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Wayne Kramer, co-founder, guitarist, and singer of the influential Detroit rock band MC5, has died at the age of 75. Kramer’s passing was announced on Friday (February 2nd) in a post shared to Instagram, revealing that the legendary musician died of pancreatic cancer.

“Wayne Kramer passed away today peacefully from pancreatic cancer. He will be remembered for starting a revolution in music, culture, and kindness,” read the statement on his official Instagram account.

MC5’s history dates back to 1963, when Kramer started a band with fellow guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith. After a couple years, the classic lineup of Kramer, Smith, singer Rob Tyner, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson was in place.

While MC5 never reached mainstream success and only released two studio albums — 1970’s Back in the USA and 1971’s High Time — they remain one of the most influential rock bands of all time, paving the way for...

If life were a superhero movie, one of the major characters would be Ray Halbritter. That’s because the Oneida Indian Nation member has traveled a true superhero journey, using his connections and power not only to raise the visibility and elevate the prosperity of Native Americans, but to change the very culture of the country.

If that sounds like a heavy lift, consider Halbritter’s background, which contains elements of tragedy and triumph. He grew up in New York and New Jersey. Later, living on Native land and employed as an ironworker, he watched, heard and smelled as his aunt and uncle perished in a calamitous trailer home fire because city workers refused to set foot there.

It’s a part of his story that a screenwriter could have used to justify Halbritter’s role as either villain or hero. But this isn’t an origin story for Thanos or Bane.

Indigenous filmmakers continue to make strides in Canada, building industry capacity on their own terms and telling stories that both honor their communities and reach out to global audiences. Toronto’s 2023 slate offers audiences and buyers vital, provocative, and — because we need it — hilarious world-premiering work from established creators and up-and-comers.

“Tautuktavuk (What We See)” is the latest from Isuma, the collective of Inuit-owned media companies best-known for Camera d’Or-winning “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” (2001). “Tautuktavuk” is written and directed by film veterans Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk, who also play sisters helping each other heal from past and present trauma.

“Originally we were to be face-to-face in the same house,” Tulugarjuk, who is based in Montreal, tells Variety. “I was supposed to film in Igloolik (in Nunavut) over three seasons but when Covid hit, the world locked down. We had to put that reality — the southern pandemic versus the Arctic pandemic

— in the film.

Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi, 2023).The lineup is being unveiled for the 2023 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, starting with 60 selections from the Gala and Special Presentations programs. The festival takes place from September 7–17, 2023.Gala PRESENTATIONSConcrete Utopia (Um Tae-Hwa)Dumb Money (Craig Gillespie)Fair Play (Chloe Domont)Flora and Son (John Carney)Hate to Love: Nickelback (Leigh Brooks)Lee (Ellen Kuras)Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi)Nyad (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin)Punjab ’95 (Honey Trehan)Solo (Sophie Dupuis)The End We Start From (Mahalia Belo)The Movie Emperor (Ning Hao)The New Boy (Warwick Thornton) The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green)The Holdovers.Special Presentationsa Difficult Year (Éric Toledano, Olivier Nakache)A Normal Family (Hur Jin-ho)American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)Close to You (Dominic Savage)Days of Happiness (Chloé Robichaud)The Rescue (Daniela Goggi)Ezra (Tony Goldwyn)Fingernails (Christos Nikou)Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania...

Programme opens with world premiere of Copa 71 from Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine.

Toronto has announced its TIFF Docs line-up, a crop of 22 features at time of writing which includes premieres of new work by Lucy Walker, Errol Morris, and Raoul Peck.

The section opens with the world premiere of Copa 71 from Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine, a timely tale about a 1971 international women’s football tournament in Mexico City which drew record crowds and has been largely erased from sports history.

Walker’s Mountain Queen: The Summits Of Lhakpa Sherpa gets its world premiere and profiles a single mother...

The soccer documentary Copa 71, from executive producers Serena Williams and Venus Williams, is set to open the Toronto Film Festival’s Docs sidebar as it recounts the 1971 Women’s World Cup tournament in Mexico City.

