All posts by Raymond Tomlin

About Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology. View all posts by Raymond Tomlin →

VIFF 2018 | East Asian Dragons & Tigers and Gateway Cinema

September 16, 2018Cinema, VIFF 2018Raymond Tomlin

Dragons & Tigers, the finest in the cinema of East Asia, at the Vancouver International Film Festival

Today, VanRamblings will take you on a journey into the cinematic worlds envisioned by East Asia’s boldest filmmakers, while introducing the most adventurous & exciting cinema to emerge this past year from the Far East.
Long the heart of the Vancouver International Film Festival, each year for 37 years VIFF’s Dragons & Tigers and Gateway series have represented the largest and richest annual exhibition of Pacific Asian films outside of Asia.

Every year, VIFF’s annual Dragons & Tigers and Gateway programmes attract a strong retinue of internationally recognized filmmakers, film critics, distributors, and scholars, these well-attended programmes highlighting cutting-edge cinema and bodies of work from Asia’s boldest creators, encompassing the exceptional work of established masters as well as those who may soon be recognized alongside them, with films arriving on our shores from South Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia & Thailand.
Over the course of the past 37 years, VIFF has steadfastly sought to convey the richness and diversity of East Asian cinema to appreciative audiences.

Director Jia Jia Zhang-ke’s Ash is the Purest White took Cannes by storm this year, a fierce, gripping, heartbreaking and at times loopy tale of Qiao (Zhao Tao) who in defending her mobster boyfriend Bin fires a gun to protect him, resulting in a five year sentence in prison for her act of loyalty.
Out of prison and up for adventure, in the film’s most stunning visual sequence, Qiao takes a ferry ride down the Yangtze River and, after a little misfortune, finds Bin shacked up in a shabby motel. Bin has seemingly lost his pride. “Was I ever that important?” he asks. “Well, if not you, then what is?!” Qiao responds with all the quiet force of a knee to the stomach.

A gripping parable about the vanity of human wishes, and an impassioned portrait of national malaise, in the end Jia Zhang-ke’s latest emerges as a glorious drama about how one woman’s journey from self-sacrificial moll to avenging criminal echoes her country’s wanton embrace of capitalism.

And let us not forget the master of Asian cinema, Zhang Yimou (Ju Dou), who this year brings Shadow, as rousing and beautifully rendered a film as you’ll see at VIFF this year, and a stunning epic re-imagining of the Wuxia third century Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history.
With its gorgeously choreographed sword duels, sabres slicing through paddles of blood and rain, watercolour bi-chromatic palettes and sumptuous costumes, Shadow offers a visual feast from the maestro of Chinese cinema. Here’s how Jessica Kiang opened her review in Variety …

Black ink drips from the tip of a brush and daggers into clear water, spiraling out like smoke; a Chinese zither sounds a ferocious, twanging note that warps and buckles in its sustain; rain mottles the sky to a heavy watercolour grey, forming pools on paving stones into which warriors bleed; whispery drafts from hidden palace chambers stir tendrils of hair and set the hems of luxuriant, patterned robes fluttering. Every supremely controlled stylistic element of Zhang Yimou’s breathtakingly beautiful Shadow is an echo of another, a motif repeated, a pattern recurring in a fractionally different way each time.

And just think: there are 25 more equally spectacular, moving & sumptuous films in the Gateway and Dragons & Tigers programmes this year!
VanRamblings wrote about Cannes FIPRESCI Critics Prize winner Burning and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters last week, two of the lauded must-see films in the Gateway programme that will screen at VIFF 2018.
Now there are just 23 more films from East Asia for you to discover at the 37th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, which kicks off in only 11 days, running from Thursday, September 27 thru Friday, October 12.

VIFF 2018 | Holding Out Hope for a Better, More Humane World

September 15, 2018Cinema, VIFF 2018Raymond Tomlin

VanRamblings has, perhaps, overstated the “new direction” of the VIFF.
For, in reality, the 37th annual Vancouver International Film Festival is the same well-programmed festival of heart and conscience, as ever, offering a Cinema of Despair, and an unparalleled insight into the human condition, and as ever holding out the thrilling possibility of hope for much better.
There is no better example of the thesis above than the first two films which were on offer as advance festival screenings this past Wednesday morning & early afternoon at VIFF’s year-round home, the Vancity Theatre on Seymour, for members of the press, industry folks and passholders.

Documentarian Jane Magnusson’s warts-and-all biography of the flawed, mad genius of Swedish film, the incomparable Ingmar Bergman, examines the problematical personal history of one of the world’s most cherished and prolific filmmakers. Who among us could not love 1957’s Wild Strawberries, the achingly wise exploration of the life of a self-absorbed old doctor (Victor Sjöström) who quietly steps back into the slipstream of humanity while traveling to receive an honorary degree; or The Seventh Seal (also produced in 1957), in which a man (Max von Sydow) seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper, a film which stars the young & beautiful Bibi Andersson, Bergman’s fifth wife and muse, who would star in more than a dozen Bergman films.

