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.

This year's Canadian award winning movies were announced earlier today.  You can read the official press release here.

Congrats to all the film makers for there amazing work this year.  It's one of the joys of programming to see a film early in its existence and then see it go on to play to crowds and win awards.

This was one of the strongest years for Canadian cinema since I've been doing this, and now the challenge is to top it next year.

 

See you then.

Hello friends, I wanted to send out a quick note saying what a pleasure it was to once again watch Canada's best at this years Toronto International Film Festival. From moments that took me deeply into emotions in such films as Crackie and the short, The Spine, to the spunk of Leslie, My Name is Evil and wit of Cooking with Stella; I got to have the privilage to witness so many golden moments on-screen in these past 9 days that I won't soon forget. One thing is sure, Canadians should be proud that they have such amazing talent in their home and native land.

Until we meet again....that's a wrap!

Crackie is a beautiful film. I'm not sure how else to begin this article. It's beautiful to look at and beautiful to experience.

Set in a tiny coastal town in Newfoundland, the film is, at heart, a love story, or a lack-of-love story, between a girl and her dog.

Mitsy (played with complete naturalism by newcomer Meghan Greeley, a Newfoundland theatre student) lives with her overbearing, tough-as-nails grandmother, Bride (played with a terrible force by Canadian comedy queen Mary Walsh, breaking down every typecasting wall). Mitsy dreams of becoming a hairdresser, of escaping her world of hand-me-downs and fried chicken dinners, of fleeing Newfoundland to live with her mother in Alberta. Her mother, an alcoholic and a woman of rather loose sexual morals, left her when she was a child.

Mitsy's relationship with Bride is shaky at best. Her resentment for her grandmother's sometimes cold exterior and eccentricities (it seems that there is always a strange man in her bed, and she trolls the local dump in search of products to sell in garage sales) runs deep, as does her need to be loved. This need leads her into a relationship (emotional for her, sexual for him) with the town's bad bay (played with delightful sleaze by Joel Hynes) and to adopt a crackie, an old, useless dog named Sparky, saving it from euthanasia. But the dog's life has been just as hard as Mitsy's, and as in every other area of her life, the mutt can't offer her the affection that she so desperately seeks.

This dysfunctional relationship, according to the film's director and writer, the charming, well-spoken Sherry White, is where the heart of the film lies.

"It's been so long that I've been writing the script that I can't remember what the original genesis of it was," White explained during an interview earlier this week, perched on a couch in the lobby of the Hazelton Hotel in Yorkville.

"But definitely the relationship with the girl and dog is where it began. The idea of a character who doesn't get the kind of love that she wants, or much love, for who love is hard to come by, and thinks that she has an opportunity to save a dog, and the dog has also not had much love and so doesn't know how to love back. It began with that idea."

Mitsy's life becomes even more complicated when her mother returns to her hometown, as outwardly glamorous and distant as ever.

I can't promise that the film is feel-good, and more-often-than-not it tends to weigh the spectator down with its heaviness. But its strength lies in its honest, completely believable characters. And despite its slightly-grim appearance, there is beauty to be found in Mitsy's hometown. The film is shot in rich colour, and shots of Mitsy's red coat against white-panelled buildings, and of the kitsch, warm, gaudy, over-crowded interior of Bride's cabin, and of the wild fields and expanse of ocean just beyond the decaying wooden fence of her property would make anyone eager to pack up and visit Newfoundland.

"I never intended for it to be a grim small town," White said of the film's location.

"Many small towns are kind of grim in a way. They're beautiful too, which I think this town is."

But the film's location meant more to White than to serve as a back-drop for her film. She said that while she didn't necessarily set out to write a Newfoundland-centric story and feels that the story could speak about anyone, anywhere, that her characters had to come to life in a small-town setting.

"In any rural town, no matter how small, you're going to find people who live on the outskirts of it, geographically and socially," she said.

"And there are always rejects. And I find, in smaller towns, those people...Bride might be a street person if she lived in a big city. She might be one of those people. But if she lives in a small town she can actually keep her house. It's easier for her to live, but she still lives on the outskirts of society."

As for her decision to place her characters in her home-province (she hails from Stephenville), White admitted that Newfoundland has always inspired her, and that coming from there, it's hard to forget one's origins.

"Most people who live on islands, your feet are rooted there, more than people who live in a big place," she said.

