Personal appearances by Jia Zhang-ke, Michael Snow, Lixin Fan, Ruba Nadda, Denis Villeneuve, Sherry White, Denis Côté, Chris Landreth and more

05/01/2010 | Toronto - TIFF Cinematheque's Winter season is set to inspire cinephiles, lovers of the visual arts, and activists alike with an impressive lineup of guests that includes Jia Zhang-ke, Lixin Fan, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Michael Snow, Ruba Nadda, Denis Villeneuve, Jacob Tierney, Sherry White, Denis Côté and Chris Landreth. Hosting both established and emerging filmmakers from Canada and abroad confirms TIFF's commitment to providing film lovers of all ages the opportunity to engage directly with film artists and offers a glimpse of how future TIFF Bell Lightbox programming will enrich the movie-going experience.

Opening on January 14 with the ninth annual Canada's Top Ten screening series, the season also features The Best of the Decade: An Alternative View, a curated selection of the most important films of the past decade based on TIFF Cinematheque's poll; the seventh edition of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and the second part of the powerful series curated by Jean-Pierre Gorin, The Way of the Termite: The Essay Film. Other highlights include seven of cinema's most beloved classics, to be presented as part of Classic Sundays: Treasures from the Bologna Film Festival; ten innovative avant-garde works by independent film and video artists that explore the possibilities of film as art, included in this season's The Free Screen; and a limited run of Maren Ade's award-winning second film, Everyone Else (2009).

Canada's Top Ten
Established in 2001, Canada's Top Ten is devoted to celebrating excellence in Canadian cinema and raising public awareness of Canadian achievements in film. Selected by national panels of filmmakers, journalists, programmers and industry professionals, Canada's Top Ten features and short films will screen between January 14 and 21 and will be accompanied by introductions and Q&A sessions with attending filmmakers. This year's lists feature a diverse range of audacious films by both established and emerging filmmakers, demonstrating the imaginative scope of Canadian talent. Guests who will be in attendance include directors Ruba Nadda (Cairo Time), Denis Côté (Carcasses), Sherry White (Crackie), Peter Stebbings (Defendor), Matthew Bissonnette (Passenger Side), Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique), Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky), Helen Haig-Brown (The Cave), Cam Christiansen (Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica) and Chris Landreth (The Spine).

In addition, Canada's Top Ten filmmakers Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky), Peter Stebbings (Defendor) and screenwriter and actor Mark A. Krupa (The Wild Hunt) will discuss the challenges of balancing humour and drama in a panel discussion called Seriously Funny, which will take place on January 15. All screenings and the panel discussion will be held at TIFF Cinematheque. A selection of the Top Ten films will tour select venues across Canada (including Vancouver's Pacific Cinematheque and Ottawa's Canadian Film Institute) in early 2010.

The Best of the Decade: An Alternative View
Organized in part to launch the 20th anniversary celebrations of TIFF Cinematheque (formerly Cinematheque Ontario), The Best of the Decade: An Alternative View will offer audiences the chance to experience the most influential films of this past decade on the big screen. The series features a curated selection of 41 films based on the results of a poll that TIFF Cinematheque's Senior Programmer, James Quandt, conducted among an esteemed panel of over 60 film curators, historians, archivists and programmers from festivals, cinematheques and similar organizations around the world. Beginning on January 21, this month-long cinematic feast will present the most important films by the two most influential filmmakers of the decade, critically acclaimed Thai artist and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and award-winning Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke, as both placed very highly in number of films (three each) and position in the poll. Weerasethakul's quiet masterpiece Syndromes and a Century (2006), ranked as the best film of the decade in the poll, is a mesmerizing homage to the director's parents, populated by a variety of vividly rendered characters including a dipsomaniac doctor who keeps her bottle stashed in a prosthetic leg and a Buddhist monk who wants to be a DJ. The series will also include Weerasethakul's Blissfully Yours (2002) and Tropical Malady (2004), which were never released in Canada.

TIFF Cinematheque is honoured to welcome Jia Zhang-ke to introduce the following three films, all included in the series: Platform (2000), The World (2004) and Still Life (2006). The full-length version of Platform will be presented for the first time anywhere since its initial festival outings. The film, which obtained the second spot on the poll, masterfully captures the convulsive social, economic and political changes in communist China between 1979 and 1989 by focusing on the misfortunes of a provincial theatre troupe. Still Life, the first of Jia's films to win a major festival award (the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival), is a mournful and mysterious odyssey about loss and dislocation. The director's funny and anguished vision of a new China comes across eloquently in The World, a sprawling masterpiece that interweaves the stories of several young people who work at the World Park on the outskirts of Beijing, a 114-acre stretch of detailed scale replicas of famous international landmarks.

