FIVE FANTASTIC TRAILERS FROM FANTASIA FEST 2021

The 2021 line-up of Fantasia Festival is exactly the celebration of global genre films that a 25th anniversary event should be. Hollywood is coming to the party - James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad will screen on August 4 at the festival’s birthplace, Montreal’s historic Imperial Theater - but just as importantly, both the Canadian domestic sector and the international film community will be represented en masse.

Under the leadership triumvirate of Pierre Corbeil, Mitch Davis and Nicolas Archambault, Fantasia 25 is set to bolster a reputation built over a quarter-century as one of the world’s guiding genre gatherings. To kick-off our Fantasia Fest coverage, let’s look at five trailers that have us intrigued, engaged, excited…

ALL THE MOONS (Dir: Igor Legarreta; Spain | France, 102 mins) As war rages through 1876 Spain, an orphanage is bombed; a young girl is rescued by a woman whom she perceives to be an angel, and who heals her wounds, while telling the girl she must now avoid the daylight and promises the girl that she will see many more full moons. The two become separated, and the girl is forced to take shelter, facing an uncertain future – and one that will last far beyond that of ordinary human beings.
Screens with SHE AND THE DARKNESS on Thursday 19th and Saturday 21st.

DREAMS ON FIRE (Dir: Philippe McKie; Japan | Canada, 124 mins) Yume has only one dream – to break into the dance world in Japan. She moves to Tokyo, navigating her day-to-day routine between street dance competitions, hip-hop classes, life in her tiny flat, and the many encounters with colourful characters. All alone, she has to take a job as a hostess to help her survive. Far from her initial ambitions, this job may help her to assert herself and gain self-confidence...unless it leads her into a toxic spiral existence.
Screens with FOREVER & EVER on Sunday 8/8 and Tuesday 10/8.

DR. CALIGARI (Dir: Stephen Sayadian, aka Rinse Dream; USA | 80 mins) Bizarre, stunning, goofy and unsettling, Dr. Caligari embraces the avant-garde in its exquisite and hilarious exploitation of America’s repressed libido. In 1989, one of the most iconic and fantastical works in American exploitation cinema was barely released. Thanks to a new restoration, it will finally find its audience, and retroactively be appreciated as the underground masterpiece that it is.

Screens on Monday 16/8.

TELOS OR BUST (Dir: Brad Abrahams; USA | Canada, 6 mins) Ascended masters, new religions, inner-Earth cities, crystals and lost continents. Immerse yourself in the confluence of strange myths and beliefs of the citizens of Mount Shasta, California. From director Brad Abrahams (Love and Saucers, 2017; Conspiracy Cruise, 2019), Telos or Bust is the pilot for his upcoming docuseries Keep Folklore Alive, featuring episodes about cryptids, aliens, yokai and more.
Screens with YOU CAN’T KILL MEME on Sunday 15/8 and Tuesday 17/8

HELLO TAPIR (Dir: Kethsvin Chee; Taiwan, 89 mins)
It has the body of a pig, the trunk of an elephant, the ears of a horse and the feet of a rhinoceros. At night, it passes through sleeping villages and gobbles up people’s pesky nightmares. This huge, fantastical beast is a tapir, and eight-year-old Ah Keat’s father once told the boy he had seen one. Now, Ah Keat wants his father back, and he believes the tapir can help, so he and his friends begin a quest to find the gentle, benevolent giant.
Screens with INSIDE on Saturday 14/8.