Four films in the this year's Vancouver International Film Festival
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| Lest We Forget | |
The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), which runs from September 23 to October 8, features two provocative docs, 100% Woman and Lest We Forget, and two quirky shorts, A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum and The Drawing--all four distributed by Moving Images Distribution.
Courtesy of the two docs, this year's VIFF covers some rocky terrain. Nothing less is required to keep pace with Michelle Dumaresq, the champion mountain biker and pioneering transsexual athlete at the centre of 100% Woman, a compelling documentary from Karen Duthie and Diana Wilson. Executive producers are Cari Green and Harry Sutherland.
And if Dumaresq's trailblazing through identity politics and bigotry doesn't rattle you enough, catch Jason DaSilva's Lest We Forget. His discomfiting look at the parallels between WWII's Japanese internment and today's indiscriminate targeting of Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian people draws some inevitable but hard conclusions about human rights in Canada and the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11.
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| The Drawing |
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A light-hearted foray into culture and identity is Ling Chiu's offbeat new short, A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum. A Chinese girl negotiates her heritage while Grandma turns a squirrel's accidental death to her family's gain.
In The Drawing by Jason Buxton, a young boy encounters critic's barbs early when his teacher and classmates ridicule his pencil sketch of a dinosaur. Staying true to his artistic temperament literally takes the 10-year old to society's fringes and makes his re-entry into playground politics an exercise in exile.
100% Woman plays with The Unsexing of
Emma Edmonds--
Tue, Oct 5 7pm Granville 7 Cinema 2 $9
Thu, Oct 7 12:30pm Pacific Cinémathèque
$7
Lest We Forget plays with And Thereafter--
Wed, Sep 29 10am Pacific Cinémathèque $7
Thu, Sep 30 6pm Granville 7 Cinema 5 $9
A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum is part of the
Canadian Images program, Remarkable Moments of Being--
Mon, Oct 4 7pm Pacific Cinémathèque $9
Wed, Oct 6 3pm Pacific Cinémathèque $7
The Drawing is part of the Canadian Images
program, Epitaph--
Tue, Sep 28 7pm Pacific Cinémathèque $9
Thu, Sep 30 3pm Pacific Cinémathèque $7
To find details and to purchase tickets, visit the VIFF web site.
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You can also view our comprehensive online catalogue in HTML, indexed by Title, Subject and Director/Producer, or you can browse our New Releases below. Please call us at 604.684.3014 or send us an e-mail if you have any other questions. |
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100% Woman
Karen Duthie/Diana Wilson
100 Percent Woman Productions
59 minutes •
2004
100% Woman begins as Michelle Dumaresq's mountain-bike riding career did, careening down a rocky path to be met with controversy. From some critics comes cautious concern, from others, complete attack. At the centre of it all is the past of this extreme athlete—in particular, the first 20-odd years of life that Michelle spent as Michael.
In 2002, Dumaresq became the first openly transgendered woman in the world to be named to a national team in any sport. Beginning with her days on the BC race circuit, to the Canada Cup, the national title and finally, a berth at the World Championships, her progress is dogged by constant scrutiny, both from fellow competitors and the media. Dumaresq insists she doesn't race to make a stand, but doesn't shy from being a trailblazer. She grew up in turmoil over her identity and struggled to come to terms with herself as an adult, even with her parents' whole-hearted support. She takes on the mantle of role model because she understands how isolated others like her feel. Dr. Jerrilyn Prior, the pioneer of sex-hormone use in gender re-assignment therapy, backs up Dumaresq's quest to compete and explains how hormonal changes drastically reduce musculature.
This compelling documentary raises timely questions about what it means to be a "real" woman in the world of competitive sports and beyond.
Alicia and the Mystery Box
France Benoit
38 minutes •
2003
Also available on DVD
Cuba, Québec, Yellowknife, Halifax and Puerto Rico mix in this emotional documentary about memory, family, culture, politics and identity. France Benoit is a Québécoise living in the Northwest Territories. During a visit to her in-laws, she discovers an unexplained box of mementoes from Cuba nestled in a trunk. Her husband can only tell her that his late grandfather once worked in the Canadian embassy in pre-Castro Havana. But the contents of the box clearly belong to someone else—black and white photos of a wealthy Cuban family, baptismal certificates, newspaper clippings and baby books lovingly inscribed in English handwriting. Immediately, France vows to find the rightful owner and return these treasures.
