Monday, October 06, 2008

VIFF 2008: Film Guests Oct 6-10...

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VIFF FILM GUESTS IN TOWN October 6 – 10

CANADIAN FILMS:

FIERCE LIGHT: WHEN SPIRIT MEETS ACTION (NFB)
Velcrow Ripper Director, and others to Oct 8

Referred to as "soul force" by Gandhi and "love in action" by Martin Luther King, Velcrow Ripper (Scared Sacred) examines the roots of spiritual activism, with insight from spiritual luminaries Thich Nhat Hahn and Desmond Tutu, and activists, including Alice Walker, Julia Butterfly Hill and Daryl Hannah.

Oct 9, 10:30am Gr2

THE MORNING PARTY (short)
Evan Crow Director to Oct 11

Screens in A DERIVE program

Oct 8, 8:30pm Vancity
Oct 9, 4pm Vancity

OUT IN THE COLD (medium length)
Sarah Abbott Producer to Oct 7

Erroll Kinistino and Mathew Strongeagle Actors

An interpretation of the notorious “starlight tours” in Canada (eg Frank Paul case, etc)

Screens in MAPS program

Oct 5, 9:45pm Gr1
Oct 6, 3pm Gr1

PRINCESS MARGARET BLVD (short)
Kazik Radwanski Director and others to Oct 8

Screens in A DERIVE

Oct 8, 9:30pm Vancity
Oct 9, 4pm Vancity

DOWN TO THE DIRT
Justin Simms Director to Oct 9

This visceral and darkly humorous story of the difficult journey towards redemption is littered with empty bottles, debts and a hard-earned lesson from a Haligonian pimp Renny (Hugh Dillon). Justin Simms' film is based on the acclaimed novel by lead actor Joel Thomas Hynes.

Oct 6, 6:20pm Gr4
Oct 8, 4:30pm Pacific Cinematheque

EDISON & LEO
Neil Burns Director Oct 4 – 11

Producers are local

Canada's first stop-motion animated feature, Neil Burns' work is a sumptuous fairytale-gone-wrong about quirky inventor George T. Edison who endangers his family in a quest to create a viable electric light bulb. Somewhere beyond the realm of ordinary imagination, this is a wildly emotional roller coaster ride of adventure.

Oct 7, 7pm Gr7
Oct 9, 1pm Gr7

REAL TIME
Randall Cole Director Oct 7 – 9

Randy Quaid and Jay Baruchel deliver exceptional performances in Randall Cole's tightly focussed feature of compulsion, loss and redemption. Watch for Jayne Eastwood in a standout cameo.

Oct 7, 9:30pm Gr2
Oct 9, 11am Gr4

MY SON THE PORNOGRAPHER (medium length)
Peter Campbell Director Oct 7 – 11

Screens in PARENTING program

Oct 7, 9:30pm Pacific Cinematheque
Oct 10, 3:45pm Vancity

45 RPM
David Schultz Director Oct 8 – 11

Justine Banszky Actor Oct 5 - 12

Director Dave Schultz's nostalgic coming-of-age tale tells the story of two teenaged outsiders stuck in a small Saskatchewan town in 1960. When a rock 'n roll radio DJ promises tickets to New York as a prize for a new contest, they finally have a way to escape town--or do they?

Wed Oct 8, 7pm Pacific Cinematheque
Fri Oct 10, 1:30pm Pacific Cinematheque

INTERNATIONAL GUESTS IN TOWN OCTOBER 6 - 10

BIRDSONG (Spain)

Albert Serra Director Oct 4 - 8
Montse Triola Actor Oct 4 - 8
Mark Peranson Actor local

Albert Serra (Honor de cavalleria VIFF 06) returns with this gorgeously shot re-telling of the Three Kings biblical odyssey. Serra's penchant for stunning vistas and his profound love of, and respect for, the awesome aspects of the natural world are paramount as he follows his three wise men over mountains and through deserts on their journey to Jesus. Note: we will also be presenting Waiting for Sancho--Mark Peranson's documentary about the making of Birdsong--at this year's VIFF.

Sun. Oct 5, 6:40pm, Granville #3
Tue. Oct 7, 1:15pm, Vancity Theatre

CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN (USA)

Lee Anne Schmitt Director Oct 3 – 8

Lee Anne Schmitt's portrait of Californian history and development is retold through the physical traces left behind in abandoned towns and communities. The rise and fall of human fortunes and the slow dissolution of the American dream is written upon the landscape, and captured in this remarkable documentary.

Sun. Oct 5, 1:30pm, Vancity Theatre
Tue. Oct 7, 7:00pm, Cinémathèque

THIS DUST OF WORDS (USA)

Bill Rose Director Oct 5 – 9

The lines from Beckett's Molloy: "I'm all these words, all these strangers, this dust of words, with no ground for their settling, no sky for their dispersing." provide a fitting summation of Bill Rose's film portrait of Liz Wiltsee and the kindness of strangers. With an IQ of 200, Wiltsee's life and death elegantly evince the high price of genius.

