2005viff

Festival Diary: Vacation Day 4a: Glorious Friday Continued

2005-09-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 24, 2005

10:10am – And finish last night’s blog in the morning I will. My ears are faring a little bit better after leaving the Commodore last night, and I woke up around 9am, a bit angered since I wanted to wake up at about 10 or so to really shake off the long day yesterday. All of last night and this morning I have been listening to The New Pornographers, which you will find out why later.

So let’s begin talking about Friday, my first real day of festivalgoing:

After I chomped down on some lukewarm bacon and eggs, along with some very cold hashbrowns and crappy coffee, I began my first official walk into Vancouver to take in some press screenings (I say official since I already made a walk into Van last week as mentioned in my entry last Sunday). It was sunny and warm outside, a very good blessing to begin my vacation (although one thing tells me that it’s going to start pouring rain in a week in paying for this good weather). I find myself having my now official route for VIFF; down West 12th to Granville and then a straight shot north across the bridge to find myself on Seymour street. When the weather is good, it’s a very enjoyable and energetic walk. And I should be doing it since I will be sitting on my ass for the next six hours.

I arrive at the Vancity Theater about 9:40 and my first festivalgoer encounter is Gary, a chap from San Francisco who has been here since the very first festival screening and is planning, like me, to do several movies a day. We shake hands and exchange pleasantries, and he thanks me for mentioning him in my coverage for VIFF last year. He is worth mentioning since he saw 115 films by the time the festival ended.

Suddenly, in walks Sascha, a good friend from VIFF last year whom I also had the pleasure of spending time with when he was in Victoria earlier this year for a teacher’s conference. Sascha is one opinionated, storytelling, joke-making son-of-a…I jest. We have seen many movies together and have had several fun discussions and arguments about VIFF films.

And then I encounter one of the staples of my festivalgoing, a true film-fest friend that I have had for over two years now…Ralph Henderson. This is a festivalgoer for the books. I met Ralph at one of my very first media screenings back in 2003 when I was a wide-eyed, bouncing off walls kid (oh wait, I still am!!) and we have attended many of the same screenings both at VIFF ’03 and ’04. Ralph is a helpful volunteer that works hard early on in the fest so he can do just about as many films as Gary. I yelled out his name from a few rows away and gave the gent a big hug. It was truly a pleasure to see him again.

I also encountered a few other faces from last year that I have met and had the pleasure of speaking with, along with the occasional new face in the crowd. I mention all of these people because I have to; the VIFF would not be the festival it is without the amazing community of film fans within. You find some of these people at various other film festivals but certainly not the major ones; it is all about business at Toronto, Sundance and the like, whereas Vancouver is a true audience festival. And it’s just “not” big enough to give us the room to actually do this.

Anyway, more about the new Vancity theater. The cinema seats about 185 in a tiered seating fashion, so the cinema is right up to date with all of the popular stadium seating cinemas of today. But the real winner of the cinema is the seating…ultra wide, European seats that are so amazingly comfy that all I could hope for is a foot-stool to come out. For those of you who dislike strangers sitting in the seat right next to you, the double-arm rests take care of that pretty quick. Suddenly those seats at the Tinseltown just aren’t the same…

The projection booth is also enormous and therefore viewable directly from the auditorium, so you can see the huge double Kinoton projectors and the projectionist working hard to get his work done. The screen is a curiosity, using “Grid masking”, meaning that there are black borders around the image as usual, but the unused portions of the screen are still visible around the edges. Perhaps this is a system that I am not familiar with but it did take a while to get used to.

The first film of the day was the Portugal import “Odete”, an intentionally slow moving drama named after the film’s lead character, who is a supermarket worker who may or may not be pregnant with the baby from his dead boyfriend, who, as it turns out, also had a gay lover. Odete meets the gay lover at the boyfriend’s grave and the two create one of the oddest relationships I’ve seen in a movie in quite a while. It doesn’t always work, but the timing of certain sequences along with some truly bizarre sequences towards the end make the film stand out as a whole. Add to that, the actress playing Odete, the lovingly named Ana Cristina de Oliveria, reminds me of a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Keira Knightley. Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion.

The next screening was “State of Fear”, a telling documentary about the war status in Peru told through various testimony of people who were afflicted before the terrorist takeover to afterwards when the country was overrun with the Shining Path who was against the Peruvian Government. The film has some truly horrifying video footage (including the secret taping of bribing big wigs in the government with millions of dollars) along with a sad testimony from a connected woman who was raped and tortured. The film also has room for some mild humour, including a scene where Carlos Raffi, the spokesman for the Peru president, who ignores the interview while taking a call on his cell phone.

I do not know much about the Chinese propaganda films made during the 70’s (for several years around that time, these operas and the cinematic versions were the only thing allowed to play in China!), but “Yang Bax Xi: The 8 Model Works”, the next film on the press screening roster, focuses on the Yang Bax Xi opera today as the film follows several people – mainly many youthful dancing groups – and gives us a look back to the cultural change of communist China before things changed a few decades ago. The problem with this movie, despite its great subject, is that the film is plodding and slow, and did not hold much interest despite its thesis (kind of like the film “Scaredsacred” which is playing in Vancouver right now). While some of the street dance sequences and the old film footage are fun to watch, the slow interviews and performance footage later in the film (one of which is so boringly shot entirely from a backstage angle) sadly take away from the overall idea.

And finally, the last screening on tap is the terrific “Souvenir of Canada” which is about the country, through and through, told from the perspective of novelist Douglas Coupland, who creates a “Canada House” built from a home that is planning to be demolished. The film intercuts the documentary footage with commentary on many aspects of Canadian culture such as the dead-and-gone slogan “Chimo”, French/English cereal boxes (and as you may have noticed, DVD covers as well), universal health care and those pesky Canada geese. As well, the film is a sharp commentary on the fellows down south who always poke fun at us and the slight but noticeable differences. You Americans would also be good to watch this film.

Crap. After writing so much I realized I have to get ready to go for a Tinseltown run! Egad. I will be back tonight with more commentary on Friday, which you may actually get to see on Sunday. J

12:40am – Okay I’m back after viewing not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE movies in the span of a day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. PHEW!

I must continue on with my wonderful Friday. As the press screening ended, I decided to for a walk to help clear my head of viewing four movies. Keep in mind that this is downtown Vancouver and I have many favorite walking paths. At around 5:30 or so, I find myself walking towards the Skytrain Stadium station and find Nicholas Campbell, Mr. “Davinci Inquest” himself, strolling slowly up Dunsmuir with his head pointed towards the ground. Quite an odd local celeb sighting, I must say.

So after killing some time, mostly involving grabbing some dinner and quickly visiting an internet bar, I make my way to the Commodore to check out The New Pornographers. I find myself in a queue of about 50 or so ahead of us. A few moments pass and a few panhandlers go by, and then I start chatting it up with two really interesting people in line named Nick and Lindsay. All three of us immediately into conversation about our favorite Pornographers disc (mine is “Twin Cinema” though “Mass Romantic” sure gives it a run for its money) which winds up helping kill the time quite well.

We find our way into the Commodore at 8 and get right to the stage. Luckily Nick, Lindsay and myself have secured a choice spot right infront of one of the keyboards set up. Boom. I am there. Lindsay excuses herself for a short while so she can meet our friend while Nick and I chat up music and movies for the 45 minutes or so until concerts begin. I must say at this point that I really enjoy meeting new people, and Nick, a VFS student in the computer animation sector, is a true blue music nut, frequently hitting up many of the indie bands that make their way to the rainy city.

At roughly 9:00, the first opening, Immaculate Machine take the stage. This is a three-person band from my home town of Victoria, and as luck would have it, the adorable lead singer and keyboard player is standing right infront of me as she begins to lay down a very catchy opening tune. The band do about 6 or 7 songs, all with a very good, “fun” rock sound. A few around us were mentioning afterwards that they sounded “plain”, but I thought they were pretty good.

Destroyer hit next at about 10:00 as I get my first full view of Dan Bejar who looked like he fell out of bed dressed in his pink shirt and jeans. The gang launch into a roughly 8 song set, where a few of the tunes are full rock versions of his masterful “Your Blues” album from last year. Bejar’s voice is addictive, including a poetic finishing line to one of the songs in his set. The crowd is beginning to get fuller and crowd towards the stage at this point. Suddenly, my “bubble” is starting to get smaller, thinking that the arm space will be non existent after these guys get off the stage.

I was right. As Destroyer finished their set, people began to get as near as they could to the stage. I was standing next to Nick at this point and we held our best so people couldn’t squeeze in. The LAST thing I wanted was to be was pushed to the right or the left out of frame of the band. My eyes were like they were recording a personal documentary on the fest, and my digital camera is my rock and roll Zapruder stock.

Finally, The New Pornographers take the stage. Newman has his mic set up almost directly infront of me; complete within spitting range. Neko Case is off to the left a little, but I can still get a view of her in a complete yellow gown (with wings!). The crowd goes absolutely wild as they launch into their title track “Twin Cinema”, which is just as awesome live as it is on stage. Almost immediately after they seal that track, they launch into “Use It” and then continue afterwards…

For a total of 28 songs. Twenty-freakin-eight.

Every single track of theirs was played by the NP’s with complete energy. There was even time for improvisation, where the drummer starts playing Rumours by Fleetwood Mac as Newman fixes up his acoustic guitar, and even after Newman gets the guitar fixed he joins in to finish the song. There are also several occasions where Bejar is needed but he’s backstage sucking on Corona’s like they are candy. “One moment while Bejar is throwing up in the back,” jokes Newman. Or is he?

Through and through, they’re having fun doing this, and so are we. I did not realize how much I was dancing along with the music until I bumped into a guy next to me. And I then continued to dance crazily as they went through one wonderful song after another. “HEY-LA!!!” Even as they wound towards a close, they still came out for two more encores and banged it out of the park. One of these days I will have to scan their set list, which Lindsay nabbed from the stage and gave to me. I owe that girl a coke.

After the concert, I said goodbye to Lindsay and walked with Nick for a few blocks before parting ways, and had one of those wacky conversations where you praise the shit out of the concert while yelling at the top of your lungs, thinking that you are talking at a normal volume. My ears were completely shot as I walked home in a daze, playing Mass Romantic at a very low volume to take care of my ears.

Once again, PHEW!!! I’m off to bed. Watch tomorrow night as I post my weekend-wrap up, and afterwards I will not be making blog entries for a few days so I can get my festival work ready for my efilmcritic.com coverage. Hey-la!

Until then,

Jason Whyte
Efilmcritic.com

Festival Diary: Vacation Day 4, aka. Glorious Friday

2005-09-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

Friday, September 23, 2005

VIFF Movie Count: 9
Non Festival Movie Count: 7

7:56am – I wake up to a gorgeous, sunny, clear day. The view is spectacular outside of my 9th floor hotel room, although that in itself makes it nearly impossible to type outside on my laptop. I finally got sick of holding my hand over my head to block out the sun and came inside.

I had a small headache when I woke up. Perhaps it is still the insanity of the week getting the best of me and I’m hoping that a day of press screenings followed by a rockin’ concert will be just what I need to get into the festival groove. And as much as I want to see some of my old festival buddies again, Neko Case and Dan Bejar are in my head right now, refusing to get out. (Probably doesn’t help that I’m listening to “Mass Romantic” right now!)

And one thing is for sure – being in Vancouver is great to get the Georgia Straight on time (normally it takes about a week to get to Victoria and only then I will find it in an A&B sound) as it is a good entertainment read. This week’s edition lists all of the “Best of Vancouver” winners, and it was with much pleasure to see the great Tinseltown win the “Most comfortable theatre” award along with being the best place to see a first run picture, with the stadium crazy Paramount taking second seat. And the Ridge, as it should, won the best place to see a second run film. I think it’s the best place to see a movie, period (my previous diary entry can attest to that) but I’m glad it won again. It was followed by the Hollywood on West Broadway, which I am hoping to check out this weekend if time permits.

