Life after VIFF
17 October 2009
With so much great celluloid on display over the past two weeks, it may be hard to imagine a day without a film in it. But fear not, there are many post-VIFF offerings to satisfy that newly realized addiction…
This weekend, you can see many VIFF repeats at the Vancity Theatre for $10. One of my favourite films in this year’s fest, This Way of Life, plays Saturday night. You can buy tickets here or read my review here.
Also this weekend, the Stone Soup Film Festival: Exploring the Politics of Food runs all weekend in the Britannia High School Auditorium. A weekend pass is $15 or you can pay by donation for each film. A shortened version of HomeGrown will be screened as well as Indigenous Plant Diva and many others. You can see the whole lineup and view many of the films’ trailers here.
Sunday, there is an all ages screening of Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at the Pacific Cinematheque.
Next week, there are two free screenings of Brazilian films at the Frederick Wood Theatre (6361 University Boulevard) at UBC:
Wednesday, Oct 21 at 7:30pm – UM PASSAPORTE HÚNGARO / THE HUNGARIAN PASSPORT (2001 – 72 min.)
“This film, in Portuguese, French, and Hungarian with English subtitles, chronicles Brazilian director Sandra Kogut’s frustrating and often hysterical attempts to jump through the bureaucratic hoops necessary for her to obtain a Hungarian passport. On the way, she explores a painful family history of forced emigration and a hidden legacy of anti-Semitism as she confronts some essential questions: What is nationality? What is a passport for? What should we do with our heritage? How do we construct our history and our own identity?”
Friday, Oct 23 at 7:30pm – O OUTRO LADO DA RUA / THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET (2004 – 98 min.)
“Suspicious minds and autumnal romance cross paths in this Brazilian film from director Marcos Bernstein. Regina who works for the neighborhood watch in Copacabana believes she has witnessed a murder in a building across the street. She ends up getting involved with the suspect in a dangerous chain of events that will force her to take stock in her life in a way she could never have imagined.”
And finally, don’t forget there’s another film festival on the horizon: the Amnesty International Film Festival from November 12 to 15. They have a great lineup and I hope to review many of their films in advance to help you find your favourites. Stay tuned for more!
Charlie Haden: Rambling Boy
17 October 2009
Man, this guy is great. And the film does well to highlight his musical genius and vision. Unfortunately, we only get a glimpse at his politics but anyone who puts together a band called the Liberation Music Orchestra and goes to jail for justice…well, as Anne Feeney sings, they’re a friend of mine.
I wish I had the musical background to comment on Charlie Haden’s contribution to the jazz scene and music world in general, but that’s one of the strengths of this film. It also gives us solid stretches of his playing with various other jazz masters, while taking us on a journey through his musical life.
The highlight for me was when Charlie was in Portugal and dedicated a song to the Black Liberation Struggles in Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, and Angola and the huge crowd erupted for minutes of pandemonium, completely drowning out their music. It then showed how scary life can be for fathers in this world when he was jailed the next day. His privilege rescued him, however, but the world had changed again thanks to Charlie Haden.
Welcome to the last week of the Vancouver International Film Festival! There are still plenty of great films left to see, some of which haven’t even screened yet. It’s been a great festival for film so far.
Below is an interview with the makers of Petals: Journey of Self-Discovery.
But first a quick glimpse at the latest City of Vancouver Climate Change Program that I just uncovered on Granville Street in Downtown Vancouver.
Anyone can see for themselves the effectiveness of providing approximately 200 free car parking spots: they are jammed full day and night. Contrast that with the bike parking provided; I’ve just traversed the entire length of Granville Street downtown and came up with this number: 0. That’s right, 200 free car parking spots and 0 bike parking spots.
I spoke with the Mayor last Tuesday night and he said that he had contacted the Engineering Department to get bike racks installed out front of the Granville 7 but hadn’t heard back yet. I’m not surprised, but it raises some serious issues: who is running our City? And is anyone abiding by the City’s Transportation Plan (it clearly prioritizes walking over biking over transit over goods and services over private motorized vehicles)?
It seems that this current Mayor and Council won’t do what it takes to fix easy and obvious blunders. And until the Engineering Department is purged of the many suburbanites that drive to work and refuse to read, much less implement the 1997 Transportation Plan, our City will continue to be a major contributor to climate change.
Where did I talk to the Mayor, you may ask? At a screening of The Age of Stupid, of course. How a propos.
