I needed a few days to recover, but sure enough I'm back to normal.  This was my finest year at Tiff because I feel like I know the ways.  The film festival is an art, you really need to know how to make the most of it to make anything at all. 

I saw a total of twelve screenings, one film twice. 

Year of the Carnivore, The Trotsky, Cleanflix, Les herbes folles, Short Cuts Canada Program 4, Gun to the Head, Cole, La Donation, Excited, Same Same But Different (X2), The Good Heart.

From contributing to Tiff blogs, I definitely saw more Canadian content than what I would have normally seen.  In that I think I left with a better sense of what Canada has to offer.  The film industry in Canada is distinct.  I'm taking a History of Advertising course currently, and the one thing they're hammering home about advertising in 1960 is that Canada's advertising industry is carbon copy of the US.  I would like to entend that to the Canadian film industry.  Canada slowly is grasping an edge on its own.  I can definitely say Canada has contributed to the Garden State/Lost in Translation genre of "Finding Yourself".  Cole and One Week are two solid examples of people finding themselves, with solid music and scenery that is authentically Canadian.  Gun to the Head and Excited provide a more comedic Canadian angle, yet still holding some kind of substance. 

Given, Gun to the Head was directed by Blaine Thurrier, I was completely amazed that he showcased Okkervil River's "For Real" perfectly.  I have this sense of top of the world elation when I hear a song that hits hard home for me.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHMDWvjnWU - I don't think I can emphasise for you to listen to this band and the album 'Black Sheep Boy' any further.  If it's good enough for the New Pornographers, it's good enough for you, I assure!

The finest soundtrack through and through that I heard this year was surprisingly Cole.  Cole chalked up serious points using strictly Canadian artists - quality bands like Black Mountain, Chad VanGaalen, Great Lake Swimmers and a man near and dear to my heart Jason Collett.  Groups that have exploded in the US, but still keep their roots at home, all have played small venues in Toronto within the last two years. Cole's soundtrack was nothing new - I sort of felt like I was watching one week from the music alone... But I figure more and more people will be waiting for the credits to roll around to see who made that one song they really loved.  There's a really comprehensive breakdown of the music on their website, if you liked it too: http://www.colethemovie.com/music.html.

Sook Yin Lee's film Year of the Carnivore was a complete and utter surprise.  It was quirky like Juno but with a sick adult humour to it.  Sook Yin's humour captured what every teenager thinks about without telling anyone.  The soundtrack was a lovely surprise too - not truly Canadian, the most memorable part was hearing The Walkmen's "Seven Years of Holidays" to close the film - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYpFuwpfZVs.  No surprise they chose it for the song and film's similarity of the common name used in both - Eugene.  I later found out that Rich Terfry (Buck 65) helped make the sountrack with Sook Yin.  If you haven't heard it already, Terfry has an incredibly radio station program called 'Drive' on CBC Radio 2 94.1 FM weekdays from 3:30-7pm.  http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/r2drive/.  Don't be scared by Terfry's hip hop styles with his work as Buck 65, his musical taste on the radio is heavily Canadian folk and rock music.

Another thing I loved about Cole is the actors were fresh and new.  There's something really heartbreaking about seeing the same actor in two Canadian films, in the same week.  I won't name names but she was in both The Year of the Carnivore and Gun to the Head, see if you can spot her!  There were a few 'recycled' actors in Sucked and Gun to the Head as well... In the Q & A at Gun to the Head they cheered and praised these actors for being in more than one film... When I see movies, especially in such a short period of time, I remember faces and stories.  There's something cheapening about seeing someone a second go round.

It's nice to have such a diverse Canadian Program this year.  I look forward to seeing the public's response when these movies hit theatres.  There's something equally awful and wonderful about seeing these films slowly perk up in small cinemas like the Bloor, Royal or the Revue without any screening at the Scotiabank.  Perhaps, hidden gems but completely overlooked by Toronto folk.

Excited directed by Bruce Sweeney, a director who received an award for Live Bait, the first movie he entered into the festival in 1995.  Perhaps, the bar was too high for his following films.  The film is light and pleasant, despite the embarrassing undertone.  The story is about Kevin, a man who has a hypersensitive appendage.  In the first scene of the film he leaves a gift for a woman and she runs away from him, as fast as she can.  Immediately, he has the audience on his side through sympathy.  Excited is a well-played comedy that doesn't breach on the Judd Aptow-style comedy.  In that respect, I think Sweeney achieves comedy without stooping to the level of a low-class comedy.  This film has structure and purpose with a more serious message than 40 Year Old Virgin.  Although, 40 Year Old yielded some laughs, I have desire to own a copy of that film to watch again.  Excited is a film I could see myself watching again, for dynamic characters that are less extreme and more realistic.  Excited is a Canadian film. I couldn't see it bursting huge on the mainstream market, but for that reason we hold tight to them.  The crowd was also very distinctly Canadian, receiving an overwhelming response from the audience.  After showing the high quality Toronto short film directed by Don Owen of a man playing the song "Water is Wide", the crowd cheered and clapped.  There was a certain homely feeling to screening a Canadian film to a very distinct crowd.  This was the first film in the festival that I found people giving any sort of gratitude for the beautiful Toronto clips at the beginning.  It's a wonder that they are even preserved, and an even greater spectacle of their condition.  Excited was not my favourite Canadian made film I saw in the festival, it however brought in the finest audience.  There's something to be said about a premier on the last stretches of the festival.  Garnering less exposure to international audiences, Canadian pride was in full swing at this screening.  This film will probably never crack big internationally, but it is important that it is well-received by Canadian audiences to evoke pride in Canadian works and to continue to support unconventional Canadian films.    