What she discovers is Alicia de Arango and a Cuban family history marked by privilege, intrigue and the tragic reversal of fortunes that followed Castro's revolution. The journey takes France, mystery box in hand, from her home in the Northwest Territories to Cuban history expert John M. Kirk at Dalhousie University, to Alicia's new home in San Juan, Puerto Rico and, of course, to Cuba. For France, the odyssey is cultural, political and deeply personal. She cherishes the unexpected chance to connect with Alicia, a kindred spirit living outside her homeland, negotiating two cultures and thriving through change because of the strong bonds of family.
Call It Karma
Geoff Browne
48 minutes •
2004
Also available on DVD
Call It Karma is the inspiring true story of young Tibetan Monk Gyalten Rinpoche who in 1995 was sent on a spiritual pilgrimage by his Master to walk 1,000 miles from his remote mountain village. Through the Holy City of Lhasa, starving and exhausted, he makes his way across the rooftop of the world to the impoverished Nepalese villages and into the sacred lands of India.
Nearly six years later, he establishes a Buddhist center in the West and befriends filmmaker Geoff Browne on the streets of Vancouver. Together, they travel back to the Rinpoche's home village where Geoff witnesses an emotional reunion between the Rinpoche, his Master and family.
Crank
Kevin Langdale
6 minutes •
2001
Crank juxtaposes the seemingly nonsensical with the precision of science, classification and system. Our belief in the order of language does not guarantee communication. Ultimately we are left with a disturbing picture of the futility of the urban environment—city as machine.
The Drawing
Jason Buxton
20 minutes •
2004
Also available on DVD
A young boy encounters critic's barbs early when his teacher and classmates ridicule his pencil sketch of a dinosaur. Staying true to his artistic temperament literally takes the 10-year old to society's fringes and makes his re-entry into playground politics an exercise in exile. Beautifully and starkly shot, this stylish drama deftly accesses the intense focus of a child's imagination.
Fortune Cookies
Xia Tong
15 minutes •
2004
In English and Chinese with English sub-titles
Filmmaker Xia Tong explores the loneliness and turmoil that often mark the transition to a new country. His blend of poetry, memory and dreams, intercut with overheard conversations, street festival chaos and news bytes about the illegal Chinese migrants off the BC coast, create a devastating portrait of the isolation and identity loss often overlooked in the celebration of multiculturalism.
A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum
Ling Chiu/Selena La Brooy
Earthling Films
13 minutes •
2004
Also available on DVD
"Fortune was always there; you can't be Chinese and not know about it."
In this quirky short drama, filmmaker Ling Chiu looks at the inner workings of a Chinese immigrant family. They face the day's trials—whether it's the struggle to negotiate the outside world or the family's internal jockeying for position—with practicality, a light heart and, when it counts most, absolute discretion. Younger Sister tells the story, folding in romance, family economics and grandma's lucky encounter with one ill-fated squirrel. The family's fortune, good and bad, not only binds them to each other, it just may be each other.
Little Boy Blue
Donna Barker
Adisen Productions
8 minutes •
2004
Includes discussion guide
Also available on DVD
Over 11 million American children took antidepressant drugs in 2003. And the numbers are growing quickly—particularly among children aged five and younger. Little Boy Blue blends startling statistics with expert testimony, a mock public service announcement and words-from-the-mouths-of-babes to deliver a message that is a hard pill to swallow.
University of Victoria drug-policy researcher Alan Cassels asserts "the [pharmaceutical] industry is in basically two businesses—the business of creating chemicals and the business of creating disease." He examines the manipulative advertising techniques employed by drug companies and points out that they spend more money educating doctors about drugs than all medical schools in Canada combined. He also highlights the research of Dr. Andrew Mosholder, a senior epidemiologist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In 2003, Mosholder found that children given antidepressants were nearly twice as likely to become suicidal.
Ultimately, this cautionary documentary challenges parents to arm themselves with questions before putting their children in the hands of "experts."