Anyhow…as my headache is leaving along with my New Pornographers disc coming to a close, I shall bid you one or two readers adieu as I prepare to chow down on some free breakfast (which, come to think of it, I actually did pay for) and make my way down to the Vancity. You wonderful VIFF’ers, get ready for one insane movie watcher.

2:34am – This is the sound that my ears are making right now: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Who really knows where to begin? This is a day for the books. Up and on the go since 8am, I have been through my first bout of screenings and endured one of the best musical performances of my life.

Seriously, how could a concert be any more perfect? The New Pornographers did 27 songs tonight, performing edgy, brilliant, toe-tappin, head-bobbing perfect music, all with complete ease. I’m going to have to finish this in the morning.

Jason
Efilmcritic.com

Festival Diary: Vacation Day 3, Festival "Not Yet!"

2005-09-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 22, 2005

VIFF Movie Count: 5
Non Festival Movie Count: 7

Ahh, I have to love computer workstations on the ferry. This is a big help in passing the time….

9:20pm -- Okay, so I haven’t made a diary entry into the computer since Monday morning. I’ve been one busy fool; reviewing screeners, working crazy at Beechwood and keeping up to date with some of my friends and family. I was also surprised on Tuesday evening by the arrival of my amazing sister, Jen, as I was visiting my grandmothers’ house! Turns out Jen, now a San Francisco native, is visiting my parents in Qualicum until next Tuesday. Go Jen! It was a great visit.

So anyway. Along went the very, VERY slow week at work where my boss was getting ready for a special dinner on Friday night. A “Roaring 40’s Dinner and Dance”. I helped out where I could, but I think even he could see that I did not want to be there and rather be in Vancouver taking in one screening after another. I really dodged a bullet by booking Friday off months in advance; management had no call to get angry with me since I didn’t know about the special evening when I booked it!

It may be mayhem for them tomorrow night, but the mayhem begins tomorrow morning for me. Press screenings at the Vancity are in order, and once I get my screening fix, it’s off to the Commodore for a sure-to-be wicked cool concert by The New Pornographers. I will certainly be making a diary entry once I have had my ears successfully blown out. Follow that with regular screenings of Hollywood flicks on the weekend.

Addendum at 12:13am – PHEW! Endured the long ferry ride and the nauseating two busses needed to get towards the hotel, add to that the long walk with lots of weight in tow. The transport of goods is finally over, I’m relaxing in my pjamas at the hotel, and I’m ready for press screenings, baby! VIFF, hereth Jay Man cometh!!!

Until then,

Jason
efilmcritic.com

Festival Diary: Vacation Day 2, Festival N/A

2005-09-19T00:45:00.000-07:00

Day Two -- September 18th, 2005

VIFF Film Count: 1
Non-Festival Movie Count: 7

9:30am -- An odd bit of loneliness strikes me at this hour in the morning, possibly because waking up alone in a hotel room on a sunday morning is something I'm not used to. This is something that I'm sure I will get used to, although I didn't have this feeling last year when sleeping on Oz's couch. Then again, Oz was always fun to pester in the morning when he was barely awake!

This is a pretty nice hotel room for what it is...room is small, it's boring and I'm hoping to be out of it as much as humanly possible. The TV is absolute crap with only a few channels working, but here's hoping it at least gets latenight (which is about the only thing I watch besides "The OC" and "Gilmore Girls")

Today is another round of moviegoing, with "Just Like Heaven" down at the Paramount, followed by "An Unfinished Life" at Tinseltown and then a double bill of "Me and You and Everyone We Know" and "My Summer of Love" down at the Ridge. One part of me is tempted to head home later tonight....

(Cutting myself off)

All of a sudden, I patched into a very weak internet connection from my hotel room! Well this is exciting...I can check email, which is very important. I just tested the browser and it is very slow when loading multiple pages. But hey, I'll take it! I feel like Richard Gilmore after his first foray into the wireless world. I'm sure if this is the case from the 9th floor of my hotel room, then I should have no problem patching into another network closer to town.

11:26pm - I LOVE The Ridge. I love love love LOVE The Ridge. It's my new favorite theater in Vancouver, but I'll get to that in a moment. The WIFI connection is much better on my balcony, and it's nice and cool, so methinks I will be doing a majority of my writing and emailin' out here!
I love to walk all over this city. After waking up and fiddling around with my WIFI connection, I plugged in my awesome Sigur Ros CD "Takk" (an Icelandic mood music that would go great with some Album Leaf music) and I started walking downtown to the Paramount to catch a screening of "Just Like Heaven". The weather was very good; a bit overcast but balmy temperature, so I decided to go without the jacket. Ten minutes into my walk and getting onto Granville, I realized I had made the right decision as I was getting pretty darn warm. As I got over the bridge, I found myself at the brand spankin' new Vancity Theater to have a look at the surroundings and was awestruck by the beauty of the outside. I was unable to get inside to visit the media office (the staff infront were unsure if the office was open; I'm thinking the fine people there were taking a little break) but no worries as I will be more than present there when I return to Vancouver on friday.

Still having a bit of time before my screening, I waltzed on over to the Lottery/Ticketmaster kiosk at Pacific Centre to get my Arcade Fire tickets. I did my usual AF thing and cranked "Funeral" right after grabbing my ticket, and yes, that CD is always on me (yes, I'm a crazy one).

Oooh, The Ebert Show is on. I'll be back...

(Aah, Ebert show done and back onto the balcony where it's nice and cool to continue writing.) After downing some delicious Beef, Bacon and Cheddar melts at Arby's, I trucked on over to the Paramount, my first visit to the new downtown megaplex after the Capitol 6 -- one of my favorite cinemas in Vancouver if for no other reason its 1000+ seat Cinema One was the reason I wrote a lengthy article for the decline of cinemas -- closed so the Paramount could open. And while I am definately not eating my words on my first visit to the place, it is a bit nicer and more elegant looking than the average megaplex in suburbia. One of the major drawbacks is a huge esclatator climb, especially to the higher level where five of the smaller screens are located. That said, the seats ARE very comfortable and a bit wider than your typical Silvercity Megaplex cinema.

But anyway, I found "Just Like Heaven" to be an effective romantic comedy that is far from original, but still contains interesting characters, some really funny scenes and a good amount of chemistry between Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. She's cute, he's likeable and it just kind of works, and it kind of reminded me of the old classic days of Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart. So yeah, it worked on me.

Aftewards, I walked on down to the Tinseltown to catch a matinee sneak preview of Lasse Hallstrom's "An Unfinished Life" which has been sitting on the soon-to-be-gone Miramax shelf for over two years now, mostly because of poor marketing in the past and the studio's inability to find a proper time to release it. A shame, because I found this one to be Hallstrom's best work yet from his endless contract to Miramax. The small town setting is beautifully photographed, and the performances by Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lopez and newcomer Becca Gardner (as Lopez' daughter) are all solid. The story, involving the reunion of an estranged family unit and an abusive ex-husband is stronger than you might expect.
As that screening ended, I decided to try something I had never done before; to walk all the way from Tinseltown to the Ridge theatre, which is a few miles apart from each other. As previously mentioned, I love to walk all over the place but I wasn't sure if I was able to handle it. The walk did take nearly an hour but it was worth it to sit in the gorgeous, 830 seat Ridge to see a double feature of "Me and You and Everyone We Know" and "My Summer of Love".
I had seen "Me and You" twice before -- it is currently within my top 5 of the year -- and this was my first time seeing it with a larger audience. And this reminded me why I don't like it at all. Snickering laughter throughout; mostly the kind of laughter where people are reacting to surprise by laughing at the screen. There was a guy two rows behind me that kept remarking OUT LOUD to his wife and she kept silencing him (this I don't get..she quietly goes "shh" instead of saying "Honey, you HAVE to stop talking since it is irritating. And that guy two rows infront of you is pointing a gun at you.") which drove me nuts. Now normally I love the moviegoing experience to have a communal way for people to come together for a movie, but the amount of laughter directed at the movie, even if it was laughing with, was still uncalled for. I then followed it up with a much quiter screening of the Brit import "My Summer of Love", a terrific film about two teenage girls who create an interesting relationship over the course of the summer. Great acting, especially from Paddy Considine as the religious freak show brother to one of the girls.

Now, it must be said that the experience of watching this at The Ridge was phenomanal. I have been here before, but it is always a treat to get that first glance of the auditorium, with rows and rows and rows of seats. But the real joy is the picture and video. There is true, state-of-the-art projectors and sound systems installed and I could not find a single visual or audio problem with the films whatsoever. Focus and framing were sharp as a tack, and the sound was alive and open, even for such small films. This and the Granville Cinema #7 downtown are by far the best VIFF venues you can visit during the fest.

Phew! Late, tired and I'm about to turn in. Back to Victoria to work for a few days, then back I come for the three week run of endless movies and losing sleep.
Until then,
Jason
efilmcritic.com

Festival Diary: Vacation Day 1; Festival Day n/a

2005-09-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

Day One - September 17th, 2005
VIFF Film Count: 1
Non-Festival Movie Count: 0

1:21 PM: Finally arrived in Vancouver!!! Comfortably checked into my hotel, unpacked my bags and I'm just about to head out to meet Marko to go see Batman Begins in IMAX at Silvercity Riverport (trust me, this was MY idea!!!). "The Greatest Game Ever Played" follows that, then perhaps a midnight show at the Paramount is in order. Whatever the case, I'm in Vancouver, baby!!! It's near vacation time!!!!

My laptop is telling me that there's a secure wireless network along with an unsecure wireless network...so here's hoping somebody can help me tap into this network to have internet in the hotel!!! Otherwise I'll have to drag this thing to an internet bar or library that does WIFI to upload my reviews. Not a big deal either way as this laptop (I have yet to name it) will provide much entertainment, as well as seeing five movies a day will also keep me from my internet addiction.

1:10 AM: Arrived home from a day of doing what I do best in the Vancover world...going to see a lot of movies. Trouble is, not much opened in the art world in Van city this weekend, and what's worse is that I was stuck paying full price for each one!

I met up with my buddy Marko and headed in the opposite direction of suburbia to go see a few movies out at the slightly aging Silvercity Riverport.

First things first, seeing "Batman Begins: The IMAX Experience" was pretty sweet; a great film being blown up to gigantic proportions first worried me, but the image quality held up very well from 35mm anamorphic, and as always I was right inside the head of this film within the first 15 minutes. With that said, one part of me found keeping my head jerked in the correct place while all the action was unfolding was somewhat difficult. Thankfully, having seen the film three times already, I had a pretty good idea what was going on.

Next up was the pretty-good "The Greatest Game Ever Played", or as it will be known to my dad, "The Greatest Movie Ever"...the simple reason? It's about golf, it loves golf and it respects the sport that oh so many people despise with a passion. While I found much of the opening material involving the adults involved with golf to be very tedious, it does pick up towards the end with a nice performance by Shia LeBoeuf as our everyday underdog and a climax that may be predictable, but I still really enjoyed it overall.

And finally I saw a 10:30pm show of "Lord of War" at the nearby art cinema Fifth Avenue rather than catch a midnight show down at the Paramount (I have been up since 7am!). Glad I did since the film was a powerful social commentary on weapons and violence seen through the eyes of a pretty bad guy, played wonderfully by Nicolas Cage and written/directed beautifully by Andrew Niccol (the opening shot where we follow a bullet as it is made right to its final delivery is unforgettable). I watched half of the film with either my jaw dropped or with a complete surprised laughter, which is very rare for me these days.