"So I feel very connected to the place, and it gives me a point of view, in a way. Maybe because I'm way out there in the Atlantic Ocean, that I am an outsider in that way, and that's my point of view, that's why the characters that I write are outsiders."

Crackie is terrifically acted. Greeley is perfect as Mitsy. Her long brown hair hangs over her eyes, a curtain that physically separates her from the people around her. Her lack of confidence is evident in her slouch, in the way that she allows herself to be swallowed up by her hand-me-down coat, and her pain bursts forth from her shrieks when Sparky refuses to conform to her will. White says that Greeley "came out of [her] head when [she] met her" and was "a gift from God."

Kristin Booth (Young People F***ing) is Greeley's polar-opposite, playing here her optimistic hairdressing professor. She adds to Greeley's life and to the film the infusion of positivity that Crackie's other characters lack.

"I really loved her energy," White said of her decision to cast Booth, with whom she worked on CBC's MVP.

"She just has this quality that this character needed. I just wanted her to be bubbly and happy and positive, and just a joy to be around, because I felt that would work in contrast with the other characters, who had a heavy quality to them, a darker quality."

But it's truly Mary Walsh as Bride who shines in the film. Gone is Walsh's penchant for over-acting and flair, as we know her in sketch comedies from This Hour Has 22-Minutes. Instead she gives a minimalist, harrowing, hard performance. Bride is hardly classy: she kicks, she screams, she swears, she claws, she pushes her breasts up to her throat with ridiculous slips and bras.

White says that her decision to cast Walsh came out of knowing the actress personally.

"It's not that different from her type of roles, it's just that the tone of film is slightly different," she explained.

"Mary's tough-as-nails and she's got a heart of gold and she's incredibly emotional...and that's Bride."

For underneath that exterior, is a deep caring. And even after Mitsy is dragged through the mud by everyone who matters to her, the film does not leave its audience with only despair, as it easily could. Rather, even with every odd stacked up against our heroine, at the heart of the film is the sense that familial devotion can save any soul, however ensnared in fog.

"What I would hope is that people get drawn into the movie, and that they feel something," White said.

"That they leave feeling not heavy, but hopeful, despite a rough ride."

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.    

Didn't think the week would go so quickly.

Great afternoon at the Match Club for our first Short Cuts Canada Round table. At a festival this size, there's a lot of industry, and talk about big deals, it's easy to forget about the emerging market for shorts. SCC filmmakers had a great opportunity to have meetings with distributors, buyers, funders, and any one else you can imagine who deals with short films. Great opportunity for our short filmmakers to network and realize (for those with first films) that making your short is just half the fun. The other half is getting people to see it! That's where the round table came it with industry folk from across the country and internationally.

 Not to mention, what a great chance for the industry to meet the incredible talent behind the 40 shorts at our festival, and put faces and names to the great films they've seen. 

 With all this excitement, it's hard to believe we have only one screening left. The repeat of programme 3 is on Friday night at 7pm at Jackman Hall. Word has spread far and wide about this fantastic line up (and people's last chance to feed their need for shorts on the big screen), so get in the rush line soon, as tickets are sold out!

 Speaking of audiences we were very pleased to host Robert Lepage at the premiere of programme 4. Mr. Lepage was the inspiration behind the concept for Danse Macabre, and it was very generous of him to join us for the entire screening.

 Keep watching for some festival highlight postings to come in the next few days.

 

 

Excited director Bruce Sweeney have a funny and revealing interview to the National Post today.  Check it out.

The movie is very funny, but also emotional and sexy - comparisons to Woody Allen are not far off.  The world premiere is tonight, one of the last really big Canadian movies to bow at this year's TIFF.

 

 

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 

One of the coolest discovers this year is George Ryga's Hungry Hills.  It makes its world premiere tonight.  It's a gothic revenge Western, adapted from theclassic Canadian novel.

 

Check out the trailer.

I have always wanted to visit the East Coast of Canada, but somehow this has not happened for me yet. Like every Canadian girl (or in my case, Canadian as of the age of six) I have dreamt of being Anne Shirley and reciting the Lady of Shalott, while laying stricken with inspiration on a bed of rocks caressing the East Coast waters. What Sherry White has inspired of me through her beautiful debut feature film has strengthened this desire to make this a reality in my near future. Shoot, if I could I would pack my suitcase today and ask White to be my personal guide through Newfoundland.