The series will also showcase works by venerable masters such as Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), a brave meditation on life and death; Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000), a haunting chamber drama starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung; Agnès Varda's Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000), an intimate essay that focuses on the history and present practices of gleaning; Jean-Luc Godard's Éloge de l'amour (2001), an eloquent mourning for a lost culture and a time of political heroism; Hayao Miyazaki's surrealist fable Spirited Away (2001); Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (2002), a wildly hilarious, yet sensitive melodrama about a couple of comatose ladies and the men who love them; and Ingmar Bergman's magnificent final film, Saraband (2003).

Other highlights include Valeska Grisebach's Longing (2006), a poignant portrait of anguish that focuses on a man's unfaithfulness to the wife he adores; Gus Van Sant's daring foray into formalism, Gerry (2003), starring Casey Affleck and Matt Damon; David Cronenberg's unnerving thriller A History of Violence (2005), a stark examination of America's thirst for violence that stars Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello; Tsai Ming-liang's I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006), a ballad of homelessness and desire set in Kuala Lumpur; Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), a suspense thriller that centres on two young students in Bucharest during the waning days of communism, Pedro Costa's In Vanda's Room (2000), a visually astonishing portrait of two drug-addicted sisters; Claire Denis's Beau Travail (1999), a gorgeous study of desire and reprisal among a group of French Legionnaires in Djibouti; and Terrence Malick's The New World (2006).

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
TIFF Cinematheque's successful partnership with the Human Rights Watch Canada Committee brings another edition of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. This year's festival includes 10 courageous films that focus on survivors and activists from around the world fighting to restore freedom, justice and a sense of community. Lixin Fan's powerful documentary debut, Last Train Home (2009), launches the festival on February 24 with an in-person introduction by the director at the Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West). From the producers of Up the Yangtze, Fan's film is an insightful observation of the damages caused by China's frantic race toward industrialization and its impact on the family unit, which is causing children to grow up without parents and forcing them to plan for their future alone. The film is co-presented with the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Children are also the central focus in Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Paolo Santolini's Back Home Tomorrow (2008), a heart-wrenching examination of war's silent aftermath that follows two children who are victims of war-torn environments, and in Philippe Lioret's Welcome (2009), a stirring fictional portrait of a 17-year-old illegal Kurdish immigrant from Iraq who is trying to reach England from Calais. Three films this year feature women in different regions of Africa working together to move beyond their painful histories: Gabriela and Sally Gutiérrez Dewar's Tapologo (2008) is an extraordinary documentary that shows HIV-infected women transforming their own experience into a source of help for others while Anne Aghion's My Neighbor, My Killer (2009) and Lisa F. Jackson's The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (2007) expose the horrors of genocide and rape with honest, graphic and powerful testimonies. Other highlight films include Carlos Carrera's Backyard (2009), a fictional account of the ongoing homicides of Mexican women that continue to occur in the border town of Juárez; Tanaz Eshaghian's Be Like Others (2008), a provocative look at several queer young men who hope that a sex-change operation will lead to a life without persecution; and Triage (2009), by the Academy Award®-winning director of No Man's Land, Danis Tanovic. Starring Colin Farrell as a war photographer in the late 1980s, Triage is a moving exploration of how being a witness to war alters the human heart.

