Volume 10, Issue 9 / September 2006

Fantasia Turns 10

As part of this ‘All-Festival” issue Offscreen honors Fantasia’s 10th year anniversary, with three articles based on this year’s edition. It is hard to believe that Fantasia has been entertaining and exciting audiences for ten years already, but there you have it. The anniversary has a special meaning because of the way Offscreen has been running alongside Fantasia: next summer also marks the 10th year anniversary of Offscreen. Actually, if you calculate the one year when Fantasia was not held —2002— then we line up perfectly next year! This issue gets off the mark with Donato Totaro’s festival report which isolates a variety of male psychotics featured across several films: ranging from young to middle age, aristocratic to poor, Eastern to Western. Up next is Randolph Jordan’s festival report, in which he engages the age-old critical polemic of style versus content. Is it OK to like a film purely for its aesthetic reasons? Or if a film looks like it was shot with a cardboard box, but is on the side of the angels? More importantly, the questions imply that such a separation is even possible. Jordan’s report also features, for the first time on Offscreen, streamed video, of Robert Morgan’s The Cat with Hands. It is not surprising that one of the few films discussed in both reports is Strange Circus, given the impact the film had at this year’s festival. Following the two reports is a lengthy interview with its director, Sion Sono, conducted by Peter Rist and Totaro. Rist also features in the fourth piece, his umpteenth report on what has become his favorite ever film festival (only narrowly edging out Fantasia, I would imagine), The Hong Kong International Film Festival. Christopher Bourne concludes the issue with his report an up and coming player in the North American festival scene, The Tribeca Film Festival.