 Yes I know that Anne of Green Gables is set in PEI and Crackie is set in Newfoundland, however there is just something serene and magical that White captures of her native Newfoundland that makes me think if how I enjoy watching Anne and her bosom buddy Diana frolic through nature, similarly to the way Mitsy does. For Mitsy nature is her silent muse to escape her troubles, a place of quiet in her world which is often bombarded with the sound of yelling and confrontation.

Crackie fufills the tradition of great story-telling in its simplest form by mixing emotionally-intelligent directing with outstanding performances. I was touched to reflect on the un-compromising love that Mitsy has for her mother, even if her mother is not fit as a parent. Then there is the way Mitsy's grandmother controls her in hopes of protecting her, yet somehow manages only to damage her granddaughter.

The film shows three generations of women that inherit dysfunctional into everyday life, the witty and sharp-tongued grandmother (Mary Walsh), the lost, self-absorbed and neglectful mother (Cheryl Wells) and the sweet and often neglected adolescent daughter, Mitsy (Meghan Greeley). Mitsy however shows a vulnerability and need to love and be loved far more openly than both her mother and grandmother. This then leads her to form a special bond with a crackie dog named Sparky. Sparky is not enticing and cute like a puppy, in fact he much like these women; a living being that shows wear of scars of the surface as a reminder of suffering endured. Mitsy becomes instantly obsessed with wanting to save Sparky from being put-down by the sleazy, older man that she is sleeping with that works at a local fast food restaurant. She dedicates herself to coddle this dog with patience, attention and love.

It is hard to believe that this is Sherry White's first feature film - she shows the craftsmanship and eye of a seasoned director. Mary Walsh is also a perfect casting, she literally brings an all-encompassing energy to every moment she is on-screen and rightfully shines as one of Canada's premiere talents. Alongside Walsh is a remarkable debut by actors like Greeley and Wells, and esentially what you are left with is a complete package of delight!

The multi-dimensional nature of all these women is what makes this film a thought-provoking and real journey. The complexities of survival, the volatility of placing happiness into the hands of someone who cannot provide an environment for you to be at your best, these are the ideas that bring Crackie to be a sympathetic and heart-touching tale.

 

 

 

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

So, it's day 5, you're crushed that you've missed a couple of Short Cuts programmes, and need something to tide you over until you can see our programmes in the evening.

 Well, we'll take care of you. TIFF is presenting a selection of 5 shorts from SCC online during the festival. Click here to link to the site where you can see THE ISLAND, TUNGIJUQ, THE TRANSLATOR, 5 DYSFUNCTIONAL PEOPLE IN A CAR, and POINTLESS FILM. 

 Forward to your friends, so they don't have to waste their work day on facebook. And if you like any of these, you'll love our programmes. We only have a few screenings left, so come check out

Programme 4 3pm TODAY - Jackman Hall (AGO)

Programme 5 7:15 pm TODAY - Isabel Bader Theatre

Programm 5 4pm (TOMORROW 16TH) - Jackman Hall (AGO)

Programme 3 7pm (FRIDAY 18th) - Jackman Hall (AGO)

 

 

 

Leslie, My Name is Evil is bloody brilliant. From the moment the film starts with a sequence of images depicting Jesus and Christian iconography, juxtaposed with photos and footage of the Vietnam War and American life in 1960's, you enter a world that catalogues a poignant social commentary of the time with a post-modernist spin.

BC native Reginald Harkema has made a kick-ass film! The energy of the actors on-screen is magnetic, and the colourful and campy anti-realism feel distinguishes the set and wardrobe to give full sensory to the viewers. The music of Paul Kehayas is also a perfect fit for the psychedelic and wild ride the movie takes you on.

I will admit that I was a little worried to see how humour would even be layered into the grim tale of Charles Manson and his female followers. Made with so much intelligence and wit however, the uncomfortable fades away and laughter and entertainment prevail!

The story of Leslie (Kristin Adams) is revealed and the empathy you have for this young woman quickly grows - Leslie has a hard time coping with her parents' divorce and soon after is pressured to make a decision by her mother that traumatizes her.

You see, Leslie is not really evil, but once she is seduced by tabs of LSD and free love notions she is naively seduced to the Manson family compound. Here she is re-invented as Lou-Lou, an evil born from Leslie. You begin to wonder how someone could be driven to the edge of no reason due to disconnection from happiness in life and the hope of living.