And here I am back at the hotel. Still no wireless net access, although two public networks have come through to my room, but with only one bar out of four. Nada on either my email or the web browser. Crap!! Finding out today that there was absolutely no way to wire in net access was off putting, so I guess my original plan of writing here and then transferring my data when I go WIFI at an internet bar or coffee shop (note to self, get a list of these places!) will have to do. Come to think of it, I will probably get more work done this way since the internet is such a friggin' distraction! :)

Jason
efilmcritic.com

2005 VIFF "Wish List"

2005-09-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

The following is a list of every film I wish to see during the festival. Crazy:

Accused

Alternative Anime Strikes Back

Arvo Pärt: 24 Preludes for a Fugue

Ballets Russes

Blood Rain

Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger revival print)

The Bridesmaid

The Cabin Movie

Cafundo

Cache (Michael Haneke)

Changing Times

China Blue

Citizen Dog

Crash Test Dummies

C.R.A.Z.Y. (Quebec)

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

Digital Shorts by Three Filmmakers 2005 (Dragons and Tigers)

Dreaming of Space

Duelist

The Dying Gaul

L’Enfant (Dardenne Brothers)

Fallen

Familia

Fateless

First Love

Forty Shades of Blue

The French Guy

Go For Zucker!

The Gronholm Method

Heading South

Heart, Beating in the Dark (1982 original)

Heart, Beating in the Dark (2005 Gala)

Hell (Danis Tanovic)

The Hours Go By

Illumination

The Intruder (Clare Denis)

Keane (Lodge Kerrigan)

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (Shane Black)

The Last Mitterrand (Robert Guediguian)

Lie With Me

Life With My Father

Linda Linda Linda

Live and Become

Look Both Ways

Low Profile

M.A.I.D

Manderlay (Lars Von Trier)

Mutual Appreciation

My Dad is 100 Years Old (Guy Maddin short) with Rome, Open City (Rosselini)

North Country (Niki Caro)

One Day in Europe

One Night

Paradise Now

A Particular Silence

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes

Police Beat

The Porcelain Doll

Princess Raccoon (Suzuki)

Roma (Adoflo Aristarain)

Shanghai Dreams

Simon

A Simple Curve (Aubrey Nealon)

Skritek

The Squid & The Whale

Stolen Childhood

Stolen Life

Takeshis (Kitano)

Tale of Cinema

These Girls

3 Needles (Thom Fitzgerald)

The Thing About My Folks

This Charming Girl

This Divided State

Three Dollars

Three Times (Hsien)

U-Carmen In Ekhayelitsha (Gala)

The Volatile Woman

War Hospital

Water (Deepa Mehta)

The White Diamond

Why We Fight

Wrong Side Up

Yasmin

Arcade Fire Update!

2005-09-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

From ArcadeFire.net

After looking like it may not happen at all due to venue issues, a Vancouver show has been officially announced.

Friday October 7th
PNE ForumVancouver, BC
The Arcade Firew/ Wolf Parade & Bell Orchestre
Doors: 7pm
$31.50+ s/c
Tickets onsale Friday September 16th @ 10am on Ticketmaster.com and at Zulu Records.

---

Well this is some damn good news; The Arcade Fire has finally booked a show! Some of us were thinking that the small, intimate Commodore would be in favor for the gang, as well as the enormous T-Bird stadium at UBC, but the PNE Forum sounds dandy to me.

Jason
efilmcritic.com

Festival Madness

2005-09-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

As if it is not known already, Canada is in its Festival Month. With the Toronto International Film Festival currently underway (my best wishes to fellow HBS staffers Scott Weinberg and Erik Childress who are out there covering) as well as Montreal World Film Festival just wrapping up, Vancouver is the one that gets the last hurrah in terms of festivalgoing.

With all of the films currently announced (see below postings), VIFF once again has knocked things out of the park with such an eclectic mixture of films from all over the world. There is so much to choose from, and over the next week I will be planning my day-by-day schedule to get the most out of the 15 days of the festival (not including those fun press screenings that certainly aid in getting more films seen during those 15 days).

Also wonderful this year is the birthing of the Vancouver International Film Centre, which will hold a series of special events (also see below) as well as host many screenings. While the first round of press screenings are being held at the Cinematheque, we may see the film centre open to press screenings towards the beginning of the festival (methinks they are still putting finishing touches on the screening room).

For ticket-buyers, the added option of the [b]Granville [/b] as a ticket kiosk is certainly handy for those who spend their entire days at the 7-screener and need a quick ticket fix. The Pacific Centre Kiosk will also remain open.

Also bear in mind for single-ticket sales...they have jumped 50 cents in price this year, possibly to help with costs for the film centre. Pass prices have remained the same.

Coming soon will be my "Wish List" posting for all of the films I want to see at the festival. And here's hoping that I can keep you as up to date as possible from the world of the festival, on here as well as my official coverage on efilmcritic.com.

Jason

VIFF Slate of Films Announced

2005-09-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lateness of the posting since I just purchased a laptop and have been getting it setup over the last few days. Here are the main press releases from the press confrence on Wednesday:

24th Annual VIFF Announces Full Line-Up of Films and Events

Vancouver, BC (September 7, 2005) - The 24rd Vancouver International Film Festival announced today that it will show 329 films, including 230 feature and mid-length films, at more than 500 screenings. The slate includes 8 World Premieres, 22 International Premieres, 38 North American Premieres, 59 Canadian Premieres and 10 English-Canadian Premieres. The Festival will open on September 29 with a Gala screening of Deepa Mehta's WATER, will screen Mark Dornford-May's U-CARMEN IN EKHAYELITSHA as an Anniversary Gala on October 8 and will close on October 14 with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's L'ENFANT. All Galas will be presented at the VISA Screening Room @ The Vogue.

GALAS

The Festival announced all three gala screenings for this year, as well as its line-up of Special Presentations, which features some of the years most honoured and anticipated films.
The Opening Gala, WATER (Canada), is the haunting, long-awaited final instalment of Deepa Mehta's "elements" trilogy, and it is a feast for the eyes and the ears. In colonial India, eight-year-old Chuyia is sent to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Her feisty presence affects the other residents, especially a young widow, who falls for a Gandhian idealist.
The Festival's Anniversary Gala, U-CARMEN IN EKHAYELITSHA (South Africa) was the Golden Bear winner for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival, Mark Dornford-May's feature debut is a highly accomplished and original take on Bizet's Carmen. It creates a synthesis of grand opera and traditional South African song and dance to tell the tragic story of a very sassy femme fatale in the township of Khayelitsha.
This year's Cannes Palme d'Or winner, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's gripping and concise L'ENFANT (Belgium) will close the Festival. Ill-equipped to handle his new paternal responsibility, 20-year-old thief Bruno undertakes an horrific act, which itself begets other drastic, life-changing crises.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

From the mind of Danish bad boy Lars von Trier comes two of the year's most radical and controversial films. The second in his USA Trilogy, MANDERLAY (Denmark/Sweden/U.K./France) picks up where Dogville left off, as Grace (now played by Bryce Dallas Howard) arrives at a Southern plantation where, more than 70 years after abolition, slavery is still in effect. A love story about a boy and his gun, Thomas Vinterberg's DEAR WENDY (US/Denmark), written by von Trier, stars Jamie Bell as the leader of the "Dandies," a pacifist gang of weapons lovers. Again filming in France, Austrian provocateur Michael Haneke turns to the thriller genre to critique First World complacency. In the tense CACHÉ (Austria/France), winner of Best Director prize at Cannes, Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil star as a bourgeois couple who start receiving ominous videotapes on their doorstep, including tapes of themselves. Inspired by one of the first sexual harassment class-action suits in US history, and from Niki Caro, the director of Whale Rider, NORTH COUNTRY (US) casts Charlize Theron in the role of Lori Jenson, the woman who fought back after enduring abuse at the hands of her co-workers.

These films join the previously announced FATELESS (Hungary), Lajos Koltai's tremendous Holocaust drama. All Special Presentations will screen at the Visa Screening Room @ the Vogue.
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM CENTRE

As a special section of this year's VIFF signalling the future direction for the Vancity Theatre in the Vancouver International Film Centre, the VIFF presents an eclectic mix of films, special guests, presentations and events meant to show the wide variety of programming that will be presented when the Vancity Theatre starts full-time screenings in early 2006.
We are excited to welcome Isabella Rossellini to the Vancity Theatre and the VIFF to present MY DAD IS 100 YEARS OLD. Directed by Guy Maddin from a script by Rossellini, the short film is a highly subjective and quirky tribute to her father Roberto Rossellini, in anticipation of the 100 th anniversary of his birth in 2006. The short will be followed by a rare screening of Roberto Rossellini's neorealist classic, ROME, OPEN CITY, a film that still thrums with energy and immediacy, despite its having been released 60 years ago

Dragons & Tigers juror David Bordwell, one of the US's most distinguished film academics, will be presenting an illustrated lecture at the Vancity theatre on the afternoon of October 3 titled "The Modern Miracle You See without Glasses! The Aesthetics of CinemaScope." It will be followed by a screening of Otto Preminger's CinemaScope classic BONJOUR TRISTESSE, presented in a restored print courtesy of Sony Pictures. (Along with Rossellini, next year will be the 100th anniversary of Preminger's birth.)

To bridge the gap between the film, fine arts and music worlds, we are presenting a special pre-festival event, AN EVENING WITH RODNEY GRAHAM. Graham and his band will be performing live at the Vancity Theatre on September 24th, kicking off the Festival early with a selection of songs from his recent albums, accompanied by specially prepared visuals, in anticipation of a European concert tour.

Also fine-arts related, the Vancouver International Film Centre will be the site of a rare video installation by one of America's most respected experimental filmmakers, James Benning. Screening at the Vancity Theatre during the Festival will be Benning's most recent films, TEN SKIES and 13 LAKES, both masterpieces of radical beauty that also make strong political statements about the place and future of nature in the current American landscape.
Keeping with the subject of nature, at the Vancity Theatre special attention will be given to programming films with environmental relevance. The year's best film on the subject is Roberta Grossman's HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION. As seen through the eyes of several activists, Grossman's film exposes some of the most appalling environmental and human rights abuses in the US perpetrated against Aboriginal people. An angry and important film that deserves to be seen, it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

In anticipation of a forthcoming tribute to the works of one of Argentina's most popular directors for Vancouver audiences, Adolfo Aristarain (Common Ground, VIFF audience award winner A Place in the World), we are showing his new and most accomplished work to date. In ROMA, Aristarain turns a compassionate eye towards his own spiritual and political education. Finally, we will open the Vancity Theatre with a special screening of Claire Denis' extraordinary THE INTRUDER, which boldly dissolves the border between narrative film and dream life.

CINEMA OF OUR TIME HIGHLIGHTS

Our largest single section-and one often overlooked in the torrent of documentaries, Asian films, and Canadian films-is Cinema of Our Time, which again presents award-winning films and audience favourites from around the world. In addition to the films already announced in press releases on American independent cinema and Eastern European film, the Festival today announced the complete Cinema of Our Time series.

Highlights from other festivals include Radu Mihaileanu's LIVE AND BECOME (Israel/France), the winner of an audience award in Berlin that tells the story of Shlomo, a nine-year-old Ethiopian boy sent to Israel. Neither a Jew nor an orphan, Shlomo is forced to adopt an entirely new identity in order to escape starvation and gain a new life. The timely and shocking story of the last few days in the life of two suicide bombers from Nablus, PARADISE NOW (Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/France) won Hany Abu-Assad the Best Director award at Berlin. (Abu-Assad will be in attendance at the Festival.) Winner of the Grand Prize at this year's Moscow festival, Alexey Uchitel's (Russia) DREAMING OF SPACE is set in 1957 after the Russians launched the first space satellite and a new spirit of hope arose. It finds likable cook Konyok longing for the love of Lara and the friendship of enigmatic former political prisoner Gherman.

