If you're here in Toronto this week there can be no doubt what the major local event is. At every club in town, on the radio and on television, it's all the same:  Canadian Music Week. And CMW ain't just for bands any more. Last year marked the festival's first foray into film, and this year the film program is back with five features and one short selected by my tattooed self. Here's the skinny on what's coming:

HERE AFTER
The second feature from Win Vandekeybus and his acclaimed Ultima Vez dance troupe, this one gets the day started on a very odd, experimental note. It's not a narrative film in any conventional sense - though it definitely does have a story running through it - with Vandekeybus merging his love of film with his dance motives. And for those who wouldn't normally consider checking out a dance film - and I count myself among you - then maybe you'll check it out for the involvement of David Eugene Edwards, the former frontman of 16 Horsepower who now plies his trade as Woven Hand and not only composed a large portion of the music for this - as he has for a total of three Ultima Vez productions now - but appears prominently in the film itself as well.

SPARE CHANGE
Spare Change, the one short in the program, is the final work of Ryan Larkin. Ryan who? Larkin's the Oscar nominated Canadian animator who ended up living on the streets of Montreal for years before coming back to prominence as the subject of Chris Landreth's Oscar winning short Ryan. Shortly after the success of Ryan, Montreal band Chiwawa asked Larkin to do some work on their new music video, a project that band leader Laurie Gordon completed after Larkin's death.

YOU ARE FREE
The first of two back-to-back documentary features, this one focuses on much loved folk experimentalist Joseph Arthur, a favorite here in town thanks to a number of residencies he has held in our fair city. This is the most conventional music film of the lot, a blend of performance footage and in depth interview footage taking Arthur through aspects of his life and work. And if you haven't seen Arthur perform live before, then you're in for a treat here, the film showing the looping technique and resistance to ever playing the same song the same way twice that has made Arthur such a favorite.

ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL
Rock and roll will never die! And neither will this film! Anvil (the movie) returns to Toronto having played here previously as part of Hot Docs before doing a hugely successful run of the international festival circuit so that we can give Anvil (the band) some much-deserved love by way of an induction into the Indies Hall Of Fame. These guys are the absolute embodiment of perseverance, a band that peaked in the seventies and has simply refused to die ever since. Any fans of American Movie out there? Meet your new favorite film.

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE UNDEAD
Dopo Yume's Jordan Galland makes his feature directorial debut with a bizarre take on Shakespeare and brings childhood friend Sean Lennon - who provides the original score - along for the ride. Shakespeare and vampires? You bet. Plus it's got the Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio, in a key role along with Jeremy Sisto and Devon Aoki. Slacker chic horror comes to Toronto, fresh off a successful debut at Slamdance.

CHRISTMAS ON MARS
Yes, kids, Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips' bizarre sci-fi holiday musical finally makes it's big screen debut, projected in glorious 35mm. I'm not even going to try to explain this one beyond saying that while we have no official position on the use of recreational substances, well, you know...

All movies are $10 at the door or entrance is free with a festival wristband. All the details are here.