Leslie's story is neatly intertwined with that of an ordinary chap named Perry (Gregory Smith). A young and handsome man raised cleanly in Nixon American values, Perry faces temptation from his celibate Christian girlfriend when he starts fantasizing about Leslie as a juror on the Manson family trial. He is entranced by mainly Leslie, and from that instant his world is shaken and stirred with carnal desire. Harkema chooses to continuously flash images throughout the film that remind us that while this trial was going on, millions where being slaughtered in Vietnam by American hands.

This film is undeniably one of my favourites this Toronto International Film Festival. Full of so many different genres of appeal, funny and serious, campy and provocative, this makes me proud to be both a Canadian and Torontonian (it is filmed right here)!

I leave you with a snip of the Q & A following the film:

Question to Gregory Smith - What was your biggest challenge?

A: The sacrifice sequence was the first scene we shot. So I got to introduce myself to everybody covered in blood that was pretty crazy! Also that and the blood is so sticky that everything you walked by you got stuck to, flies kept landing on me and getting stuck. The whole thing was very challenging.

Question to Reginald Harkema - You said that this film was a love song to America, perhaps you could elaborate?

A: It's a love song to America, the lovely Cindy Wolfe here...who is the American, who it is also a love song to...my girlfriend of 9 years - she has this southern republican, Tennessee father who we go and visit on one Christmas, and then her mother and her family (her mom is dead now unfortunately)...her family are all liberal left-wing lesbians in Portland, so that's the other Christmas. So it's back and forth and I see the cultural wars happening in America and the cultural divide in the very relationships I have. But the thing it is that I love the southern republican father and I love the lesbians in Portland. So, it's a movie about the American cultural wars and it's a love song to them.

Bad News. There are absolutely no tix. available programme 4 premiere tonight.

Good News. We have sold out Programme 4!!!! (and there are still some tix availabe for the repeat tomorrow afternoon).

 Just a bit of advice, get your tickets NOW for programme 5 premiere tomorrow night. If history has taught us anything SCC premieres SELL OUT. The screening starts at 7:15pm at the Isabel Bader.

 And if you need a preview of the programme, tune into CBC Metro Morning (99.1fm) at 7:50 am. Mio Adilman will be talking about his directorial debut with UNLOCKED. If you're a cyclist in this city, it's a film you can definitely relate to.

 

 

 

 

I would like to personally apologize to Adam Wilson for an incorrect posting that appeared on this blog this past weekend.  Adam is featured in the film Suck and was incorrectly identified by our blogger.  We truly regret this error and have removed the posting.  We will also no longer be publishing posts from this blogger.  We are thrilled that Adam is here in support of the film and hope this error will not sour his festival experience.
 
Again, my deepest apologies. 

Jesse

Programme 4 premieres tonight, and no knocks against our other programmes (cause we think they're awesome), but Norm Wilner of NOW found something something extra special about it.

"Programme 4 is the highlight, a lineup of meditations on death and regret from strong, confident filmmakers. Nicolas Pereda’s grim fictionalized documentary Interview With The Earth; Pedro Pires’s striking dance piece Danse Macabre; Anne Emond’s muted two-hander Naissances; Nikos Theodosakis and Linda Theodosakis’s West Coast drama Smoke; Jamie Travis’s suburban mystery The Armoire; Ed Gass-Donnelly’s silent Sixty Seconds Of Regret; Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s experimental M: every one’s a winner."

Guy Dixon of the Globe and Mail highlighted the shorts programme in today's issue. Saying this about programme 4 "Possibly the most intriguing short is Nicolas Pereda's Interview With The Earth , featuring two young brothers in a Mexican town coming to terms with the loss of their father."

And it's day 4 of the festival, you've been patient enough, the wait is over for Jamie Travis' The Armoire. Check out this great article from Xtra, talking to Jamie about his past work, and how The Armoire came about.

But as always, don't take the critics word on this, come out to programme 4 and judge for yourself, you won't be disappointed.

It's seems like the momentum behind Short Cuts Canada programmes this year shows no signs of letting up. 

After two fantastic screenings of Programme 2 with Maddin's Night Mayor, Radwanski's Out in that Deep Blue Sea, and Samer Najari's Snow Hides the Shade of Fig Trees (along with the rest of that great programme), there's an incredible appetite for incredible Canadian short film, and we did all we could to feed it with last night's premiere of Programme 3 at Jackman Hall.

A sold out (and I mean sold-out. not a single empty seat in the theatre, we packed in as many from the Rush line as possible) audience was introduced to a funny, thoughtful, and very ecclectic line up of films.  