Included in the many films selected from Cannes are a number of North American Premieres: João Pedro Rodrigues will be at the Festival to present ODETE (Portugal), an elaborate, strangely moving gender-bending melodrama of "vertigo pop"; ONE NIGHT (Iran), the first film from Iranian actress Niki Karimi, tells the story of a young woman's fearless journey through one long night on Teheran's mean streets, hitchhiking rides with male strangers who each seem to possess their own grave secret; DARK HORSE (Denmark/Iceland), the latest slacker comedy from Dagur Kari (director of Noi Albinoi ), follows the exploits of a graffiti artist who has withdrawn from all social conventions, his rotund buddy Grandpa, who works in a sleep clinic while training to be a soccer referee and the bewitching bakery girl they both crave. Christoph Hochausler's LOW PROFILE (Germany) examines the fate of Armin, a bored German teen living in the soul-killing suburbs, who starts writing letters to the police claiming responsibility for crimes committed in his neighbourhood.

The VIFF is also pleased to present the World Premiere of the latest work from The Amber Collective from the U.K. SHOOTING MAGPIES blurs fiction and documentary in this powerful story about a young mother trying to get her husband off heroin and a single father whose relationship with his son is threatened by events in East Durham, a poor post-industrial community. Also from the U.K., and very topical, is Kenny Gleanaan's YASMIN, a film about a young Muslim woman, poised precariously between the modern culture of contemporary Britain and the traditions of her faith, whose life is changed after 9/11. One of the most popular Australian films in recent memory, Sarah Watt's mix of tender live action and abrupt animation, LOOK BOTH WAYS, takes place over a scorchingly hot weekend, as photographer Nick gets an alarming medical diagnosis, and runs into Meryl, who is dealing with her own personal crises. Also mixing live action and idiosyncratic animation in its own inimitable way comes the latest from the U.K.'s Quay Brothers, THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES, a morbid tale of dead opera singers, mad scientists, dust, decay, dolls and other typical Quay obsessions.
Some films screening in Cinema of Our Time that will also be presented by their filmmakers include the North American Premiere of Ali Mossaffa's PORTRAIT OF A LADY FAR AWAY (Iran), wherein a random phone call from a woman planning to kill herself sends a lonely architect on a journey of self-discovery. Shonali Bose's AMU (India) sees a 21-year-old second generation Indian-American woman struggle for acceptance in both countries, while discovering a long-buried family secret revolving around the riots following Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 1984 assassination. Star Peter Franzén will be on hand to present the latest work from VIFF favourite Markku Pölönen, DOG NAIL CLIPPER (Finland), a lyrical rumination on the resilience of the human spirit starring Franzén as an idealist wounded in the head during WWII who refuses to give up on life and his fellow humans. In his impressively crafted and moving first feature NEWS FROM AFAR (Mexico), a Canadian Premiere, Ricardo Benet tells the story of a young man who sets off from a small village in the Mexican highlands to journey to Mexico City in the hopes of saving his mother and father from marginalization and poverty.

SPOTLIGHT ON FRANCE

With the help of the French Consulate General, we are again pleased to present a Spotlight on new films from France, encompassing a wide selection of films from well-known auteurs and up-and-coming debut filmmakers. In THE LAST MITTERAND, Marseilles leftie laureate Robert Guédiguian helms a shrewd and sensitive look at the last days of former French President François Mitterrand (a marvellous Michel Bouquet). Returning to Northern Africa, this time with two superstars in tow, André Téchiné spins an absorbing, fluid, and moody ode to adulthood, anxiety and obsession in CHANGING TIMES, which stars Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve. In THE BRIDESMAID, French master Claude Chabrol adapts English mystery writer Ruth Rendell's novel about a young femme fatale who demands the ultimate proof of love. Laurent Cantet's HEADING SOUTH, a France-Canada co-production, stars Charlotte Rampling as a sex tourist in 1980s Haiti. Three women, one extremely young, if louche, man, and a little political murder only add to the intrigue in this twisted tale of sex and power. WILD SIDE is an elliptical, soulful, at times startlingly beautiful ménage à trois drama from VIFF favourite Sebastien Lifshitz.

Danis Tanovic, the director of No Man's Land , returns for his sophomore film with HELL, a gripping story chronicling the lives of three sisters, bound forever by an act of violence witnessed in their childhood. Starring Emmanuelle Béart, the film was written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz, who developed this film as part of a trilogy with the late Krzysztof Kieslowski. An impressively original, dislocating and gripping film about the boundary between "normality" and insanity, Pascale Breton's ILLUMINATION focuses on Ildutt, a fisherman recovering from a mental breakdown who develops a passion for his grandmother's nurse. The title of Karin Albou's debut LITTLE JERUSALEM refers to a suburb of Paris, but it could also refer to the sense of conflict experienced by Laura and her sister Mathilde, both of whom are dealing with the demands of tradition and the disruptive power of passion. César award-winner for Best First Film and Best Actress, Gilles Porte and Yolande Moreau's WHEN THE TIDE COMES IN is an evocative tale about Irène, an actress who makes her living performing a one-woman Commedia dell'Arte-inspired show about sex and crime.

BRAZILIAN MUSIC

A highlight of this year's Nonfiction Features series is a five-film subsection devoted to the popular sounds coming from Brazil. The series kicks off with the North American premiere of Georges Gachot's MARIA BETHÂNIA, MUSIC IS PERFUME. Truly a legend, Maria Bethâia is a musical treasure whose soulful renditions of folk songs and ballads have inspired generations of fans and fellow musicians the world over. Now living part-time in Brazil, Finland's Mika Kaurismäki has made his second soul-stirring documentary on Brazilian music. BRASILEIRINHO focuses on choro , Brazil's original traditional music that pre-dates samba and bossa nova. EVERYTHING BLUE: THE COLOR OF MUSIC is a sweeping exploration of Brazilian music from director Jesse Acevedo that uncovers the long history of struggle, sorrow and political dissent that underlies the soul of Brazilian samba. Fernando Trueba's rousing documentary THE MIRACLE OF CANDEAL is a colourful, good-humoured trip filled with foot-stomping rhythm and astonishing people, filmed in the Brazilian favela of Candeal, where the young residents gave up their guns for musical instruments. Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary's FAVELA RISING tells the story of a remarkable man who emerged from Rio's most violent favela and set off the nonviolent movement of Afro-Brazilian music and culture in the form of the music group known as AfroReggae.

NONFICTION FEATURES JURY

For the 14th year, the National Film Board of Canada will present an award for Best Documentary feature. The nonfiction jury will be comprised of: Kris Anderson, director of DOXA; Matt Henderson, head of production and sales for Seventh Art Releasing; and Josh Siegel, a film and media curator at The Museum of Modern Art.
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Canadian Filmmakers are Set to Make a Strong Statement at this Year's VIFF

Canadian Filmmakers are Set to Make a Strong Statement at this Year's VIFF
Vancouver, BC (September 7, 2005) - The Vancouver International Film Festival is pleased to announce the 2005 Canadian Images line-up. Out of more than 700 submissions to the Canadian Images program, 99 films were selected to screen at the festival. Composed of 28 feature-length, eight mid-length, and 60 shorts, the Canadian Images series includes four world premieres.

Local favourite Aubrey Nealon's feature debut A SIMPLE CURVE will kick off the Canadian Images series, VIFF programmer Diane Burgess announced today. " In a year marked by an impressive range of strong Western Canadian features, Nealon's warm and witty debut A SIMPLE CURVE stands out as a well-crafted and fully realized gem."
It tells the story of a young man raised in British Columbia's majestic Slocan Valley by hippie draft-dodger parents. Drawing on his own experiences, Nealon effectively captures the blurring of traditional parent-child relationships that can occur when everyone lives as equals.

CANADIAN IMAGES SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Writer-director Thom Fitzgerald's latest feature 3 NEEDLES offers a visually stunning and emotionally powerful look at the global reach of the AIDS pandemic. Starring Olympia Dukakis, Lucy Liu, Chloë Sevigny, Stockard Channing and Sandra Oh, the film interweaves three divergent stories of women thrust into crisis across three continents.

Genie, Gemini and Emmy Award-winner Sturla Gunnarsson's latest film is the much anticipated BEOWULF AND GRENDEL. Loosely adapted from the seminal Anglo-Saxon epic poem about a world of warriors, witches, sea hags and trolls, the film finds its relevance for our own century. Co-starring Sarah Polley and Gerard Butler, Gunnarrsson's adaptation turns this epic poem into a stylish action adventure film.

Also in the special presentation category is this summer's Quebec box-office hit C.R.A.Z.Y. , by Jean-Marc Vallée. The film focuses on a family of five sons over two decades, and in particular the second-youngest, who is forced to face up to his homosexuality and test his father's ability to love.

CANADIAN DOCUMENTARIES

The Canadian Images program offers a strong selection of nonfiction films dealing with issues as varied as terrorism, war, nationalism, gender and community. In SOUVENIR OF CANADA, award-winning filmmaker Robin Neinstein takes us on an entertaining romp through late 20th-century Canadiana guided by writer Douglas Coupland and inspired by both Coupland's recent best-seller and the installation project Canada House. WAR HOSPITAL, David Christensen and Damien Lewis' latest doc chronicles life, birth and death at the world's largest field hospital in northern Kenya. Luc Coté's timely and thought-provoking CRASH LANDING compiles testimony of Canadian veterans who returned home suffering from a range of physical and psychological ailments, while THE LYNCHING OF LOUIE SAM chronicles a significant moment in the shared history of the lower Fraser River area.

Musical docs include the world premiere of FIVE DAYS IN SEPTEMBER, an intimate look at the inner workings of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as it launches a new season with charismatic maestro Peter Oundjiian. Director Barbara Willis Sweete captures soloists Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, Emanuel Ax, and the lively backstage lives of the orchestra's musicians and administrators. METAL: A HEADBANGERS JOURNEY is a rockfest that is part anthropological study and part personal quest; this film is proof that heavy metal is more than mere spectacle to the millions of dedicated headbangers who've been raging along with it for years
Other documentary highlights include: LIFELIKE, an introduction to the sometimes wacky world of taxidermy, which screens with A PERFECT FAKE, about the culture of love/sex dolls in Japan; ICE BREAKER, a powerful portrait of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship that patrols Iceberg Alley; THEIR BROTHERS' KEEPERS-ORPHANED BY AIDS, about two families in Zambia headed by children; and AT MY MOTHER'S BREAST, an intimate exploration of the multi-generational reach of breast cancer, which plays with the personal and provocative SHE'S ONLY SIX.

OTHER CANADIAN IMAGES HIGHLIGHTS

THE HAMSTER CAGE - Larry Kent returns with this darkly satiric take on family secrets. Lucy and Paul return to their childhood home to help celebrate their father's Nobel Prize win. When their Uncle Stanley arrives with some rather inappropriate gifts, his efforts reveal explosive repressed memories, incest and bloody disaster.

LIE WITH ME -The director of Rude (VIFF 95) and Love Come Down (VIFF 00), Clement Virgo returns with a film completely concerned with sex that has been adapted from his partner Tamara Faith Berger's controversial erotic novella about a young woman's quest for sex as love.

KARDIA (World Premiere) - Su Rynard's mesmerizing debut feature weaves fable, fiction, science and metaphor to explore the landscape of love, loss and the human heart.

LUCID - Director Sean Garrity's second feature is a tightly wound thriller about an insomniac who is treating a group of psychiatric patients, all suffering from extreme symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Jonas Chernick co-stars with Callum Keith Rennie, Michelle Nolden and Lindy Booth.

WHOLE NEW THING - Amnon Buchbinder's funny and poignant coming-of-age story stars co-writer Daniel MacIvor as a gay English teacher who finds himself the object of affection for a precocious 13-year-old who, while secure in his sexuality, fails to grasp he is not yet an adult.
Quebec's film industry continues to flourish, as this year's selection demonstrates with impressive breadth. Features include: Louise Archambault's visually inventive FAMILIA; the award-winning tragicomedy LIFE WITH MY FATHER; the heartwarming comedy about fatherhood HORLOGE BIOLOGIQUE; the poignant and haunting award-winner LA NEUVAINE and C.R.A.Z.Y., a VIFF Special Presentation, this summer's Quebec box-office hit that has made over $4.4 million at the box office.

