Save the Planet…Watch a film!

The 26th edition of Vancouver’s Film Festival begins on Thursday, September 27th and features a brand new series called Climate for Change: films focused on the environment.

It’s amazing how many people have become aware of and truly concerned about Global Warming this year; the Film Fest’s Climate for Change series is another opportunity to inspire and motivate us to make fundamental changes in our lives…before it’s too late!

I’ll be reviewing as many films as I can to help you find your way through the Fest in general and the Climate for Change series in particular.

I’ve already lined up some can’t miss flicks in the Climate for Change series:
TAKEN FOR A RIDE – exposes how most of North America’s transit infrastructure was dismantled to pave the way for the automobile
WHITE VANS – a local film about bike theft by a filmmaker who has lost a few
BING AI – a Chinese film about a woman who simply won’t leave her home that is in the area destined to be flooded by the Three Gorges Dam
KHADAK (aka, The Colour of Water) by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, in a Belgium/Germany/Netherlands co-production, uses drama to explore the fate of Mongolia’s nomads pushed into the city to avoid a livestock plague, with a remarkable East-West fusion soundtrack.

And if you haven’t heard the buzz from Cannes yet, here are some of the films that helped create it:

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS by Romanian filmmaker, Cristian Mungiu (a story about illegal abortion in the waning days of the Soviet Bloc);
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN is a German / Turkish co-production and the fifth feature by Fatih Akin, which won Best Screenplay;
PERSEPOLIS, which won the Special Jury prize, by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (punk rock rebellion in the midst of Iran’s Islamic Revolution) from Iran, where it has been banned.

All reviews will be posted right here for the duration of the Festival. Everything else you need to know about the Festival can be found at http://www.viff.org

Remember, there’s lots of additional Bike Parking brought in for the Festival downtown and most buses will drop you or pick you up within a block of any venue. The nearest SkyTrain station to the downtown venues is Granville, with Waterfront Station your portal to the IMAX retrospective, also a part of this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival.

See you at the theatre!