Gothic BC

Presented in conjunction with "Gothic Migrations," the biennial conference of the International Gothic Association, July 28-August 1 in Vancouver, hosted by Simon Fraser University.

https://www.thecinematheque.ca/liminal-darkness-a-celebratio...

An exploration of Canadian Gothic film productions with a focus on Vancouver. Gothic critics Karen Budra and Julia Wright, in tandem with actor/academic Bill Dow, will introduce the first episodes of Vancouver-shot series Supernatural &The X-Files, followed by a screening of the Canadian cult classic Ginger Snaps.

Conference website and related links: www.sfu.ca/iga2015

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Julia M. Wright is Professor of English at Dalhousie University in Halifax and a former Canada Research Chair in English and Cultural Studies (2002-05) and European Studies (2005-12). Karen Budra teaches literature & film studies at Langara College in Vancouver, including Horror Cinema, Cult Cinema, History of Tragedy, and Gothic Field Studies UK. Bill Dow, an actor, director, and writer in theatre, film, and television, is best-known for playing Dr. Bill Lee in the Stargate franchises, in addition to recurring roles as Mayor Russ Hathaway in Da Vinci’s Inquest, Mr. Parkman inPasadena, and Dr. Charles Burks in The X-Files.

Conference Theme — “Gothic Migrations” : The gothic has always involved translation, adaptation, travel, diaspora, migration, and their variations in the lost son or daughter, the absent father, the escaped slave or criminal, the disappeared family member, the alien, underground networks, cross border movements of cults, banditti, terrorist and other conspiratorial webs. These themes have engaged gothic works and their criticism for some time and their significance is growing in a new global economy of the gothic. Our subject is the theme of migration and we will consider the diasporic energies of the gothic mode, the migratory traces of vampires, wanderers, ghosts, demons, revenants, zombies, other supernatural tourists, phantasmal terrorists, and gothic escapees of all kinds.

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Ginger Snaps
(Baisers volés)
Canada 2000. Dir: John Fawcett. 108 min. DCP

Director John Fawcett and screenwriter Karen Walton put a fresh feminist spin on the horror genre in the bitingly witty, wickedly subversive Ginger Snaps, the tale of two death-obsessed teen sisters (Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins) contending with werewolves, menstruation, and the horrors of life in the bland Canadian suburbs. An instant cult classic that has become part of the Canadian cinema canon, “this isn’t just a good horror movie, it’s a good movie. Period” (Tom Charity, Time Out).

REVIEWS

"A quietly subversive my-sister-is-turning-into-a-werewolf movie that doesn't wimp out at the end."

Variety | full review 

"The linkage between puberty and lycanthropy in John Fawcett's Ginger Snapsis imagined with enough savage wit to count as an act of genre resuscitation."

Village Voice | full review

SHOWTIMES - click for screening and ticket options Thursday, July 30, 2015 - 7:00pm