2010.04.23
My oral history on the Bomb Squad has been reprinted in Wax Poetics Japan issue #8. Boomboxx played at the Reelworld Film Festival on April 9th. Two new music videos coming soon.
2010.03.09
Rue Morgue #98 is out. For this issue I reviewed an amazing, super-fucked-up art book called Dream Spectres - Extreme Ukiyo-e: Sex, Blood & The Supernatural. Also, Boomboxx, the music video I directed for Sadie last summer, has finally shown up on YouTube. And finally, RIP Biggie Smalls.
2010.01.24
Rue Morgue #97 came out almost a month ago, with my reviews of The Fourth Kind, The Canyon, a book by Lloyd Kaufman and a record by Esham in it. Strangely, the only one of these I liked was the Esham record. Wax Poetics #39 - The Africa Issue - is also out, with a little piece I wrote about a South African rap group called Cashless Society. Crystal played another festival in Australia, this time the Victoria Independent Film Festival, where it was awarded its eighth prize for best music video. Bravo!FACT awarded a grant to a project I'm producing, a short film being directed by Jovanka Vuckovic, former Editor-In-Chief of Rue Morgue, and being Executive Produced by Guillermo del Toro. And finally, I got a job. I'm going to be the filmmaker-in-residence at the University Health Network's psychiatric ward, where I'll be making a feature documentary about the patients on the ward.
2009.11.29
Rue Morgue 96 is out. Three reviews in this one: reissues of The Stepfather (a big film for me as a teenager and strange to re-watch now that I'm actually a stepfather myself) and The Stepfather II and a new Belgian movie called Left Bank, that you should put on your "To See" list right now. A really smart, scary, sexy Polanski homage. I've also been working with Skratch Bastid lately to produce some promotional material for a show he put on called Scratch Skratch Scratch. A mini-doc/EPK is forthcoming, but right now you can watch a promo piece I did featuring Scratch from The Roots and DJ Starting From Scratch. Crystal was picked up recently for distribution on Australian television, guess they do crystal meth down there too. And a film I made a long time ago, The Director's Cut, is now showing on the UK website propeller4film.
2009.11.01
I reviewed two utterly contemptible pieces of shit in the new Rue Morgue: Jack Ketchum's Offspring and the new Insane Clown Posse record (not even going to link to it). I guess I just saved you ten dollars if you were planning on buying the magazine just to see my reviews. I also finally posted up a promotional video I made last year for the Luminato festival, of author Michelle Wan reading her short story Here With Us for the Gothic Toronto series. In other news, the Christians handed out their gospel music awards recently and "Crystal" won Best Music Video, it's seventh such award. Thank you, Jesus. Finally, here's the documentary I made for the Creative Places + Spaces conference - stay tuned for a longer, more thorough version later in the year.
2009.10.01
Wax Poetics #37 is out, and it's a tribute issue to MJ. I interviewed John Landis (again) about directing the video for Thriller and turning MJ into a monster. Rue Morgue #94 is also out, commemorating Edgar Allen Poe's 200th birthday. I reviewed a couple of movies - District 9 and Edges of Darkness - but much more interesting is the review debut of my 10-year-old daughter Hannah, who reviews the Ellen-Page-starring family horror epic Ghost Cat. Finally, I've been commissioned by the Toronto arts organization Artscape to direct a documentary short for the upcoming Creative Places + Spaces conference at the end of October. The short is about an aboriginal community in Northern Alberta called Bigstone Cree Nation and their collaboration with some educators in Toronto and Calgary.
2009.09.18
"Crystal" now branching out to The Netherlands - playing at the Shoot Me Film Festival in Den Haag from October 15th to the 25th.
2009.09.06
"Crystal" has been nominated for a 2009 Covenant Award (scroll down), in the Best Music Video category. That's interesting.
2009.08.27
The new Rue Morgue is pretty special for me. My first cover story, a conversation with John Landis about American Werewolf in London, plus a feature on three horror shorts made by Teller (of Penn &...), as well as three DVD reviews and a book review, co-written with my ten-year-old daughter Hannah. And when better to have a cover story than when they run their best fucking cover ever, again by the incredible Gary Pullin.
2009.08.23
I collaborated with several other filmmakers to create the 2009 AIDS Walk For Life PSA, which is now playing in Cineplex Odeon cinemas across Canada as part of their pre-show. It's also playing every five minutes in Dundas Square in Toronto. The collective effort was spearheaded by Bruce Dawson at The Garden and conceived by Taxi Montreal.
2009.08.13
The Cabbagetown Short Film and Video Festival will screen "Crystal" on September 11th in Toronto.
2009.08.06
The Bornshorts Film Festival has accepted "Crystal" into its 2009 program. The festival takes place on August 28th and 29th on Bornholm Island, in Denmark.
2009.08.01
Radio silence over. Rue Morgue's August issue features an article I wrote about Nigerian Christian gore movies. "Crystal" is nominated for Best Music Video at the 2009 Western Canadian Music Awards. It's also nominated for Best Music Video at the 2009 Aboriginal People's Choice Music Awards. I'm almost done editing Sadie's "Boomboxx" video. And I'm just finishing up my first job for The Garden and Taxi, a PSA for Scotiabank's AIDS Walk For Life.
2009.06.01
Rue Morgue's June issue has a beautiful Ray Harryhausen tribute cover, digitally painted by Gary Pullin. I've got a couple pieces in there, my story on The Crazies remake (see below) and a review of the totally mediocre Shuttle.
2009.05.26
I'll be directing a video for up-and-coming Winnipeg MC Sadie in late June. The track is called "Boomboxx" and we have a really fun idea for it. I'm going to try and shoot it in the Exchange district at night, and it involves a lot of graffiti and vandalism. Can't wait.