For those who are unfamiliar with Thurier, he is the keyboardist for Canadian hot shots The New Pornographers.  They’re a band I always kept on the back burner but never really embraced.  From the question answer period it seemed that Thurier wants to keep his music career apart from his film work.  He very quietly mentioned when I asked him to talk about the soundtrack that he was in fact a member of the band.  It was more of a mutter than it was a confident statement.  Regardless, soundtrack wise he didn’t let me down.  In the first twenty minutes of the show he featured one of my favourite Okkervil River tunes.  The tune is called “For Real”, an angry song that fit the scene perfectly.  Almost two years ago the New Pornographers toured with Okkervil River around North America.  Check out the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHMDWvjnWU.  Writer and vocalist for Okkervil River said he wrote this song with the intention of seeing how many times he could write a tune with the word “real” in it.  Similarly, I think this movie possesses that angry repetition in it.  You see the same scenes with the same people it in, visiting the same places times over.  I mean this in less of a small funding rationale, rather more of a film of incompetence and reminiscence.  The protagonist, played by Tygh Runyan seems to come from a certain, safe place—solid marriage and a nice home.  When asked to go out to get a bottle of wine for their dinner party he meets with his deadbeat cousin.  Basically, the big message I got from this film was old habits die hard.  Thurier claimed he wanted to create a film that he would watch with guns, gangs and girls.  In this case he fit the criteria perfectly.  By no stretch would I call this film an action film or a comedy strictly.  It feels more like a film that sets its characters up for cream pies in the face.  Sitting through this film made me think of what I would do in these situations.  Being completely different from the character I couldn’t rationally agree with most of the decisions that were made by the two men.  But on the other side of the spectrum, maybe that’s why people love films with gangs and guns.  Comedy from Thurier comes naturally as he weaves it effortlessly in the tensest scenes.I wasn’t too impressed with how the characters were portrayed.  I though the scenes that were sincere and serious were carried through well.  The prologue at the beginning was extremely effective, showcasing Thurier’s short cameo resulting in his death by suffocation.  Comedy was written in the script well but I think it could have benefited from better acting. Consequently, some scenes came off cheesier than they probably should have been.  I am specifically acknowledging the two couples that represented the exaggerated, experimental affection.  I wasn’t convinced of their portrayal of comedy. This film didn’t pull at my heart strings, nor did it make me want to look at my life.  But it was a fun, completely unrealistic adventure worth taking with a decent soundtrack with some standout tunes.  For any New Pornographer fans, Thurier was interviewed by CBC Radio 3’s Grant Lawrence a day after the premier and he detailed that they’re currently recording an album in Brooklyn slated for release early 2010.  Stream the interview: http://radio3.cbc.ca/http://www.tiff.net/mobile/filmsandschedules/films/guntothehead

In the past couple of years I have been noticing a trend in Canadian films.  These films showcase the beautiful Canadian scenery with a booming Canadian soundtrack.  Cole is one of these Canadian films.  It takes place in Lytton, British Columbia, a small town of only three hundred people in its core. 

 

The movie is based around the main character Cole—a young, ambitious man who cares greatly about his family.  His family is his sister and her two children and his mother who is suffering from a mental disability.  He also has to deal with his sister’s abusive live-in boyfriend and father of her second child.   Cole is stuck in Lytton protecting his family and attending to the family business.  Much to his sister’s chagrin, Cole began attending a class in a college three hours out of Lytton.  In school Cole gets the opportunity to test drive the lifestyle he never had.  Cole’s exposure to this new life is extremely authentic.  He meets a girl and falls in love.  The story is nothing new but the way director Carl Bessai presents it is what se

ts it apart from other self-discovery Canadian films.

 

Kandyse McClure plays the beautiful Seraphina, Cole’s love interest.  Seraphina is of African-American decent and a tremendously wealthy family, a juxtaposition rarely shown in cinema. The characters play off each other defying many stereotypes often made. 

