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The demise of disco was greatly accelerated by the cultural impact of the infamous Disco Demolition Night of 1979 in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. While rockers have used the word in a pejorative sense for years, DJs, artists, impresarios, and aficionados know that disco—both the genre and the subculture—not only has deep roots but has lived on under various aliases, inspiring the evolution of music and keeping people moving in various funky ways. Le freak, c’est toujours chic!

These are the ideas, plot points and storylines that Toronto filmmakers Omar Majeed (“Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam”) and Peter Mishara explore in their documentary feature “Disco’s Revenge,” which had its world premiere Thursday in Hot Docs’ Pop/Life strand.

The film, which screens again Friday, is set for release this year. Elevation Pictures will distribute it in Canada; Republic Pictures has acquired rights outside of Canada.

“Disco’s Revenge...

A revealing new season of films at the Ica looks at the links between religion and revolt

Do the roots of the Arab spring lie in cinema? The question seems absurd: surely kleptocratic dictatorship, youth unemployment and grain prices all played a more important part. Iranian film scholar Hamid Dabashi disagrees: "If you want to understand the emotive universe from which the Arab spring arose, cinema is a good place to start. Look at a film like Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention: there the director spits out an apricot pit at an Israeli tank and blows it up. The scene is both fantasy and prophecy."

Dabashi will be speaking this month at Winds of Change, a series of talks and screenings at the Ica in London showcasing films from across the Muslim world; it hopes to explore the rich, sometimes fraught relationship between religion and civic society. Özer Kiziltan's...

Good things come to those who wait and for those who feel as though they've suffered through a year of largely uninspired films up to now will likely breathe a sigh of relief at the sound of names like Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola and Peter Weir. 'Tis the season for Jim Carrey to take a pay cut to star in a gay romance like "I Love You Phillip Morris" or Javier Bardem is whispering sweet nothings to spirits in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu's "Biutiful" rather than Julia Roberts.

There is the naughty -- Kristen Stewart stripping in "Welcome to the Rileys," the would-be terrorists of the Brit comedy "Four Lions," or the evil Santa in "Rare Exports" -- and the nice -- the tap-dancing lovers in "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench," the glory of James Franco's daredevil surviving "127 Hours" and Colin Firth's verbally-challenged royal conquering his stutter in "The King's Speech.

Taqwacore bands have sparked controversy, but conservative Muslims need to get used to the proliferating diversity of Islam

It already seems like high-censorship season in Pakistan, with Facebook and YouTube being banned by the Lahore high court over the "Draw Muhammad" contest. However, a much more interesting collision is taking place on the media peripheries in Pakistan, only this time the conflict isn't between Islam and the west but between Muslims with very different views of Islam.

Nearly a year after its release, the controversial documentary titled Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam seems finally to have triggered a response from the conservative clerics it censures, after the film was screened at Lahore's National College of Arts.

The documentary follows a group of Muslim punk bands inspired to unite under the banner of "taqwacore" and tour the United States after reading Michael Muhammad Knight's novel based on fictionalised Muslim...

Director: Omar Majeed Writer: David Oliveras Starring: Michael Muhammad Knight, The Kominas, Al Thawra, Vote Hezbollah, and Secret Trial Five A pleasant surprise amongst the numerous documentaries at this year’s SXSW festival was Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam. Spawned out of author Michael Muhammad Knight’s novel, The Taqwacores, the film follows Knight and a number of Islamic youth in America inspired by his novel. In the film, Knight tells how the novelization of The Taqwacores inadvertently birthed an underground punk movement after being first published Diy, then via Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label. Plot-wise, the novel follows groups of drug addled, anarchy driven, but Islam-centric punks in New York as they struggle with their beliefs and mix with the local punk scene. Taqwacore, the documentary, follows some of the bands that picked up this novel and were inspired to mix their faith and music in the...

Not all of the great film festivals are outside of the U.S. Even if you can’t book a ticket to Cannes or Berlin, you should be able to afford a flight out to Austin, Texas for SXSW, which is a festival for not only movies, but music and video games as well. Like the years before, the line-up for the 2010 SXSW Film Festival is the goods. Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass will open up the fest and then there will be other great-looking films throughout including The Duplass Brothers’ Cyrus, SNL’s hard-r adaptation of MacGruber, Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, and Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways, just to name a few. If you’re going to this year’s SXSW, let me know so I can steal your identity and go in your place.

The 2010 SXSW Film Festival will run from March 12-20. Check out the...

