Category Archives: Arts Friday

The Best in World Cinema | Film Festival Season Has Arrived

August 20, 2021Arts Friday, Cinema, Vancouver, VIFF 2021Raymond Tomlin

Film festivals are a vital link in the chain of global film culture.
Week in, week out, in pre-pandemic times most of us were bombarded with marketing messages extolling the virtues of mainstream movies.
But the films that make it into film festivals are a whole different kettle of fish than the blowed-em-real good, blockbuster films that make it into our local multiples. In point of fact, a good and vibrant film festival screens films that are as resistant as possible to the commercial pressures of standard mainstream fare. It is through independent films from across the globe, films that are made by independent voices that new ideas are expressed, new genres of film are created, and new, important directors emerge who serve to create a whole new cinematic landscape.

Great film festivals champion these ideals and filmmakers at their core.
Many festivals, including our own homegrown and much celebrated Vancouver International Film Festival, feature engaging panel discussions and masterclasses on aspects of filmmaking, bringing in diverse members of the film industry of interest to both filmmakers and to the general public. Events such as these offer a critical way to promote the filmmakers and their films, as well as to help film festival attendees learn about what goes on behind the mysterious black curtains shrouding the film industry.
A good series of learning events at a festival also strives to create debate about important issues facing not only filmmakers, but humanity in general. VIFF festivals past have engaged in panel and post screening audience discussions on a wide range of general interest topics — everything from climate change, to racial and sexual prejudices and social injustices.
Any community with a successful film festival prides itself on the artistic, cultural and commercial kudos a festival brings.
For local community film festivals like VIFF, it’s not just the red carpet and all the hype surrounding the festival. It’s also the jobs the festival creates, the hospitality provided to visitors, and the buzz around the commercial establishments in the festival area. Not to mention the hotels, snacks and meals of which festival attendees partake.

With 20,000 unique attendees in 2019, the Vancouver International Film Festival estimates that the boost to the Vancouver economy to be in excess of $1,500,000, engaging with local businesses to amplify the festival, and bringing business to the Vancouver’s central core.
Film festivals also serve to unite a community.
Festival staff reach out to a wide range of ethnic, gender and other diverse communities to enjoy the films on offer, engage with the filmmakers, as well as celebrate the stories told with the verve and enthusiasm of the filmmakers. Festivals serve to create a sense of community, where local audiences are afforded the opportunity to mingle with visiting filmmakers and share their experiences, and react to the work they have seen.

We live in very troubled times.
Polarization is a trend best opposed. And what better way to break down prejudices than through cinema. Is it not that most of today’s troubles are caused by misunderstanding of how different people live? Or how they love, work or play in different cultures with different religions?
And what better way to break down this misunderstanding than to take an audience to these different worlds and show how life really is?

“We love cinema at VIFF,” says VIFF associate programmer Alan Franey.

“And we love when an audience comes out from a screening feeling as if they have seen something cutting edge, something culturally informing, or something just plain straight entertaining. VIFF is known for showcasing issues and ideas that cannot be mass-communicated due to local laws and cultural taboos. And that’s why we continue, year after year, to bring the very best of independent cinema to the heart of our province.”

In fact, the 40th annual Vancouver International Film Festival is set to get underway in October, and will run for 11 days from Friday, October 1st thru Thanksgiving Monday, October 11th.
Roughly 110 feature films and 100 shorts will screen in Vancouver venues — with a selection of films also available for online viewing via the VIFF Connect streaming platform — at this year’s festival.
VIFF 2021 will showcase a vibrant programme of films and events, including a kaleidoscopic collection of revelatory Canadian work, visionary East Asian cinema, powerful and provocative documentaries, narrative cinema from some of the world’s leading lights, and elevated genre fare.
Curated short film programmes will allow audiences to discover inventive storytellers, while VIFF Talks aims to take viewers behind the camera. The Totally Indie Day, VIFF AMP, and VIFF Immersed conferences provide extraordinary support for local creative communities.
Every film in the 40th annual Vancouver International Film Festival lineup to be screened in-cinema this year will follow strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols, with seating capacity in the well-ventilated venues reduced to 50%, or a figure mandated by B.C.’s Public Health Officer.
As per usual, in-person VIFF box office will open at the VIFF Centre, located at 1181 Seymour Street just across from Emery Barnes Park, noon to 6pm daily, beginning Thursday, September 16th.
Before VIFF40 kicks off, though, there are four important film festivals which will precede ours.

