COVID culture: Surreal film, erotic lit & more to read, watch & jerk off to

The final installment of COVID culture, for pandemic week 10!

Spring is here! The eerie dystopian sounds of cops on loudspeakers intermingling with the sounds of screaming birds and crocuses crushed underfoot. Ah, the dulcet melodies of May!

NFB!

When in doubt, browse the NFB’s archives. The NFB has collected some of their favourites here, including some classic animated shorts and Alanis Obomsawin’s truly devastating Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, a film with incredible contemporary relevance in understanding not only the ongoing Wet’suwet’en protests of pipeline infrastructure on their territories, but the scope of all settler and Indigenous power relations more broadly. 

Cinema Moderne!

Consider supporting your local cinema for $7 a pop. That’s not bad considering $7 pints of beer in bars with other people on breezy terrasses are now verboten. Among the titles available are Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century, winner of Best Canadian First Feature Film at last year’s TIFF — a dazzling and peculiar re-imagining of the history of William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Mentorship at Videographe!

If you’re an early-career moving-image artist, this is a lovely opportunity to virtually connect with a professional in your field, pick their brain for insights and help you to realize a project. The deadline to apply is May 24 and you can find the details here. 

Mentorship at Main Film!

If you’re hunkered down working on your film grants, Main Film is providing a mentorship program where an experienced producer will look over your director’s intentions, synopsis, script and budget, then meet with you to discuss for one hour over Zoom. The program costs $60, but information from people who have actually received CALQ and SODEC funds and understand the dull and confusing process of grant-writing in and out could well mean the critical difference between your project being selected or not some future filmmaking day. 

The Story of O!

Notorious French erotica published simultaneously in English and French in 1954? Yes please. Written pseudonymously by Dominique Aury as Pauline Réage, the text still reads as vividly explicit. The Guardian notes that this book is so overwhelmingly sexy that it’s “not a book to read on the bus,” so good thing there’s not exactly much bus-riding going on these days. Here’s an English version available for free online. ■

See last week’s COVID culture recommendations here.

For more coverage of the Montreal art scene, see our Arts section.

To read the latest issue of Cult MTL, click here.