Mon. Oct 6, 7:00pm, Cinémathèque
Wed. Oct 8, 11:00am, Vancity Theatre

OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST (Portugal/France)

Miguel Gomes Director to Oct 7

In the mountains of Portugal, August is traditionally a time of celebration, full of feasting, singing, jumping off bridges and various other forms of debauchery. Director Miguel Gomes combines the deep pull of history and the complexities of family through an intimate melding of fact and fiction.

Mon. Oct 6, 1:00pm, Cinémathèque

THE BETRAYAL(USA/Laos)

Ellen Kuras Director Oct 7 – 10

Award winning cinematographer Ellen Kuras' decades-long story of a family odyssey from war-torn Laos to the mean streets of New York... Replete with stunning images and a poetic, heartfelt narrative (co-constructed with subject Thavisouk Phrasavath), The Betrayal is unforgettable. "An impressive and original fusion of the political and the personal."—Newsweek

Wed. Oct 8, 7:00pm, Granville #2
Thu. Oct 9, 4:30pm, Granville #2

SLEEP FURIOUSLY (Wales)

Gideon Koppel Director to Oct 7

Gideon Koppel's film is a transcendently lovely documentary set in a small farming community in mid-Wales, a place where an ancient way of life, predicated on the rhythms of farming and the slow revolutions of the seasons, is vanishing one aged resident at a time. "The least anthropocentric film I've ever seen."--Alex Cox. Soundtrack by Aphex Twin!

Sun. Oct 5, 7:00pm, Vancity Theatre
Mon. Oct 6, 1:15pm, Vancity Theatre

IN YOUR ABSENCE (Spain)

Iván Noel Director to Oct 9

Debuting director Iván Noel fashions a beautiful coming-of-age tale with a decided twist, set in the gorgeous rolling hills and verdant fields of Andalusia in southern Spain. Haunted by the death of his father, young Pablo takes an interest in a passing stranger, in town while his car is being repaired, with unpredictable and tragic results. World Premiere.

Tue. Oct 7, 7:00pm, Granville #1
Thu. Oct 9, 1:30pm, Granville #2

BLUE GOLD: WORLD WATER WARS (USA/Canada)

Tony Clarke Co-Author Oct 8 – 10

Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke's call to arms Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water, forms the basis for Sam Bozzo's incendiary film that travels the world and makes explicit the connection between water and power. World Premiere.

Thu. Oct 9, 7:15pm, Granville #2
Fri. Oct 10, 1:00pm, Granville #7

LUCKY 7

Sun Koh Director to Oct 6

Bane of the Singapore censors, Sun Koh is a naughty director. She invited six other Singaporean filmmakers to join her in a game of "exquisite corpse": a chain of episodes linked only by the presence of actor Sunny Pang which mysteriously adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Singapore’s film culture has been stymied from the start by interference from the "free" world’s most conservative paternalistic government; here, for the first time outside the work of Eric Khoo and Royston Tan, it suddenly looks lively and inventive. It’s not quite as random as the exquisite corpse game strictly requires, because directors worked on each other’s episodes, but you’ll forgive the odd contrivance because the overall result is so much fun.

PACHAMAMA

Toshifumi Matsushita Director to Oct 7

Director Toshifumi Matsushita's fresh approach to the coming-of-age story is helped immeasurably by actors whose open faces and fundamental honesty can't help but shine forth. As father and son, and their huge herd of llamas, make their slow way into the mountains, the accumulation of many small details adds up into something altogether absorbing. A bit of bartered honeycomb, grief spun into song, dreams and nightmares--all are beautifully caught and the cumulative effect is powerful. There is deep warmth to Pachamama, a quality that insinuates itself gently, and with almost no self-consciousness. When they reach their final destination (Bolivia's famous Tinku festival) Kunturi feels the giddy euphoria of first love...

Sun, Oct 5th 7:00pm Empire Granville 7 Th 1
Mon, Oct 6th 3:00pm Empire Granville 7 Th 5

THE LONGWANG CHRONICLES

Yifan Li Director/Producer to Oct 7

Li Yifan's documentary chronicles, with a fiercely analytical eye, one year in the life of Longwang village, a typically poor farming village located near Chongqing, China. Li structures his film according to the traditional Chinese almanac, with various seasons revealing a different aspect of the interplay of Chinese Communist Party government and impoverished rural life today.

Mon, Oct 6th Noon Empire Granville 7 Th 5

GRANDMA AND WRESTLING

Hyung Sun Lim Director to Oct 7

Hyung-Sup visits his grandma’s home to fix her bathroom light, and gets more than he bargained for when he’s pressed to stay for dinner. Writer-director Lim Hyung-Sup has just graduated from the film department of ChungAng University...


Ellie O'Day Media Director/Canadian Images & Spotlight on France Publicist