Festivals - Fantasia 2021 : Fantasia’s camera lucida section unveils first titles

By Mulder, 19 may 2021

Isolation, global crises, and shifting belief systems are at the heart of the Camera Lucida section this year, Fantasia’s sidebar dedicated to showcasing boundary-pushing, auteur-driven works at the intersection of genre and arthouse cinema

The 12 day tale of the monster that died in 8 (Japan) (North American Premiere)

Like so many actors, Takumi Saitoh (playing a version of himself) is out of work due to COVID-19. He sits at home, and wonders what to do. Until kaiju expert Shinji Higuchi (Attack on titan, Shin Godzilla) smartly suggests he buy capsule monsters online to defeat the virus. As film productions shut down across Japan, maestro Shunji Iwai turned to Zoom, the online lingua franca of these pandemic times, for The 12 day tale of the monster that died in 8. An ambitious slice of lockdown-life where fact, fiction, and inner worlds blend together. 

King car (Netherlands) (North American Premiere)

Since birth, Uno (Luciano Pedro Jr.) – son of a taxi man – has had the peculiar ability of talking to cars. Together with his unhinged uncle he sets out to modernize his father’s fleet for a new conscientious age. Enter Carro Rei, the sentient car of the future…. and an apt emblem for its undoing. Casting a critical light on Brazil’s ongoing populist nightmare and the limits of progressivism in a machine-driven, late-capitalist framework, Renata Pinheiro’s King Car takes place in an ominous junkyard universe. A film of the moment, wherein our machine fetish becomes a self-fulfilling tragedy. 

Tin can (Spain) (North American Premiere)

Canadian genre experimentalist Seth A. Smith (Lowlife, The crescent) returns to the section with Tin Can, a timely, yet thoroughly unpredictable science-fiction-cum-survival-thriller and a marvel of Sci-Fi design. In a world being ravaged by a mysterious fungal infection, Fret is the leading parasitologist studying to control it - until she’s kidnapped and wakes up in a human-sized tin can. 

Agnes (USA) (International Premiere)

In Agnes, the latest from prolific filmmaker Mickey Reece (Climate of the hunter), a dissident priest and a bright-eyed neophyte are sent to investigate rumours of demonic possession at a convent. Both will be met with temptation as the strange goings-on test their faith, as well as that of one specific nun in residence. This structurally daring film tests the narrow-minded restrictions of (self) narrative and memory, as well as those of institutional religion. Starring Hayley McFarland (The conjuring), Jake Horowitz (The vast of night), and Ben Hall (Minari), and featuring Sean Gunn, Rachel True, Chris Browning, and Molly C. Quinn.

All titles will compete for the AQCC-Camera Lucida prize, awarded by a jury of critics from the Québec’s Critics Association (AQCC), member of the FIPRESCI.

The 25th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival will be presented by Videotron in collaboration with Desjardins, and will be made possible thanks to the financial assistance of the Government of Quebec, SODEC, Telefilm Canada, the City of Montreal, the Conseil des arts of Montreal and Tourisme Montréal. A second wave of Fantasia 2021 titles will be announced in June with the full lineup to be revealed in late July, with ticket sales commencing shortly afterwards.

For more information, visit us on the web at www.fantasiafestival.com

(Source : press release)