Olympian Clara Hughes, filmmaker Sarah Polley and author Farley Mowat are among the latest batch of prominent Canadians to be inducted to Canada’s Walk of Fame.

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Wild Eye Releasing and MVD Visual will release GOLD: Before Woodstock. Beyond Reality on DVD, July 27, featuring a soundtrack of unreleased music from the MC5.

“…In 1968, filmmaker Bob Levis led a rag-tag band of dreamers, drop outs and drug-happy darlings into the wilderness to make a movie and emerged a month later with ‘GOLD’”, a bizarre and beautiful journey into the mind and madness of the late 1960s – one overflowing with fantasies of revolution, recreation and raunchy free love.

“At once a western, a comedy, a ‘nudie’, a drama and a musical – ‘Gold’ is a profound potpourri made in the spirit of shaking down square society, while systematically shattering every movie rule in the process. But then the film vanished, lost like the generation from which it came, until now…”

GOLD stars improvisational comedian Del Close (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and Garry Goodrow (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice).

In the feature Pirate Radio, the character played by actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman is based on Ronan O’Rahilly (‘Radio Caroline’), the producer of GOLD.

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MVD Visual reports that the new documentary from Highway 61 Entertainment, Paul McCartney Really Is Dead, The Last Testament of George Harrison , will be released on DVD in North America September 1, 2010.

Accoding to director Joel Gilbert:

“…In the summer of 2005, a package arrived at the Hollywood offices of Highway 61 Entertainment from London with no return address. Inside were two mini-cassette audio tapes dated December 30, 1999 and labeled ‘THE LAST TESTAMENT OF GEORGE HARRISON’. A voice identical to Harrison tells a shocking story: Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash in November of 1966 and replaced with a double! British intelligence, MI5, had forced the Beatles to cover up McCartney’s death to prevent mass suicides of Beatle fans. However, the remaining Beatles tried to signal fans with clues on album covers and in songs.

“…Until now, the “Paul is Dead” mystery that exploded worldwide in 1969 was considered a hoax. However, in this film, George Harrison reveals a secret Beatles history, chronicling McCartney’s fatal accident, the cover up, dozens of unknown clues, and a dangerous cat and mouse game with ‘Maxwell’, the Beatles’ MI5 handler, as John Lennon became increasingly reckless with the secret. Harrison also insists that Lennon was assassinated in 1980 after he threatened to finally expose ‘Paul McCartney’ as an imposter!

“…Highway 61 Entertainment has corroborated most of George Harrison’s stunning account of the conspiracy to hide McCartney’s tragic death. Harrison’s complete audio tapes narrate this film that includes all the newly unearthed evidence…”

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MVD Visual reports that the new documentary from Highway 61 Entertainment, Paul McCartney Really Is Dead, The Last Testament of George Harrison , will be released on DVD in North America September 1, 2010.

Accoding to director Joel Gilbert:

“…In the summer of 2005, a package arrived at the Hollywood offices of Highway 61 Entertainment from London with no return address. Inside were two mini-cassette audio tapes dated December 30, 1999 and labeled ‘THE LAST TESTAMENT OF GEORGE HARRISON’. A voice identical to Harrison tells a shocking story: Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash in November of 1966 and replaced with a double! British intelligence, MI5, had forced the Beatles to cover up McCartney’s death to prevent mass suicides of Beatle fans. However, the remaining Beatles tried to signal fans with clues on album covers and in songs.

“…Until now, the “Paul is Dead” mystery that exploded worldwide in 1969 was considered a hoax. However, in this film, George Harrison reveals a secret Beatles history, chronicling McCartney’s fatal accident, the cover up, dozens of unknown clues, and a dangerous cat and mouse game with ‘Maxwell’, the Beatles’ MI5 handler, as John Lennon became increasingly reckless with the secret. Harrison also insists that Lennon was assassinated in 1980 after he threatened to finally expose ‘Paul McCartney’ as an imposter!

“…Highway 61 Entertainment has corroborated most of George Harrison’s stunning account of the conspiracy to hide McCartney’s tragic death. Harrison’s complete audio tapes narrate this film that includes all the newly unearthed evidence…”

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Fifty Dead Men Walking and The Wild Hunt are among 16 Canadian films that will screen in China as part of the Shanghai International Film Festival’s forthcoming lineup.

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A cache of 75 rare U.S. silent films, including 1927′s Upstream directed by John Ford, has been discovered in a New Zealand archive.

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The Vancouver-lensed CW TV series Hellcats from executive producer Tom Welling of Smallville acting fame is “…a coming-of-age story about ‘Marti Perkins’, a young, pre-law student at ‘Lancer University’ in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is cool, hip and alt, but her world flips upside down, literally and figuratively, when she loses her scholarship, and realizes the only way she can stay in school is by reigniting her dormant teen gymnastic skills to win a place on Lancer’s legendary cheerleading team, ‘The Hellcats’.

“Against her every instinct, Marti goes for it and makes the squad, and is thrust into a world of camaraderie, backstabbing and the intersection of sports, backroom academia and big money. Marti’s new roommate, ‘Savannah Monroe’, a petite, peppy Texan, is among the diverse cast of athletes, undergrads, family and friends, all set on the sprawling campus of a powerhouse college football program in the deep South…”

Hellcats stars Aly Michalka as Marti Perkins, Ashley Tisdale as ‘Savannah Monroe’, Heather Hemmens as ‘Alice Verdura’, Robbie Jones as ‘Lewis Flynn’, Matt Barr as ‘Dan Patch’, with Sharon Leal as ‘Vanessa Lodge’ and Gail O’Grady as ‘Wanda Perkins’.

The series is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Tom Welling Productions, Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives) , Tom Welling (Smallville) and Allan Arkush (Heroes).

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The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) has announced the winners of The Reel Challenge, a contest for aspiring filmmakers to produce “…a short compelling film about the importance of creators’ rights and copyright protection for their work, from a creator’s perspective…”

First prize winner was Denis Seguin, of Toronto , Ontario, for his short film titled, It’s My Right. Seguin’s film featured Canadian artists and filmmakers, talking about their rights.

“IÂ’m delighted to have had my film recognized by the Reel Challenge jury,” said Seguin. “Copyright is not an abstract notion but a matter of survival for an artist. This is the message I wanted to convey through the faces and voices of the creators who appear in the film.”

Seguin received CDN$10,000 for taking first prize in the contest.

Second and third prizes, in the amount of CDN$2,500, were awarded to Nick Kalish, of Vancouver, B.C., for his short Respect The C and Spencer Maybee, of Toronto, Ontario for his short titled, Respect The Original.

“We are thrilled to have had such an overwhelming response to The Reel Challenge contest,” said Slawko Klymkiw, Executive Director, CFC. “It is a testament to the strong support in the creative communities for protecting content and creatorsÂ’ rights.”

The contest ran from December 7, 2009 to April 26, 2010. All categories and genres of short films were accepted, including drama, comedy, animation, horror, sci-fi, documentary, experimental and music videos. More than 100 entries were received.

Jury members included Vincenzo Natali, director (Splice), Stephen Stohn, President, Epitome Pictures Inc., Eileen Arandiga, Festival Director of the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, Wendy Noss, Executive Director of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association and Bob Pisano, President, Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The Reel Challenge contest is an initiative of the Canadian Film Centre, supported by the Copyright Collective of Canada.

All the winning entries can be seen @ http://www.thereelchallenge.ca

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Trailer for Not the Messiah: He’s a Very Naughty Boy

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