Less than a week worth of recovering from the Sundance Film Festival, and we are already looking forward to our next, big film fest coverage. That would be the South by Southwest Film Festival held annually in Austin, Texas. Last year, Scott and I brought you all kinds of coverage from the Lone Star State, and this year doesn’t look to be much different.

With that, the announcement came last night of the feature films that will be playing at the SXSW Film Festival. Previous announcement were already made about films like Cold Weather, Electra Luxx, Hubble 3D, Lemmy, Saturday Night, and The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights making their debut. Kick-ass was recently announced as the opening night film, as well.

Among the other films being presented this year are some Sundance darlings, a few, highly anticipated premieres, and MacGruber.

Check out the full list...

I was so excited at seeing the SXSW line up last night that I completely forgot to post it and started searching the interwebs for cool content to go with it. Oops. Yes, I wish I was there but alas, it wasn’t mean to be (though don’t despair. We’ll be bringing you wicked awesome coverage).

But enough rambling, you want to know what’s all playing. Well, for a start there’s the much anticipated McGruber (trailer), the Duplass’ semi-mainstream comedy Cyrus, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs (trailer, review), Daniel Stamm’s horror flick Cotton and that’s on top of the previously announced titles which include Electra Luxx (Carla Gugino as a pregnant porn star? Bring. It. On.) and Kick-Ass (trailer). That’s already a great line-up but dear me, some of the other titles are pretty awesome too.

There’s Clay Liford scifi drama Earthling (trailer...

Late yesterday the SXSW Fim Festival, which runs from March 12-20 in Austin, TX, announced the full lineup of films that will be screening at this year’s event. And baby, it’s quite a list. Mixing big name films with intimate indie gems, the sheer number of films and the vast array of talented filmmakers is sure to be a hit with attendees and critics alike.

This lineup includes premieres of studio films such as Universal’s MacGruber, Lionsgate’s teen superhero actioneer Kick-Ass and smaller films like Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart and Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine. With so many films to watch, it will be very difficult to find time to seem them all during the events nine days. But hell, we’re going to try.

For more on...

Montreal -- Turns out angry, young Muslims aren't drawn to religious extremism, after all.

It's their inner punk that grabs Muslim misfits, judging by Omar Majeed's label-defying feature documentary "Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam," the buzz film at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal.

Montreal director Majeed has taken the usual teenage territory of angst over high school and parental control and turned it into a dialogue by young Muslims on how to embrace Islam on their own terms as they rock the Casbah for Allah.

"Punk music is perfect for helping young Muslims channel aggression and anger in a positive and natural way," Majeed explained.

"Taqwacore" documents how a 2003 novel by disillusioned American Islamic convert Michael Muhammad Knight about Muslim skinheads in upper-state New York produced a movement of Islamic punk bands and their fans finding each other on MySpace and Facebook and at frenetic concerts.

From a press release

The 38th Festival du nouveau cinéma Rolls Out Blue Carpet For Opening Night!

Montreal, Wednesday October 7, 2009 – The 38th Festival du Nouveau Cinéma officially gets underway tonight with the world premiere screening of Ladies in Blue by Claude Demers. Michel Louvain and the ladies in blue await you on the blue carpet as of 7 p.m. at the Imperial Cinema (Sandra & Leo Kolber Centre, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon) for an emotion-packed evening.

*Blue attire strongly encouraged!

Over 250 films from 48 countries will make up the bulk of 10 uninterrupted days of festivities where prestigious international guests and local filmmakers alike will present their works to Montrealers. The festival takes off on Thursday October 8 with the opening of its Focus and Temps Temps Ø sections at the Imperial Cinema (Sandra & Leo Kolber Centre, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon) with the films Nuages sur la ville by Simon Galiero at 7:30 p.

From a media release

Montreal, Wednesday, September 30, 2009 – Attention, cinephiles of all stripes! Now in its 6th year, the Fnc’s Temps Ø program is seeing big, with 17 films and two major events. Temps Ø runs October 8th to 18th.

Starting things off on Thursday, October 8 at 9:30 p.m. at the Imperial (Sandra & Leo Kolber Centre, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon), the much anticipated Montreal premiere of Omar Majeed’s documentary Taqwacore: The Birth Of Punk Islam. Taqwacore (taqwa for piety, core as in hard) is unapologetic punk, cool and real, a joyously radical scene inspired by Michael Muhammad Knight’s The Taqwacores. His story of Sufis with mohawks, Riot Grrrls in burqas and Indonesian skaterboys was an instant hit with a generation of North American Muslims who began speaking out against extremism within their communities and stereotypes in the outside world. Featuring Boston’s The Kominas and author Michael Muhammad Knight,...