The Way of the Termite: The Essay Film, Part Two
Curated by luminary, filmmaker and professor Jean-Pierre Gorin, The Way of the Termite: The Essay Film, Part Two follows up on the success and excitement that the first part of the series generated among Toronto audiences last season. Running from February 25 to March 13, the series continues to explore the mingling of fact and fiction, focusing on films which mine the history of cinema and image culture in general (mass media, photography, newsreel footage, etc.). Opening with Yvonne Rainer's landmark A Film About a Woman Who… (1974), a key text of feminist and avant-garde cinema that meditates on the ambivalence and ineptitude of human communication (cross-listed with The Free Screen and co-presented by the International Experimental Media Congress), the series includes 16 films that construct essays on deeply personal and political matters. Some highlights include the new 35mm restoration and Toronto premiere of Margot Benacerraf's Cannes prize-winner, Araya (1959), a gorgeous high-contrast poem about the salt harvesters in the Araya lagoon in the northeastern part of Venezuela; Thom Andersen's (2003) Los Angeles Plays Itself, an epic and sprawling exploration of Los Angeles that uses more than 200 movie clips to reclaim a sense of the city's public history; and Jean-Pierre Gorin's first solo-directed feature, Poto and Cabengo (1979), an astonishing humanist essay on family life, immigration, poverty and the American dream, restored just in time for its screening at TIFF Cinematheque. In addition, Toronto audiences will be treated to seminal works by some of the greatest filmmakers of all time: Chris Marker's montage masterpiece Le Fond de l'air est rouge (1977/93), a heady cross between journalism and journal that charts the ups and downs of the New Left (le rouge) from the revolutionary movements of 1967 through to 1977; Jean-Luc Godard's late-period essayistic monument Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-97), a staggering summation of the twentieth century which offers unique and poignant meditations on the beauty and horror of cinema and the world; Joris Ivens's and Marceline Loridan's widely praised Une Histoire de vent (1988), a personal travelogue through the annals of time, cinema history, the Gobi desert and to the Great Wall of China in an attempt to film the wind; and Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's rarely screened Trop tôt, trop tard (1982), an essay on the often tentative, yet urgent conditions of revolution.

Ongoing Series - The Free Screen and Classic Sundays: Treasures from the Bologna Film Festival
Michael Snow's in-person introduction of his own masterpiece, La Région centrale (1971), launches The Free Screen on January 28, offering Torontonians a unique opportunity to watch what many consider to be Snow's best work in this rarely screened 16mm print. The screening is co-presented with the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, where the survey exhibition, "Recent Snow: Projected Works by Michael Snow," is on view until March 5. More information can be found at www.thepowerplant.org. The series also features Harun Farocki's Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1989), a sharp, provocative and multilayered refutation of photographic reality that examines aerial photographs of Auschwitz taken by American bombers, to be preceded by Georges Franju's Hôtel des invalides (1952), a cunning and subversive portrait of the Army Museum. This screening is cross-listed with The Way of the Termite: The Essay Film, Part Two. In addition, The Free Screen is delighted to co-present Time and Essence: The Preserved Films of Coleen Fitzgibbon and the screening of A Film About a Woman Who… (1974), with the 2010 International Experimental Media Congress, a gathering that will provide platforms for creative discussions about the burning issues related to experimental media production, exhibition, dissemination, criticism, pedagogy and reception. Time and Essence: The Preserved Films of Coleen Fitzgibbon welcomes Fitzgibbon, one of the key figures in the American avant-garde, to introduce a solo programme of her work from the 1970s. This important rediscovered body of work will be presented in preserved prints showcasing the vibrancy of her projects' rigour and colour palettes, and demonstrating the filmmaker's meticulous approach to image dissolution and disintegration. Yvonne Rainer's landmark A Film About a Woman Who… is cross-listed with The Way of the Termite: The Essay Film, Part Two. For further information on the 2010 Experimental Media Congress visit www.experimentalcongress.org.

Classic Sundays: Treasures from the Bologna Film Festival
This season's Classic Sundays: Treasures from the Bologna Film Festival focuses on recent restorations, beginning on January 16 with the exclusive Limited Run of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948). One of the cinema's most beloved classics, the film recently played to rave reviews at New York's Film Forum and sold out during TIFF Cinematheque's Fall season last year. Preservation for The Red Shoes is funded by the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Other must-sees include Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954), long considered one of the greatest colour films; Michelangelo Antonioni's hidden gem, The Girlfriends (1955); John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), which will make its TIFF Cinematheque debut in a luscious Technicolor restoration; an eye-popping print of Samuel Fuller's House of Bamboo (1955); the revival of Jacques Tati's sublime Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953); and the long-awaited screening of William Wellman's visually arresting Track of the Cat (1954), one of the great buried treasures of 1950s cinema.

Exclusive Limited Runs
The astonishing second feature by Maren Ade, Everyone Else (2009), receives its Toronto premiere on March 12 and 14. Hailed as the quintessential couple film of its generation, Everyone Else won the grand jury and best actress awards at last year's Berlin Film Festival, as well as the best director and FIPRESCI awards at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival. Screening in an exclusive limited run at TIFF Cinematheque, the film confirms Ade's extraordinary talent and daring, as she masterfully charts the febrile ups and downs of a young couple vacationing on the island of Sardinia.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes will also have a Limited Run on January 16 and 17. The film is cross-listed with Classic Sundays: Treasures from the Bologna Film Festival.