My Hurricane
Lulu Keating
Red Snapper Film
5 minutes •
2004
In this dreamy, fractured drama, a woman recalls the recent death of her lover. The remembered rhythms of his last breaths build into the hurricane winds that pounded Nova Scotia in September 2003. The violent squall matches the turbulence of her life. Told in narrative fragments, layered with whispers, an emergency radio broadcast, the lonely whistles of wind and the savage crack of falling branches, My Hurricane becomes a tale of a woman overcome by storm, but in its lull, surfacing.
Les passeurs
Hejer Charf
Nadja Productions
79 minutes •
2003
Fictional characters Ulysse, Maya, Adam, Barbara and Thomas pace Montreal's Boulevard St. Laurent, attuned to the stories of the real people they meet. A Haitian Innu, a punk rocker, a pale-skinned Cree, a Laotian theology student, a Hassidic couple, an elderly matron from the townships who was her family's seventh-born…with candour, passersby express a sense of belonging to the city, their culture, community, family and language. The facets of their identity complement one another as often as clash. On one level a film about being Québécois, at another, it is a meditation on storytelling, on the many worlds we visit through poetry, song and personal narrative. As the young wanderers absorb the rhythm of every overheard language, they begin to understand more closely how each person cobbles together identity.
Interweaving scenes from Le chat dans le sac, Gilles Groulx's seminal film on Québec's Quiet Revolution, filmmaker Hejer Charf both employs a "Cinéma direct" style and reconsiders the isolation felt by Québec's Francophone majority. The two solitudes may have multiplied as the face of Montreal has diversified, but Les passeurs points to a future where Montreal's many cultures create a new collective identity. With quotes from Jack Kerouac, Omar Khayyam, the Koran, Arthur Rimbaud and Rainer Maria Rilke, this road movie of less than a dozen blocks embraces all the world.
Team Spirit: The Jordin and Terence Tootoo Story
Ken Malenstyn/Barrie Dunn/Alexis Arthur
Big Red Barn Entertainment/Trailer Park Productions
48 minutes •
2004
Also available on DVD
Team Spirit: The Jordin and Terence Tootoo Story starts in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut during the summer of 2002, as two Inuit brothers are making history. Twenty-two-year old Terence has become the first Inuk to play professional hockey, and 19-year-old Jordin is trying out for Canada's 2002 national junior team and ultimately the NHL. But tragedy strikes when Terence suddenly commits suicide. Jordin, left with the full weight of role-model pressure and the increasing glare of the media spotlight, strives to carry on and realize his dreams.
Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche
Directed by Jill Sharpe
Produced by Gabriela Schonbach
Omni Film Productions
59 minutes •
2004
If you had to boil Canadian film down, would you get the unlikely combo of awkward sex pitched against a barren northern landscape? Weird Sex and Snowshoes, the fresh, fast-paced, funny documentary based loosely on Vancouver Sun film critic Katherine Monk's acclaimed book, is cagey enough to say just that. And more.
A smorgasbord of interviews and film clips, Weird Sex gives some of Canada's most celebrated filmmakers the chance to sound off on "Just what is Canadian film?" Atom Egoyan, Robert Lepage, Patricia Rozema, Denys Arcand, Zacharias Kunuk, Denis Villeneuve, Lynne Stopkewich, Clement Virgo, and others reveal opinions as diverse as their filmmaking styles. But despite scads of ideas, certain defining characteristics do emerge: a fascination with the outsider, exiled by Canada's enormous geography, cultural differences, internal demons; the everyday and ordinary made by turns poignant, bizarre and even mystical; a willingness to take artistic risks; a style that borrows heavily from both documentary and theatre; absurdist humour; and it goes without saying, the ever-present influence and reaction against the behemoth to the south, the USA.
As scenes from Mon Oncle Antoine, Atanarjuat, My American Cousin, Rude, Margaret's Museum, Jesus de Montreal, The Saddest Music in All the World, 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould, Flower & Garnet, Goin' Down the Road, and all told more than 70 Canadian films, rocket across the screen, the notion of a unified Canadian cinema starts to take shape.
For more information, contact Moving Images Distribution
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