About two-thirds of the way through Twyla Roscovich’s maddeningly compelling documentary, activist marine biologist Alexandra Morton and a few cohorts with whom she works on the study of the impact of salmon farming on Canadian wild salmon, enter the Real Canadian Superstore at Rupert Street and Grandview Highway, in Vancouver.
The scientific foray into the community involves purchasing all the salmon available at the store, in order that their purchase might be shipped to a laboratory in Europe, and another on the east coast, to test for the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus, and other pathogens. The result? Suffice to say that anyone who watches that particular sequence in Roscovich’s provocative documentary film — available above in today’s VanRamblings post — will never eat farmed salmon ever again.
Here’s Ian Bailey’s Globe and Mailreview of Salmon Confidential …
This feisty and provocative film is spoiling-for-a-fight cinema. Someday there will be a new feature-length documentary reconciling both sides of the debate over the environmental costs of farming salmon in B.C. For now, there’s this compelling work which tilts sharply towards the wild-salmon side. Director Twyla Roscovich’s visually alluring film spotlights activist biologist Alexandra Morton as she finds B.C. salmon in the wild showing European viruses that Ms. Morton links to fish farms on the coast. Federal and industry representatives declined to sit for interviews, Ms. Roscovich has said. Still, the film serves as a forceful primer on an ongoing debate that some viewers, especially those in urban areas, may now just be catching up on. Let the debate begin after the end credits.
Hey, it’s The Globe and Mail — you expected an evisceration of the role of both the provincial and federal governments for their failure to act to protect wild salmon, or the health of Canadians? Not the world we live in.
Greg Ursic, in The Ubyssey, says about the film “Salmon Confidential is thoroughly researched, informative and so infuriating that you’ll want to throw something at the screen.” Jason Coleman, at Star Pulse, agrees with VanRamblings, when he writes …
You will never eat farmed fish for the rest of your life after viewing this. A must-see, especially for British Columbians known for world-renowned Sockeye, Salmon Confidential is a corker of a doc. It’s staggering and eye-opening to see how the business of B.C.’s natural resources and food has been tainted by government and how puppet scientists have given up their objectivity simply to kowtow to (corrupt) governments. This is the GMO monster in a different form and here the monster kills by passing on poisons and infection that are a recipe for extinction of a foundational salmon species. An important film right on par with The Cove impact-wise, Salmon Confidential is an important don’t miss it experience for all who care to listen. — 5/5 stars
Meanwhile, while our intransigent senior governments take a do nothing approach to the destruction of B.C.’s wild salmon industry, Norwegian authorities have recently ordered that some two million sea-lice infested farmed salmon in the Vikna district of Nord Trondelag be slaughtered with immediate effect after becoming resistant to chemical treatments against the sea-lice parasite. Actor Ted Danson and Andrew Sharpless, CEO at Oceana, the largest international conservation organization fully dedicated to protecting the oceans, have published a paper stating, and backing up, their contention that “farmed salmon are not a sustainable alternative.” Enough? Whether you’re concerned for your health, wish to gain more insight into the “controversy” involving farmed salmon, or are simply interested in watching a provocative, compelling, and incredibly well-made and watchable documentary film, we would encourage you to screen Salmon Confidential — take our word for it, you won’t be sorry you did.
Went to see Gravity last evening, the new film by Alfonso Cuarón.
A stunner. Or, as young people might say, fucking awesome.
Groundbreaking cinema of the first order, perhaps the best sci-fi adventure since Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 Oscar winner, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Except, this time around, Cuarón’s Gravity grabs you by the lapels, and leaves you on the edge of your seat from near beginning to end, rooting for astronauts Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) to survive their catastrophic encounter with wanton space debris. Gravity is not a chilly film. From the first time Cuarón’s camera pulls a close-up on Bullock, you’re pulled in, your eyes welling with tears. Bullock’s is a performance for the ages, come Sunday, March 2nd, 2014, an absolute Best Actress Oscar lock at the 86th Annual Academy Awards.
Although VanRamblings has seen thousands of films over the past 60 years, never ever, ever before have we seen a film that loves its star as much as Gravity loves Sandra Bullock, with her almond eyes, just too big nose, stunningly sexy body, and those eyes, migawd those sensitive eyes.
Sandra Bullock isn’t acting in Gravity, this a raw, emotional, intimate reveal of Sandra Bullock the person, on screen, more naked and vulnerable, tougher and stronger and smarter than you’ve ever seen her before.