An interview with the director and producer of Petals: Journey into Self-Discovery
Reellife: This is a beautifully crafted film that really normalizes talking about Vulvas and moves this topic away from the realm of pornography into the realm of art and everyday beauty. How did you come to this project?
Arwen Hunter, Producer (AH): A photo study was in process and Beck thought there was a film; it is real cinema verité.
Beck Peacock, Director (BP): Yeah, and I thought it would be easy to publish the book, but no one would touch it. In the end, a Korean publishing house printed the first 5,000 copies and Nick Karras self-published. The book has been so successful that Nick is now in the black.
Reellife: One concern in my mind while watching the film was that it initially follows Nick, a male, and is directed by another male, Beck, despite the obviously female subject.
AH: We answer that question at every Q&A.
BP: It’s a film about Nick’s desire to first empower his wife, then other women, through the use of photography. Nick was a reluctant character.
AH: But it is also about the artistic beauty of the vulva; it is about the fact that we don’t look at it as being beautiful. We can for waterfalls, canyons, etc.. There is a lot of pressure to keep the mystic for selling beer and other commodities and that spans all genders and sexes. But feminism is different in this generation: are things going to change so that vulvas become normal and this film becomes moot?
BP: When Arwen joined the project, she gave it a new life and added a much needed female sensibility.
Reellife: Betty Dodson also adds much to your film through humour and education. How did you bring her in?
AH: Beck knew her in the 70’s and they stayed friends; when Beck took over the Erotic Art Festival in Victoria, we filmed her there. She’s so refreshing because she can say the c-word so unapologetically and positively. She’s 80 now. In the film, she’s 76 and had a 26 year old boyfriend.
BP: Betty is very generous. She did this stuff way back in the early 70s in Greenwich Village. She would show pussy slides in her apartment; she’s an excellent artist, at first drawing vulvas and then then using photography in her crusade to teach women.
Reellife: Where do you think the resistance to talking about vulvas in school, on TV, and in general, comes from?
BP: The Victorian era and even before around 300 AD with the advent of Christianity; they want to control women’s sexuality.
AH: Linda Savage said that when civilization changed from matrilineal to patrilineal, it obviously changed everything…women were now property to be passed and controlled. Beck was a monk for a year. Church theology states that masturbation is a mortal sin; spilling the seed is wasting the seed. But what about female masturbation? Theology doesn’t deal with it at all.
BP: Yes, the clitoris isn’t understood; is giving yourself pleasure a mortal sin? The church was a big teacher and they don’t know shit.
Reellife: What plans do you have for the film?
AH: I feel the best approach to getting the film out there is enabling someone who sees the film and feels inspired to give it to someone else. We have a distributor in Europe and it’s available online in North America. A company in Germany wants to package the book and DVD together.
BP: The Berlin Porn Festival will be showing it at the end of the month.
AH: Because the film was selected for Amsterdam, the largest Doc Fest in the world, the film has a life of its own. It’s been on TV in Estonia and has played at the Greece Health Film Festival, as well as many others.
BP: But the raison d’etre remains the same: to empower women to love all of themselves.
Slippery Road
12 October 2009
Many kudos to the curator of this fabulous line-up of Canadian shorts. Despite the many great Canadian features I’ve seen (especially at this festival), this program may also convince you that not only do people living in this part of the world make some of the best short films anywhere, it is a very worthy thing to do.
Highlights in this program:
Shi-Shi-Etko: “Can you imagine a community, without children. Can you imagine children without parents?” These words close a film that shows the lead-up to the forced removal of one child from her family by the state. Beautifully shot and another important step toward understanding the unimaginable pain that our genocidal policies inflict.
Big Head: in 10 minutes I laughed and screamed while I was totally convinced…children’s humiliation drives them to extremes and schools only exacerbate this devastating problem.
Carmen: I can’t believe a 6 minute film could reduce me to a sobbing mess. It’s about unconditional love; it deeply touched my heart and proves that there is the odd soul who can keep unconditionally loving beyond their childhood.
Dog = God: a fun and lively ode to woman’s best friend. The music is a perfect compliment to the rest of the program.
Instant: finally, a film that shows the deadly repercussions of driving motorized vehicles. But this is hilarious and smart as hell. The writeup in the guide minimizes the depths that this one dives…it’s brilliant!
Unlocked: I can’t say enough about this 14 minute gem. Bicycles, family dysfunction passed down, and hilarious. My guess is that Alice Miller would approve wholeheartedly and it’s simply worth the price of admission alone as it shows one person’s reactions to constantly finding other bikes locked to his.
