It's chicken man! by MATTHEW HAYS What bizarre little films cross my desk, seemingly on a weekly basis. I try to cover everything as best I can, believe me, though some weeks things fall to the wayside when we have too many openings on a given Friday. This week I was bemused to receive the tape of a 48-minute film by local filmmaker Pablo Mozo. Titled Blood and Straw: The Legend of Lucky, it's a wacky film about a young man who learns that he's farther apart from his adoptive parents than he thought. As it turns out, he's a scientific oddity--a human-chicken hybrid. Soon after learning this, our hero is kidnapped by his evil creator, who wants to enter Lucky into a series of cockfights with other human-animal hybrids. This allows for scenes requiring humans acting like various species to fight it out in elaborate martial arts choreography. It's every bit as odd as it sounds, and Mozo appears to be attempting to spoof countless I-was-brought-up-in-the-wilds-by-animals scenarios, from Tarzan to Truffaut's Wild Child to those seemingly endless cheeseball '70s TV series about boys brought up in the wilderness. Blood and Straw doesn't always work, but it boasts some spirited performances and I did thoroughly enjoy the final sequence of revenge, which stars a flock of chickens (and a tip of the hat to Hitchcock) used to great effect. Mozo will present the world premiere of Blood and Straw: The Legend of Lucky at the NFB cinema this Sunday, Nov. 25 at 8:30 p.m. The screening will be followed by a reception. Suggested donation: $10. Award-winning filmmaker Pepita Ferrari is presenting her latest film, Joseph Giunta: A Silent Triumph, at the Ex-Centris starting this Friday, Nov. 23. The film shows us glimpses of Giunta's life as he takes care of his wife (who's ailing with Alzheimer's) and prepares for a major retrospective of his work. See repertory listings for details. Though theorists have been delving into the work of horror demigod David Cronenberg for some time, author William Beard presents a fresh (and, I must say, quite thorough) take on the filmmaker with The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg (University of Toronto Press, hc, $50). The price may be a bit daunting, but for Cronenberg freaks (and I count myself among them), Beard offers some solid insights into Cronenberg's oeuvre. Rather than getting too mired in film theory, Beard also discusses initial audience reactions to the films and draws on myriad interviews with Cronenberg himself. In particular, I enjoyed Beard's careful analysis of Cronenberg's adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel Crash to the big screen. No doubt the UofT press gave Beard no extra time to do it, but this book might feel more complete with a final chapter about his last work eXistenZ, an entry that seemed mired in self-parody. We're left, after the final chapter on Crash, wondering what the author would have made of such folly. Still, this volume stands as essential reading for any fan of the filmmaker. : COMMENTS: mhays@mtl-mirror.com