Filmgoers & lovers of film will be provided the opportunity to see Bergman: A Year in the Life at no other time than at the always splendid 37th annual Vancouver International Film Festival — offering all the more reason for you to set about to purchase your tickets for this penetrating documentary, about which Owen Gleiberman, Variety’s lead film critic, writes, “(Magnusson’s documentary) captures Bergman as the tender and prickly, effusive and demon-driven, tyrannical and half-crazy celebrity-genius he was: a man so consumed by work, and by his obsessive relationships with women, that he seemed to be carrying on three lives at once.”

The second VIFF advance screening of the day was introduced by Alan Franey, VIFF’s Director of International Programming — who told those of us gathered in the Vancity Theatre, that he did not and has not resigned from the festival, but instead has given up the day-to-day administrative tasks that consumed a good portion of his life for a quarter century, to focus on his first love: programming the best in world cinema.
And so Alan has, and so he will continue to do, a calm, warm, articulate, unruffled renaissance man of spirit, humility and uncommon intelligence.
Arantxa Echevarría’s Carmen & Lola, which Alan brought back from Cannes this year, is the perfect, low-production value, trenchant and moving slice-of-life-drama that Alan, as a person of heart and conscience, has so long loved, a vibrantly realized story of two teenage Roma gypsy girls that proves to be a spirited addition to the ‘coming out as gay in a repressive culture’ genre, a queer awakening drama buoyed by wildly sympathetic performances from the principles of the film’s title, an authentic evocation of life in Madrid’s scruffy satellite towns, and a perfect example of the informing intelligence and defining ethos of the Vancouver International Film Festival: a humane and hopeful, and a heady, compassionate, joyful, deeply felt and transcendent window on our too often troubled world.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Upcoming Mayor & All Candidates Forums

September 12, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

In a change municipal election year of great consequence and generational import, it is the responsibility of every voter and every citizen to make ourselves as aware as possible of who the candidates are who have offered themselves for civic office who best represent our core values, candidates with a history of community activism and achievement who will be best positioned to enact the civic change that we — individually and collectively — believe must be accomplished over the course of the next four years, in the best interests of all of those of us who reside in the city of Vancouver.
The City of Vancouver has a partial list of many of the upcoming Mayoral, Council and Park Board all-candidates debates. Worth checking out.

Mayoral candidates, independents Shauna Sylvester and Kennedy Stewart, and NPA Vancouver’s Ken Sim will be present, as will OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle and COPE’s Anne Roberts (the latter two persons, members of the Holy Trinity of must-elect Council candidates — the trinity completed by wondrous, must-elect NPA Council candidate, Sarah Kirby-Yung — as warmly identified by VanRamblings in our expansive May 29th post).

Are you curious about the relationship between science and public policy? Want to give your ideas and have a respectful conversation with candidates from across party lines? This event below is just for you! Everyone is welcome, however space is limited, so this will a ticketed event($10). Light refreshments will be available at this event.

Arts + culture in Vancouver is just not being given its due in the 2018 Vancouver civic election. Thankfully, the folks involved in the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture have come to our collective rescue, by hosting an invaluable Arts + Culture forum, on Monday, October 15th.

Thus far, Yes Vancouver’s Hector Bremner, Pro Vancouver’s David Chen, Vancouver First’s Fred Harding, independent Mayoral candidates Kennedy Stewart and Shauna Sylvester, Coalition Vancouver’s Wai Young, and the Green Party’s extraordinary, must-elect candidate Pete Fry will be present for the forum. At this time, the NPA have confirmed their participation, but have not provided the name of their party’s representative to the forum.

Vancouver Mayoral Forums & Townhalls

Eleven days before the election, there’s this Mayoral forum …

And has long proved to be the case, and generally the best-attended of the Mayoral debates (seating capacity at Christ Church Cathedral, which is generally packed to the rafters, is 600 but they packed in 850 eager voters in 2014). Come on, come all to the can’t miss Cathedral Mayoral Debate …

Vancouver City Council All-Candidates Forums
And on a very busy night when the definitive School Board and Park Board meetings are set to take place, among a raft of other all candidate meetings, there’s this Mayoral and City Council meeting planned …

If you’re aware of other all-candidates debates for those running for a position on Vancouver City Council, please write to us at …

Vancouver Park Board All-Candidates Forums

On Wednesday, October 3, from 6 – 10pm, truck on over to The Hall at Sunset Community Centre, 6810 Main Street, to meet the candidates who want your vote to become one of the seven commissioners for the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.
Or, as above, Wednesday, October 3rd, from 7:30 to 9:30pm, visit the Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive, to meet the candidates running for Park Board, who will be present with Council candidates. Hear their views and / or ask them questions at this All Candidates Meeting.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Who’ll Be Vancouver’s Next Mayor?

September 11, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Squamish Nation Hereditary Chief, Ian Campbell, getting out of the 2018 race to become Vancouver’s next Mayor while the getting was good. That’s three we’ve lost so far.