The documentary from directors Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine will have its world premiere at TIFF. New Black Films, Dogwoof and Westbrook Studios are producing.

Toronto also booked world premieres for Raoul Peck’s Silver Dollar Road, about a Black family fighting to save their North Carolina property from land-grabbing developers; Anand Patwardhan’s The World is Family, which recounts the director’s parents helping lead India’s independence movement; and Karim Amer’s Defiant, about Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and his battle against disinformation.

There’s also a world premiere for Caroline Suh and Cara Mones’ Sorry/Not Sorry, a portrait of women who accused comedy giant Louis C.K. of sexual harassment,...

New films from legendary documentarians Frederick Wiseman and Errol Morris and new work from directors Raoul Peck, Lucy Walker, Roger Ross Williams and Karim Amer will screen at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, which announced its TIFF Docs lineup on Wednesday.

The 93-year-old Wiseman will present the North American premiere of “Menus – Plaisirs Les Troisgros,” a four-hour deep dive into a fabled Michelin-starred restaurant in France. Morris will have the international premiere of “The Pigeon Tunnel,” which is built around a Morris interview with John le Carre that turned out to be the last interview the espionage novelist gave before his death in 2020.

The 22 films announced on Wednesday include 10 world premieres, including Amer’s “Defiant,” Walker’s “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” Peck’s “Silver Dollar Road,” Williams’ “Stamped From the Beginning” and Caroline Suh and Cara Mones’ “Sorry/Not Sorry.” Of the 26 directors represented by those films,...

Foo Fighters have scheduled a pair of tribute concerts to late drummer Taylor Hawkins, marking their first live appearances since Hawkins’ death in March.

The band announced the shows on Instagram Wednesday. The first will take place Sept. 3 at Wembley Stadium in London, while the second will be held Sept. 27 at the Forum in Los Angeles. Full lineups for the shows will be announced at a later date. Tickets will go on sale June 17 via the Foo Fighters’ website.

The Sept. 3 concert in London will also be filmed and stream...

The Foo Fighters have announced the initial slate of guests for their tribute concerts to late drummer Taylor Hawkins in London and Los Angeles.

The lineup for the London gig will boast Liam Gallagher, Josh Homme, Chrissie Hynde, Brian May, Mark Ronson, Stewart Copeland, Geddy Lee, Roger Taylor, Rufus Taylor, Omar Hakim, Chris Chaney, Wolfgang Van Halen, Supergrass, and Hawkins’ Chevy Metal bandmates. Comedian Dave Chappelle will also be on hand for a special appearance.

Many of those artists will appear at the Los Angeles gig as well, along with Miley Cyrus,...

Punk pioneers MC5 are plotting a big return in 2022, with Wayne Kramer and Co. announcing a handful of tour dates this spring and the band’s first album in over 50 years, set to arrive in October.

MC5 will return to the road May 5 with a hometown show at El Club in Detroit. From there, the band will play shows in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, before heading out to the West Coast for a run that wraps May 15 at Soda Bar in San Diego.

Tickets for the shows will go on sale this Friday,...

‘Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World’: The Unknown Story of Native American Roots in American MusicThis an amazing feature documentary which reveals so much in the way of our American cultural history that it’s almost difficult to sum up.American society and the settlement and development of the nation’s land was built on two great evils against humanity.

First was the enslavement for their labor and resulting early deaths and murders of tens of millions of Africans.

The second was the slaughter of millions of indigenous peoples and the simultaneous and subsequent land robbing by European new comers. These peoples had inhabited and still do inhabit the U.S. continent long before any Europeans arrived.

Often the survivors of these massacres tried to blend into society and hide their ethnic roots. Often the children were abducted from their family and taken to far away institutions and...

Music history tends to be filled with untold stories, or those whose contributions to shaping countless genres have gone underappreciated or forgotten. However, the title of the upcoming “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World” says it all about who gets the spotlight in this documentary coming to the Sundance Film Festival for its World Premiere.