 Cordell Barker has arrived from Winnipeg to present his newest animated NFB film Runaway, and as he did back in May, the National Post has him blogging about the experience. We were talking about the difference between the presentation of shorts at Cannes and Toronto, and he said that screening it in Toronto with a full public audience in a programme of short films, gives a filmmaker a great appreciation of how their film is received (hopefully, April enjoyed it on the big screen even without her glasses :).  

 The Post also did a quick Q&A with Dusty Mancinelli (whose film SOAP is also in programme 3). Too bad Daniel Day Lewis isn't here for the fest to meet up with Dusty and discuss new projects. 

You can catch the repeat screening of programme 3 with directors in attendance today at 3pm at Jackman Hall.  

A true Canadian superhero arrived last night - no, it wasn't Wayne Gretzky - it was Defendor!  The world premiere of the only Canadian superhero movie I can remember occurred last night in front of a sold out crowd at the Varsity 8.  Writer and director Peter Stebbings (pictured talking on mic) has crafted a thrilling, funny and clever movie that is about our cultural need for superheroes, and how we often find them in unexpected places.  Woody Harrelson was on hand last night along with Elias Koteas, Kat Dennings, Michael Kelly and many others.  The crowd loved it, and the party afterwards was even more insane - the roof of a parking garage, turned into an entertainment circus, complete with talk show set, VIP tent, and golf cart chauffeur service.

As a guy who grew up in East York dreaming of a cool Canadian superhero, it was a dream-come-true type of evening. 

More to come tonight, and then, there's always day 5.....

Words seem evasive when talking about Corey Adams and Alex Craig's Machotaildrop. This movie is trippy voyage through the visually fantastical and stylized world of mega skating brand, Machotaildrop.

Covered with trinkets and taste that immerse the palette of an 80's child like me in excitement, this film is a commentary of our obsession to commodify our souls to seek 15-minutes of fame. SHOUT OUT: we often seem to forget that when we endeavour for the spotlight, it tends to fade quicker than it burns bright. Today's celebrities satisfy the public's interest equally by succeeding and plummeting to disgrace.

Young and ambitious, Walter Rhum strives to be the next big thing in the skating world. Though his skills are not exceedingly fabulous, his drive to be someone is inherent and fiery. Reminiscent of Charlie's golden tickets from Willy Wonka to enter the chocolate factory, Walter sends a video of himself to Machotaildrop wrapped in a golden spray painted package. Before he can spell ‘F-A-M-E' he is invited to the mysterious castle where all the Machotaildrop branding magic happens!

The world that opens up to Walter is full of characters that wear costumes rather than clothes, and seem more fictional than factual in the context of reality. Characters like the Baron, a former glorious high-wire walker who is now confined to a stale wheelchair, and the sinister and sly Dr. Manfred who darkly craves fame himself.

If you are looking for something abstract, strange, full of social commentary with some good uncomfortable laughs, this film is for you. Machotaildrop is like taking a reckless ride on a skateboard and realizing when you reach the end, youth is fleeting and fickle and idols are as replaceable as brands.

So look out all you Quicksilver wearers, your clothes will one day too be out of style and passé. I advise to always keep retro within reach.

Catch the last screening of this film at AMC 7 on Friday, September 18th at 9pm.

Canada thrives on having a reputation of being a multifaceted country of many heritages that co-exist. What stood out for me in Short Cuts Canada Programmes 2 is the investigation of how immigrants express their individuality upon settling in a foreign land, and the struggles that befall those who don't feel a sense of belonging in their immediate communities.

 75 El Camino is coyly set in Sarnia's Chemical Valley, where director Sami Khan grew-up.  The fate of couple Travis and Marianne becomes split into two possible paths when they lose everything they have except for a shiny Chevy El Comino. Homeless, they are faced with holding on to this car as a token of their more prosperous past, or the chance to abandon the life they once had to break-free and travel on un-chartered adventures. The idea of a settled home is literally snatched as a present reality from the isolated couple, resulting in them being left to face some difficult challenges.

Snow Hides the Shade of Fig Trees (La Neige Cache l'ombre des Figuiers) is a touching story of 6 immigrant men that work together and deliver flyers. Though very different in appearance from one another, the common thread that binds these men together in a brotherhood is the nostalgia for their homelands. Touching and sad, the story pushes the reality of struggle and depression that many immigrants feel once displaced from their hereditary cultures.

