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Montreal Gazette
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Brownstein: Fantasia film fest celebrates veteran Montreal director George Mihalka for blazing his own trail
Veteran Montreal director George Mihalka gets his proper due after 45 years in the business. Finally. The Fantasia International Film Festival will present Mihalka with its Canadian Trailblazer Award, Friday at 6 p.m. at Cinéma du Musée, followed by a screening of his film Hostile Takeover. The fest will also screen another of his more memorable movies, Pinball Summer, followed by a Q&A with the director, Sunday at 4:05 p.m. at the same venue. And earlier that afternoon, at 2 p.m., Mihalka will deliver a Fantasia master class at Reggies in Concordia's Hall Building. While Fantasia may be renowned for delving into all aspects of genre film over the course of its 29 years, the festival, much to its credit, has also paid homage to unsung heroes on the local film scene. In recent years, it has given tributes to the likes of legendary Cinépix producers John Dunning and André Link, directors Larry Kent and Gerald Potterton, and the gonzo filmmaking gang of Allan (Bozo) Moyle, Stephen Lack, Frank Vitale and Peter Brawley. Mihalka is, without question, a pioneer on the film front. He has tackled every genre imaginable, from horror to hockey, comedy to crime and then some — in both French and English. Pretty remarkable since he spoke neither language before immigrating here from Hungary when he was just eight. The film for which Mihalka is probably best known is the slasher epic My Bloody Valentine, produced by Dunning and Link. That was 45 years ago, when Mihalka was but 27. Had Fantasia been in existence back then, its artistic director Mitch Davis would have certainly had the film kick off the fest. No less than Quentin Tarantino has acknowledged that My Bloody Valentine is his personal fave in the slasher field. But don't let the film's content fool you about its maker. There is little foreboding about Mihalka, 72 — far more teddy bear than terrifying and one of the nicest people in the biz. He has been spending equal time in Montreal and Hamilton these days, the latter so he can be closer to his daughter and work in Toronto. 'There has been no real formula for me. I just love making films and I don't like making the same one over and over again,' says the ever-affable Mihalka over a few brews at Ziggy's. 'I don't think I have a film canon, per se.' Not so sure. By his own estimate, Mihalka has directed over two dozen film and TV features and over 100 TV episodes, in nearly equal parts French and English. And talk about being all over the map. Apart from the aforementioned, there's Race to Mars, La Florida, Omertà, Les Boys IV, Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story, Scandale, Scoop, Bullet to Beijing, Eternal Evil. And Mihalka has just completed one of his most ambitious and expensive productions yet: Rise of the Raven, a 10-part miniseries shot in Hungary for ex-Montreal producer Robert Lantos. The first two hour-long episodes will première at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and the series will stream on CBC Gem soon after. 'It's the story about the guy who is responsible for why church bells ring at noon everywhere in the world,' elaborates Mihalka, who also co-created and executive-produced the project. Mihalka laments that the local film scene, particularly on the anglo side, has suffered. 'Montreal was such a great place for making movies. It's so unfortunate that things have dried up here. I would love to come back here to make a movie in French and follow it up with one in English, the way I used to do like clockwork. I so miss that, straddling both worlds,' he says. 'But when tax credits became much more important, we became prisoners of our postal code here.' In other words, far more work beckoned in Toronto. On that note, Mihalka points out that he and his partner Susan Curran are in the midst of making a documentary on the Cinépix duo of Link and the late Dunning, who made hugely successful films the old-fashioned way — without being completely at the mercy of tax shelters for financing. 'I really have to thank those two for my career. They made movies to put bums in seats. We had a golden age of crowd-pleaser films back then which could not only entertain people, but also support an industry. As Link used to say: 'Not too many people in the industry liked us, because we made money and that wasn't the Canadian way,'' Mihalka laughs. 'The pendulum has swung, and I think it has swung a little too far toward the auteur cinema of personal films. As famed producer Samuel Goldwyn once put it: 'If you want to send a message, use Western Union.'' Which is not to say Mihalka hasn't tackled more provocative fare over the years, but he has always focused on keeping audiences captivated at the same time. 'Nothing wrong with making movies about your own or someone else's trauma. We need Mike Leigh movies as much as we need Tarantino movies. I have never thought entertaining was the opposite of intelligent. You can have a smart movie that entertains. That's been my goal all my working life. Just because I don't furrow my brow while directing doesn't mean I can't be deep,' he muses before adding: 'I'm not at all interested in retiring, either. I'm still ready to rumble for this craft.'
