Cineuropa devotes an entire Film Focus section to A Town Called Panic.  Cineuropa has posted the trailer, a photo gallery, film details and a review as well as corraling directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar for an interview at Cannes. The detail that stuck out for me:

"For the film, we made a total of 1,500 figurines. Horse is the character who required the most, for he had many different positions…we used perhaps 130 or 140 figurines. For Cowboy and Indian, we used around 100 each. On the other hand, Policeman has four or five different positions because he’s stiff and doesn’t move… he’s a policeman."

And if you'd like to get a sense of what they're writing about, here's half of the episode, "Cake." (Atom.com has more with an entire A Town Called Panic channel with many, many episodes).

A Town Called Panic screens at TIFF on:  Friday September 18th, 11:59PM - Ryerson Theatre / Saturday September 19th, 3:45PM - AMC 3.

Most of us have grown up with many Disney films; animated or otherwise.  During the decade between 1984 and 1994, Disney underwent several changes in their corporate structure, which came to affect the animation department as well as the films that would be created during that time.

Former Disney employees Peter Schneider (President of Feature Animation) and Don Hahn (film producer) got together about a year and a half ago to discuss the idea of making a film about animation and the Disney company.  The result is Waking Sleeping Beauty, which premiered last night to great response.  The film was composed of all archival footage filmed by Disney Studios during the years between 1984 and 1994.  Hahn explained during the Q&A that they used archival footage only and no interviews with other former Disney employees to transport the audience back to that time and to give us a more intimate look.   

Schneider explained a little bit about the three main executives of the time and their response to the film.  All three (Michael D. Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney) have seen the film.  Katzenberg found it powerful and was "very moved by the movie."  Eisner was tougher and demanded better; he said "you guys can do better."  The second he saw the film, he said it was better.  Interestingly, Hahn shared with audience how the making of the documentary was a means for these three men to apologise to each other and would ask about the others' reactions and their comments to the filmmakers.  That time at Disney was so chaotic and tension among the three execs ran high; thus, the lack of contact after so many years.

In terms of what came to a surprise while making the film, Schneider said he found it interesting how each of the executives would say "I come off like an idiot and the other two look great."  For Hahn, what was surprising was how important Frank Wells' (President and COO at the time) role was, since he was like "the marriage counsillor."  When an audience member asked Schneider whether documentary films were harder to make than animation or vice versa, his response was "the medium is secondary... the hardest things is to tell a compelling story."  In Waking Sleeping Beauty, they have achieved this.  It is interesting, keeps the audience engaged and the archival footage certainly takes you back in time.

The film screens two more times at the festival.  For more info, go here.  

(Photo by Heidy M. From L to R: Thom Powers, Peter Schneider and Don Hahn)

It's seems like the momentum behind Short Cuts Canada programmes this year shows no signs of letting up. 

After two fantastic screenings of Programme 2 with Maddin's Night Mayor, Radwanski's Out in that Deep Blue Sea, and Samer Najari's Snow Hides the Shade of Fig Trees (along with the rest of that great programme), there's an incredible appetite for incredible Canadian short film, and we did all we could to feed it with last night's premiere of Programme 3 at Jackman Hall.

A sold out (and I mean sold-out. not a single empty seat in the theatre, we packed in as many from the Rush line as possible) audience was introduced to a funny, thoughtful, and very ecclectic line up of films.  

 Cordell Barker has arrived from Winnipeg to present his newest animated NFB film Runaway, and as he did back in May, the National Post has him blogging about the experience. We were talking about the difference between the presentation of shorts at Cannes and Toronto, and he said that screening it in Toronto with a full public audience in a programme of short films, gives a filmmaker a great appreciation of how their film is received (hopefully, April enjoyed it on the big screen even without her glasses :).  

 The Post also did a quick Q&A with Dusty Mancinelli (whose film SOAP is also in programme 3). Too bad Daniel Day Lewis isn't here for the fest to meet up with Dusty and discuss new projects. 

You can catch the repeat screening of programme 3 with directors in attendance today at 3pm at Jackman Hall.  

Todd Brown of Twitch film lines out his top picks of the fest. He limits it to 10 (but considering we have 40, that's a pretty favourable percentage of recommends).

He highlights some great animation, including M, Runaway, and The Spine which happens to be in programme 1 tonight (in a packed programme with more incredible animation in Tungijuq).

There are still some tickets available for the Isabel Bader 9:30 screenings (but don't wait, they won't last long).

 Check back later today, for some great highlights from programme 2 premiering tomorrow (including the world premiere of Guy Maddin's newest, and a new short from Kazik Radwanski)

I  might be wrong (too lazy to fact check) but I think that Panique au village (A Town Called Panic) is the first G rated film to play Midnight Madness. No blood and guts in this one, gang, but it makes up for it by being wall-to-wall insanity. Check out the trailer below to see what sort of hilariously accented French nonsense is going to hit the screen when Cowboy, Indian, and Horse come to the Ryerson on Friday, September 18th.

Check out the trailer here!

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