Local film include Julia Kwan's delightful first feature EVE & THE FIRE HORSE, Ann Marie Fleming's absurdist comedy of errors THE FRENCH GUY, and David Tamagi's beguiling and exotic PAPER MOON AFFAIR. Dylan Akio Smith follows up his acclaimed short Man Feel Pain (VIFF 04) with his dark comedy THE CABIN MOVIE followed by Scott Weber's visually stunning thriller DESOLATION SOUND. The Festival is also proud to announce that Kim Collier's THE SCORE, adapted from the Jessie Award-winning Electric Company Theatre production, will have its world premiere at the VIFF. The Canadian Images shorts packages this year have strong local connections featuring films made by students from UBC, SFU, VFS and Emily Carr. Covering topics such as social conformity, small catalysts and the perils of familial bonds, they all explore how we relate to our place in the world.
$17,000 in prizes for Western Canadian filmmakers
For the fourth year, Citytv is generously sponsoring an award for Western Canadian filmmakers. The $12,000 Citytv Western Canada Feature Film Award for 2005 will be presented to the director of the Best Feature Film from Western Canada. Burgess also announced the new $5,000 Bravo!FACT Award, which will be presented to the Best Young Western Canadian Director of a Short Film.

Western Canadian Films in Competition:

Features:
The Cabin Movie (Dylan Akio Smith)
Desolation Sound (Scott Weber)
Eve & the Fire Horse (Julia Kwan)
The French Guy (Ann Marie Fleming)
The Hamster Cage (Larry Kent)
Lucid (Sean Garrity)
Paper Moon Affair (David Tamagi)
The Score (Kim Collier)
A Simple Curve (Aubrey Nealon)
Shorts:
Alice & Bastard (Ana Valine)
Apartment (Min Jeong Kim)
At the Quinte Hotel (Bruce Alcock)
Because You Demanded It! (Sarah Crauder)
Break a Leg, Rosie (Tara Hungerford)
Death of Theodore Graham (Erik Hecht)
Doll-Like (Alexis Baran)
Esc (Justin Henton)
Fishbowl (Eric Johnson)
Hiro (Matthew Swanson)
On a Sunday (Bevan Klassen)
Patterns (Jamie Travis)

Canadian Images Jury

The jury for the Citytv and Bravo!FACT Awards is comprised of: Liam Lacey (journalist, The Globe and Mail ), Nathaniel Geary (director, On the Corner ) and Timothy Taylor (author, Stanley Park).

NAGASAKI WORLD PREMIERE LEADS DRAGONS & TIGERS SLATE

2005-09-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

Festival Director Alan Franey and programmer Tony Rayns today announced that the 24th annual Vancouver International Film Festival will fea ture a total of 40 features, and 15 shorts in the Festival’s cornerstone Dragons & Tigers: The Cinemas of East Asia program. Again presented this year thanks to the generous support of Brad Birarda, the Dragons & Tigers program is one of the preeminent showcases of East Asian films in the world.

“Now in its 17^th year under the influential curatorship of London-based Tony Rayns, the Dragon & Tigers series celebrates the continuing excellence and innovation of East Asian cinema, and aims in particular to introduce new talent to the West. The very extensive program remains a happy marriage of art and entertainment with the dual purpose of pleasing huge Vancouver audiences while well serving international film scholarship,” says Festival Director Alan Franey.

“There’s a slightly curtailed Dragons & Tigers this year, forced on us by an overlap of dates with the massively successful Pusan Film Festival in Korea: too many film-prints needed in both places,” commented Dragons & Tigers programmer Tony Rayns. “But whatever we’ve lost in length, we certainly haven’t conceded any of our strengths. Aside from the usual mix of mainstream, arthouse, documentary, avant-garde and animation titles, we’re especially pleased this year to be presenting for the first time features from Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Both territories, of course, come under the Chinese umbrella, but Wanma-caidan is an ethnic-Tibetan director and Ning Cai is ethnic-Mongolian, and we’re delighted to welcome them to Vancouver.”

NAGASAKI SHUNICHI’S HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK

This year we are pleased to present the World Premiere of the new film from esteemed Japanese director Nagasaki Shunichi, HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK, to screen as a Special Dragons & Tigers Gala on Sunday, October 2 at the Visa Screening Room at the Vogue. Nagasaki’s superb new film has a complex relationship with his original classic from 1982: it’s part remake, part sequel and part rethink. Muroi Shigeru and Naito Takashi return as Inako and Ringo, older and maybe wiser, while a new young couple go on the run. Nagsaki Shunichi and his lead actress, Muroi Shigeru, one of Japan’s leading stars, will both be in attendance. In anticipation of this event, we will also be screening the earlier version of the rarely seen masterpiece, HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK on the afternoon of Saturday, October 1, accompanied by Nagasaki’s 1985 short LONDON CALLING.

TWO KOREAN SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS: DUELIST AND BLOOD RAIN

Two new titles from South Korea will receive special attention in this year’s Dragons & Tigers series. Lee Myung-Se’s international hit Nowhere to Hide had its world premiere in Vancouver, and he now returns with his first costumed swordplay thriller, DUELIST. A woman detective (Ha Ji-Won), hunting a counterfeiter, encounters a sad-eyed man in a goblin mask; they have two fateful duels. A tale of palace intrigue and martial arts, with stunning production design and incredible visuals. Screening on Dragons & Tigers awards night (October 5^th), BLOOD RAIN is an absolutely gripping period detective thriller, set in Joseon Dynasty Korea. Officials arrive on an island to investigate an arson attack, only to be confronted by a series of grisly murders which apparently fulfill a shaman’s prophecy. The best of its kind since The Draughtsman’s Contract, starring Cha Seung-Weon and directed by Kim Dae-Seung, a long-serving assistant to the great Im Kwon-Taek.

DRAGONS & TIGERS COMPETITION FOR YOUNG ASIAN CINEMA

For the twelfth year running, the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema, which includes a prize of $5,000 to the film’s director courtesy of sponsor Brad Birarda, will be awarded for the most creative and innovative first or second feature-length film by a new director from Pacific Asia. Previous winners of the award returning with new films out of competition this year are Wang Xiaoshuai (SHANGHAI DREAMS), Wisit Sasanatieng (CITIZEN DOG), and Hong Sang-Soo (TALE OF CINEMA).

The films in this year’s competition are:

BAMBI ♥ BONE (Shibutani Noriko, Japan) International Premiere

CRYING TIGERS (Santi Taepanich, Thailand) International Premiere

GIE (Riri Riza, Indonesia) International Premiere

OX HIDE (Liu Jiayin, China) North American Premiere

SHIN SUNG-IL IS LOST (Shin Jane, South Korea) North American Premiere

THE SILENT HOLY STONES (Wanma-caidan, Tibet) World Premiere

SO MUCH RICE (Li Hongqi, China) North American Premiere

TEXTURE OF SKIN (Lee Sung-Gang, South Korea) North American Premiere

The distinguished jury for the 2005 award will be announced at the press conference September 7, 2005.

2005 DRAGONS & TIGERS SCREENINGS BY COUNTRY TO DATE

CHINA

GRAIN IN EAR (Zhang Lu) North American Premiere

Zhang Lu follows up the deadpan Tang Poetry with the more overtly funny/sad tale of a woman kimchi vendor and her terrible revenge on the men who wrong her. A single parent living next to a gaggle of hookers, Shunji is drawn into an affair with a married man and befriends a young cop —but both men betray her expectations. A prizewinner in Cannes this year.

KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL (Lu Chuan)

Up there with Herzog’s Aguirre as fact-based drama with the kick of documentary, Lu Chuan’s Kekexili (rough pronunciation guide: Cur-cur-shee-lee) reconstructs a fateful clash between poachers and volunteer game reservists in the vast, mountainous Kekexili National Park in Tibet. At stake are the survival of the chinu, a Tibetan antelope—and of the men themselves. Staggeringly beautiful, deeply chilling.

MONGOLIAN PING-PONG (Ning Hao) Canadian Premiere

Ning Hao follows last year’s Incense with a film reflecting the inexorable social changes that are sweeping through Mongolia. Bilike, the young son of nomadic parents, finds a mysterious object on the steppes (it’s a ping-pong ball); his quest to discover its meaning or function alters his life forever.

OX HIDE (Liu Jiayin) North American Premiere

Already widely acclaimed as the most innovative Chinese film since Xiao Wu, Liu Jiayin’s debut comprises 32 fixed-angle shots of herself and her parents in their cramped Beijing home. Dad’s leather-goods business is going bankrupt, and all three members of the family are stressed and sleeping badly. The film’s obviously factual basis is belied by the fascinatingly stylised structure and compositions.

PEACOCK (Gu Changwei) North American Premiere

Ace cinematographer Gu Changwei turns director with this vivid panorama of small-town family life in the early 1980s. Focused on the family’s three contrasted adolescent kids, it’s a patchwork of domestic incidents, crises and small, surreal epiphanies...the best of its kind since Edward Yang’s A One and a Two. A top prizewinner in Berlin.

SEASON OF THE HORSE (Ning Cai) Canadian Premiere

Directed by and starring China’s most famous Mongolian actor Ning Cai, this moving debut feature focuses on a nomadic herdsman whose pride won’t let him see that economic and cultural changes are forcing him to give up his traditional way of life. Handsome images, fine performances and a script that turns on several sharp ironies.

SHANGHAI DREAMS (Wang Xiaoshuai)

Wang Xiaoshuai’s Cannes prizewinner centres on a father-daughter conflict with ruinous consequences. A middle-aged couple who idealistically gave up their home in Shanghai to “serve the nation” in a remote backwater are now determined to cut their ties with the place and move back to the big city. But this means sabotaging their teenage daughter’s burgeoning romance with a local boy...Piercing drama with a powerful political backbeat.

THE SILENT HOLY STONES (Wanma-caidan) World Premiere

Tibetan director Wanma-caidan shot his debut feature in his home village, and it has the breath of Tibetan realities blowing through it like no other film you’ve seen. A young trainee monk, torn between his prayers and Chinese VCDs, lives and learns a lot during the first three days of the new year, and it’s not hard to see his life as a cipher for Tibet’s future.

SO MUCH RICE (Li Hongqi) North American Premiere

Poet and novelist Li Hongqi is the latest of China’s literary lions to turn to film-making. His ineffably eccentric debut follows Mr Mao, a man who goes through life carrying a bag of rice, as he leaves one girlfriend and lands—temporarily—in the arms of another. Li describes the film as “a clumsy joke, with sadness.” With two remarkable Japanese shorts: Ishiguro Yoshinori’s SILVER BIRCH, which has something to say about smoking, and Hirata Takahiro’s SLIDE 002, shot in Vancouver during his visit to VIFF last year.

STAR APPEAL (Cui Zi’en) International Premiere

Cui Zi’en, doyen of China’s New Queer Cinema, gives his idiosyncratic ideas about the alienness of queer identity and the queerness of angels a good working-out in this characteristic tragi-comedy. A naked Martian visits Earth. Xiao Bo picks him up as a hitch-hiker and brings him home so that they can learn from and about each other. But will the visitor come between Xiao Bo and his girlfriend? With Lin Tay-Jou’s experimental short BARDO (Taiwan), which applies the Christian concepts of Judgment Day and purgatory to the Buddhist realm between life and death.

STOLEN LIFE (Li Shaohong) Canadian Premiere

Again working with the extraordinary Zhou Xun as her lead actress, Li Shaohong adapts a shocking story by An Dun, itself based on fact. Yan-ni is a sullen and reclusive girl, raised by relatives in Beijing and alienated from her parents; she meets deliveryman Muyu on her first day in college and begins a relationship, little suspecting that she is locking herself into a hideous trap ...

