If you’ve seen those Indian Jane ads around town (we can’t decide if they’re brilliant or ridiculous), you already know that the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival is back for another year celebrating the best in films by indigenous peoples from around the world — this time shining a spotlight on women filmmakers. The ninth annual festival kicks off Wednesday (Oct. 15) with two national premieres: Janelle Wookey’s 30-minute documentary Memere Metisse explores the relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter as they ponder their Metis ancestry; Australian director Darlene Johnson’s River of No Return emphasizes the cultural gap between the modern industrialized world and remote indigenous communities. Other highlights include the experimental shorts program “Into the Looking Glass” (Oct. 16) and Zacharias Kunuk’s Exile (Oct. 17), which tackles the Canadian government’s forcible relocation of Inuit families into the harsh, high Arctic in the 1950s. The imagineNATIVE fest runs until Oct. 19. Go to www.imaginenative.org for complete info and see more coverage in the Oct. 16 issue of EYE WEEKLY.
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Continuing on the festival front, the sixth Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival continues through Friday (Oct. 10) at Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex). Visit www.tjsff.ca for info. Or — as if you need a good excuse to visit Montreal — the 37th annual Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Canada’s oldest film fest, continues until Oct. 19 and features over 250 films from 60 countries.
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The Last Pogo, the legendary 30-minute short documenting “the last” punk rock show at the Horseshoe Tavern in 1978, finally gets a DVD release on Tuesday. The film features performances by Teenage Head, The Viletones, The Scenics and more, a glimpse of the near-riot that, ultimately, didn’t so much knock Toronto’s punk scene on the head as kick it into the future.
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As for what’s left of our future… a film about talking chihuahuas topped the North American box office this weekend. Beverly Hills Chihuahua took in $29 million, beating out Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which finished third with $12 million. Blindness, the Canadian co-production written by Don McKellar, was barely visible in 12th place at $2 million. Grim.