This new single from Troye Sivan‘s upcoming third Studio Disc is a gem. We’ve been obsessed since it randomly showed-up on Spotify as a recommendation. This gorgeous early ’90s-inspired Ballad finally has a Video!

Check it out below:

Stream or purchase ANGEL BABY here.

(Photo/video credit: Universal Music)

The death of Brittany Murphy has haunted us for quite some time. She was such a radiant force and starred in so many of our favourites growing-up in the late ’90s to early 2000s. This new HBO Max Documentary, WHAT HAPPENED, BRITTANY MURPHY? asks the questions we’ve always wanted to know surrounding why she left us so soon.

Synopsis:

A beloved Hollywood starlet known for a number of iconic roles – gone at 32 years old. Unanswered questions, controversial figures, and surrounded by speculation: what really happened to Brittany Murphy? This two-part documentary explores her life beyond headlines, celebrating her legacy and investigating her tragic and untimely death.

WHAT HAPPENED, BRITTANY MURPHY? arrives October 14, 2021 on HBO Max in the U.S. Canadian release to be confirmed.

(Photo/video credit: HBO Max)

Searchlight Pictures x Mr. Will want to give Readers in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal a chance to see Wes Anderson’s star-studded opus, THE FRENCH DISPATCH!

Screenings take place as follows:

October 20:

• Toronto: Cineplex Varsity at 7:00 PM
• Vancouver: Cineplex International Village at 7:00 PM

October 27:

• Calgary: Scotiabank Theatre Chinook at 7:00 PM

October 28:

• Montreal: Cineplex Forum at 7:00 PM

Synopsis:

THE FRENCH DISPATCH brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city. It stars Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson.

To enter for a chance to win, click “like” on this Post at MR. WILL ON FACEBOOK and indicate your City there. Re-Tweet this Contest Tweet below for an extra chance.

NOTE: Winners will only be contacted from the official account above. Please do not accept friend requests from other accounts asking you to input your personal information on a link. We will never ask you for credit card information with our contests.

Rules and regulations here.

Searchlight Pictures release THE FRENCH DISPATCH October 22, 2021 in Toronto, with additional cities to follow.

(Photo/video credit: Searchlight Pictures)

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the 2021 Reel Asian International Film Festival, takes place between November 10-19, 2021 with the theme being “HERE FOR THE BIGGER PICTURE“. Canada’s only pan-Asian Film Festival, will be available almost Canada-wide, a majority of it being virtual this year.

Martin Edralin‘s ISLANDS is set to kick things off as the Opening Night film! The Film premiered at SXSW 2021! Edralin and cast members will be in attendance too for a Q&A in-person.

The festival is proud to celebrate Governor General award-winning artist Ali Kazimi this year as the Canadian Spotlight Artist, with a focus on three of his feature-length documentaries. Continuous Journey, Random Acts of Legacy, and Shooting Indians look at intersectional community building and notions of history and friendship. Kazimi’s works, in addition to the live-streamed Canadian Spotlight Artist Talk alongside photographer Jeffrey Thomas, will be viewable on the Reel Asian website. The Canadian Spotlight Artist was produced in collaboration with imagineNATIVE and SAVAC.

An overview of this year’s Programmes at the 2021 Reel Asian International Film Festival.

Reel Asian X (RA:X) – Absence|Presence

Absence|Presence is a series of panel conversations, screenings and workshops reintroducing Desh Pardesh to Reel Asian’s audiences and community. Desh Pardesh was a multidisciplinary arts and culture festival that engaged with political issues of South Asia and its diasporas through a multi-day festival and conference, taking place in Toronto every year from the late 1980s until 2001. The festival programmed works and conversations about feminism, class, sexuality, access, disability, race, caste, imperialism, and capitalism, centering on the voices and experiences of underrepresented and marginalized voices within the South Asian diaspora. Absence|Presence seeks to honour and remember the histories of radical arts and culture spaces like Desh that paved the way for numerous queer diasporic art collectives and programs in the city, including SAVAC. From 2013 – 2017, SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) worked on an oral history project aimed at collecting the stories of the organizers, artists, participants and community activists behind the festival.