Director Ryan Mullins, on the other hand, highlights remoteness from modern living and knowledge in his thoughtful documentary. Volta pieces together a larger understanding of the separation felt in many remote areas of less developed nations from the larger well-developed world. Rural Ghana is the setting of this passionate examination of the continual battle to balance the old world traditions within the new world order. Hope comes in the forum of using Ghana's abandoned theatres being used as a gathering spot to communicate ideas and information that would otherwise be inaccessible.

I have often pondered and written about my own diaspora as an East Indian-African-British-Canadian and these shorts all manage to show that this is a struggle that is universally faced by immigrants. Together these works are a powerful appeal for human empathy and recognition of the challenges that face the preservation of cultural diversites world-wide, not only in Canada.

The time is 9:16pm. The location is the Isabel Bader Theatre on Charles St., one of the many theatres that will be hosting TIFF 2009 films. Tonight is a very special night-the launch of Short Cuts Canada Programming with instalment 1. There is no doubt that the line-up is out in full force tonight, and those who have had a helping of this healthy dose of Canadiana before will know that this series brings together an array of eclectic national talent.

The crowd seems to generally between 25-35 and there is no shortage of colourful chatter amongst the excited people. A woman in-line declares that she hopes to catch all of the Canada Short Cuts Programming as she finds it a great opportunity to see works of multiple artists under the cover of one ticket price. Once seated in the theatre it is clear that the support for Canadian shorts lives large in the hearts of a close to sell-out venue that anxiously wait to see what's in store.

Now it's time for the show.... An exhale releases from me when the lights turn back on and I smile with satisfaction:

A conscious mind can take a journey of real vs. surreal, humans often battle with the stillness of welcoming life vs. the movement of being faced with death and this is a metaphor and reality on screen tonight. Caitriona Cantillon's Swimming Lesson transports to a place of domestic familial awkwardness but still manages to touch the heartstring of feeling realistic and relative to family life.  The stillness of the water somehow manages to make the moments of this short flow with intensity of wanting to know more about how the relationships have become so confrontational between 2 daughters and a mother, that though overbearing, feels painfully estranged from her children.

The Spine is a melancholic and beautiful walk through the journey of a long-term relationship of a couple that seems to love madly and love each other madly. That is, madly both in a hopelessly tragic and romantic way. The main side-effect through all the years of marriage is a loss of communication and respect of what brought them to each other in the beginning. Dan and Mary are two multi-faceted characters and Academy Award winner Chric Landreth's quirkiness is strong and bold.

Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq staring in Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael's Tungiijuq proves to be an intelligent collaboration of unique minds. My exposure earlier in the summer to Tagaq singing at Harbourfront Centre and now on-screen, wins me over as a fan of her intensity and rawness. Scenes of graphic carnivore behaviour ignite reaction and the briskness is perfect as a setting. The connection of Inuit culture and nature is never lost as the guiding spirit of life and death. Being transfixed to Tagaq's anthropomorphism is simply stunning. 

An education is given about what a baby is exposed to through dangerous hazards in everyday life, from eating to the ingestion of led in toys and paint finishes.  My Toxic Baby is a lively journal of Min Sook Lee's commitment to her daughter, Song Ji, and the devotion of mother to child is warming and motivating to promote activism and awareness. Helping is the fact that all the babies in the film seem to be ridiculously cute!

La Chute falls into the distress of elementary school teacher Marie's life in a moment that provokes her to make a choice to confront a parent of one of her students about child abuse. Whether what motivates her is an act of obsession as a persecutor or the mindfulness of a caregiver is in question.

Short Cuts Programme 2 continues today at 4pm at Isabel Bader Theatre.

It's hard to keep up with the great press that SCC has been receiving, and it's nice to know others are feeling what we've thought all along.

 Short Cuts Canada is the most dynamic and exiting programme that TIFF offers. But talk to any TIFF programmer, and they'll tell you the same about their respective programmes. What can we say, we're a proud bunch, who gets really excited about sharing great work with fantastic audiences.

 We were able to witness one of those fantastic audiences last night at Isabel Bader Theatre for a packed screening of Programme 1. It was a great launch to our programming and set the perfect tone for the week. For those who missed it, get tickets NOW for the 1pm repeat at Jackman Hall. 