Montreal Gazette
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Brownstein: Late, great filmmaker Peter Pearson will get the memorial service he deserves — in a movie theatre
By Bill Brownstein The decision by his son Louis would have left Peter Pearson smiling — or more likely chortling, in his own inimitable fashion. An acclaimed Montreal director, film executive and fierce advocate for the arts, Pearson died last month at 87 at the long-term Ste. Anne's Hospital in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue following a three-year struggle with the devastating effects of dementia and Parkinson's disease. Louis Pearson decided the best way — the only way — to honour his dad would be to hold his memorial Friday morning at, appropriately, a movie theatre: the Cinéma du Musée, inside the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 'This was the only fitting place for his send-off,' says Louis Pearson, a TVA exec. 'Our place of worship was the movie theatre. The way some would convene at their place of worship, we would go the movies every other week. He had such a passion for film. He had such a passion for life.' In December 2023, with support from friends like Margaret Atwood and Ken Dryden as well as Louis, Peter Pearson was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada for his 'groundbreaking contributions as a filmmaker and for his tireless advocacy of Canadian film and television.' 'It brings tears to my eyes. … I'm very moved,' Pearson told me at the time. 'It's such a surprise and honour to be in such rarefied company. I don't know if I deserve this.' He did. Pearson served as president of the Directors Guild of Canada, executive director of Telefilm Canada and chair of the Council of Canadian Filmmakers. And when he decided to retire from the film business, he set up the Cinémagique club for local cinephiles, providing close to 1,000 members with premières of everything from arty Euro to highly touted American indie to homegrown Québécois fare, followed by analyses from the films' writers and directors. Pearson's contributions as a filmmaker were groundbreaking: among them, The Best Damn Fiddler From Calabogie to Kaladar (1968) — which won eight Canadian Film Awards, including best picture, and launched the career of his close pal Margot Kidder — and Paperback Hero (1973), winner of a slew of honours and featuring Keir Dullea, star of Stanley Kubrick's monumental 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In addition to the nearly two dozen films he made for the National Film Board of Canada and others, Pearson made his mark on the small screen as a producer of CBC's This Hour Has Seven Days in the 1960s and as producer-director of CBC's much-lauded six-part series Ken Dryden's Home Game (1990), based on the latter's bestseller The Game. Pearson and Dryden became great buddies as a result of their collaboration on the series, which took them everywhere from Montreal to Moscow. 'Peter was immersed with life,' the legendary Habs netminder notes in a phone interview. 'He tried to make sense of life and he also tried to make nonsense of it. He was interested in so many things and always had a fascinating take on things. He was funny, smart, a great storyteller — just great company. 'He was very much a character, but a real character, a compelling character, not a self-focused character. He was a performer, but he wasn't self-indulgent.' Dryden, who lives in Toronto, recalls taking in a Canadiens game at the Bell Centre with Pearson, in what was one of the filmmaker's last public outings. 'Peter was struggling physically at the time, but, as usual, he was never not interesting, still adept at capturing the essence of it all,' Dryden says. 'His joy was always enjoying the moment.' No doubt about that, as those of us who had the privilege of spending time with him can attest. Prior to his illnesses, Pearson, gregarious and forever with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, was always the life of the party and never held back from voicing his opinions on everything from hockey to politics to culture and, of course, film. He had no use for cheap sentiment. 'He was one of a kind,' says Louis, married and the father of two. 'Apart from his love of film, he also had a passion for opera, standing on chairs and belting out arias at parties, sometimes even in the proper key. He had a passion for baseball, and was a fervent Expos season-ticket holder. He could even recall the opening-day lineup for the Cleveland Indians — in 1948! And he had a passion for storytelling and embellishing it from time to time for dramatic effect.' Close friend Peter Raymont was always blown away by Pearson's love of life. 'I loved his passion for life, for people, for film, for everything. He had such enormous energy and gusto,' says Raymont, director of Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (2004), co-director and producer of Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power (2019) and executive producer of Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (2019). Raymont will be singing the Phil Ochs tune When I'm Gone in tribute to Pearson at Friday's memorial. 'The point of the song is do it while you're alive, and Peter certainly did that,' Raymont says. 'What Peter did for me and so many others was to inspire us to be our best. He was very supportive of me and so many others in our careers. I'm so forever grateful to him.' Ever cognizant of Pearson's accomplishments and passions, Louis points out what to him was his dad's greatest attribute. 'He was also the greatest dad. We went on all kinds of amazing adventures together, catching sports events and operas. He came to my baseball games. He coached my hockey team,' points out Louis, before taking on a more wistful tone. 'As an adult two decades back, when I had cancer, he picked me up for every treatment. He was so attentive, shepherding me through the whole ordeal. 'Really, he shone his light wherever he was in his life.'
CBC
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Montreal filmmaker Ayana O'Shun explores the impact of absent fathers in new documentary
A new documentary, La Fête des Pères (Father's Day), premieres Tuesday night at the Cinéma du Musée in Montreal. Directed by Montreal filmmaker and one of CBC Quebec's 2024 Black Changemakers Ayana O'Shun, the film delves into the profound impact of absent fathers on Black families across North America. For O'Shun, this exploration isn't just societal, it's deeply personal.