FEATURES

The features programme represents the filmmaking community as a whole and spotlights the breadth of talent from master storytellers to first-time feature makers. This programme gives audiences a chance to settle in with a familiar voice or discover a new filmmaking perspective. They will be transported to different worlds through a variety of genres, including from experimental to environmental docs to political and fictional tales of family, self, home, community, and culture. 

Thoughtfully examining family and loneliness while retaining an undercurrent of levity, Islands tells the story of Joshua, a shy middle-aged Filipino immigrant, who has lived in the comfort of his parents’ home his entire life. As their health declines, he longs for a partner, terrified of being alone after they pass.

In Frederik Hana and Marius Lunde’s Codename: Nagasaki, the two friends weave together a genre-bending cinematic search for answers in this unique, and captivating documentary. Another documentary being featured this year is Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust, Ann Kaneko’s account of generations of women coming together to defend their land and water. The award-winning drama Drifting will screen for the first time in Canada at this year’s festival. Writer/director Jun Li shows audiences a grittier side of Hong Kong, a marked contrast to the often glamorized version portrayed in film. In Chen Yu-hsun’s My Missing Valentine, audiences are whisked into the life of a young woman who lives life a step ahead of everyone else. Her whirlwind ways finally catch up to her when she wakes up to realize she has mysteriously missed an entire day … one that may hold the key to true love. Already a festival favourite across the world, Debbie Lum’s Try Harder! is a documentary set within San Francisco’s most competitive high school, where students vie for admission into elite universities. In Mari Walker’s thoughtful and compelling film See You Then, two people reconnect a decade after breaking up, one of them having transitioned. In Three Sisters from Lee Seung-won, the title characters gather in their hometown for their father’s birthday, but their little brother’s abnormal behaviour brings to light some things they’d all rather stay hidden. Junta Yamaguchi’s film Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is a fantastical tale about a cafe owner who discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future. The documentary This Stained Dawn is a riveting account of the preparation behind the multi-city Aurat March (Women’s March) in Pakistan. Canadian filmmaker Anam Abbas follows the organizers of the march as they negotiate a deeply surveilled, paranoia-inducing, and often physically violent space in the hopes of spurring a revolution. A former Scripps Spelling Bee champion must reconcile with her estranged brother when he returns home to help care for their sick mother in Sujata Day’s Definition, Please. Pallavi Paul’s The Blind Rabbit is a mid-length experimental film touching on police brutality in Delhi, India, that will be sure to spark engaged discussion. A product of Telefilm’s prestigious Talent Fund, Emilie Serri’s Damascus Dreams is a documentary that is at once very personal while also touching on universal themes of homeland and identity. Muzzamer Rahman’s Hail, Driver, is the story of Aman, who after the death of his father decides to become an illegal e-hailing driver in Kuala Lumpur. Written and directed by KEFF, the film Taipei Suicide Story is a gripping tale of human connection that takes place over the course of one night in Taipei. The South Korean Digital Video Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro: The Real-World Guide to Set Up and Workflow from visionary director Hong Seong-yoon successfully combines horror, comedy, and romance into a truly unique cinematic experience. 

Anchoring the features programme are two films spotlighting Hawaii, Waikiki (Christopher Kahunahana) and I Was a Simple Man (Christopher Makoto Yogi), both examples of a new wave of important narrative works currently emerging from the Aloha State. These ambitious and groundbreaking films both show important Native Hawaiian and local Asian perspectives on Hawaii that they know and love; a place that had too often has its stories told by outsiders.

SHORTS

This year’s Shorts programming includes films from notable directors including Jess X. Snow, Albert Shin, and Fawzia Mirza, amongst many others.

Midnight Snack: Delectably genre-bending, this programme serves up a seven-course meal that will surely leave you questioning whether you were even hungry to begin with.

Feel The Beat: Sing along to this collection of short films featuring characters who find themselves confronting systemic, structural, and personal challenges, all while defying conventional narratives and reconstructing alternative possibilities of storytelling

In The Moment: How does one trace lineages and map origins? Derailing form and convention, each of these films pave new pathways of understanding by reconceptualizing the relations between pasts, presents, and futures.

