Protoculture Addicts #88 was the first issue of the magazine to be released with the new 100-page, full color format.

It is now available as a downloadable eBook from Drive Thru RPG, and that makes PA #88 the perfect issue to sample the new Protoculture Addicts format!

If you are new to Protoculture Addicts, maybe you cannot find the magazine in a local store to browse through it in order to see by yourself what it is all about and you are hesitant to order it by mail without knowing what you will be getting.

If you are in this situation, your dilemma is over. You can now download a complete version of PA #88 as a PDF file for just a fraction of the cover price!

In a store you would pay this issue $5.95 ($6.95 if you mail-order) while you can get the eBook at Drive Thru RPG for only $4.99 US. Even better, if you order here (or from the Protoculture online catalog) you will pay only $3.99 US !

And if you are already familiar with the magazine, this is also a good occasion to acquire PA #88 at a better price and enjoy the great portability that eBooks offer if you have a laptop, a PDA, an iPod, or any other portable devices that can read PDF files.

Fantasia 2007

Fantasia, North America's Premier Genre Film Festival, has announced today its 2007 programming. The 11th edition of the festival will be held July 5-23 in three theatres (Hall, J.A. DeSeve and D.B. Clarke) of Montreal's Concordia University. It will offer 120 features films, 10 documentaries and 22 programs of short features (totalling 250 local and international shorts). There will also be more than fifty guests. The Program Book will be on sale friday June 29th at the cost of $5. Tickets will be available for $7.50 or $65 for a booklet of 10 tickets.

The programming will include over sixty feature films from Asia (plus twenty-two short films): 27 from Japan (including 3 anime), 17 from Korea (including one animation), 10 from Hong Kong and 8 from other Asian countries (Thailand, China, Taiwan).

Again this year the festival offers only three Japanese animation features: Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society, Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash In The Land Of Snow, and Tekkon Kinkreet (dir. Michael Arias, animated by Studio 4' C).

For more details on the programming check this blog entry.

Have a nice festival!

PA#92 at the printer

Protoculture Addicts #92 went to the printer at the end of last week. It will be shipping between July 3rd & July 10th and should be in stores (and subscribers should start receiving their copy) by mid-July.

Check the blog or the web page for more details soon.

ANN's Poll about PA

For those who might have missed it, Anime News Network ran a poll asking their readers “Do You Read PA?”

Unfortunately, the poll is now closed, but you can see the results here.

The Poll has also generated some discussion on the forum.

Let us also remind you that you can discuss anything regarding the magazine on the Protoculture Addicts forum : what you think about the content of the latest issue, what you like or dislike about the magazine, what’s your favorite section of the magazine, your suggestions of articles, in which stores you've seen the magazine, how long it took to your subscription copy to reach you, etc.

New Montreal Manga Store!

The anime store Marché Clandestin has spawned a manga store.

The Marché Clandestin MANGAYA is conveniently located just above the Marché Clandestin: 325 Ontario Est, Suite 101, Montreal, Qc, H2X 1H7 (Ph: (514) 510-6507; Web: www.mcanime.com/mangaya/). It is open Monday to Saturday, from noon to 7 pm. It is near the Berri-UQAM métro station.

As far as I know it is the first store in Montreal to specialize only in manga - both in French and in English (and eventually in Japanese too!). It covers all genres: shojo, shonen, yaoi, yuri, seinen, etc., and even carries novels. They have a special: buy 10 manga and get one free (of a value up to $12.95 Can).

It has just opened so the place is small and they don't have a large selection yet, but they already have a nice choice of manga and many titles that you would never see in your regular book store. It is REALLY worth checking out.

PA#89 shipping soon!

Protoculture Addicts #89 is shipping imminently. It was slightly delayed because of technical problems at the printer, but it should be on its way to subscribers and stores within a week. Check the web page for more details on this issue.

To get a copy you can either order it directly from us, get a subscription or check you local store. If they are not carrying the magazine, please encourage them to do so. Retailers can order it directly from us or they can order it from several distributors (our web page has a list of distributors that carry the magazine).