Yesterday afternoon, Vision Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate, Ian Campbell, pulled out of the Vancouver civic election race.
In a crowded race where a half dozen plus Mayoral aspirants have emerged, perhaps the fact that Mr. Campbell, a Squamish Nation Hereditary Chief, failing to receive the all-important labour endorsement of the Vancouver District and Labour Council, or the disastrous internal and public polling which continues to show Mr. Campbell likely to gain no more than 9% of the vote, coupled with new provincially-imposed electoral finance reform legislation — which effectively leveled the playing field for his candidacy with the other Mayoral aspirants, making it near impossible for him to effectively get his message out — contributed to the decision by the well-experienced and capable Mr. Campbell (who would have made a fine Mayor) to withdraw from the race to become Vancouver’s next Mayor.
Vision Vancouver co-chair Michael Haack posted an e-mail last night stating that the “focus of Vision Vancouver will now be to support our talented candidates running for Council, School Board and Park Board.” As in, Vision Vancouver will not run a mayoral candidate (as in, “We’re throwing in the towel, and screaming uncle”) in the current Vancouver municipal election.

Quitto Maggi’s ‘too early to tell’ Mainstreet Research Vancouver Mayoral aspirant poll

Chances are, despite the kind words of concern expressed by leading Vancouver Mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart last evening, that there was much celebrating in the Kennedy Stewart camp and in the offices and among the membership of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, which has surely carried over to today.
With the endorsement of the VDLC and polling showing Mr. Stewart with the clear left-of-centre lead in the Vancouver civic election, varying from 23% to 26% support depending on the poll, his team and labour’s thinking must be that a good portion of the Vision vote will now convert to support for Mr. Stewart, making him a virtual shoe-in to become Vancouver’s next Mayor.
And, why not? Thus far in the campaign, Kennedy Stewart has sounded for all the world like the perfect out-of-touch 2018, labour-endorsed tried-and-true, he finds it difficult to answer even the easiest question, silver spoon in his mouth Gregor Robertson re-incarnation, talking about building …

25,000 new non-profit affordable rental homes over the next ten years.

“I’ll focus on building affordable rental homes for those making $80,000 a year or less,” Mr. Stewart promises,”more non-market and supportive housing for our most vulnerable citizens, and targeted housing solutions for Indigenous Peoples, cultural communities, seniors, and people living with disabilities.”

Gosh, just thrills you to read that, doesn’t it?

Shauna Sylvester — independent, well-experienced Vancouver mayoral candidate, and the ‘gal with a bold and effective action plan’ in the 2018 Vancouver civic election

All that talk about building housing co-ops and co-housing on city-owned and federal and provincial Crown land, with construction and materials costs gleaned from developers’ Community Amenity Contributions, towards building the city we need, a city for all of us. Oh, what’s that you’re saying? Kennedy Stewart is not saying any of that — independent Mayoral candidate Shauna Sylvester, who has long lived in a housing co-op, is the only one talking about building housing co-ops and co-housing, as a central theme of her well-articulated and thoughtful affordable housing plan.
Perhaps Mr. Kennedy, with his $168,000 MP salary, is unaware that the median one-person household income in Vancouver is $38,449, the median household income $72,662 (those durned happily married or co-habitating couples). What’s that you say, Mr. Stewart — you’re going to “focus on building affordable rental homes for those making $80,000 a year (or less).” Gosh — mighty big and white of ya, lookin’ after us poor folk.
One is left to wonder what part of Vancouver’s dire emergency, decade long affordable housing crisis does Mr. Stewart not quite grok? Where’s his heart, where’s his action plan, what does he plan to do for seniors, for millennials, for the working poor, for our city’s indigent population, for single parent families and our city’s children living in wont and despair, where’s his plan to do something, something needed and bold … NOW ?

Why is Kennedy Stewart in the lead and set to become our next Mayor, if we’re to believe the polls? Easy answer there: he’s the most high profile of the candidates in a field of unknowns who are running to become our next Mayor, and a sitting NDP MP, when Vancouver voters overwhelmingly elected NDP members to the Legislature in Victoria in all but two ridings.
In the confusing miasma that is the 2018 Vancouver civic election, name recognition and public profile counts for everything; being a good looking younger man, a Simon Fraser University professor, and a 15-year resident of the City of Vancouver — even if since 2011 he’s sat as the MP for Burnaby South — doesn’t hurt his electoral chances, either, one supposes.
Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith seems pretty sold on Shauna Sylvester, though. And, why not — she’s the only candidate for Mayor, thus far, to articulate an effective, action-oriented policy development plan.
Truth to tell, VanRamblings finds what Shauna Sylvester has to stay quite compelling, and if we were being honest, we’d have to write that we’re now leaning Ms. Sylvester’s way, as well — because, as we’ve written previously, a woman’s place is in elected office making a difference, while helping to make ours a better, more just city and world, for each and every one of us.