It seems like every week there is a new film festival taking place in Toronto. So far have I attended two of these, the Air Canada enRoute Film Festival 2010 and the 11th annual imagineNative: Film + Media Arts Festival. It was the fourth annual enRoute Film Festival: Stories that move and the short films are designated for Air Canada’s in-flight entertainment monitors. The prizewinners get all-inclusive trips to the Whistler Film Festival as well as a monetary prize. The final competition on October 13th consisted of Rob Coxford, Josh Vamos & Marlaina D’Angelo’s Push Past: Rob Dyer’s Skate across Canada, Shervin Kermani & Aita Jason’s Sofia, Allessandro Piedimonte’s A Cut Above, Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers Un Trou dans la Memoire, King Mugabi’s Red Snow, and Adam Shamash’s La Khaima: The Tent of Mile-End. The festival was followed by an open bar award celebration at The Drake Hotel. The most impressive short by far is Sofia. In it a reclusive elderly painter recalls the major emotional events that shaped him. From his first girlfriend telling him that they should stay together, to his father explaining why he is leaving, and to a wonderful ballet sequence by his youthful mother. The acting is superb, the mise-en-scene is original, Robert Tagliaferri's cinematography is indelible with lush colors and atmospheric lighting, and its dream-like nature accentuated by long-takes is reminiscent of Tarkovsky.
imagineNative each fall (Oct. 20th – 24th) presents a selection of the most compelling and distinctive indigenous work from around the globe. This year’s festival included two projects by Zacharias Kunuk. The 1995 Caribou Hunt, which is set in Igloolik, fall 1945, and is about the community of First Nations trying to hold onto their traditional shamanistic culture in face of a frightening changing world (i.e. WWII). There was also the world premiere of Mr. Kunuk’s new film Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, which is an Isuma Productions documentary addressing the issue of climate change with interviews with Inuit’s that are personally experiencing the effects of melting polar ice caps. The Kaleidoscope: Shorts Program III, which I attended, highlights were Bear Witness’ Strange Home Land part 2, which is about a road-trip between Bear and his father through the Six Nations territory with interesting appropriations of Hollywood movies and Saturday morning cartoons; and Alanis Obomsawin’s When All the Leaves are Gone set in 1940, Quebec it is the story of shy little Wato who moves from the rural to the urban. To get away from the cities xenophobia and bullies, she dreams about an idyll nature setting with men-dressed-in-caribou suits to play with and a man playing the violin. These dream sequences are just charming. The program guide is really well designed and it included a memorial on the Māori, which are an indigenous group from New Zealand, filmmaker Merata Mita. The festival also had free discussions and panels. Beyond the Talking Head: New Ways to Doc, which I attended, had Peter Mettler and Zacharias Kunuk on the panel, among others, and they spoke about the importance in New Documentary of themes, honesty and transparency with the subjects, and of having a good team. - David Davidson
This festival report is not pretending to be a general overview of TIFF 2010 but instead it is a personal and anecdotal account. – David Davidson
The Toronto International Film Festival 2010 was such an amazing experience! A godsend actually! This has been my first international film festival experience and I hope my hyperbole is communicating this first-timer enthusiasm. I have never felt so entrenched within a community of film enthusiast as I have had here and I was at the center of it too! The idea for the TIFF Bell Lightbox was presented in 2003 and the construction started in 2007. The opening of the building for the public was September 12th 2010, which was also my first day of work there. Working at the Lightbox concession stand I got too see most of the extra-cinematic activity going on in the building. By being chatty with the patrons I was able to absorb individual responses to the films and the building. When the lines slowed down I was able to have longer talks with the tourist who were there for the festival and it was a pleasure to talk to them. Being physically at the festival really put a human face on the extra-cinematic facets of the movies like who are the directors, actors, cinematographers, producers, sales agents, film critics, festival executives and also the regular film-going public. The TIFF Bell Lightbox designed by the KPMB architectural firm is awe-inspiring. The first-run art house films that it is getting, from my understanding, is an internationally groundbreaking initiative. Hell, we got Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives before the United States. Now that is cool. When I ran into Ottawa programmer and filmmaker Lee Demarbre, he insightfully commented that the Lightbox “monstrosity” would have vast negative effects on local repertory cinemas, as with its Exclusive Engagements it will attract the audience that would typically go to the smaller repertory cinemas. Reducing these independent