JFL NorthWest and VIFF present The Comedy Film Series at Vancity Theatre

JFL NorthWest has just announced that it will partner with the Vancouver International Film Festival to present The Comedy Film Series at this year’s inaugural festival, taking place from February 18-27 at multiple venues across Vancouver.

The Comedy Film Series is scheduled to take place at Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour Street) and will feature the following:

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of The National Lampoon (Feb. 18, 6:30 pm) Featuring rare and never-before-seen footage, this is the mind-boggling story of The National Lampoon from its subversive and electrifying beginnings to its rebirth as an unlikely Hollywood heavyweight and beyond. A humour empire like no other, the impact of the magazine’s irreverent, often shocking sensibility was nothing short of seismic: this is an institution whose (drunk stoned brilliant) alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture. Both insanely great and breathtakingly innovative, The National Lampoon created the foundation of modern comic sensibility by setting the bar in comedy impossibly high.

Comedy Short Shorts (Feb. 18, 8:30 pm) The audience will be treated to a delightful hodgepodge of original Pacific Northwest submissions and VIFF curated comedy pieces, and will then be able to vote for their favourite short using a private ballot. The winning filmmaker, who will be announced that same evening, will win two tickets to every JFL NorthWest film event, a Sleeman prize pack, and will have their short film screened at Just for Laughs Montreal.

ENTERTAINMENT (Feb. 22, 6:30 pm) Gregg Turkington plays a version of his stage persona, Neil Hamburger. En route to meet his estranged daughter and attempting to revive his dwindling career, a broken, middle-aged comedian plays a string of dead-end shows in the Mojave Desert.

Turkish Star Wars (Feb. 22, 8:45 pm) In 1982, while the coup d'etat kept western movies out of Turkey, filmmakers set out to the deserts with a truck full of fuzzy costumes to recreate the most ambitious sci-fi movie ever made. In 2012, musicians, voice-over artists, and sound designers paid homage to their film with the first ever release in English, presenting a new soundtrack and dubbing (true to the original shooting script) for the most insane remake of all time: Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam. Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (The Man Who Saved the World) is a 1982 Turkish adventure film also known as “Turkish Star Wars” because of its notorious use of unauthorized footage from Star Wars and other movies worked into the film.

Waiting for Guffman 20th Anniversary with The Sunday Service Live (Feb. 24, 6:30 pm) Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Christopher Guest's partially improvised mockumentary masterpiece at the Vancity Theatre with a special prescreening live performance from the Canadian Comedy Award-winning improv troupe - The Sunday Service.

The Lobster (Feb. 24, 9 pm) A love story set in a dystopian future where single people are arrested and transferred to a creepy hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal and released into the woods. Written by R. Byma.

The Gentlemen Hecklers Present “Road House” (Feb. 27, 9:30 pm) The Gentlemen Hecklers provide live, hilarious commentary for the best bad movies. Eric Fell, Patrick Maliha, and Shaun Stewart are Vancouver's masters of movie riffing, making ‘so-bad-they're-good’ movies even better by talking you through them. Over the past three years, The Gentlemen Hecklers have built up a loyal cult following in Vancouver and are very excited to bring their show to JFL NorthWest.

For complete details regarding The Comedy Film Series visit www.JFLNorthWest.com.