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A Peculiar Experiment in Content Guiding Form

Experimental director Mijke de Jong’s latest feature-length film, is a curious exercise in content guiding form. It’s ostensibly an investigative treatise on the nature of annihilation anxiety and the vast array of ideological, theological and sociological questions that inevitably arise in the face of mortality, but it never settles for pat answers or allows anything to be glibly categorized. Frailer is a messy, inconsistent, even challenging work that actually manages to succeed despite its own emotional and inconsistent framework.

Initially, this handheld, Dutch, existential female-bonding dramedy presents as a linear narrative. Mouse (Leonoor Pauw), a woman coping with a terminal cancer diagnosis, is surrounded by friends—Ted (Marnie Blok), Carlos (Adelheid Roosen) and Lian (Lieneke le Roux)—attempting to make the most of the time they have left. They garden together, share meals, wear matching dresses and plan elaborate road trips to various rural locales,...

The 6th annual Montreal Underground Film Festival presents 3 nights of wild and wooly short films from around the world at various venues around the city on May 12-14.

The fest kicks off with a lineup of 8 short films, plus the World Premiere of Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare’s Main Attraction, about a magician and his resident freaks fending off an eviction from their home. DeGiglio-Bellemare is a member of the Montreal media arts collective Volatile Works and features special effects by underground artist Rick Trembles and Andy Mauro. Also in the Opening Night kick-off is the not-to-be-missed hilarious music video Goths! On the Bus by Karen & Jaimz Asmundson.

Then, the fest continues on the 13th and the 14th with several programming blocks of short films hailing from Canada, the U.S., Germany, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Finland, the U.K. and other countries.

Some standouts in the fest include Zachary Epcar‘s...