The Laser Blast Film Society Presents the 5th Annual What The Film Festival

For its 5th edition, Toronto's premiere celebration of eccentric movies and media, WHAT THE FILM FESTIVAL, will take over the first weekend of March (1st - 3rd) at The Royal Cinema, hosting six eclectic feature films, including the Toronto Premiere of A BREAD FACTORY. The acclaimed two-part epic will screen as the festival's Opening Night presentation with writer/director Patrick Wang in attendance.

Also to be showcased at the festival is the Canadian premiere of the American Genre Film Archive restoration of Sarah Jacobson's feminist punk film MARY JANE'S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE, a marathon screening of the obscure, but radical Canadian Television series COWBOY WHO? with the creators Jeff Green and Mike Cormier in attendance, and a late-night video & comic arts marketplace and PARTY ON March 2nd at The Super Wonder Gallery (584 College St.).

Spearheaded by TIFF Midnight Madness Programmer Peter Kuplowsky, What The Film Festivalfills a gap in Toronto's dense film festival landscape, showcasing outlier and outsider films that intersect definitions of both genre and avant-garde cinema and operate outside the traditional parameters of taste and convention. Produced by The Laser Blast Film Society, a monthly film series at The Royal Cinema, this year's festival is made possible in part by the funding support from home video label Vinegar Syndrome and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

The complete lineup of feature films are listed below, as are the festival's special events. Complete details regarding short films plus vendor and artist participants for THE MARCH 2nd marketplace and party to be announced on February 15th.

THE 2019 WHAT THE FILM FESTIVAL FEATURE FILM LINEUP:

A BREAD FACTORY, PARTS 1 & 2 Dir. Patrick Wang / USA / 2018 / 243 min
TORONTO PREMIERE! FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!
An epic, yet intimate two-part portrait of an idiosyncratic community and the struggle of its indelible artists. Hailed by critics as among "the best films of 2018!" (The AV CLUB)

BATTLE FOR THE LOST PLANET Dir. Brett Piper / USA / 1986 / 91 min /
CANADIAN PREMIERE OF RESTORATION!
The incredible preservationists of cult video label Vinegar Syndrome present a brand new restoration of cult FX artist Brett Piper's MOST INFAMOUS sci-fi epic, wherein a man finds himself stranded on a post-apocalyptic Earth full of mutants and stop-motion monsters.

MARY JANE'S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE Dir. Sarah Jacobson / USA / 1996 / 98 min / TORONTO PREMIERE OF RESTORATION!
Sarah Jacobson's punk-spirited DIY feature about the sexual awakening of a high-school girl as she spends her senior year working at an independent movie cinema. Preceded by her acclaimed feminist B-movie tribute I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER.

NIGHT PULSE aka FATAL PULSE aka UNTITLED 90s YUPPIE THRILLER Dir. Damon Packard / USA / 2018 / 115 min / CANADIAN PREMIERE!
Underground filmmaker Damon Packard's four-year in the making epic follows the exploits of husband/wife moguls trapped with a DEADBEAT couch potato brother in a hallucinogenic 1-900 world of 1991. Inspired by the CORPORATE take-over era of the late 80s/early 90s and all the dark, atmospheric, neo-noir thrillers that came along with it.

SURFER: TEEN CONFRONTS FEAR Dir. Douglas Burke / USA / 2018 / 98 min /
CANADIAN PREMIERE!
Shot over 11 years by a physics professor at the University of Southern California, this incredibly strange parable about a teenager overcoming his fear of SURFING has been steadily accruing a reputation at international Midnight screenings as the cult film successor to the THE ROOM and FATEFUL FINDINGS.

STRIKE DEAR MISTRESS, AND CURE HIS HEART Dir. Mickey Reece / USA / 2018 / 71 min / INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE! FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!
Inspired by Ingmar Bergman's AUTUMN SONATA and conjured by an obscure auteur who's been averaging two feature films a year since 2008, this offbeat discovery depicts the uncanny psychological duress endured by the newlywed proprietors of an ancient hotel following the arrival of an estranged matriarch.

SPECIAL EVENTS

COWBOY WHO? ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT-CEREAL PARTY + PANEL / Created by Jeff Green, Mike Cormier, Rob Eastland / Canada / 1990 - 1994
FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE!
From noon to 4pm on March 2nd, eat all the sugar-coated cereal you can while watching highlights from the strangest children television series ever made, and then meet the show's puppets in person as well as series creators Jeff Green and Mike Cormier!

WHAT THE FILM BAZAAR presented by Vinegar Syndrome
Following film programming on March 2nd, the festival will be hosting a late night party and marketplace mere steps away from The Royal Cinema at The Super Wonder Gallery (584 College St.) where cult cinema aficionados can peruse the wares of unique video vendors, indie artists and two art installations - complete details to be announced on February 15th.

For more details on the feature films, and the feature film schedule, please visit: www.wtfilmfest.com