Familycore: Amid the abundance of narratives revolving around kin, this presentation of shorts brings refreshing and surprising takes into the un/intentional family-centric storytelling landscape, offering room for possibilities and reimaginings.

Ecologies of Place: Carefully set and intentionally crafted, the site-specificity of these short films recognize the role of place as a character integral to offering layered understandings of self, community, and purpose.

Sites of Affect: Recognizing the in/tangible ways feelings and relations can influence one’s actions, these six films tenderly hold the complexities of characters, places, and memories that are more than enough just as they are.

S-Express Myanmar: Guest-programmed by Thaiddhi in partnership with the Minikino S-Express Short Film Program Exchange, this collection of short films showcases young and new voices of independent filmmakers from Myanmar amid the sociopolitical changes of the country.

Unsung Voices: Four fearless emerging filmmakers embarked on a summer-long filmmaking journey online. We’re proud to present their world premiere here, in the landmark 10th edition of Reel Asian’s filmmaking program.

REEL IDEAS

This year’s Reel Ideas conference is named “Here in The Future Past,” and wishes to ground in the present moment, looking backward and forward simultaneously through the abundant energy of the community in the now. Gathering industry professionals, filmmakers, performers, media artists, programmers, and curators, this conference reflects on how our present dialogue, work, and stories will form the foundations of memory, genealogy, and history for the future. Some of the most dynamic thought leaders in North America will be participating including, V.T. Nayani, Sagan Yee, Catherine Hernandez, JP Larocque, Khanh Tudo, and many more. This year’s sessions include (re) Rites of Passage: Asian Canada in Motion Anthology Editors’ Table Talk, Animating Place into Character, Telling “Asian” Stories, The Function of Festival in Crises II, Narrative in Other Mediums, For New Kids on The Block, and Sustainable Storytelling Careers.

CANADIAN SPOTLIGHT ARTIST

Ali Kazimi is Reel Asian’s Canadian Artist Spotlight in 2021. Appropriately for our 25th festival, the documentary filmmaker, media artist, activist, author, and educator has been a fixture in the Asian Canadian community, and we celebrate his over three decades of vital contributions to Canadian media. In 2019, Kazimi became the first Indo Canadian to receive the Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in Visual and Media Arts award winner. His documentary and media-arts work deals with race, social justice, migration, and memory, and emphasizes essential connections across racialized communities, between personal and public, through past and present. 

Born, raised, and educated in India, Kazimi came to Canada to study film production at York University in 1983. Two decades later, after receiving over two dozen awards and honours as an independent filmmaker, Kazimi returned to York, where he is currently an associate professor in the cinema and media arts department.

Reel Asian is pleased to offer a sampling of Kazimi’s seminal documentary films, as well as a suite of talks that will give greater insight into his process, and a viewing of excerpts from new works in progress. 

Inspired by his films’ spirit of friendship and collaboration, Reel Asian is presenting Kazimi’s work with our friends and neighbours imagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival, and South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC).

Wee Asian

Wee Asian is a collection of shorts filled with imagination, possibility, and nuance that will surely resonate with audiences of all ages.

This year’s Wee Asian short film lineup includes:

The Good, The Bad, The Dokkaebi

Old Dog

Your Hand in Mine

Perfect Restaurant

Sorry for the Inconvenience

Story of a Beginning

Winning in America

Polar Bear Bears Boredom

Living with Viola

Back for a second year, join the Wee Asian Arts Channel for sweet and simple pre-recorded arts activities led by a lineup of talented local artists including Rosena Fung, En Lai Mah, Natalie Mark, Basil AlZeri, and Joanna Delos Reyes. 

Public tickets will be priced at $9.49 and are on sale beginning October 20, 2021 at reelasian.com.

We’re sure many of you are going to be thrilled about this! Peter Jackson‘s THE BEATLES: GET BACK arrives next month, only on Disney+ and here’s your first look at the Docu-Series!

