CUFF 2021 Reviews: Golden Arm
The movie
Golden Arm (2020), not only serves as iconic and uplifting entertainment, but it is also a story about speaking up for yourself by embarking on new challenges alongside women’s empowerment and fostering resilience. The movie centers around the lives of two women Melanie (Mary Holland) and Danny (Betsy Sodaro). A smattering of other key players include Brenda, or Bone Crusher, (Olivia Stambouliah) and the enemy of Danny’s vengeful competition, “Big Sexy” played by American actress and real-life world arm wrestling champion Dot-Marie Jones. Jerry is the handy-dandy sports assistant (Ahmed Bharoocha) and lastly Greg (Eugene Cordero), is Melanie’s romantic interest.
CUFF 2021 Reviews: Summertime
May 6, 2021
Summertime (2020) is the story of 25 youths from Los Angeles who, over a hot summer day through their poetry, express life, love, heartache, family, home and fear by weaving in and out of each other’s stories. The entirety of the film is a feature-length poetry slam and an inspirational spoken-word ensemble that is not only a tribute to the art of poetry itself but self love through poetic justice. This film is best described as your favourite YouTube vlogger meets rap battle show duking it out amongst the 12 featured poets. As a story of Los Angeles it “speaks to the vitality of a generation and an art form” as Lead Programmer and Manager of CUFF Brennan Tilley puts it. On the theme of spoken word poets and poetry slams he claims it was one of the selections at Sundance that he knew he had to bring back to Calgary.
Bad Attitude:
The Art of Spain Rodriguez (2021), presents the story of American underground cartoonist Spain Rodriguez, known for creating the
Zap Comix book series and the character “Trashman.”
Rodriguez’s inspiration came from his colourful experiences growing up in Buffalo’s East Side where he did everything from joining the outlaw motorcycle club to being an advocate for left-wing politics exposing the realities of growing up in the Civil Rights era. And of course, he took inspiration from his own obsession with comic books as a boy and his experience later on as a middle-class working person of Latin American descent. An official selection of the Slamdance Film Festival, the narrative is told from the perspective of his wife, Susan Stern, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker.
CUFF 2021 Reviews: Workhorse Queen and a conversation with director Angela Washko thegauntlet.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thegauntlet.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
CUFF 2021 Reviews: Films featuring puppets Frank & Zed and The Old Man Movie
Panel: Puppetry in (Stop)Motion
In a live-stream, the filmmakers behind Calgary Underground Film Festival’s 2021 selections of
Frank & Zed an American flick hailing from Portland, Oregon and
The Old Man Movie a selection from Estonia sat down for a discussion of puppetry in their (stop)motion passion projects. Featured on the panel was moderator and puppeteer Xstine Cook, a Canadian filmmaker and Artistic Director at the Calgary Animated Objects Society, alongside Directors Jesse Blanchard (
Frank & Zed) and Oskar Lehemaa (
The Old Man Movie) and animator Mikk Mägi (