TIFF Cinematheque's 20th anniversary:
TIFF Cinematheque (formerly Cinematheque Ontario) became part of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 1990, when the organization assumed the operation of the Ontario Film Institute, which had been founded by Gerald Pratley in 1969. This year represents a milestone year for TIFF Cinematheque, as 2010 marks its 20th anniversary of presenting the best of classic and contemporary world cinema year-round through carefully curated programming, lectures, filmmaker monographs and international touring exhibitions. In its 20-year history, TIFF Cinematheque has risen to be one of the preeminent programming institutions of its kind. Film professionals in the international arena recognize its programming as among the best in the world, highlighting its inspired approach, the quality of presentation and the serious consideration it gives all genres and periods of cinema.

TIFF Cinematheque's membership programme update
As of the fall of 2010, TIFF Cinematheque screenings will move from Jackman Hall to our new home, TIFF Bell Lightbox. The five theatres in TIFF Bell Lightbox will mean substantially more TIFF Cinematheque programming and the opportunity to deliver exciting year-round film-related programming. Starting this spring, TIFF Cinematheque's membership programme will be replaced with a new TIFF Bell Lightbox membership programme offering new opportunities and additional benefits to ensure that members can experience all that TIFF Bell Lightbox has to offer. Membership benefits will include advanced ticketpurchase windows for TIFF Bell Lightbox programmes, member discounts, invitations for special events and access to the new members lounge. A full description of the new TIFF Bell Lightbox membership programme will be available in the spring of 2010.

In recognition of the longstanding support that TIFF Cinematheque members have provided over the past two decades, TIFF is extending current TIFF Cinematheque members the opportunity to renew their memberships at TIFF Cinematheque prices as they come due. This offer will be available to all current members whose TIFF Cinematheque memberships expire between November 2009 and August 31, 2010. TIFF Cinematheque memberships can be renewed by visiting tiff.net/cinematheque or by calling 416-968- FILM.

About TIFF Cinematheque
TIFF Cinematheque presents an ambitious selection of more than 300 films annually, including acclaimed directors' retrospectives, national and regional cinema spotlights, thematic programmes, experimental and avant-garde cinema, exclusive limited runs and classic and contemporary Canadian and international cinema, including many new and rare archival prints. For more information, visit tiff.net/cinematheque.

TIFF Cinematheque screenings are held at the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto (McCaul Street entrance), unless otherwise noted. Regular tickets are $5.90 for members and $10.14 for non-members. Limited Runs and Special Presentations are $7.08 for members and $11.56 for non-members. Lecture Series tickets are $9.91 for members and $15.33 for non-members. Canada's Top Ten ticket prices are: ten feature films plus the panel discussion for $65; special price for the two short film programmes for $14; single tickets (film, shorts programme or panel) are $8.00. Prices do not include GST, building-fund fee or service charges. Films playing at TIFF Cinematheque that have not been rated by the Ontario Film Review Board are restricted to individuals 18 years of age or older; check the TIFF Cinematheque website for updates on film ratings. Visit our Box Office at 2 Carlton Street (on the West Mezzanine, Monday to Friday, 10am to 7pm) or call 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM for tickets and more info. Tickets for the Winter season and for Canada's Top Ten for members and nonmembers are on sale now.

About TIFF Bell Lightbox: Currently under construction, TIFF Bell Lightbox, a breathtaking five-storey complex located in downtown Toronto, will provide a permanent home for film lovers to celebrate cinema from around the world and will propel TIFF forward as an international leader in film culture. Designed by innovative architecture firm KPMB, TIFF Bell Lightbox's fluid structure encourages exploration, movement and play. The campaign to build TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by founding sponsor Bell, the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario, the King and John Festival Corporation - consisting of the Reitman family and the Daniels Corporation - RBC as major sponsor and official bank, Visa†, the Copyright Collective of Canada, NBC Universal Canada, the Allan Slaight Family, the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation and CIBC. The Board of Directors, staff and many generous individuals and corporations have also contributed to the campaign. For more information on the TIFF Bell Lightbox campaign, visit belllightbox.ca.

About TIFF: TIFF is a not-for-profit cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world through film. Its vision is to lead the world in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image. TIFF generates an annual economic impact of $135 million CAD and currently employs more than 100 full-time staff and 500 part-time and seasonal staff, and counts upon the largesse of over 2,000 volunteers year round.

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For information, contact the Communications Department at 416-934-3200 or email proffice@tiff.net.