 

Chad Willett plays Bobby, who is Cole’s sister’s abusive husband.  Bobby is a bone chilling character that I would feel terrified to play.  Willett’s portrayal is convincing and believable.  In the question and answer period, Willett said he jumped at the opportunity to play a character. 

 

In the film, the characters are portrayed without grooving to different stereotypes too easily. Although timeless issues, Cole captures a modern flare that no one could possibly mistaken for a film from twenty years ago.    

 

The opening scenes showcased beautiful Lytton with the dynamic voice of Canadian Chad VanGaalen.  My telephone has a great application where I can find out what song is playing with only ten seconds of music playing.  I never have to anxiously wait for the credits to see what I’m listening to any more!  Telephone antics aside, this soundtrack is easily the best soundtrack I’ve heard all festival.  It has a folk-based edge, featuring artists like Jason Collett, Great Lake Swimmers, The Deadly Snakes, Black Mountain and even a new track from Broken Social Scene called “Cocaine Skin”.  When I asked the director of the soundtrack he commented that this is the first film he had a soundtrack for, he had normally just relied on composers. Bessai claimed he had little knowledge of indie music but received much help from Paper Music based in Toronto.  I am not familiar with a Paper Music, much as I am Paper Bag Records. Regardless of who worked on it, this soundtrack would be the perfect soundtrack for a vacation out west, exactly where this movie takes you. 

 

The final thing I would like to acknowledge in this film was their use of private funding only for this project, without subsides.  He said the initial budget was around half a million, but after they wrapped, it was approximately one million dollars.  Small budget and big love for a film shows. This film has yet to be picked up by a major distributer.  I really hope it does because it’s a beautiful take on people in rural British Columbia.

 

There's still a few more screenings to go!

 

http://www.tiff.net/mobile/filmsandschedules/films/cole 

 

After watching this programme I gave a lot of thought as to why I would watch a short film.  Last year I thought I may even prefer to watch short films over regular length ones.  I'm not completely certain that I do, but it's worth it for one hidden gem.  I continually find myself surprised at the variety of short films that are featured in this festival.  Although giving the viewer much less time with the characters—it is the film’s responsibility to unfold the story with enough detail.  On the other hand it is the viewer’s duty to make clarity of the film, with the vignettes provided. 

Interview with the Earth directed by Nicolas Pereda is a spot on example of a fragemented picture.  When I was watching this I couldn’t help but draw similarities between how the images were presented in this film and how Dennis Hopper presented his in The Last Movie.  In both films I was left a bit confused as to what was real and what was fabricated.  In the Q & A session director revealed that only some bits were real and others were staged—this boosted my interest in the film.  The most compelling images were those of the small Mexican boy who was describing his friend recently deceased.  Following the interview the children take the audience to the location of where their friend died.  Accompanied by the simple music of a wooden flute it made the scene more tense than it needed to be.

Sixty Seconds of Regret directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly is a picture of an elderly man in routine and a flash to an image of a younger man and a pregnant lady sitting in a car.  Gass-Donnelly’s film is only sixty seconds long; however it serves as a vivid memory.  This film resonated hard because I myself often have these recollections, where you wish you could simply just erase something from your memory (like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).  The images were not accompanied with any dialogue, leaving viewers with an opportunity for greater contemplation.  This film relishes in its simplicity.

Smoke is seventeen minutes long—the second longest short of the programme.  It felt much longer because it unfolds like a full-feature film.  Unlike Sixty Seconds, Smoke has several characters, settings and an comprehensive plot.  Three characters distinct opinions on one man’s life are clearly shown.  I think the clarity of this short film gives away too much about the characters.  The film is very beautifully put together but instead of the feeling of wanting to know more, I simply feel content with what I know. 

The Armoire directed by Jamie Travis plays on a variety of emotions.  The opening scene is of a boy playing hide and seek with no one hiding.  The boy has sympathetically won the crowd over.  The Armoire is a teaser for emotions because by the end of the film one struggles in their feelings towards the boy.  This movie conveys a very organised transition in time change, flipping from the past and future.  It has the finished touches that Interview with the Earth didn’t even consider—providing for a more accessible film.

Danse Macabre directed by Pedro Pires is a film that plays with the unknown.  Pires described his short as the last breaths of life triggering spontaneous convulsions.  “Danse macabre” translates to dance of death in English.  It is a late medieval allegory that claims that all people are united through a dance of death.  That allegory shares ideas that I had immediately after seeing the film.  The haunting environment that the film takes place in contributes to the unease of the entire film.  The beautiful woman that is portrayed as the dead person moves naturally and effortlessly.  To the sounds of Maria Callas, the woman in the film gracefully dances without life.  Danse Macabre is both haunting and beautiful stretching how dance and death are both conventionally portrayed. 

http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/programme4