More Madness at IndieCan Radio

[indie at indiecan.com]

IndieCan’s Rendezvous With Madness:

It was an honour to be part of the world premier of “So You’re Going
Crazy” by Ryerson grad and self-confessed mental case, Hilary Dean.  What
home, what family isn’t touched by mental illness today?  Hilary faced her
own reality of seeing herself slip down the mental-health slope in slow-mo
and the Calvary wasn’t coming, there is no defender of nut-jobs super-hero
or double-O agent that swings in with seconds to spare and saves the day.

If you’re going crazy, you go crazy in our day and age and it isn’t pretty
and it isn’t art.  As Dean emphatically stressed in the Q & A after the
film, madness is not always the gateway to enlightenment and suffering
doesn’t bring the reason and purpose of Hollywood endings.  “So You’re
Going Crazy” is a candid trip down the spiral staircase with several
real-life nice guy and nice gals that find themselves holding the short
straw and spinning around the mental health system roulette wheel with
varying results from “get out of jail almost free” to “sorry, please play
again.”   The only attempt at lifting the tension for viewers is how Dean
invites us to laugh at her, her ambivalence about how ingenuous the
documentary medium is at telling the story and her own struggle with
voice, vision and self-doubt along the way.

The telling of the story is kind, creative and blunt.  You can’t leave
this movie and go back to your simple life.  It will change how you see
mental health.  Everyone in the biz or in a family should see this film.
This 51 minutes of reality will say to you, “I love you, I think I gave
you herpes.” “So You’re Going Crazy” is the price of getting around today.

Also on this Wednesday Rendezvous With Madness Double bill was the end of
a long tour for “Crooked Beauty” by San Francisco’s Ken Paul Rosentha.
This was the Canadian Premier and Ken kicked off the night with a workshop
that asked three questions of us who participated: i) what was our first
experience of mental illness, ii) what was our first experience of art and
iii) how are they connected.  It was a moving experience for all who
participated which explored society’s inclination to keep us painting
between the lines literally and figuratively and how madness and
creativity might be reluctant but natural bed-mates.

“Crooked Beauty” is a harsh but happier story of the two showings.  The
visuals and script are both honest and poetic and as Leonard Cohen tells
us, the light of hope and reason steams through the Crooked Beauty of
principal character, Ashley McNamara who is both advocate for the artist’s
way and the plight of scores of hostages to the mental health system.

Check out trailers to these flicks and read more about Rendezvous at
http://www.indiecan.com/reviews.htm

Saturday the madness ends with “The Man of A Thousand Songs” and The Man,
Ron Hynes performing after the flick.  If you’re a Torontonian, check to
see if tickets are still available.

IndieCan Radio:
Episode 201 introduces you to HOT KIT a must know Toronto indie band that
you likely want to know about.  We have Indie Week’s Simon Fagen (Episode
202 and 203 go IndieWeek crazy), more from the new Neil Young, Alert the
Medic, Dom De Luca, Betty Moon, The Flatliners, Cygnets and Diamond Rings.
If you don’t want to miss it, get caught up now.  Next week we double shot
you with an extra hour of Indie Week coverage.

Hear it:  http://www.indiecan.com/201IndieCanRadio.m3u
Read about it now: http://www.indiecan.com/podcast.htm
Cue Sheets – http://www.indiecan.com/downloads.htm

Love and Kisses, IndieCan Radio