Following on the success of the 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival in July, programmers with the Telluride Film Festival (September 2nd through Labour Day, September 6th) will programme some of Cannes’ best, as will the prestigious Venice Film Festival (September 1st through 11th), many of which films on their programmes will make it to the 40th annual Vancouver International Film Festival programme, as well, in early October.

Titane, Palme d’Or winner at Cannes this year, and rock solid to make it into VIFF40.

Titane, the Palme d’Or winner at Cannes this year is all but certain to screen at all festivals this late summer and early autumn. David Chase’s Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho, King Richard with Will Smith, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye are all festival bound, and certain Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Oscar contenders.

The Toronto Film Festival (September 9th to 18) is probably the world’s most prestigious film festival, not only celebrating world cinema, but presenting most of the films that will feature in the Oscar race early next year. The 59th and heavily curated New York Film Festival (September 24th thru October 10th) always shares half of their programme lineup with Vancouver’s homegrown film festival — something to anticipate in 2021.

Jessica Chastain, the odds on favourite for Best Actress, for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Even though VanRamblings is taking a three-day break from coverage of the exceedingly dull, verging on enervating 40th Canadian federal election, as they become available, we’ll still provide you with the latest edition of David Herle, Scott Reid and Jenni Byrne’s Curse of Politics podcast.

The David Herle, Scott Reid & Jenni Byrne Curse of Politics podcast for August 20, 2021

Arts Friday | Can Hollywood and Cineplexes Survive Coronavirus?

November 13, 2020Arts Friday, CinemaRaymond Tomlin

Movie theatres have endured world wars, depressions and recessions, and the advent of everything from television to streaming. But COVID-19 and the public health crisis it has generated this year around the globe represents an existential threat to the cinema business like no other.
The novel coronavirus pandemic is upending the movie business.
Once upon a time, a handful of big studios spent billions of dollars making movies, and marketing and distributing those movies to theatres across the globe. But over the past two decades, with a surge in content and streaming delivery services, the old way of doing things has been shifting.

Then, in early March of this year, COVID-19 started spreading across the globe in a big way. The first thing that happened was a bunch of blockbusters got moved: Black Widow Disney’s latest Marvel superhero adventure, was bumped from its May 1, 2020 release date to May 7 2021. That followed news Disney had delayed Mulan, originally slated for March 27, the film moved to Disney Plus — at $29 a pop for young families.

Ditto Warner Brothers’ Wonder Woman 1984, which was moved from this year to who knows when, and No Time to Die, the 25th 007 movie, about which there’s speculation that it, too, will soon become a VOD title.

Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II (April 23 2021), and Universal’s F9, the latest in the Fast & Furious franchise were also moved (May 28, 2021).
Together, it was estimated that those movies would have brought in somewhere north of $1 billion at the box office in 2020.
“There’s never been a situation like this,” says IndieWire film critic, Eric Kohn. “Fear of the unknown is never a good thing. We’ll return to normalcy at some point, but as we ride this out, there’s going to be near-term pain.”
As Hollywood traverses uncharted territory, studio executives are pleading for patience. “We will get to the other side,” Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, recently told respected industry trade publication Variety. “How long is all of this lasting? Nobody knows.”

Theatre owners believe that after two years of declining box office sales, business will return to normal, and they will see record high box office in 2021, as Hollywood releases a truckload of franchise sequels. The haul includes four films from the Marvel universe — Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (July 9, 2021); Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (tbd); Spider-Man 3 (tbd) and Thor: Love and Thunder (February 18, 2022) — as well as Jurassic World: Dominion (June 10, 2022)The Batman (March 4, 2022), Mission: Impossible 7 (tbd), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (August 6, 2021) and Avatar 2 (December 16, 2021).
“When the 2021 box office eventually is reported, we believe it will be the pessimists and the naysayers who will turn out to have been wrong,” AMC chief Adam Aron told industry analysts in a zoom call earlier this month..
“This year’s box office is going to look like the biggest asterisk you’ve ever seen,” says Kohn. “You’ll never be able to compare 2020 to any other year and have it mean anything. It’s simply going to be a lost year.”

