Screening:
Friday, April 28, Noon, Charles 5
Saturday, April 29, 4:30 PM, Charles 4
Synopsis:
Bad
Money is a comedy that revolves around the humiliating lengths
to which people resort just to cope with an unstable financial world.
With a Martha Stewart-obsessed wife, a rebellious daughter, and
twin boys, George Baines' life is on the brink-especially after
he loses his suit-and-tie job and is forced to turn to a life of
petty larceny. Across town, Jan Wells still has her business and
dignity intact, but barely. The proprietor of a fledgling Vegetarian
Café, Jan turns to serving meat from questionable sources. Now,
her biggest problem is no longer money: it's blackmail. Murray and
Stick, two punks in their mid-twenties, are mired in the '80s. While
attempting to make enough cash to get out of town, the pair finds
themselves stumbling into the hellish worlds of telemarketing, male
prostitution and the service industries. When faced with the Darwinian
economy of the '90s, they all reach for their weapon of choice:
George, a gun; Jan, a butcher's knife; and Murray and Stick, an
attitude. These deftly interwoven stories form a cautionary tale
of how people deal with the search for quick cash. In desperate
times even good people turn to bad money.
Tidbit:
"When people got microwaves, they didn't stop using their ovens."
-John Hazlett on the growing Film vs. Video debate.
Bio: John
Hazlett started out by studying Art and Design at Canada's prestigious
Red Deer College and then continued his studies in art at Concordia
University in Montreal. After a working hiatus (which included construction,
carpentry, guerilla art projects and the now legendary experimental
jazz group Caboose of Fear) he returned to university to study filmmaking.
After graduation, Hazlett returned home to Alberta, where he co-wrote,
directed and produced the half hour drama, Population 420. John
next produced The Suburbanators (Sundance Film Festival, 1996) and
by 1996, John was immersed in producing his second Canadian feature,
the teen party flick, Kitchen Party (Slamdance 1997). As a result
of Kitchen Party's warm reception at film festivals around the globe,
international festival hopping, hob-nobbing and high jinx ensued.
John also found himself branching out into the sordid world of film
criticism and even served on the jury of the the notorious Slamdance
Film Festival (with Gabe Wardell). He is currently working on two
projects; My Present Age, an adaptation of Guy Vanderhaeghe's comic
novel and an original screenplay, Boomtown.
Bad
Money is a comedy that revolves around the humiliating lengths
to which people resort just to cope with an unstable financial world.
With a Martha Stewart-obsessed wife, a rebellious daughter, and
twin boys, George Baines' life is on the brink-especially after
he loses his suit-and-tie job and is forced to turn to a life of
petty larceny. Across town, Jan Wells still has her business and
dignity intact, but barely. The proprietor of a fledgling Vegetarian
Café, Jan turns to serving meat from questionable sources. Now,
her biggest problem is no longer money: it's blackmail. Murray and
Stick, two punks in their mid-twenties, are mired in the '80s. While
attempting to make enough cash to get out of town, the pair finds
themselves stumbling into the hellish worlds of telemarketing, male
prostitution and the service industries. When faced with the Darwinian
economy of the '90s, they all reach for their weapon of choice:
George, a gun; Jan, a butcher's knife; and Murray and Stick, an
attitude. These deftly interwoven stories form a cautionary tale
of how people deal with the search for quick cash. In desperate
times even good people turn to bad money. 
John
Hazlett started out by studying Art and Design at Canada's prestigious
Red Deer College and then continued his studies in art at Concordia
University in Montreal. After a working hiatus (which included construction,
carpentry, guerilla art projects and the now legendary experimental
jazz group Caboose of Fear) he returned to university to study filmmaking.
After graduation, Hazlett returned home to Alberta, where he co-wrote,
directed and produced the half hour drama, Population 420. John
next produced The Suburbanators (Sundance Film Festival, 1996) and
by 1996, John was immersed in producing his second Canadian feature,
the teen party flick, Kitchen Party (Slamdance 1997). As a result
of Kitchen Party's warm reception at film festivals around the globe,
international festival hopping, hob-nobbing and high jinx ensued.
John also found himself branching out into the sordid world of film
criticism and even served on the jury of the the notorious Slamdance
Film Festival (with Gabe Wardell). He is currently working on two
projects; My Present Age, an adaptation of Guy Vanderhaeghe's comic
novel and an original screenplay, Boomtown.