INDONESIA

GIE (Riri Riza) International Premiere

One of the most ambitious movies ever made in Indonesia, Riri Riza’s film is drawn from the posthumous journals of Soe Hok-Gie, a Chinese-Indonesian activist who opposed the Soekarno government in the 1950s and the Soeharto dictatorship in the 1960s. Nicholas Saputra movingly plays the soulful young rebel amid a vivid evocation of the Jakarta of the period.

OF LOVE AND EGGS (Garin Nugroho) Canadian Premiere

The ever-surprising Garin Nugroho goes retro for a charming comedy-drama about a working-class Muslim community in Jakarta, shot entirely in the studio. The storylines include the struggle to acquire a cupola for the mosque, the stresses of first love and the selling of eggs. Beneath its benign surface interest in the place of Islam in the lives of believers, this is an angry anti-fundamentalist polemic.

JAPAN

ALTERNATIVE ANIME STRIKES BACK The return of one of VIFF’s most popular features, a state-of-the-indie-art selection of the year’s best non-mainstream animation from Japan. Here are psychedelic eco-systems, body horrors, nose inspections, line drawings, computerised marvels and animation/live-action combinations—something for everyone! Includes the films BLACK SUN (Hiroshi Kondo), CONSULTATION ROOM (Kei Oyama), DAY OF NOISE (Wada Atsushi), GOODBYE SONG (Iki Norihito), TRILOGY OF CLOUDS (Naoyuki Tsuji), TRIP (Tanaami Keiichi and Aihara Nobuhiro), TWO TRIPS AND COFFEE (Mizumoto Hiroyuki) and YELLOW NIGHT (Aihara Nobuhiro).

BAMBI ♥ BONE (Shibutani Noriko)

Young Tada, sexually abused by his own father, forms a friendship with Aya, a girl whose promiscuous mother often throws her out. Woman director Shibutani Noriko’s debut feature is not so much an account of paedophilia and child abuse as a celebration of the resilience and creative energies of kids. With Setoguchi Miki’s Mother’s Mother and also her Mother, and her Daughter (Japan), in which a young woman explores her love/hate feelings for her late mother. Grand Prix winner at 2005 Image Forum Festival in Tokyo.

BASHING (Kobayashi Masahiro) North American Premiere

Directly inspired by the cases of Japanese volunteer workers in Iraq who were taken hostage and freed—only to find themselves ostracised and blamed back home in Japan for their “reckless, selfish behaviour.” Kobayashi Masahiro’s film centres on Yuko, a young woman who finds her community, her ex-boyfriend and finally even her father and step-mother turning against her.

HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK (1982) (Nagasaki Shunichi)

A milestone in Japanese indie film history, Nagasaki Shunichi’s outlaw classic stars Muroi Shigeru and Naito Takashi as a young couple on the run, holing up for the night in a borrowed room. Between episodes of rough sex their terrible secret is revealed in flashbacks—in which, amazingly, they switch genders and roles. With LONDON CALLING, in which Nagasaki has ulterior motives for visiting the London Film Festival.

HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK (Nagasaki Shunichi) World Premiere

Nagasaki Shunichi’s superb new film has a complex relationship with his original classic from 1982: it’s part remake, part sequel and part rethink. Muroi Shigeru and Naito Takashi return as Inako and Ringo, older and maybe wiser, while a new young couple go on the run. Nagasaki asks which are more delinquent: the kids or the grown-ups?

LINDA, KINDA, LINDA! (Yamashita Nobuhiro)

Yamashita Nobuhiro (director of slacker-comedy classics Hazy Life and No-one’s Ark) reinvents the high-school movie with the tale of an all-girl rock band trying to compete for a music prize with a several handicaps—including a non-Japanese speaking Korean vocalist (the incomparable Bae Du-Na, from Barking Dogs Never Bite). Riotously enjoyable.

PRINCESS RACCOON (Suzuki Seijun) Canadian Premiere

Remember our pioneering tribute to Suzuki Seijun back in 1991? Well, the grand old man is still at it, and here finally delivers his long-promised musical, starring (who else?) Odagiri Joe from Bright Future and China’s newest diva Zhang Ziyi. The story is a legend: an abandoned son meets a beautiful woman who is actually a raccoon spirit in human guise. The music ranges from schmalz to hip-hop; the visuals, of course, are out of this world.

TAKESHIS' (Takeshi Kitano)

The new Kitano film is his most intriguing and innovative in some while. 'Beat' Takeshi is a busy and successful TV star, while his forlorn lookalike Mr Kitano never gets the showbiz break he's longing for. Around them, other people also seem to have doubles/triples or even quadruples, as the world fragments in a kaleidoscope of alternate realities, alternate possibilities

or maybe just random daydreams and nightmares. The mood swings from wild comedy to rueful self-appraisal.

THE VOLATILE WOMAN (Kumakiri Kazuyoshi) International Premiere

The best film yet from Osaka-based indie Kumakiri Kazuyoshi (director of the notorious Kichiku), this is an extremely offbeat romance. Youngish widow Etsuko runs a gas station on her own and gets into a possessive relationship with a guy who comes in to rob her till. He reminds her of her late husband. But she has a rival for his affections, and the police are closing in...

MALAYSIA

THE YEAR OF LIVING VICARIOUSLY (Amir Muhammed) World Premiere

Amir Muhammad, whose dryly witty Big Durian was a highlight of last year’s programme, was invited to shoot a “Making of” documentary about Riri Riza’s Gie. He turned over many hours of footage to the production company, but kept some for himself—and this is it, in a brand new, extended version. Not so much a production report, more a delightfully idiosyncratic investigation of the state of Indonesia in 2004. With the extraordinary short THE WOMAN WHO IS MARRIED TO A DOG (Indonesia) by Edwin, who worked on Gie and appears in Amir’s film.

PHILIPPINES

THE MASSEUR (Brilliante Mendoza)

Like some weird hybrid of Lino Brocka and Maurice Pialat, Brillante Mendoza’s debut feature explores the conflicting pressures in the life of Iliac (Coco Martin): on the one hand dealing with family and the funeral of his father back home in the barrio, and on the other working as a masseur in a gay brothel in Manila. Also starring Alan Paule and Jaclyn José. With Dragons & Tigers favourite Tamano Shinichi’s latest short KISS ME, PLEASE! (Japan), in which it rains men and a giant radish won’t fit in the fridge.

SINGAPORE

BE WITH ME (Eric Khoo)

Eric Khoo’s latest is a haunting fact-fiction hybrid. It juxtaposes a staged portrait of the 60-year-old teacher and autobiographer Theresa Chan (she lost her hearing at 12 and her sight at 14) with three fictions about damaged lives in present-day Singapore. The tragi-comic result explores the ways we respond to our needs to love and be loved—and the ways we seek to articulate our innermost desires.

SOUTH KOREA

APRIL SNOW (Hur Jin-Ho)

In the mood for love? A man and woman meet in a hospital where their respective spouses are being treated after a road accident. The injured pair were having an affair, and the central couple soon find that their own feelings for each other are growing ... From Hur Jin-Ho, director of Christmas in August and One Fine Spring Day, and starring Bae Yong-Joon, known to his millions of fans in East Asia as “Yon-sama.”

BLOOD RAIN (Kim Dae-Seung)

An absolutely gripping period detective thriller, set in Joseon Dynasty Korea. Officials arrive on an island to investigate an arson attack, only to be confronted by a series of grisly murders which apparently fulfil a shaman’s prophecy. The best of its kind since The Draughtsman’s Contract, starring Cha Seung-Weon and directed by Kim Dae-Seung, a long-serving assistant to the great Im Kwon-Taek.

CRYING FIST (Ryoo Seung-Wan) Canadian Premiere

Ryoo Seung-Wan, director of Die Bad and Arahan, focuses on two apparent no-hopers: a washed-up boxer (Oldboy star Choi Min-Shik) and a juvenile delinquent (Ryoo Seung-Bum, the director’s brother). Both try to turn their lives around by training for a boxing championship, and we’re rooting for both to succeed. But then they’re matched against each other ... Powerful, engrossing drama which gets right inside social and psychological issues.

DIGITAL SHORTS BY THREE FILMMAKERS 2005 (South Korea/Japan/Thailand)

North American Premiere

Jeonju Film Festival’s annual project to commission 30-minute films from East Asian directors struck gold this year. Song Il-Gon’s MAGICIAN(S) shows the reunion of surviving members of a rock band on the last night of the year. Tsukamoto Shinya’s HAZE is a visceral, Cube-like puzzle: a man wakes in a narrow space between two spiked walls and tries desperately to escape. And Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s WORLDLY DESIRES juxtaposes a commercial shoot in the jungle with the quest for a sacred tree. With Apichatpong’s latest short GHOST OF ASIA, a game for kids of all ages, made for the Tsunami relief campaign.

DUELIST (Lee Myung-Se)

Lee Myung-Se’s international hit Nowhere to Hide had its world premiere in Vancouver, so we’re thrilled to welcome him back with his first costumed swordplay thriller. A woman detective (Ha Ji-Won), hunting a counterfeiter, encounters a sad-eyed man in a goblin mask; they have two fateful duels. A tale of palace intrigue and martial arts, with stunning production design and incredible visuals. Also starring the great Ahn Song-Gi.

IF YOU WERE ME: ANIMA VISION International Premiere

Made for the National Human Rights Commission, this wildly impressive feature comprises six animated takes on the theme of prejudice. Not one is a dud, and several have stunningly original design, but the stand-outs have to be Lee Sung-Gang’s elegiac BICYCLE TRIP (his live-action feature Texture of Skin is also in VIFF) and political cartoonist Park Jae-Dong’s Orwellian attack on the education system BE A HUMAN BEING.

IF YOU WERE ME 2 International Premiere

An even stronger anthology of shorts than the original If You Were Me (screened in VIFF two years ago), this tackles such subjects as the problems faced by North Korea refugees in South Korea and the case of a sacked Chinese-Korean worker who froze to death on the streets. Its twin peaks are both comic: Ryoo Seung-Wan (director of Crying Fist) brings a drunken salaryman up against all his worst prejudices, while Jang Jin up-ends one of the Left’s most cherished myths, the police torture of student activists in the 1980s.

SHIN SUNG-IL IS LOST (Shin Jane) North American Premiere

Shin Jane (who calls herself “CEO and receptionist of Korea’s smallest film company”) has made a remarkable debut feature, a dark comedy reminiscent of Buñuel and Terayama. In a rural Christian orphanage, the kids are taught that eating is a sin. When the inevitable uprising comes, young Shin Sung-Il runs away into town and discovers the pornographic reality of restaurants ...

TALE OF CINEMA (Hong Sang-Soo) Canadian Premiere

Tong-Su (Kim Sang-Gyeon, of The Turning Gate and Memories of Murder) is coming out of a movie theatre when he spots the actress from the movie he has just seen. They begin a highly tentative relationship, which uncannily echoes the failed romance in the movie... Hong Sang-Soo, poet of deflated male narcissism and indomitable female resilience, comes up with his funniest and most playful film yet.

TEXTURE OF SKIN (Lee Sung-Gang) North American Premiere

Last year, VIFF profiled Korea’s foremost indie animator Lee Sung-Gang; now he’s back with his first live-action film, an erotic mystery thriller. Photographer Min-Woo meets a former girlfriend, now married, who agrees to have sex with him nine times. But after witnessing a fatal road accident Min-Woo moves into a new apartment and begins to ‘see’ the life of the previous tenant and her trans-sexual best friend ...

THIS CHARMING GIRL (Lee Yoon-Ki) Canadian Premiere

The top prizewinner in Pusan Festival, Lee Yoon-Ki’s debut feature gets inside the head of a young woman with problems. Jeong-Hae lives alone and works in the post office; she has a history, of course, and tries to come to terms with it while plucking up courage to date a novelist. But he stands her up ... Mobile, inquisitive camerawork and to-the-point pacing make this compulsive and engrossing.

