Cinema

A SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME is a borderlands Western that follow Sundog, an eccentric recluse who lives off the land in the Sonoran Desert. As Border Patrol surveillance encroaches on his relative freedom, he becomes increasingly unnerved and ventures beyond the confines of his survivalism. With an unsettling fantasy of eco-terrorism, and with the first cinematic depiction of smoking a Sonoran toad’s psychedelic venom, the complex figure of Sundog raises provocative questions about environmental justice and human survival amidst the specter of global collapse.

Dir. Lisa MalloyJ.P., Sniadecki

Documentary, US, 2020, English, 83 min.

Residents of the suburban cul-de-sac Pebbles Court receive unexpected samples of an experimental vitamin made by a strange health spa named Vimuville. When the town adds the powder to their diets, they experience strange macabre visions — and worse, their bodies mutate, ooze, and melt! As coroner visits become daily, Detective Phillips suspects Vimuville — but will he uncover its diabolical motives before the whole of Australia is subjected to BODY MELT?!?!

Dir. Philip Brophy

Horror, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Australia, 1993, English, 81 min.

The new fitness club in town has everything a health nut could ever want: a variety of workout machines, classes taught by friendly (and frisky) instructors, and a state-of-the-art computer control system for maximum client comfort. Unfortunately it’s also possessed by the evil spirit of the owner’s dead wife, and before long every dumbbell, leg press, and rowing machine becomes a deadly weapon for her to enact bloody vengeance on the club’s beautiful members. So if you re looking for a real workout from hell, enter DEATH SPA a new exercise in terror!

Dir. Michael Fischa

Horror, US, 1988, English, 88 min.

In the film, Joonas’ camera takes the viewer into the dizzying noise of Bangkok and the alleys of night-time Phnom Penh, to the last weeks of Jani’s life and the desperate search following his disappearance and death. What happened on his last journey? Can the answer be found in the videos shot by Joonas or in something that has yet to be investigated and faced, filmed or told? Is it all about drugs, women and money or does the trail lead somewhere deeper? Someone knows something. Joonas is looking for his friends and the local women with whom they partied and with whom they shared whatever they had to share. He must find his own truth about what happened among the drugs and the gloom. There are no heroes there.

Dir. Sadri Cetinkaya, Joonas Neuvonen

Documentary, Finland, 2020, English, Central Khmer, Finnish, Thai, 99 min.

Newtopia is an immense, soul-wrecking, humorous and sobering tale from a disappearing world that brings us to a place in time that will never be documented again. The shaman Aman Paksa finds himself in a situation of continuous escalation towards modernity. For 15 years the director Audun Amundsen has followed Aman Paksa deep in the jungle of Indonesia and become a part of the clan while documenting crucial key moments of a staggering cultural paradigm shift. Newtopia tells a story about everyone’s future and past, and at the same time, we witness the forming of an unlikely lifelong friendship.

Dir. Audun Amundsen

Documentary, Norway, 2020, English, Indonesian, 88 min.

SOME KIND OF HEAVEN explores life inside the palm-tree-lined streets of The Villages, America’s largest retirement community in Florida. Referred to as the “Disneyland for Retirees,” this planned community is home to over 130,000 seniors. It offers residents a utopian version of the American yesteryear: wide, safe streets, perfectly manicured lawns, and countless activities all in service of enjoying their golden years. While most residents have bought into its packaged positivity, we meet four residents living on the margins, striving to find happiness.  

Dir. Lance Oppenheim

Documentary, US, 2020, English, 81 min.

While their mother is dying in the modern Gimli, Manitoba hospital, two young children are told a tale by their Icelandic grandmother about Einar the Lonely, his friend Gunnar, and the angelic Snjofridur in a Gimli of old. Guy Maddin’s outrageously bizarre debut was one of the big hits of the 1980s midnight movie circuit. Reckless envy, unconsummated passions and necrophilia set the tone for these surreal tales shared by two patients confined during a turn-of-the-century smallpox epidemic.

Dir. Guy Maddin

Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Canada, 1988, Icelandic, English, 72 min.