Synopsis:

Directed by three-time Oscar®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “They Shall Not Grow Old”), “The Beatles: Get Back” takes audiences back in time to the band’s January 1969 recording sessions, which became a pivotal moment in music history. The docuseries showcases The Beatles’ creative process as they attempt to write 14 new songs in preparation for their first live concert in over two years. Faced with a nearly impossible deadline, the strong bonds of friendship shared by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are put to the test. The docuseries is compiled from nearly 60 hours of unseen footage shot over 21 days, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969, and from more than 150 hours of unheard audio, most of which has been locked in a vault for over half a century. Jackson is the only person in 50 years to have been given access to this Beatles treasure trove, all of which has now been brilliantly restored.  What emerges is an unbelievably intimate portrait of The Beatles, showing how, with their backs against the wall, they could still rely on their friendship, good humour, and creative genius. While plans derail and relationships are put to the test, some of the world’s most iconic songs are composed and performed. The docuseries features – for the first time in its entirety – The Beatles’ last live performance as a group, the unforgettable rooftop concert on London’s Savile Row, as well as other songs and classic compositions featured on the band’s final two albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK rolls-out November 25, 26 and 27, 2021, exclusively on Disney+.

(Photo/video credit: Disney+)

MK2 | MILE END x Mr. Will are thrilled to give Readers a chance to win a Pass for Two to see acclaimed Drama MASS.

Cities are as follows:

Toronto Varsity
Vancouver International Village
Calgary Eau Claire
Montreal Forum
Edmonton City Centre
Ottawa Mayfair
Victoria Odeon
Halifax Scotiabank
Kanata Landmark
Whitby Landmark
Kelowna Grand 10
London Hyland

Synopsis:

Years after an unspeakable tragedy tore their lives apart, two sets of parents (Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney and Ann Dowd) agree to talk privately in an attempt to move forward. In Fran Kranz’ writing and directing debut, he thoughtfully examines their journey of grief, anger and acceptance by coming face-to-face with the ones who have been left behind.

To enter for a chance to #win click “like” on this Post at MR. WILL ON FACEBOOK. Please indicate your City in the comments there. Re-Tweet this Contest Tweet below for an extra chance!

Note: Winners will only be notified on Facebook from the official MR. WILL WONG account. Do not accept friend requests from others requesting you to provide personal information.

Rules and regulations here.

MK2 | MILE END release MASS in theatres October 15, 2021.

(Photo/video credit: MK2 | MILE END)

We’re thrilled that FAN EXPO returns finally to Toronto once again! Of course, safety measures and regulations will be in effect to make this as safe and fun as possible for all of us! For one, Photo Ops this year will be done with plexiglass dividers.

FAN EXPO Limited Edition will take place at Metro Toronto Convention Centre October 22–24, 2021. Confirmed are an exciting slate of stars including:

Robbie Amell (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City) and Stephen Amell (Arrow); Star Trek alums George Takei and William Shatner; Schitt’s Creek’s resident heartthrob, Tim Rozon; Wynnona Earp star Melanie Scrofano; the Ninth Doctor himself, Christopher Eccleston; Pokémon voice actress Veronica Taylor; ‘MythBuster’ extraordinaire Adam Savage; Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s ‘Spike’, James Marsters; and more!

And don’t forget the many Cosplayers, Comic Creators, Voice Actors and more!

Limited tickets are available now here.

After its Premiere at TIFF’ 21, here is the new Trailer for Netflix Series COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE!

Synopsis:

From co-creators Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick comes Colin in Black & White, a bold new limited series that chronicles Kaepernick’s coming of age story, tackling the obstacles of race, class and culture as the Black adopted child of a white family. Colin in Black & White stars Jaden Michael as Young Colin before reaching the highest levels of American football as an NFL quarterback and becoming a cultural icon and activist; Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker as his well-meaning parents Rick and Teresa; and Colin Kaepernick himself, who appears as the present-day narrator of his own story, guiding viewers through a robust and colorfully presented array of historical and contemporary contextual moments. You don’t know Kaepernick until you know Colin.

COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE arrives on Netflix October 29, 2021.

(Photo/video credit: Netflix)

HOME ALONE fans will be delighted to know the latest in the beloved Franchise is coming soon Disney+ Day!