Everyone Else
12 October 2009
I really liked this one. It wasn’t fancy or all that funny, but it tackles romatic relationships and the repressed feelings that fuck them up very well.
Being a Bavarian film, the subject matter and setting are ideal; a couple are vacationing at his parent’s Sardinian villa. We see his sister and family leaving and he and his girlfriend are shown to be very different than what we see for most of the rest of the film. And unfortunately the “star of the show”, Schnappi, doesn’t reappear until the final image.
Both leads are convincingly stuck in their journeys through their childhood repression (I know this because Alice Miller and others tell me so) and the film depicts – with great accuracy – the results: low self-esteem, co-dependency and living in fear. It’s so difficult to navigate these waters without knowledgeable help, but once you do, they are easy to spot and get clear of.
Not surprisingly, the director is a woman…not many men would tackle this material nor find the sensibilities that Maren Ade does. I truly hope that Everyone Else enjoys it as much as I did.
My Dog Tulip
12 October 2009
British dog lovers rejoice! This one’s for you…
A love story shared by a lonely old man, he does well to use words like vulva and even talk about sex and poo (although he does avoid them just as much).
The animation is ravishingly rudimentary and brings the words of the author of the book of the same name to life in a way that feels right.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t say a lot and it falls into a talking head presentation too much for my liking. But one thing it does do is confirm that gentleness always is the best way to treat anyone: adult, child, or dog. Thank you.
I Remember (Je me souviens)
12 October 2009
I went expecting a lot more and was frankly disappointed. It has so much potential since the material is rich (mining town in ‘49 with a corrupt Premier and Clergy), but despite the lovely B&W print, it simply falls short.
The characters simply don’t develop as they could and the personal relationships they develop and dissolve just aren’t convincing to me. And the ending is just too contrived.
The humour is dry and sprinkled throughout, so it was fun and I had hope throughout. But ultimately, this is one movie that I do not plan to Remember.
Can Go Through Skin
12 October 2009
This film Can Go Through Skin: be warned.
The dogma style really adds to this most difficult of plots: rape. The film quickly shows the horrific act and the events leading up to it, but spends most of the celluloid on the victim’s attempts to recover.
It rang horrifically true and showed the ups (by bike, of course) as well as the downs. I was really pleased to see Peter Levine’s Wake the Tiger therapy used wisely and appropriately, too. But it didn’t touch my heart until the endnote which shook me deeply.
It seems like a film that could empower others that have similar experiences in its realistic depictions that simply say you are not alone. It may also reach some males that have the potential to create similar nightmares, but I doubt it: these people obviously haven’t learned empathy and need to go back into their childhood with an enlightened witness first. Once their own fucked up lives are on the road to healing, maybe then they could get this film.
In the meantime, let anyone who needs support know that this film is out there.
Mid-August Lunch
12 October 2009
If I didn’t have a beautiful Italian friend, I wouldn’t have seen this film, which constantly reminded me of him.
Mid-August Lunch is a surface only look (unless the translations I read misled me) at human relations, but it is a wonderful snapshot of Italian culture.
The older set that filled the theatre also suggests that the film represents aging humans well. As a father, I couldn’t help but see the parallels of care-taking a child as the son in the movie care-took his mother.
My only disappointment was that Alice Miller was at the doorstep many times and the opportunity never seemed to be welcomed or invited in. Instead, we get the Catholic response of forgive and forget which ends well here but has been proved not to in real life for millennia.
This is indeed the light fluff that my beautiful friend was looking for.
Crude
11 October 2009
Crude could refer to many things you’ll see in the film: oil, civilization, corporate relations, our empathy for indigenous peoples and children.
This well crafted film documents the story of how Texaco/Chevron have contaminated a pristine area of the Amazon and how the peoples that have always lived there are dying in droves due to cancer and related diseases.
The film makes the case clearly and also documents how one of the residents decided to become a lawyer to launch a class action lawsuit on behalf of his people. He’s now reaching middle age and there’s no end in sight to the case, which of course works to Texaco/Chevron’s sole advantage.
This film and case is known for Sting’s involvement and the scenes with Live Earth 07.07.07 are fun and inspiring. As one of the lawyers says, it’s a miracle that this case got into court at all. But miraculous or not, thousands of people are dying and losing their way of life while Chevron stalls and we watch. That’s Crude.
