Four documentary features and eight documentary shorts are set to premiere at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival. The festival announced its final wave of films and special events today via a press release. The genre-centered festival, running from July 18 to August 4 in the heart of downtown Montreal, includes several Canadian titles in its non-fiction programming.
Embodying the spirit of the Canadian heavy metal scene, Felipe Belalcazar’s VOÏVOD: We Are Connected will have its world premiere at the festival. Years in the making, the documentary highlights the origins of the titular heavy metal band. Belalcazar and his team compile over 40 years of music history with full access to the band’s archive. The documentary includes exclusive interviews and appearances from music icons Tobias Forge (Ghost), Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth), Tom G Warrior (Celtic Frost), and Ivan Doroschuk (Men Without Hats). Fantasia will also host a special gallery exhibition celebrating the band’s legacy. The exhibition, VOÏVOD: Rebel Robots, will include original art pieces, photographs, instruments, and artifacts sourced directly from Voïvod’s archives.
Hot Docs and DOXA sensation Adrianne & the Castle will have its Quebecois premiere at Fantasia. The documentary follows Alan St. George, the owner of Havencrest Castle in Savanna, Illinois, which he built as a loving tribute to his late wife, Adrianne. Directed by Shannon Walsh and produced by Ina Fichman, the film intimately examines St. George’s grief through his idiosyncratic artwork. Walsh blurs the lines of reality, as her camera wanders the castle in search of St. George’s long-lost love. In collaboration with the Documentaries From the Edge selection, the documentary will simultaneously screen as part of Les Fantastiques Week-Ends du Cinéma Québécois.
Meanwhile, the microbudget experimental documentary Me and My Victim will have its world premiere in the Fantasia Underground section. Produced for less than $1000 USD, the documentary by Maurane and Billy Pedlow confronts the duos’ disconnection through their on-and-off relationship. The filmmakers playfully deconstruct the boundaries of auto-fiction through digital collage and other transgressive techniques.
Other notable documentary projects at the festival include Javier Horcajada’s From My Cold Dead Hands. Notably constructed from thousands of YouTube videos, the documentary feature explores gun culture in the United States through sickening satire. Animation auteur Nicolas Brault will also premiere his experimental animated documentary short Entropic Memory, as part of the Celluloid Experiments program. Other documentary shorts at the festival include Jason Swallow’s Broken Reflections, Michael Reich’s The Hollywood Signs, Katya Tavitian’s Irrational, Marie-Christian Petiquay’s Wapamowin, and Tal S. Shamir’s A New York Covid Story.
This year’s edition opens with the world premiere of Ant Timpson’s Bookworm. The New Zealand family comedy stars Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, and Michael Smiley. The festival will close with the world premiere of André Forcier’s Quebecois historical drama Ababouiné. Fantasia will also host Canadian premieres of various festival favorites from Berlin, Cannes, and beyond. The selected films include Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s animated feature Ghost Cat Anzu, Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte’s The Count of Monte Cristo, Jérémy Clapin’s live action debut Meanwhile on Earth, and Soi Cheang’s box office hit Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. American horror director Mike Flanagan will receive the Cheval Noir career achievement award at the festival. Flanagan is also an executive producer on Chris Stuckmann’s debut Shelby Oaks, which will have its world premiere at the festival during Fantasia’s opening weekend.