TAIWAN

THREE TIMES (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s most audience-friendly film in some while, this is in three parts, each set in a different year and each starring Shu Qi and Chang Chen. In 1966, she’s a pool-hall girl and he’s doing military service. In 1911, she’s a courtesan and he’s a revolutionary. And in 2005 she’s a bisexual rock singer with epilepsy and he’s a photographer. Hou compares and contrasts social mores and sexual approaches across the years.

THAILAND

CITIZEN DOG (Wisit Sasanatieng)

The long-awaited second feature from Wisit Sasanatieng, director of Dragons & Tigers Award-winner Tears of the Black Tiger (Fa Talai Jone). Village boy comes to Bangkok and gets a crush on a young career woman, but she becomes an eco-warrior determined to rid the world of plastic. Thanks to its amazing visuals and CGI effects, some see this as a Thai answer to Amélie—but it’s darker, funnier and altogether edgier than Jeunet’s film.

CRYING TIGERS (Santi Taepanich) International Premiere

Drought-plagued Isan is Thailand’s poorest province; many born there migrate to other parts of the country. Santi Taepanich’s vibrant documentary looks at the successes and failures of three men and one woman from Isan who try to make it in Bangkok—from a pop star whose best days are past to a guy who dresses up as a fish to promote a seafood restaurant. A remarkably entertaining movie which broke new ground in Thai cinema.

M.A.I.D (Yongyoot Thongkongtoon) International Premiere

Yongyoot Thongkongtoon follows up his global hit Iron Ladies with another riotous comedy: when various highly trained secret agents are eliminated while trying to expose corruption in high places, four naive but feisty country girls are recruited to pose as maids and flush out the dirty secrets. If you have qualms about laughing at stereotypes, forget them here.

The full line-up will be announced at the Media Conference on September 7 at the Vancouver International Film Centre.

VIFF ANNOUNCES NFF COMPETITION, WORLD PREMIERE OF BANKING ON HEAVEN

2005-08-31T23:41:00.000-07:00

Vancouver – This fall, the Vancouver International Film Festival celebrates it’s 24^th year of showcasing the best in nonfiction film from Canada and around the world. The Nonfiction Features is a cornerstone of the VIFF program, allowing the VIFF to build a strong local and international reputation for programming excellence. The Festival today announced the nominees for the 13th annual National Film Board of Canada Documentary Award, including Paul Rosdy’s NEW WORLD, one of a number of documentaries already announced as part of the Eastern European focus at this year’s VIFF.

“At last year’s VIFF, documentary films drew close to 50,000 attendees, which is a truly remarkable and unprecedented number,” said Festival Director Alan Franey. “We expect that the success of ‘the year of the doc’—2004—will mean that there is huge interest in this year’s program. The films form a large group of more than 70 titles exploring an equally wide range of topics, locales, concerns and styles. We’re delighted that Vancouver audiences have so well discovered the riches of the nonfiction form.”

The films in this year’s competition cover a wide spectrum of documentary filmmaking, from personal essays to spiritual journeys to musical toe-tappers. One of the highlights of the past Cannes film festival, Avi Mograbi’s AVENGE BUT ONE OF MY TWO EYES (Israel), a Canadian Premiere, reflects upon the resolve that is needed in order to take one’s own life rather than fall into enemy hands, drawing the lines between the founding myths of the Israeli state and the current plight of the Palestinians. A vivid, beautiful and refreshing documentary on spirituality, Luc Schaedler’s ANGRY MONK: REFLECTIONS ON TIBET, a North American Premiere, examines the life of Gendun Choephel, who left an indelible mark on Tibetan culture and became an icon for young Tibetans today. Pepe Danquart’s HELL ON WHEELS (Germany) shows the Tour de France as you have never seen it before, going behind the scenes for a kinetic insider’s look at one of the world’s biggest sporting events. An English-Canadian Premiere, Marie-Clémence Paes and Raymond Rajaonarivelo’s MAHALEO (Madagascar/France) is a portrait of seven Malagasy musicians who give voice to the desires and wants of their country.

Three documentaries from the U.S. in the competition take a look at the nexus of the personal, the social, and the political. Nicole Conn’s LITTLE MAN, a Canadian Premiere, is a remarkable story documenting the struggle of the director’s son to survive after having been born weighing less than one pound. In THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN, an International Premiere, director Taggart Seigel charts the very rocky ground traversed by eccentric farmer/performance artist John Peterson over the last 20 years as he attempts to save his farm, and himself, from the changing social and economic climate of middle America. Director Micha Peled returns to the VIFF with his prequel to the Wal-Mart-busting Store Wars, CHINA BLUE, a fascinating investigation of the denim industry in China that puts a very human face on globalization. Peled introduces us to both the staff and the boss at the Lifeng Clothes Co. Ltd. where workers take the wage cuts so name brands can buy cheap.

Mental health is put under the microscope in three other nominees, all Canadian Premieres. Marcos Prado’s poetic, philosophical and eloquent ESTAMIRA (Brazil) follows 63-year-old Estamira, a woman with schizophrenia who, for the past 20 years, has been living at and scavenging the garbage dump known as Jardim Gramacho in Rio de Janeiro. Stefano Rulli’s A PARTICULAR SILENCE (Italy) is a searing portrait of one family coping, or not, with their grown autistic son. Part existential detective story and part meditation on identity, Rupert Murray’s UNKNOWN WHITE MALE (UK) focuses on the strange case of amnesiac Douglas Bruce, who had to start life all over again when he couldn’t remember anything about his past 35 years on the planet.

Rounding off the competition are two Canadian entries. On the heels of his critically acclaimed Dying at Grace (VIFF 04), Allan King’s latest “actuality drama” MEMORY FOR MAX, CLAIRE, IDA AND COMPANY is an inspiring, emotional investigation of memory and aging which follows eight residents of a geriatric care centre and asserts that “when you’re 80, you have the privilege to forget what you want.” In DIAMETER OF THE BOMB, Steven Silver and Andrew Quigley investigate a June, 2002, Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Interviews with survivors, of both the victims and the bomber, provide the basis for an expanding portrait of the bomb’s impact on families, friends and more broadly, society at large.

BANKING ON HEAVEN: A WORLD PREMIERE

The VIFF is also proud to announce the World Premiere of BANKING ON HEAVEN (US), an unflinching look at a cult of Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS). The film alleges the polygamist communities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah (and, by extension, Bountiful, B.C.) are home to a culture that routinely practices child rape, welfare fraud and systematic mind-control. Director Dot Reidelbach and writer/producer Laurie Allen (an escapee from the FLDS) have constructed a documentary out of secret camera footage (outsiders are looked upon as agents of Satan and systematically shunned), interviews with polygamist escapees, “lost boys” (young men and children cast out of the community for such infractions as not rolling their sleeves down), and government officials. An unholy trinity of sex, power and wealth are at the dark heart of this deeply troubling story.

The full line-up will be announced at the Media Conference on September 7 at the Vancouver International Film Centre.

It's all about the Ridge...

2005-08-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

In another bit of VIFF news, the awesome repetory house known as The Ridge, the original home of VIFF, have unleashed their new program guide for next month. In it, they have a section for VIFF (where their programming would normally go) and 15 films are listed as potentials for VIFF. They would be none other than: (Note: *Asterik* marks titles confirmed from the last press release)

1. Anu (India, 102 min.)
2. The Bridesmaid (France, 100m.)
3. Changing Times (France, 98m.)
4. Dalecarlians (Sweden, 98m.)
5. Dog Nail Clipper (Finland, 104m.)
6. The District* (Hungary, 95m.)
7. Hostage (Greece, 105m.)
8. Kekexill: Mountain Patrol (China, 95m.)
9. Midwinter's Night Dream* (Serbia/ Montenegro, 95m.) (Note: The press release has this title listed as "Midwinter's Night Tale" but The Ridge's program has it listed as "Dream" instead of "Tale". The program is correct.)
10. The Middle of Candeal (Spain, 124m.)
11. Skritek* (Czech Republic, 87m.)
12. The City of the Sun* (Czech Republic, 95m.)
13. Days & Hours* (Bosnia, 96m.)
14. Memories in the Mist (India, 120m.)
15. The Porcelain Doll (Hungary, 75m.)

Is it just me, but are there a lot of 95 minute movies listed or what? That said, every year we do get a 4-to-6 hour epic (VIFF '04 being The Door to the Sun, '03 bringing us The Best of Youth) and I'm going to try to actually sit down and watch it this year. Mention is also made in the program in regards to scheduling similar-themed product during their evening shows:
"The VIFF, taking into consideration that The Ridge is a fair distance from the downtown festival core, has decided to make it easier for filmgoers this year by "pairing" two evening films that might appeal to VIFF patrons. For example, the VIFF may play two Indian films in a night, or two Hungarian films, or they may pair two thematically linked works. The idea is to make it easier on people who want a certain kind of cinema - no more racing away from the Ridge at 9:15pm to catch that OTHER animated film screening at 9:30pm at the Granville 7. That is the theory, at least."

For VIFF '04 and '03, I have only made one trip a year to the cinema which is a fair distance from the rest of the venues (to get there, the 16 Arbutus bus stops right infront of its door) but at least they are trying to make things a bit easier on folks.

In non-fest news, I just secured a ticket to the wicked-cool indie band The New Pornographers performing at the Commodore on September 23rd, the very same day that I am touching down in Vancouver to start covering VIFF. Their awesome new disc "Twin Cinema" is out in stores this week, and I couldn't recommend it higher for the best hummable, head-bobbin' rock out right now (don't believe me? Check out Pitchfork Media's 9.0 review of the disc)...well, it's tied with the new Broken Social Scene disc that just leaked online. :)

Jason
efilmcritic.com

It's about time we had a press release!

2005-08-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

Pip pip! It's about time that the VIFF started to announce its lineup. While the full list won't be unveiled until September 7th, they do issue a few releases before the fest and this is the first one.

____

The VIFF Turns its Focus to New American Indies and Eastern Europe

August 25, 2005 – The Vancouver International Film Festival today announced two areas of regional focus within the Festival’s program for its 24^th annual edition, which will take place September 29 to October 14^th at ten venues, including the VIFF’s own brand new Vancity Theatre in downtown Vancouver. American Independence focuses on the best of the new indie scene, while The New World presents a selection of compelling narratives and incisive documentaries from countries previously part of the former Austro-Hungarian empire.

American Independence

As burgeoning social unrest develops in the United States, a good number of feature films reflect troubled times in surprising ways. Without being explicitly political in nature, they do express the spirit of disenfranchisement from both their own government, and popular culture as a whole. American independent cinema, jettisoning the brash cinema of Tarantino, has turned to a cautious, “cool” and modest perspective on life south of the border. “The VIFF normally doesn’t present so many American films, but we were encouraged and fascinated by the resurgence of this more sensitive, thoughtful and, sometimes, muted approach to storytelling, and the way it seems to express the attitudes of disaffected young people today,” said Festival Director Alan Franey. “The quality of these films shows that there are independent voices in America who are not afraid to tell their own stories, in styles that are apart from the Hollywood machine.”

The VIFF is pleased to welcome many of these filmmakers to Vancouver, with directors Lodge Kerrigan (KEANE), Ira Sachs (FORTY SHADES OF BLUE), Andrew Bujalski (MUTUAL APPRECIATION), Robinson Devor (POLICE BEAT), Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Lana (CAVITE) and Jenni Olson (THE JOY OF LIFE) confirmed guests to date, with others to follow.

