Sound On Sight / Sordid Cinema

Back in 2007, software-entrepreneur turned documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson made a big splash with his debut feature No End In Sight, a thorough examination of the second Gulf War that earned him an Academy Award nomination. He's back with Inside Job, which attempts to recreate that film's success, albeit on a very different subject: this time, he's out to explain and place the blame for the global financial crisis of 2008. We'll be discussing that film, along with another new documentary by Yael Hersonski called A Film Unfinished, which examines a never-completed Nazi propaganda film that purported to depict life in the Warsaw Ghetto.

This second episode of The Walking Dead sees the introduction of a rag tag bunch of survivors whom Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes will eventually lead in search of a safe place to live after the zombie apocalypse. It also sees some major deviation from the original comic and proudly carries its heart on its sleeve and with a title as explicit as Guts, it doesn’t let viewers down. On the second edition of our Walking Dead podcast, Ricky, Al & Simon will let you know if they feel the second episode lived up to the hype of it's predecessor.

Mankind has long dreamed of traveling back in time to right past wrongs, fix our mistakes, and finger our own mothers outside of a high school dance, apparently. At least, that’s if Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future trilogy, featuring a time traveling Michael J. Fox, is to be believed. Tonight on Sound on Sight, we take a look at all three films in our 25th anniversary celebration of Marty McFly, Doc Brown, and lazy recycled screenwriting masquerading as a comment on the cyclical nature of history. We’ll also begin our weekly coverage of AMC’s hotly anticipated TV series The Walking Dead, based on Robert Kirkman’s comic book, because I guess the first episode’s opening flash-forward counts as time travel.

Some 25 years back, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein made The Times of Harvey Milk, a documentary about the titular San Francisco city councilman who was not only the first openly gay elected government official in the United States, but became an outspoken champion of gay rights across the country, until his murder at the hands of fellow councilman Dan White. The documentary wound up winning that year's Best Documentary Feature prize at that year's Academy Awards, and of course was also the inspiration for Gus Van Sant's widely praised biopic Milk. Epstein and Friedman are back with Howl, which made its Montreal premiere at the Image-Nation film festival. It's an ambitious new fictionalized feature about Allen Ginsberg's landmark poem of the same name, the hardships that went into its composition, as well as the court battle to determine whether or not the piece could be censored under US obscenity laws. We'll be talking about both the doc and their new foray into dramatic territory.

For the first time ever, Sound on Sight is taking on a television series, and with good reason. Robert Kirkman's widely popular zombie comic series The Walking Dead has shuffled its way to AMC, and we'll be reviewing all six of the first season's episodes as they air. Will showrunner Frank Darabont succeed in his mission to bring serialized, no-holds-barred genre fare to the small screen?

The Festival du Nouveau Cinéma wrapped up this weekend, and we've asked occasional contributor Eduardo Lucatero - whose Preludio screened at the fest - to come in and talk shop with us. Besides general fest talk, we'll be taking on two of the more unique entires at this year's fest: Michelangelo Frammartino's four-part exploration of nature, life, death, and goats, entitled Le Quattro Volte, and Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul's Uncle Bonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which triumphed over more conventional arthouse fare to nap this year's Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival.

We're catching up with new stuff in general release and new on DVD in this week's random round-up: first up is Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go, which has been kicking around long enough for us to get into spoiler territory, so be warned. We'll also talk about John Curran's Stone, featuring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich, as well as Tales From the Golden Age, the Romanian export from Cristian Mungiu, the writer-director behind Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

How do you know when a mockumentary is Canadian? Well, it might open with a disclaimer like this: "The following 'documentary' is fictional. We apologize to any person appearing in the film who believed the documentary was real. Your agreement to appear in the film is greatly appreciated." That's from the opening of Fubar, Michael Dowse's faux-chronicle of a pair of Calgary headbangers as they navigate their way through adulthood, mortality and many, many Pilsners. The film was popular enough to spawn a sequel, this weekend's Fubar II, so Derek, Detroit and Simon will assess both flicks as well as Dowse's semi-verisimilitudinous take on Ibiza rave culture, It's All Gone Pete Tong.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

Back in 1987, writer/director Oliver Stone, fresh off the warm critical reception and multiple Oscar wins for Platoon, released Wall Street, a wildly successful drama centered around a good ol' boy (Charlie Sheen) and the corrupt business mogul, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), who tries to corrupt him. Over two decades later, Stone has returned to Gekko and the world of Wall Street with a sequel, Money Never Sleeps, meant to address our current financial crisis. We'll be talking about both movies, as well as revisiting Stone's surprisingly uncontroversial take on 9/11, the survival drama World Trade Center.