As Barry Hertz wrote in the Globe and Mail earlier this year, “All audiences can do now is hold out hope for a Hollywood ending.”

Arts Friday | 75 German People of Influence in Western Canada

November 6, 2020Arts Friday, NewsRaymond Tomlin

Author Elke Porter holding up her new book. C’mon along to the book launch on Saturday!

During the course of the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, one of highlights of the “contest” to become a Vancouver City Councillor occurred at The Imperial on Main, at the Last Candidate Standing event (won by current Councillor, Christine Boyle), was the emergence of a relatively unknown independent candidate for Vancouver City Council, the incredibly witty and socially conscious, author and publisher, longtime Kitsilano resident, Elke Porter — who wowed the crowd, taking all into her heart.

“In 2018, I went into the election thinking that I had something of value to contribute,” Elke Porter told VanRamblings in an interview Thursday. “As a parent to two young women, I have long played a role in the parent action committees at their schools, had volunteered with a great many non-profit and charitable organizations, and had, for years, contributed as an activist and organizer within the German community.”

“With my girls now almost fully grown, running for Council seemed like the next logical step for me — not to mention, getting to know Vancouver in a whole new way proved, for me, to be the experience of a lifetime. As well, I got to know all of the candidates who were eventually elected to Vancouver City Council, which emerged as a humanizing experience for me. Quite honestly, I would recommend the experience to anyone.”

In 2020, Elke Porter has written — and, as of today, published — a new book, 75 German-Speaking Influential People in Western Canada, on the prominent difference makers of German descent from across western Canada who have contributed to making our nation what it is today.

Elke Porter's book launch, 75 German-Speaking Influential People in Western Canada

Click on the graphic above to purchase your copy of Elke Porter’s important new book

A necessary and invaluable compendium, a who’s who of the past and present regaling the stories of 75 Canadian citizens of German descent.

Thousands of Austrians, German and Swiss, were success stories in a variety of industries over the past 100 years. Some of them sold food and drink. Some founded real estate empires. There were artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, pastors, philanthropists, property developers, singers, writers and volunteers.

“David Oppenheimer, who opened the first wholesale grocery business in 1887 and became the second mayor of Vancouver is one of them,” says Porter. “Alvo von Alvensleben who bought a house and 20 acres in Kerrisdale in 1909 that took 13 servants to run, had his house taken by the Custodian of Enemy Property Act at the outbreak of World War I, which was then sold to the publisher of the Vancouver Sun, Robert James Cromie, and whose widow sold it to the Crofton Private School in 1942, for the sum of $15,000. Fritz Ziegler, started with a 1912 farmhouse in Fort Langley, added turrets, stucco and brick to it and ended up owning Canada’s only ‘castle’ that he named ‘Schloss Klipphaus.’ Ziegler, after throwing many ‘legendary’ parties, was eventually appointed the Consul General of Monaco.”

Schloss Klipphaus, the Fort Langley, replica castle built by Fritz Ziegler, featuring such age-of-chivalry elements as this knight’s hall.

“Some of the other prominent people you may know that are in my book are the Freybe family, who started what became a generational family business, dating back to 1844, pioneering a culinary experience around diverse products ranging from delectable salamis to traditionally crafted sausages. And the same thing with the Grimm’s family.”

So, now here we are mid-pandemic in 2020, and 75 German-Speaking Influential People in Western Canada has become a reality. VanRamblings asked Elke Porter, how and why did the book come together now?

“You know, it’s actually ‘thanks COVID’,” Ms. Porter says, laughing. “As a busy mom, I suddenly didn’t have to drive my kids to school. I couldn’t go out to restaurants, and found myself for the most part, housebound, except on those occasions when I went for a walk in the neighbourhood where, if you recall, I ran into you one day.”

“So, I just started writing when I had time. In addition, my mother proved to be an excellent editor, and my brother, Dr. Christian Klaue, the latter my maiden name — with his Phd in English — also emerged as an editor.”

