East Coast Premiere
Nash the Slash Rises Again!
Feature | Canada, United Kingdom | 80 Minutes | English

An unearthly film about artistic integrity, courage and the price-tag that comes with it, NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN! uncovers the sinister Canadian electronic music innovator. An electronic pioneer and performance artist, Nash’s scorched-earth performances set him on a journey which brings the promise of international success but also threatens to detonate his deepest secrets. Over a remarkable four-decade career, Nash the Slash moved from co-founding the pioneering Canadian
electronic/progressive-rock band FM and co-writing its hit “Phasors on Stun” to becoming a singular one-man musical force whose influence reached far beyond Canada. He toured internationally with Gary Numan at the height of Numan’s fame, performed at Numan’s legendary Wembley Arena concerts, and was invited by Iggy Pop to open for him, while also appearing on bills with The Who, XTC, The Tubes and Devo. Nash the Slash took his name from the killer butler in a 1927 Laurel and Hardy silent film, covered his head in surgical bandages and performed a one-man show surrounded by half a ton of electronic sound processors and a couple of tape recorders. A classically trained violinist and multi-instrumentalist, he created music that was an unlikely combination of prog-rock, punk-rock, classic-rock, psychedelic with techno and industrial before they had names; high technology meets the age of horror, surreal and demented. He wrote, performed, engineered and produced much of his own music, earning a U-KNOW Award for Best Instrumental Artist and a Juno Award nomination, while his 1997 album Blind Windows reached No. 3 on the Canadian Indie chart. The end result is a life drenched in film history enveloped in a wall of sound. Nash also composed music for films including Roadkill, Highway 61, Blood & Donuts and Nosferatu, and became known for performing live scores to silent films. NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN! unwinds the bandages of a ground-breaking, mad musical scientist whose career decomposed before the world caught up—a four-decade career of international tours, acclaimed collaborations and cult recognition achieved largely outside the mainstream. The film includes appearances by the frontman of the proto-punk band the Stooges, Iggy Pop, and English new wave musician and pioneer of electronic music Gary Numan, along with rare archival footage and performances. Director: Tim Kowalski Theater A

Making Music From Monsters
Short | United States | 7 Minutes | English

MAKING MUSIC FROM MONSTERS follows the unexpected creative journey behind The Return of the Vampire Hustlers from Hell, a fictional 1970s-style exploitation film that exists only through its artwork and music. What began during the pandemic as a hand-crafted poster by artist Derek “D-WREX” Zimmerman, quickly inspired a full-length vintage-inspired soundtrack composed by Emmy-winning American composer Silas Hite, also a multi-instrumentalist and visual artist known for his genre-bending scores for film, television, documentaries, commercials, and video games. Blending cathedral organ, orchestral percussion, brass ensembles, and funky analog textures, Hite created a richly imagined soundtrack for a film that has not yet been made. Director: Mark Andrew Hamer