Volume 9, Issue 8 / September 2005

FanTasia 2005 Special

Offscreen has always been a big supporter of the FanTasia film festival, and goes one better for the 2005 edition with a special “All-FanTasia” issue. No longer a new kid on the block –next year marks its 10th anniversary– FanTasia has become one of the most vital film festivals in Montreal (a very busy film festival city). This issue features two in-depth festival reports and three interviews. Donato Totaro’s report, which concentrates on selected guest appearances, the short films, the Thai films, and the stronger North American entries, gives a good indication of the festival’s diversity. Randolph Jordan’s report stretches back to last year’s edition to weave together an intriguing thematic of pregnancy/rebirth which resurfaced across a diverse number of films. For many, the highlight of FanTasia 2005 was the appearance of cinefantastique legend Ray Harryhausen. In Montreal’s Rick Trembles, Offscreen found the ideal person to interview the stop-motion genius. Being an animator and comic book artist Trembles, a self-professed Harryhausen nut from childhood, was able to engage Harryhausen in both technical and aesthetic aspects of his art. Questions of technique (form) and content also inform Totaro’s interview with the young writer/director of Firecracker, which the author felt was one of the most emotionally involving films at the festival. The final interview by Peter Rist is with another young filmmaker, Tomoko Matsunashi, whose The Way of the Director offers up an hilarious send-up of the Japanese film industry from a refreshing female perspective.