 It will be the only tickets for a short programme you'll get today, unless you already have them in hand for Programme 2, cause the Bader will burst again this afternoon with Shorts enthusiasts ready to witness the sold out world premiere of 7 amazing new films including Guy Maddin's newest.

 Now for the reason of this post, to give you access to many of the great stories and interviews our films have been receiving.  

 It would be wrong not to start with Bruce Kirkland's glowing review of the SCC programme.

 "Short Cuts Canada may be the most dynamic, wildly eccentric and visually varied program in the Toronto International Film Festival.

No other single program can boast the breadth of styles, genres and subject matters, from the mainstream to the extreme."

I concur.

And I would add nowhere is this more evident than in programme 2. Guy Maddin has been a favourite for a number of years at TIFF, and the Night Mayor will only add to his lore. Bruce Kirkland talked with Maddin about his inspiration for the film. There's also the Winnipeg Free Press article about the hometown hero, with a glimpse of Maddin's upcoming (COLOUR!!) film. And if you just can't get enough, here's a full length interview transcript the NFB did with Maddin about the project. 

 There will no noubt be some Maddin fans at the screening today, but they'll be a joined by a wide range of cineastes who have caught onto a new wave of filmmakers in the programme, including Sami Khan, Sonya Di Rienzo, Samer Najari, Ryan Mullins, and Kazik Radanski. Radwanski has been quickly gaining a critical following, and if you've seen Princess Margaret Blvd., you'll know why.

Radwanski and his producing partner Dan Montgomery have refined their style and brought another great film to TIFF in Out in that Deep Blue Sea. Adam Nayman sums up the film in his interview with the director. 'Like its predecessor, Out in That Deep Blue Sea adopts a laser-like focus on a single character — a struggling real estate salesman (a superb Peter Bavis) in the throes of personal and professional paralysis. 

Radwanski creates an authenticity that shows he has his finger on the pulse of our times, and can make anyone seem like a seasoned actor with only a few minutes on screen. Inside Toronto profiled the Riverdale resident, and talked to him about his casting choices.

I'd be remiss not to mention the return of Richard Kerr and his film De Mouvement, an experimental collage film that has caught the eye of Norm Wilner of NOW , and Bruce Kirkland of the Toronto Sun, who highlights it as some of the best abstract work at the festival. 

There's no doubt, programme 2 will be a festival highlight today, so count yourself among the lucky if you managed to get your ticket and find yourself sitting in the Isabel Bader theatre come 4pm today.

 

 

 

 

The Wild Hunt offers a little bit of everything, what starts as a broad joke on the nerdiness of fantasy gamers slowly turns into something much darker, then culminates in an ending so brutal you’d think the wood chipper in Fargo understated by comparison.  It’s these disparate elements that make the film so enjoyable from start to finish.  Just as the joke on gamers could wear thin, the touching romance blossoms.  Just when we consider the gamers harmless dweebs, the sinister happenings so effectively forshadowed come to gruesome fruition.

If a big budget production set out to capture the appeal of the role playing universe they might get a few things right.  They could ring a few laughs out of discerning D and D’ers, but it takes real geeks to make a film geeks love and Mark Krupa and Alexandre Franchi have done just that with The Wild Hunt.

But they’re the first to admit they couldn’t have done it without Duché de Bicolline, an idyllic area near Shawinigan, Quebec reserved for “role-play to scale”.  Thousands of people engage in a full-scale battle here each year.  And The Wild Hunt maximized its miniscule budget by using the real-life fantasy buffs as extras.  The actors also picked their brains.  But that didn’t mean they had carte blanche to infringe on the fantasy. When lead Ricky Mabe was shooting scenes wearing city clothes he was asked to wear a robe so as not to spoil it for the hardcores who want to be totally immersed in their medieval fantasy world.

As a tribute to the real life gamers of Bicolline we name-check our five fave real-life (well sort of real anyways) guilds:  HOLY ORDER OF THE IRON FIST; WARRIORS OF THE MOUNTAIN; THE SON OF POLIGNAC; EMMISSARIES NAKKAN OSSAN and last but not least, perhaps by prophecy of divine oracle, XAOR.

As part of our illustrious guests attending the premiere of Programme 1 tonight, we're very pleased to announce that Tanya Tagaq will be attending the screening.

If you are not familiar with her work, you're missing out. If you are a fan, this is a great chance to see a great on screen performance in Tungijuq and see her in person.

Wow, just when we thought this screening was as fantastic as it could be, nice surprises like this occur. Only at TIFF.