Expect a gradual roll-out over the next month, but a handful of this year’s exciting programming choices are now available to for the public eye to peruse right here on the Film Pop website!

PHIL OCHS: THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE - Quebec Premiere
Co-presented with Bongo Beat Records
With brother/legendary rock archivist Michael Ochs in person for Q+A!

Phil Ochs was one of the most important and outspoken folk musicians of the protest-song era, but aside from rallying semi-hits like ‘I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore’, this incredibly talented, ahead-of-the-curve provocateur also made three gorgeous baroque albums for A&M Records and an ironically-titled ‘Greatest Hits’ album before tragically descending into alcoholism and mental instability in the 1970s. His legacy is tangible – not only have his songs been covered by everyone from Diamanda Galas to The Weakerthans, but there are also a ton of songs about him - by Tom Paxton, Billy Bragg, Will Oldham, John Wesley Harding,Harry Chapin and others - and Jim Carroll’s seminal autobiography The Basketball Diaries is dedicated to Ochs’ memory. In other words, if you don’t already know who Phil Ochs is, you need to be at this screening.

UPSIDE DOWN: THE CREATION RECORDS STORY- Quebec Premiere

Millions of sales on both sides of the Atlantic, near bankruptcy, pills, thrills, spats, prats, success, excess, pick me ups, breakdowns and of course some of THE defining music of the late 20th Century: The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Primal Scream and Teenage Fanclub to the Boo Radleys, Super Furry Animals and - of course - Oasis among many, many more. All the dirt is dished! Plays with the Canadian Premiere of the David Lynch animated short I TOUCH A RED BUTTON MAN, made to accompany the song “Lights” by Interpol.

OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL - Quebec Premiere
Co-presented with Evokative Films

From director Julien Temple (The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners) comes this prequel to his landmark films about punk figureheads the Sex Pistols in The Filth & The Fury and Joe Strummer in The Future Is Unwritten, focused on founding Canvey Island pub rock band Dr Feelgood: four men in cheap suits who brought sweaty rock n roll back to the people in an era of inaccessible stadium shows - which would ultimately be a direct influence on the development of punk in the UK. (The founding of the shit-disturbing DIY label Stiff Records was even due to a personal loan from Feelgoods singer Lee Brilleaux, so there). Plays with: EPISODE 1: ARRIVAL - This 2 years-in-the-making music video for Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling's "EPISODE 1: ARRIVAL" is a shot-for-shot remake of the opening sequence of the '60s cult spy-fi TV show The Prisoner.

MAGIC LANTERN REVISITED: 35MM SLIDESHOW COMMISSIONS

I miss the childhood ritual of watching family slideshows. That comforting click and thud of the carousel as it advanced to the next image... Thankfully as soon as slides were ‘out’, the art of the slideshow started percolating in underground visual arts circles. Decades on, slides are more popular than ever as an alternative, interactive storytelling device. This presentation gathers several local and international media and visual artists for a program of original slideshow presentations with narration, manipulated sound, live music and other handcrafted elements unique to this show.

And last but not least:
EXHIBIT: NICK BLINKO: SKELETON SCRATCHES

In between intricate, labour-intensive illustrations and paintings, reclusive Rudimentary Peni frontman Nick Blinko likes to draw skeletons. He has drawn hundreds of them over the past decade, on napkins, postcards, scrap paper. Here he shares with us 30 hand-selected skeleton ink drawings, marking the first time any of his work has been exhibited in Canada. I know this isn’t a film. So why is it in FilmPOP? Well, for my money, Rudimentary Peni are THE seminal British anarcho-punk band of the early 80s, alongside cohorts Crass and Subhumans (UK), of course. I am a huge fan of Nick Blinko’s music, artwork and his unique psychosis, and when it appeared that we might want some additional artwork in the film space during the day, I held my breath and hoped there would be some chance in the world Nick Blinko would agree to ship his original artwork to a complete stranger across the ocean. You never know unless you ask, right?

Full details on the FilmPOP event page HERE.