Read More: Jim Jarmusch’s Documentary ‘Gimme Danger’ Is Essential Viewing For Stooges Fans [Review]

Directed by Catherine Bainbridge, co-directed by Alfonso Maiorana, executive produced by Stevie Salas, and featuring Martin Scorsese, Tony Bennett, Robbie Robertson, Quincy Jones, Iggy Pop, Slash, Steven Tyler, Robert Trujillo, Steven Van Zandt, and many more, on the influential role Native Americans had on shaping all aspects and offshoots of rock ‘n roll.

Continue reading Sundance Exclusive: Trailer For ‘Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World’ Featuring Martin Scorsese, Robbie Robertson, More at The Playlist.

Rooted in the recognition of the rich storytelling cultures and inherent sovereignty of Native American nations, Sundance Institute has held a commitment to Native artists since its founding. Mandated by our Founder Robert Redford, the Institute has nurtured and supported Native filmmakers going back to a time when almost none existed. Since then, the Institute has supported three generations of Native filmmakers, creating a global community and providing a space for that community with the Native Program and a gathering place at the Sundance Film Festival. Today, there are more Native filmmakers working than ever before, and the Institute is bringing forward a fourth generation of Native filmmakers and solidifying a pipeline of artists whose voices will have an important impact on American and global cinema and culture.

In the spirit of this support, we’re highlighting the titles of the Indigenous-made films that will be premiering at the 2017 Sundance...

While we wait to see if we actually get another Bill & Ted sequel, I thought I’d put together of list of Fun Facts for the movie that started it all: Bill & Ted’s Excelent Adventure. This was such a ridiculous yet extremely enjoyable movie. It starred Alex Winter and George Carlin and launched the career of Keanu Reeves. I really hope that we get to see Bill & Ted 3. It would be so fun to revisit these characters after all these years. I tried to show the movie to my kids a few months ago, and they just didn't bite. I guess you just had to be growing up in the 1980s to fully appreciate its excellence.

The phone booth time machine that was used in the film was given away as a contest prize in Nintendo Power magazine. It was promoting a Bill & Ted video game for the Nes,...

Just as Rufus (George Carlin) predicted, Bill and Ted have had a profound influence on our culture. Maybe not as the rockers who would inspire a utopian global society by the 27th century, but look at how many other dumb-duo movies there have been since the release 25 years ago this week (on February 17, 1989) of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" -- there's "Dumb and Dumber," "Beavis and Butt-head Do America," "Dude, Where's My Car," "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion," "Dick," and all of Kevin Smith's "Jay and Silent Bob" offerings, for starters. Plus, "Bill & Ted" launched a franchise and made a leading man out of Keanu Reeves.

Still, as often as you've traveled back in time and revisited the "Excellent Adventure," there's probably still plenty you don't know about the movie, including where it was filmed (hint: Not in San Dimas, California), which historical figures almost found their way into the film,...

Russian band Pushking have joined forces with an onslaught of major musicians and vocalists from heavy metal and hard rock to create an impressive line-up on a collaborative album. The release has been titled The World as We Love It, and compiles 19 re-recorded songs from Pushking's past efforts, with special guests ranging from Paul Stanley (Kiss) and Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme) to Alice Cooper and Steve Vai!

If you think those four guests listed above is enough, think again. Check out the track listing and the guests on each song by continuing on below.

01. Intro

02. Nightrider Billy F. Gibbons - Vocals, Guitar

03. It'll be Ok Billy F. Gibbons - Vocals Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme) - Guitar

04. Troubled Love Alice Cooper - Vocals Keri Kelli (Alice Cooper) - Guitar

05. Stranger's Song John Lawton (Uriah Heep) - Vocals Steve Stevens (Billy Idol / Vince Neil) - Guitar

06. Cut the Wire Paul Stanley (Kiss) - Vocals...

A couple of days ago, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse star Tinsel Korey mentioned an upcoming live show she was to be performing with Stevie Salas (and, later, Marcus Curiel from Pod). Tonight, a couple of videos from that performance were issued (via Eye Behold Photography), and they look great! The songs performed in the video set are "Rainy City" and "Letter," and the show, "Arbor Live" will have the full performance. More information about Arbor Live, including where to watch (and where ...