Many of the American Independent films, like Ira Sachs’ Sundance Award-winning FORTY SHADES OF BLUE appear to be influenced by Cassavetes’ romantic, sensitive and humanistic dramas. The same is true for Andrew Bujalski’s terrific follow-up to his cult hit Funny Ha Ha, MUTUAL APPRECIATION, which is another droll, stonefaced, perceptive Rohmerian comedy of manners concerning the lives and loves of articulate post-collegians. Lodge Kerrigan’s KEANE follows William Keane (a brilliant Damian Lewis), a homeless schizophrenic New Yorker, as he attempts to find his kidnapped daughter; Kerrigan forges an ultra-realistic and unforgettable look at life on the margins. On the other end of the spectrum, in the inventive CAVITE, a Canadian Premiere, Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana transpose American action-thriller cinema to the Filipino slums, creating a spin on Cellular that is entertaining and gripping,

A number of films in the American Independence section skirt the border between documentary and fiction in highly inventive ways, and also manage to make strong political statements while telling personal stories. An International Premiere, Jenni Olson’s THE JOY OF LIFE uses bold, lyrical voiceover to tell two stories: the observations of a butch dyke looking for love and self-discovery, and the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide landmark. In I AM A SEX ADDICT, a Canadian Premiere, Caveh Zahedi’s latest unabashedly autobiographical comedy uses re-enactments and documentary footage to explore his life-long sex addiction—in particular, his obsession with prostitutes. Based on a column from the local weekly The Stranger, Robinson Devor’s POLICE BEAT is an entirely new type of police drama that blends the mean streets of Seattle with notions of globalization, and even a little romance, told from the perspective of an African immigrant Seattle policeman Travis Wilkerson’s bracing, radical debut feature WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN?, a Canadian Premiere, intersects the lives of three men living in the struggling mining community of Butte, Montana, and provides a political example to young American filmmakers to follow.

The New World

VIFF is also highlighting a series of titles from Central and Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, the Balkans, and Hungary, which indicate that this is one of the most vital filmmaking regions in the world today. Combining serious documentaries with cutting-edge dramas and crowd-pleasing comedies, The New World shows the countries of the former Austro-Hungarian empire to be a hotbed of up-and-coming cinematic talent, with films that cross borders and represent the new Europe, with all of its troubles, anxieties and newfound pleasures.

Many selections tackle contemporary social issues. Providing the title to the series is Austrian director Paul Rosdy’s NEW WORLD, a film essay which travels throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire in the present day, shuffling time lines like a deck of cards. “Modern” history started in central Europe and the calamities of the past century have taken a tremendous toll on this area. Also from Austria comes Michael Glawogger’s triumphant follow-up to his 1999 NFB Award-winning Megacities. WORKINGMAN’S DEATH provides a startling glimpse of the profound impact a rapidly changing global economy has on ordinary people, from the abandoned coal mines of the Ukraine to the slaughterhouses of Nigeria. Both Rosdy and Glawogger will be in attendance. Also screening will be two Austrian fiction features, SLEEPER and CRASH TEST DUMMIES, which highlight the ethnic tensions currently on view in Austria.

The four Hungarian films that will be presented at the VIFF form a wide-ranging representation of the country’s film industry. Adapted by Nobel laureate Imré Kertesz from his autobiographical novel and screening as a Special Presentation, FATELESS dares to aestheticize the concentration camp experience in a more provocative, and successful, manner than Schindler’s List. Áron Gauder’s THE DISTRICT is an outrageous and continually inventive animated comedy-adventure about the multicultural denizens who live, and occasionally clash, in District 8, the direst ghetto in Budapest. In Péter Gárdos THE PORCELAIN DOLL, three short stories of the surreal, the bizarre and the fantastical make up a Bermuda triangle of strangeness. And Roland Vranik’s BLACK BRUSH, winner at the Hungarian Film Week, is a stoner slacker comedy shot in black-and-white CinemaScope.

This focus also includes films from the former Yugoslavian countries of Bosnia (DAYS AND HOURS), Serbia (MIDWINTER NIGHT’S DREAM) and Croatia (SORRY FOR KUNG FU), and a trio of exciting and sure-to-be popular productions from the Czech Republic (THE CITY OF THE SUN, WRONG SIDE UP, SKRITEK).

A list of the other films announced today follows. The full line-up will be announced at the Media Conference on September 7 at the Vancouver International Film Centre. The Vancouver International Film Festival has a reputation for presenting the best in world cinema. More than 150,000 patrons are expected to attend 500 screenings of over 300 films from over 50 countries, making it one of the largest and most successful film festivals in North America. Beginning September 7, comprehensive information and schedules will be available at www.viff.org and the Starbucks Hotline at (604) 683-FILM (3456). Tickets go on sale September 10 through the VISA Charge-by-Phone line at 604-685-8297 and on the web at www.viff.org .

A list of films confirmed to date follows.

American Independence

BITTERSWEET PLACE (Alexandra Brodsky, US) International Premiere

CAVITE (Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana, US) Canadian Premiere

FORTY SHADES OF BLUE (Ira Sachs, US) Canadian Premiere

KEANE (Lodge Kerrigan, US)

I AM A SEX ADDICT (Caveh Zahedi, US) Canadian Premiere

THE JOY OF LIFE (Jenni Olson, US) International Premiere

MUTUAL APPRECIATION (Andrew Bujalski, US) International Premiere

POLICE BEAT (Robinson Devor, US) International Premiere

SOUND BARRIER (Amir Naderi, US) International Premiere

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (Noam Baumbach, US)

SWIMMERS (Doug Sadler, US) Canadian Premiere

WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN? (Travis Wilkerson, US) Canadian Premiere

The New World

BLACK BRUSH (Roland Vranik, Hungary) International Premiere

THE CITY OF THE SUN (Martin Sulík, Czech Republic) English-Canadian Premiere.

CRASH TEST DUMMIES (Jörg Kalt, Austria) Canadian Premiere

DAYS AND HOURS (Pjer Zalica, Bosnia)

THE DISTRICT! (Áron Gauder, Hungary)

FATELESS (Lajos Koltai, Hungary)

MY NIKIFOR (Krzysztof Krauze, Poland) English-Canadian Premiere.

MIDWINTER NIGHT’S TALE (Goran Paskaljevic, Serbia/Montenegro)

NEW WORLD (Paul Rosdy, Austria) North American Premiere

THE PORCELAIN DOLL (Péter Gárdos, Hungary)

SKRITEK (Thomas Vorel, Czech Republic) International Premiere

SLEEPER (Benjamin Heisenberg, Austria/Germany) North American Premiere

SORRY FOR KUNG FU (Ognjen Svilcic, Croatia) North American Premiere

WORKINGMAN’S DEATH (Michael Glawogger, Austria)

WRONG SIDE UP (Petr Zelenak, Czech Republic) North American Premiere.

Press Confrence and a few words about Franz and Arcade

2005-08-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

Not much happening in the world of VIFF news, but I thought I would share a recent email sent to the VIFF media list in regards to the press confrence:

Mark Your Calendars:
VIFF Press Confrence

Event: 24th Vancouver International Film Festival Press Confrence
When: Wednesday, September 7, 2005; 10:30am -- Luncheon Follows

Announcements: Full Details of the 2005 Festival will be announced, including:
- Complete List of Films
- Nonfiction Features Series
- Canadian Images details
- Special Presentations
- 20th annual Film and Television Trade Forum details

Speakers/guests: Special guests include BC Filmmakers and actors. Among the speakers are:

- Alan Franey, Festival Director
- Diane Burgess, Canadian Images
- Melanie Friesen, Trade Forum Producer
- Jane MacDonald, Director, Communications and Corporate Affairs

So in essence, all of the usual suspects doing what they do best. I will not be attending (I will be JUST getting back from a weekend vacation in Qualicum Beach at my parent's house) but it looks like it will be an enjoyable day for anyone who does go. As well, the full release list of films goes up the very same day on the site, which naturally will be posted here.

In other news, my good friend Bill has just secured tickets for the Franz Ferdinand concert on second row. The concert happens on October 4th at 7:30pm, so there better not be any exclusive screenings that night. Ditto for the 7th which gives us The Arcade Fire in concert, which has just secured a spot at the Commodore Ballroom, but nada on the tickets yet. I'm working on it. So far, these will be my only two concerts during the festival!

Yeah a tunnel ... from my window to yours ... Arcade Fire, 10/7 in Vancouver!

2005-08-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

Although this is not festival news, this entry is about an event that is happening during the festival. I guess I won't be seeing any movies on the evening of Friday, October 7th, since The Arcade Fire, the musical geniuses who created Funeral, the best album of 2004, are coming to Vancouver on the second friday of VIFF. I was sold out of the Victoria show last December due to the fact they played a really small venue.

The location is TBD but tickets should be going up within the next few weeks. I'm counting the days! The fansite Arcadefire.net will be listing venue and ticketing information when it does hit.

If you're reading this blogger and are doing VIFF, consider doing the concert as a break from your insane movie watching. Arcade Fire's music is original and their live shows are known to be off the charts awesome.

Jason
efilmcritic.com

So you want to be a volunteer?

2005-07-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

VIFF has recently put up their Volunteer Application Form on their website which has reminded me on one of the many cool aspects of the festival that I make mention of in my coverage every year: those people who put up their time to help out with the fest.

How does it work? Simple..apply for the festival through the website, get interviewed by the volunteer wrangler and if they allow you, submit 32 hours of your time. There are many jobs such as theater operations, projection tech, box office, distribution, transporation, hospitality, trade forum and media assistants (note: if you're female and cute, apply for this job since I'll be seeing you the most often), among others, to keep oneself busy. That said, if you're new to the volunteer game, you'll most likely get the less desired hours and job (for example, you'll have to cover the ticket desk or do theater cleaning when the hottest shows) since the veterans who have been volunteering for over 10 years tend to get the gigs that they want first.

And what do you get out of it? You get a volunteer pass which is good to get into any screening at the festival except for the galas (my media pass is sadly a ditto in this regard, but that's okay). It's a prized possession to have one of these at the single screener venues like the Vogue, Cinematheque, Ridge and the upcoming VanCity cinema, but be forewarned that the Granville 7 has a door entry system, and their ticket ration is slightly smaller.

I love the volunteers at the festival. The majority of them are the ones who utilize their 32 hours as quickly as possible and get their volunteer pass to go see as many movies as humanly possible. I've met some truly amazing volunteer staff and made many friends (and also have had several good arguments!) and it is one of the many things I am looking forward to at VIFF '05.

Jason
efilmcritic.com

Le New Poster!

2005-07-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

Forget wedding season, it's festival season, baby!

Okay. I'm probably talking to myself here, but there has been little activity at this blogger until now. This is still the official blogger for my Festivus and until September, I'll post on occasion once I get word of what's happening with VIFF '05. Several media releases come out in August and I'll post those here as well.

So far, the following has happened:

- Vacation time booked from my job! :) I will be at the festival this year from September 23rd -- before the September 29th official start -- all the way until October 14th, when the festival ends (also my editor's birthday!) WAHOO!
- Hotel booked! :) I have booked this really nice B&B just off of West 12th and Granville near West Broadway street, so my access to the festival is really nice and close (and I'm a brisk walk from the Ridge which is one of the venues.

This year, the venues will remain the same:

- Granville 7, utilizing all of their cinemas
- The ass-hurting Vogue with its' 1144 pain inducing chairs. Bring your own cushion!
- Pacific Cinematheque (www.cinematheque.bc.ca)
- The Ridge Theatre

And as well, the Vancouver International Film Centre (1181 Seymour) will finally be opening where - I'm assuming - all of the press screenings will occur along with being another venue to check out flicks, but mostly the video materials since they have the ability to run vid as well as 16mm and 35mm film. Not sure if their during-fest-press-facilities will remain there since I believe they want to keep their nerve centre at the Hotel Georgia since that's where all of the guests stay, but hey, this year's VIFF should kick mondo ass.

Jason
efilmcritic.com

It's VIFF, baby!

2005-03-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

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Greetings all!

While a bit early, this is my official blog for this year's Vancouver Film Festival, which runs from September 29th-October 14th, 2005. This blog will be used for scheduling, wish lists of films that myself and others wish to play at the festival, and various other ditties like commentary and announcements of news.

Also check out my profile for links to various other blogs that I run, such as the 2005 Film List and my personal commentary page (which I HOPE to update soon with some new commentary soon).

Jason
efilmcritic.com