Synopsis:

Max Mercer is a mischievous and resourceful young boy who has been left behind while his family is in Japan for the holidays. So when a married couple attempting to retrieve a priceless heirloom set their sights on the Mercer family’s home, it is up to Max to protect it from the trespassers…and he will do whatever it takes to keep them out. Hilarious hijinks of epic proportions ensue, but despite the absolute chaos, Max comes to realize that there really is no place like home sweet home. 

“Home Sweet Home Alone” stars Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Archie Yates, Aisling Bea, Kenan Thompson, Tim Simons, Pete Holmes, Devin Ratray, Ally Maki, and Chris Parnell. Dan Mazer directs.

HOME SWEET HOME ALONE arrives November 12, 2021 on Disney+.

(Photo/video credit: Disney+)

HauntTV is a new subscription service available to you on The Roku Channel and Samsung TV Plus in Canada. Leading-up to Halloween, they have several new programs to get you excited as part of their SPOOKTOBER lineup from October 20-31, 2021.

Some of their offerings:

• A Haunting
  October 20, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  An American paranormal anthology previewing stories told by victims sharing their terrifying encounters through narrations, frightening reenactments and religious content.
   
• Evil Encounters
  October 21, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  There are millions of acres of wilderness throughout North America; hills, plains and forests that are home to the kind of evil thought only to exist in nightmares. Legions of people have traumatic, first-person stories to tell about ghosts, demons and terrible creatures that curdle the blood of all who cross their paths. Evil Encounters delivers heart stopping, terrifying tales of people out in nature who find themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time. 
   
• Paranormal Survivor
  October 22, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  In this revealing paranormal documentary series, survivors of paranormal experiences recount their terrifying and life-changing stories. Each hour-long episode features three remarkable stories inter-linked by a specific supernatural theme, while professionals in the field give expert insight into these extraordinary events.
   
• Paranormal 911
  October 23, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  The series follows first responders who encounter the supernatural when answering emergency calls.
   
• Help! My House is Haunted!
  October 24, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  Created by Ghost Adventures’ Zak Bagans, Help! My House is Haunted is a ghost-hunting series that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to searching for paranormal entities.
   
• Haunting: Australia
  October 25, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  Hailing from all corners of the globe, six of the best ghost hunters in the business have joined forces to investigate paranormal activity in Australia’s most haunted locations. Led by the highly experienced and committed Robb Demarest, the Haunting: Australia team travel across the country unearthing ghostly evidence and seeking answers to often asked questions. Haunting: Australia is a journey into the unknown that often features terrifying twists and turns, from psychic scares and demonic possessions to sightings and stories that offer no rational explanation.
   
• Paranormal State
  October 26, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  Paranormal State follows members of the famous Penn State Paranormal Research Society as they investigate strange and unusual phenomena across the country.
   
• Haunted Hospitals
  October 27, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  Explores chilling tales of otherworldly activity inside medical institutions. In each episode, doctors, nurses, and patients give first-hand accounts of deceased patients and medical staff who come back from the grave and stalk the corridors to warn of impending danger.
   
• Paranormal: Caught on Camera
  October 28, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  Watch as eyewitness’ capture amazing, eye-opening and downright scary paranormal videos from around the world while a panel of experts break down the footage and analyze what was captured.
   
• World’s Scariest Hauntings 
  October 29, beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
  World’s Scariest Hauntings delves into another realm to reveal ghosts and horror stories from 10 terrifying locations around the globe. From exploring The Merchant’s House in New York City, to Montreal’s Griffintown district and the Edinburgh Vaults in Scotland.
   

HauntTV’s Halloweekend Programming Highlights:

• Hotel Paranormal 
  October 30 at 8:30 p.m. ET.
  October 31 at 2 a.m. ET., 11:30 a.m., 6 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET.
  Narrated by Emmy® Award winner and Oscar®-nominated actor, Dan Aykroyd, the documentary series features terrifying real-life stories of paranormal encounters at 4-star hotels, bed and breakfasts, highway motels and inns around the world. From hotel workers and guests witnessing objects flying across the room to uncovering trapped ancient spirits and experiencing demonic possession, Hotel Paranormal brings to life terrifying encounters with dramatic recreations and paranormal expert insights.

(Photo credit: HauntTV)