2009.05.26
Italy. Australia. Finland. And now...Cleveland. "Crystal" will play in the Ohio Independent Film Festival on June 3rd.
2009.05.01
New Rue Morgue! I'm all over this one. A feature article on depraved Japanese woodcuts; movie reviews of The Sadist, Cyclops, and Craig; a book review of Half-World. They should start calling it Rue Lapeyre.
2009.04.27
Scandanavia what! "Crystal" is going to play at the 2009 Polar Film Festival, which takes place in Turku, Finland, from May 21st to May 25th.
2009.04.21
"Crystal" has been accepted to The Nickel Independent Film Festival in St. John's, Newfoundland. It hasn't been scheduled yet, but the festival runs from June 23rd to June 27th, 2009.
2009.04.20
This is a strange one. "Crystal" has NOT been accepted to the Mexico International Film Festival. But...it has won an award. The "Golden Palm" for the best music videos submitted to the festival this year. Yeah. I know. But apparently that's how it is. Who am I to complain?
2009.04.10
"Crystal" has won another award - Best Music Video at the South-East New England Film, Music & Arts Festival. Running total so far is 4 awards, 15 festivals.
2009.04.08
"Crystal" finally plays Toronto! At the Carlton cinema on Friday April 17th with a block of Canadian music videos as part of the Reel World Film Festival. I'll be in attendance so please come through and say hi.
2009.04.07
Just got back from rural Georgia, where I did a set visit of the 2009 remake of George Romero's The Crazies. Rue Morgue sent me down to participate in round-table interviews with director Breck Eisner (Sahara) and actors Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Hitman) and Joe Anderson (The Ruins). The article should be in next month's issue.
2009.04.01
I have three articles in the new Rue Morgue: a review of several new horror movies that all feature murderous children as their antagonist, a review of a re-issue of Jean Rollin's Demoniacs and a book review of Permuted Press's Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror.
2009.03.21
"Crystal" has its Australian premiere! A Night of Horror International Film Festival has selected the film to screen with seven other horror-themed music videos on Sunday, March 29th. The videos start at 9PM at Club 77, Kings Cross in Sydney.
2009.03.19
"Crystal" will play at the Okanagan International Film Festival, in Kelowna, BC, Friday April 24th at midnight, before the $25,000 zombie feature Yesterday.
2009.03.06
"Crystal" has been accepted into the Indie Spirit Film Festival, which runs from April 24th-26th in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
2009.03.02
"Crystal" has been accepted into the Paranoia Horror Film Festival, which runs from March 13th to 15th in Long Beach, California.
2009.02.25
I helped write the cover story for the March issue of Rue Morgue by interviewing Morjana Alaoui, star of the new French horror movie Martyrs. I also have an article in this issue about Kenji Mizoguchi's classic ghost story Ugetsu.
2009.02.11
"Crystal" was awarded 'Best Music Video' at both the Canada International Film Festival and the Oxford Film Festival. Big up Vancouver and Mississippi and thank you very much.
2009.02.03
My article for Wax Poetics on The Incredible Bongo Band, originally published in 2003, has been translated and included in the 2nd issue of Wax Poetics Japan, the new Japanese-language version of the magazine.
2009.01.29
"Crystal" has been accepted into the South-East New England Film, Music & Arts Festival, in Providence, Rhode Island. That makes ten festivals so far for this violent little gem.
2009.01.12
My short film "The Director's Cut" will air on the program Film First in the UK on Sunday, January 18th at 10pm. Film First can be seen in the UK on Propeller TV on SKY 195.
2009.01.09
"Crystal" has been accepted into the Canada International Film Festival in Vancouver. It will be playing at the Firehall Arts Centre on February 8th at 4:50 pm as part of a short film block.
2009.01.08
My feature script Urban Decay has been optioned by producer Michael Baker of Bunk 11 Pictures. I've been contracted to do a rewrite of the script before Michael starts putting together financing. I'm also attached as director. Not a bad way to start the year.
2009.01.01
I have reviews of Shiver and The Watcher In The Attic in the January/February issue of Rue Morgue.
2008.12.21
"Crystal" has been accepted into the Oxford Film Festival and the International Festival of Cinema and Technology.
2008.12.01
I only have one review in the December issue of Rue Morgue, of the film "Vipers", which is like a remake of Jaws only with vipers instead of a shark and Tara Reid instead of Roy Scheider.
2008.11.01
I review the Ghost House Underground DVD box set in the new issue of Rue Morgue. It is not good.
2008.10.30
My 2004 article on the history of Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band is reprinted in the new Wax Poetics Anthology Volume 2.
2008.10.17
"Crystal" plays at the Sacramento Horror Film Festival at 6:00 pm in Sacramento, California.
2008.10.10
No news. That's good news. I've been told.
2008.09.28
"Crystal" awarded 'Best Music Video' at the Great Lakes International Film Festival.
2008.09.25
"Crystal" plays at the Great Lakes International Film Festival in Erie, Pennsylvania.
2008.09.24
I review a bunch of shitty movies in the new issue of Rue Morgue. Shutter; Rest Stop: Don't Look Back and Triloquist.
2008.09.20
"Crystal" plays at the Illinois International Film Festival at 10:00 am in St. Charles, Illinois.
2008.09.19
"Crystal" plays at two festivals today: the Reggio Film Festival at 9:00 pm in Reggio nell Emilia, Italy, and the Dark Carnival Film Film Festival at 2:00 pm in Bloomington, Indiana.
2008.09.12
"Crystal" plays at the SoCal Independent Film Fest at 8:30 pm in Huntington Beach, California.
2008.08.01
"Fillossaphee" plays online in the Portable Film Festival as of today.
2008.07.31
My article on Sixto Rodriguez appears in the August/September issue of Wax Poetics, on stands today.