“Given the work I’ve done with my West Coast German News periodical over the years, I found I’d interviewed a good number of the people who found their way into my book. Of course, there was a great deal of time spent at the library, in the archives. When I was writing the book, I was sent the Fred Herzog book, Photographs, and the Freybe family sent me their book. Much of the rest of the research for the book occurred through e-mail correspondence, which as a writer, as I’m sure you know, can be a most satisfying endeavour.

Now down to the nitty gritty: the book launch tomorrow afternoon at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. First up this book launch info graphic …

At this writing, there are a limited number of tickets available at $75 — 30 of 40 available tickets have been sold. Note should be made that strict COVID-19 protocols will be in place for the book launch. Donations made by clicking here will be designated as donations to the B.C. Cancer Agency.

As above, Elke Porter’s book launch — and fundraiser for the B.C. Cancer Agency — will be a COVID-safe event.

Elke Porter thanks you for your support of her, and her new book!

Arts Friday | Animation as An Expression of Human Experience

October 30, 2020A & E, Arts Friday, Pop CultureRaymond Tomlin

All animation, whether it depicts a whistling mouse, a walking dinosaur, or a leaping superhero, is a kind of magic trick. It’s right there in the name of one of the earliest devices used to project slides: the magic lantern.
If you take an image of an open hand and an image of a fist and project the two in sequence, you’ll convey the illusion of a clench.

“What happens between each frame is more important than what happens on each frame,” Scottish-Canadian experimental animator, the late Norman McLaren — a director and producer with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and a respected pioneer of hand-drawn animation and drawn-on-film animation — once explained, stating that ‘Animation is the art of manipulating the invisible interstices between frames.”

Arising from VanRamblings’ coverage this week of the meaning behind the majority BC NDP win in the recent provincial election, we failed to make mention of International Animation Day — which occurred this past Wednesday, October 28th — celebrated by the National Film Board of Canada through the streaming of 12 films, all of which are permanently available now – for free viewing – on the National Film Board website.
As Mercedes Milligan wrote this past Tuesday in Animation Magazine …

Now in its 14th year, this annual NFB event gives Canadian audiences the opportunity to explore a host of new works by Canadian and European filmmakers working in the National Film Board’s cutting-edge, internationally renowned studios. The rich 2020 selection puts women in the spotlight — both female directors and strong female characters — and features a wealth of different animation techniques.

</ br>Vancouver-based animator Ann Marie Fleming’s new animated short, Old Dog

Made by world-renowned animators, the outstanding animated films in this year’s International Animation Day programme have won prestigious awards and screened throughout the global festival circuit.

Long one of VanRamblings’ favourite arts and culture writers, Katja De Bock is now a publicist with the NFB (lucky, lucky them!). Here’s what she wrote to VanRamblings earlier in the week on one particular film she cherishes …

Old Dog, the latest film by Vancouver’s Ann Marie Fleming, started off as a way of talking about aging, inspired by Ms. Fleming’s namesake, Ann-Marie Fleming, whom she often gets mixed up with in Internet searches.

Ann-Marie has a company in 100 Mile House, B.C., that makes technologies for aging dogs, and also for their humans. Animator Ann Marie was struck by the compassion her namesake has for these vulnerable animals, as she helped them to navigate the latter stages of their lives, and by how much dogs have to teach human beings.

The COVID-19 pandemic made Ms. Fleming (the animator), whose elderly parents live overseas, reflect on how we take care of our elders and how our global values are being put to the test.

According to Ann Marie, animation is the perfect medium to tell this story. It makes the experience of the human and the dog more universal and helps us understand the unbearable lightness of being.

Now, as it happens Ms. De Bock informs us — and now, you — Old Dog is also featured at this year’s SPARK Animation Festival in Vancouver — which, by the way, began yesterday, and is set to run through Sunday, November 8th, and in addition to films will feature workshops, panels and talks by the world’s most talented artists, directors, and studio luminaries.

This year’s SPARK Animation Festival pass is only $25 — which will give you access to the dozens of films SPARK has on offer in 2020.
Guess what VanRamblings is going to be doing for the next nine days!
On Arts Friday, VanRamblings will leave you with this special treat …

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Ann Marie Fleming’s Old Dog, a presentation of the National Film Board of Canada