Remember: the best way to support the magazine is by the word of mouth. Tell your friends about Protoculture Addicts and encourage them to buy it as well.

Protoculture Addicts on Ain't It Cool News

This week's Ain't It Cool News anime column features a write-up about Protoculture Addicts.

News: Fantasia 2006

Fantasia, the North American premier genre film festival, will be offering quite an eclectic lineup for its tenth edition. Over the course of 18 days it will present more than 90 features and 125 short films from over 15 countries. Fantasia will be held in Montreal from July 6th to July 24th, at the Concordia Hall Theatre (1455 Maisonneuve W.) and J.A. de Sève Cinema (1400 Maisonneuve W.).

On the Asian landscape we first note that the festival is showing 26 movies from Japan! Unfortunately it includes only one anime: Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie: Conqueror of Shambala.

The Japanese live-action movies of notable interest include Arthouse Ultraman, Shusuke Kaneko's Azumi 2: Love Or Death, Funky Forest: The First Contact, Takeshi Miike's Great Yokai War, Samurai Commando Mission 1549, Shinobi, Negadon: The Monster From Mars (short), and Train Man.

Also showing from Japan: The All-Out Nine: Field Of Nightmares, Black Kiss, Death Trance, Executive Koala, The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai, Shusuke Kaneko's God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand, The iDol (short), Meatball Machine, Mirror man (short), Mirror Man Reflex, Norabbits Minutes (short), Reincarnation, Strange Circus, Sukeban Boy, Synesthesia, Tokyo Zombie, and Zombie Self-Defense Force.

Also three Japanese guests will attend the festival: Toro Matsuura (Synesthesia), Sion Sono (Strange Circus), and Takeshi Yagi (Arthouse Ultraman).

The festival will show 5 movies from Hong-Kong. We recommand Jeff Lau's A Chinese Tall Story and Tsui Hark's Seven Swords, but there's also Dirty Ho, The Five Venoms, and Re-Cycle.

The festival will show 10 movies from Korea: The Art Of Fighting, A Bittersweet Life, Blood Rain, Murder, Take One, My Scary Girl, Princess Aurora, The Red Shoes, Sunday Seoul, Typhoon, and Vampire Cop Ricky.

Finally, we've noted one potentially interesting film from Philipines, Exodus, and one from Russia Aziris Nuna. For details on the other movies, check the festival web page.

Bon festival!

Otakuthon Panels

Anime News Network's Christopher Macdonald, and Protoculture Addicts' Claude J. Pelletier will be at the first Montreal Otakuthon this weekend (June 10 & 11). The ANN panel will take place Saturday at noon in H-403, while the Protoculture panel will be Saturday at 1 pm in H-401. The full panel list and schedule can be seen here. More information on Otakuthon is available here. The event takes place at Concordia University (downtown) and is free to attend. [ discuss it at ANN's forums ]

Source: ANN.

Come see us at the panel and discuss the new & improved look of the magazine!

Protoculture will also have tables at the conventions, so you can purchase the lastest issue, back issues, subcription and many other goodies!

Protoculture Addicts on ICv2

ICv2 has posted a short article on Protoculture Addicts issue 88. For more info on Protoculture Addicts #88, see the recent press release. [ discuss it on Anime News Network's forum ]

(Source: Anime News Network)

Fantasia 2005

Fantasia, North America's premier genre film festival, is back for a ninth edition!! It will be held at Concordia University, downtown Montreal (Hall Theatre and J.A. de Sève Theatre: 1455 & 1450 De Maisonneuve West), from July 7th to 25th.

As usual it offers an impressive programmation with more than 90 long feature films and more than 100 short films coming from sixteen countries. There will be about 30 movies from Japan (including nine anime and half-a-dozen kaiju or manga-inspired movies), 16 from Korea and 8 from Hong Kong.

Tickets (at $7.50) will be available on July 5th at 2 pm at the Concordia Hall Theatre and throughout the Admission Network. The program will be on sale ($3.00) in selected stores from June 30th and at the Concordia Hall Theatre from July 5th. For information: www.fantasiafestival.com.