Zero for Conduct

Now that I’m writing about cinema for Momentum magazine, please send me all your bike film stories and information! That doesn’t just mean movies about bikes, it means cycling artists / filmmakers as well. Momentum is about the self-propelled lifestyle, from environmental, economic and political stuff to social, fashion and health angles – so if you have a cinema / video / moving-picture spin that involves human-powered machinery, try me out.

Meanwhile, here’s this CALL FOR ENTRIES from the Bike Film Festival:

Bicycle Film Festival | Trailer from casagrafica on Vimeo.

NINTH ANNUAL BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL
Deadline For Entries Is March 7

http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

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Since the weather’s so awesome for biking, I think you should all check out the latest issue of Momentum in which I demonstrate how to carry a cat on a bike.

What never made it into the issue is the fact that this was Spooky’s first and final ride.  We were taking her to the vet to be put down, after the terrible surprise of cancer that grew behind her right eye and couldn’t really be solved.  That’s a long story which I don’t need to blog about – suffice to say the kitty loved the adventure of riding a bike, in the safety / concealment of her cat carrier.  Oh, the things we learn too late.

In case that crazy issuu.com viewer doesn’t work, it’s on the Momentum site as well (without the picture, though).

I finally got recruited to write for Momentum, the magazine for self-propelled people. I wrote a book review in each of their last two issues:

The Wheels of Chance
by HG Wells

and

Urban Biker’s Tips and Tricks
By Dave (Mr. Bike) Glowacz

Both pretty awesome books! I could go on about them here, one being Wells’ (surprisingly) non-sci fi about adventure and romance in the early days of cycling (they were the fastest thing on the road!) and the other, Mr. Bike’s handy guide for maximizing your bike awesomeness.

But the reviews are much more complete than whatever short blurb I write here, despite how useful it would be to draw google hits by saying Hoopdriver Hoopdriver Hoopdriver!

Check them out with the links above.

-Flick Harrison

Now that I’ve found the limits on pandora.com (“we are unable to let you skip any more songs this month due to licensing agreements.” Huh!?!?!) I have time to post other business.

Here’s some pics from the premiere of Monkey Warfare at Empire cinemas in Vancouver, handed over by Ifny but shot by David Repa. This is Ifny of Pedal Revolutionaries (who has just posted her podcast of the MONKEY WARFARE INTERVIEW), Alan MacInnes of Discorder’s Cinema Aspirant, Reg Harkema, the director, and me, Flick Harrison.
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Days go by and blogging gets harder (especially with the nagging doubt that blogging is actually lame). Both Vancouver Film Fest screenings of Monkey Warfare were packed to the gills. I notice the Vancouver audience had a good laugh at all the drug humour; in Toronto that stuff caused chuckles but out here people were laughing out loud. Now I don’t feel like the only one who got it.

Reg actually intro’d the film by saying that despite all the Toronto references, it is actually an East Van film: that’s where Reg is from.

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So I had a blast projecting visuals at the Vancouver International Film Festival opening gala.

The party was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Georgia in the main ballroom. This picture is Cathy Falkner with Sandy Buck. Sandy planned the whole event which is an insanely big job. Cathy was helping do the decoration on the night.

In the background you can see my visuals! They were on two giant odd-shaped fabric backdrops on either side of the band, plus one little projection on the escalator outside the ballroom. It was fantabulous, in my opinion.
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So Monkey Warfare is showing at Vancouver International Film Fest on Sept 30 and Oct 1! Details here at VIFF’s page.

Also, there’s a new Monkey Warfare official website. Yay for top-level domain names! The page automatically plays the awesome Weird War song that usually runs through my head about six-seven hours per day now.

And finally, Monkey Warfare got a Special Jury Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2006!

Apparently the jury didn’t stay through the credits. Heh heh heh. So they missed the best part.

Fromthe interview with Reginald Harkema in the GLOBE AND MAIL:

“Harkema, a B.C. native, said afterwards: “Gee, I guess I’m not gonna buy that huge hunk of hash [hashish] I was dreaming about,” – an echo of director Bruce McDonald’s statement that “$25,000 is going to buy me a chunk of hash,” when his feature Roadkill took the Toronto-City prize in 1989.”

Endquote.

I love that they had to explain that hash is hashish. Really? Ya don’t say!

Another low-key day except for the super second screening of Monkey Warfare. Here’s Cindy getting set to ride her little bike to the festival. She has fabulous outifts, n’est-ce pas? This is an opportunity to point out that not only is she IN Monkey Warfare, she also has a band called The Tennessee Twin.

After my third day of TIFF I finally started getting an understanding of how tickets work. I think. Apparently cast and crew need to use their passes to go and get tickets to their own screenings for themselves, even though they’re free for them, just because that’s how the accounting works or something. I think. I have been treated to a whirlwind bubble not of celebrity, but of Reg and Cindy’s hospitality. I’ve hardly had to think the whole time, so get easily confused the moment I have to think for myself. Read the rest of this entry »

I have broken my Toronto Film Fest cherry this week as I finally walked through the hallowed, CN-Tower-shaded portal and into TIFF. Riding the wave of this year’s buzz-film, Monkey Warfare, is the best way to see the fest. I was the assistant editor on MW and had the infamous minor role as an instructional-video host on the safe construction of Molotov Cocktails.

Biking around Toronto on the bright-red, tiny, girl-bike that Reg Harkema and Cindy Wolfe (see pic at left) lent me, I dodged streetcar tracks and insanely aggressive taxi drivers through the streets of Parkdale and into the downtown core. Cindy has a great part in Monkey Warfare as a neurotic non-profit founder, and Reg is the writer-director. My borrowed bike, btw, is the one on the album cover of the MW promo LP – which makes it feel less like I’m a giant circus monkey (or maybe more?). Reg hands these albums out on the fly from his hand-made LP satchel that Cindy crocheted for him. One taxi cut Reg off and Reg kicked his door. Then the taxi chased him for a block or so and Cindy rather drew some attention by screaming at him and brandishing her bike chain. Read the rest of this entry »

Good news! Reg Harkema’s Monkey Warfare is showing this weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival at the following times:

Sunday, September 10 6:00 PM VARSITY 8
Tuesday, September 12 2:00 PM PARAMOUNT 3

Get your tickets early, it looks to be a sellout show. Nadia was on the cover of Eye Weekly, which, no doubt, will make the show a main event.

I’ll be hosting the after party on Sunday night, most likely in my pidgin french!

The Eye called my scene “potentially irresponsible but hilariously fitting.” Yeehaw!

In other news, it looks like Monkey Warfare will also be showing in Vancouver at the VIFF!