businesses already shrinking revenues. More on Lee Demarbre: when I went to Queen Video (412 Queen St W) right by the check out counter there was his new film Stripped Naked (2010), which is the story of a women who finds herself with $90,000 of stolen money and has hopes to leave the country with it. I should really see it and then maybe do a blog post on it and Lee’s Summer’s Blood (2009). These two films are the follow-up too his marvelous meta-horror film Smash Cut and they definitively deserve further investigation. At the festival I originally wanted to see Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialism and James Benning’s RURH. But after waiting an hour in line to buy tickets with my Peterborough friends Eric Mair and Nick B. Y., we were told that it was sold out. So instead we got tickets for Frederick Wisemen’s Boxing Gym. The charming Mr. Wisemen was at the screening and afterwards when we were outside the poorly designed Yonge & Dundas AMC, he came out and I mentioned to him how much I liked the movie. We shook hands. Other directors and film-critics that I saw during the festival include Robert Koehler, Denis Côté, Xavier Dolan, Mark Peranson, Gavin Smith, Andrew Sarris (I think?), Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, Ken Loach, Michael Moore, and Bruce McDonald. Other movies that I wanted to see and that were recommended to me include Submarine, Passion, Meek’s Cutoff, Oki’s Movie, and Curling. There was a book launch for the book Take 100; The Future of Film; 100 New Directors (Phaidon Press Limited; 2010). I won one of the few copies that they were giving out by answering the simple trivia question, which the answer was that it will be the Tim Burton MoMA exhibit that will be presented in the TIFF wunderkammer in November. I got the book signed by the TIFF director and co-director, Piers Handling and Cameron Baily. I also had the opportunity to chat with them a little bit. Great guys. Another anecdote, one of the first people I sold popcorn to was Atom Egoyan. Man, that guy is always in the building! He sat further down the same row as me during the screening of Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura. The Lightbox has three cinemas where it projects films and two smaller halls for exhibits. Mr. Egoyan has an exhibit 8 ½ screens in cinema four. In it he deconstructed a scene from Federico Felini’s 8 ½ and made it even more dream-like. It is about the emotional connections people have to certain scenes, dialogue, and parts of the film frame. However much fun I had, and I hope I do not sound as if I am bragging, it was not all perfect. My shifts were long and I got leg cramps from all the standing. I started develop an aggravating skin rash on my back. The air mattress that I was sleeping on at friends Kelsea’s place had a hole so I always woke up in the morning lying on the ground. Some of it sucked. Anyways, now that it is over and I have finally found a room in a cool apartment in the Kensington Market I can start to relax. I am currently enjoying seeing the 35mm prints of a lot of the TIFF Essential Cinema series. - David Davidson
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In the most random place, the washrooms at the Lightbox, there were free copies of 24. Teddy Award; The Ceremony. This is the official queer category at the Berlin International Film Festival; the Berlinale. The DVD’s highlight is the filmed footage of the recently deceased German director Werner Schroeter receiving the Special Teddy Award. Mr. Schoeter was radical experimental feature film and theater director. Here you can see the sixty-five-year-old Schroeter wearing a black turtleneck and suit jacket, and his long hair poking from his black-rimmed hat unto his triangular face. He looks devilish with his subdued smile and chin beard. His friends were on stage to introduce the director. Ingrid Caven was reading a letter written for him by Jean-Jacques Schmue. They describe in length the phenomenological qualities of his work that were being presented at the Cinématheque Française in the 1970s under Henri Langlois. Wolf Wondratschek, Rosa von Praunheim and Wieland Speck also have nice things to say. One comment that particularly resonates is when they describe the architecture of Werner Schroeter’s in French as “deux chose qui ne se peuve pas cacher, ivresse est l’amour.” (my translation: "There are two things that one cannot hide, drunkenness and love"). And then “Thank you Werner for your life and work.” These heartfelt comments and an excerpt from Poussieres d’amour make this DVD worth acquiring. When Mr. Schroeter got on stage he commented that the Teddy Awards are necessary in the battle against homophobia. His final comments were “There are so many people here whose co-creativity working together with me, it really was a collaboration in mutual dependence. We are dependent on each other that is so important and it also extends out into our lives and into our friendships.”
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Here is John Greyson’s short documentary Covered, which is about the 2008 Sarajevo Queer Festival that was cancelled due to anti-gay violence. It is one of the nominatees at the 2010 Teddy Award Ceremony.
