Hey Toronto! WHAT THE FILM FESTIVAL Announces Their Mind Breaking 2016 Lineup

 

2nd Annual Edition of Eccentric Fest Salutes

 

Canadian Kickboxing Duo “The Twin Dragons"

 

2 Retrospective Anniversary Screenings

 

2 World Premieres

 

1 Canadian Premiere

 

1 work-in-progress Screening

 

4 Musical Performances

 

And a pay-to-leave marathon at Dundas Video

 

A 3-day Film Fest of Outsider Art Discovery

 

(Toronto, ON – June, 2016) – Veteran Toronto film festival programmer Peter Kuplowsky invites Toronto moviegoers with a predilection for the weird and wacky to spend their Canada Day Weekend discovering the latest and strangest in outsider art and cult cinema at The Laser Blast Film Society's 2nd annual What The Film Festival.

 

Kicking off on June 30th and concluding on July 2nd, the three-day festival plans to introduce audiences to 7 unconventional feature films, including 2 World Premieres, and 2 retrospective anniversary screenings for obscure Canuxploitation classics.

 

Rejecting lazy qualifying classifications like “so-bad-its-good”, WTFilm Fest Director Peter Kuplowsky prefers to describe its line-up as an intersection of genre cinema and the avant-garde, and its filmmakers as sincere artists who are merely working outside the traditional parameters of taste and convention.

 

On explaining the WTFilm Fest mandate, Kuplowsky notes: “If it’s weird, we’ll show it. If you think it's terrible, we’ll defend it. If you realize it's genius, we’ll have told you so. But above all, we will always leave our audiences slack-jawed, on the precipice of paraphrasing our namesake: WTF?!!”

 

Headlining this year's line up is a 30th anniversary celebration of the cinematic persona of Irish-Canadian kickboxing brothers Michael and Martin McNamara (aka “The Twin Dragons”) whose martial art films TWIN DRAGON ENCOUNTER and DRAGON HUNT were late-night television staples throughout the 1990s. The McNamara Brothers will be in attendance on opening night of the festival for a screening of DRAGON HUNT, which pits the “twin dragons” against a sadistic woodland militia in the wilderness of Pointe au Baril, Ontario.

 

Complemented by an infectious rock n' roll soundtrack courtesy of Southern Ontario rocker, Billy Butt, the film's delirious mix of comic-book villainy and epic martial arts mayhem place it in the same tradition as popular cult classics like MIAMI CONNECTON and DEADLY PREY.

 

The festival lineup also includes the World Premiere of SPACE BREAKERS, an anarchic DIY comedy from Toronto comedy collective JAZ (Zak Tatham, Aaron Manczyk, Jacob Wiebe & Efehan Elbi) reminiscent of both JOHN CARPENTER'S DARK STAR and JOHN WATERS' PINK FLAMINGOS, a rare work-in-progress screening of NOVA SEED, a sci-fi fable in the tradition of HEAVY METAL hand-animated by emerging Canadian artist Nick DiLiberto.

 

Our other World Premiere is TANGO EUROPA, the newest film from cult comedian Bennet Jones (I AM A KNIFE WITH LEGS)

 

The Canadian Premiere of DON'T LET THE RIVER BEAST GET YOU by the filmmaking duo of Charles Roxburgh and Matt Farley, the latter of which is better known in the press as “the most prolific song-writer in the world”, having recorded and released over 18,000 songs on Spotify through his label MOTERN MEDIA.

 

On July 1st, the WTFilm Fest will pay tribute to Canadian cinema with a pay-to-leave marathon at Dundas Video (831 Dundast St. West), a Toronto bar dedicated to VHS and retro video games aficionados. Admission will be free with a $5.00 deposit, returned only to those who endure a collection of eccentric short films and three of the most notorious Canadian films ever made, including the cult classic SCIENCE CRAZED, which will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. The marathon is sponsored in part by Canadian cult distributor VIDEONOMICON (http://videonomicon.com/).

 

The opening and closing night of the festival will take place at the historic Royal Cinema (608 College St.), home to The Laser Blast Film Society's monthly series, with July 1st programming occurring all day at Dundas Video (831 Dundas St. West). The July 1st programming at Dundas Video will include musical performances from alternative artists including Konig, Atolia Star, The J. Arthur Keenes Band and International Rockstar Bené, the star of TROPICAL EUROPA.

 

The 2016 WHAT THE FILM FESTIVAL's poster was illustrated by Shira Haberman.