Once you learn Dr. Ryan Stone’s backstory, you’re pulled in so far, so deep, your heart held so firmly in her grasp that every breath she takes is your breath, Bullock giving you life, as you give her life. Gravity is immersive, human-scale tour-de-force filmmaking, a film for the ages, a film of such grand import and pop culture resonance that we’ll be talking about Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity — an unusually gripping and utterly original work of art — for generations to come. Must-see moviemaking.
When you take in a screening of Gravity, make sure you do so under the best conditions. Gravity is not a film to cheap out on, a film that if you’re living in Vancouver can only truly be appreciated within the Scotiabank Theatre 3D-AVX Cinema 1, on the humungous screen, with full Dolby 7.1 surround sound. You won’t need popcorn, you’ll be riveted to the screen.
Here’s what some of the other film critics have to say … Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Gravity is mesmerizing, out of this world. Words can do little to convey the visual astonishment this space opera creates, a film whose impact must be experienced in 3-D on an IMAX theatrical screen to be fully understood. Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail Gravity, a weightless ballet and a cold-sweat nightmare, intimates mystery and profundity, with that mixture of beauty and terror that the Romantics called the sublime. A crowd-pleasing, near silent, minimalist blockbuster. Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald Gravity is a celebration of the primal pleasure of movies, a film that transports you out of the theatre and out of your head, close in spirit to Titanic, a startling, harrowing, impossibly shot giant-sized spectacle that hinges on two people floating on a piece of wood, clinging for their lives, Steven Price’s original score a critical complementary element to the film’s jaw-dropping visuals. Bullock is the film’s secret weapon, anchoring the film with a sadness and vulnerability she’s never played before, a revelation.
On Saturday morning, October 12th, Vancouver International Film Festival co-founder, and for 26 years the Festival Director, tendered his resignation.
Despite Alan’s statement to the contrary, what will follow will most assuredly be experienced by many as tumult, as upset and — as the Festival attempts to find a new direction sans it’s co-founder and reigning intelligence — a period of irresolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since the period of instability that occurred when Toronto Film Festival maven Hannah Fisher assumed the position of VIFF Festival Director 1985 – 1988, following VIFF co-founder Leonard Schein’s resignation and truncated tenure as the Director of the, then, Toronto Festival of Festivals.
Since 1988, when incoming Chairperson of VIFF’s Board of Directors and political apparatchik extraordinaire, Michael Francis, conducted a coup of VIFF’s Board of Directors, installing Alan Franey as the Festival’s once and forever director, Alan has remained atop the power structure of VIFF, a mature and thoughtful man of zen countenance possessed of an uncommon humanity, and a coherent and incisive administrative management capability that has not seen its equal on the arts scene in Vancouver since his investiture as Festival head, an arts administrator without equal, and in consequence utterly and profoundly irreplaceable.
That Alan wishes to spend more time with his lovely wife Donna — there is no scene which fills our heart with more joy than to see Alan and Donna, arm and arm, after lo these many years of an endearing and enduring companionship of the most tender affection, walking along and through the beachfront area stretching from Jericho Beach to the western end of Spanish Banks, very much in love, very much devoted to one another — is understandable. Does recognition of such circumstance lessen, in any way, the impact of what Alan’s leave-taking will mean for the Festival going forward, the period of tumult that is sure to follow? No, no it does not.
For Vancouver’s International Film Festival, where to from here? Although in his statement of resignation (which you will find at some greater length at the end of this post), for the official record Alan states that …
Our senior staff and board have been working towards this executive transition for a few years, and we are fortunate to have several deeply knowledgeable and dedicated long-term employees who work 60-80 hour weeks on our behalf. We all look forward to building on this year’s success.
Although we would not question Alan’s veracity for one moment, we believe that such simple statement of reassurance does not begin to plumb the depths of circumstance respecting the conditions which have lead up to Alan’s Saturday, October 12th, resignation as VIFF’S Festival Director.
Over the course of this past year, much was made over the loss of the Granville 7 Cinema as the longtime home of the Festival. Much less was made of the challenging economic circumstance that VIFF had to confront when, in 2012, Festival attendance dropped a precipitous 20% — most days on which the Festival occurred last year were warm and sunny, as potential VIFF patrons stayed away from darkened rooms of cinematic splendour, opting instead to enjoy the last vestiges of an unseasonably warm late summer, following upon what had been in 2012 a dreadfully chilly, inhospitable and rain-soaked June, July, August and early September.
In 2012, the Festival experienced a financial loss for the first time in many, many years. In the past, such a loss would have been made up by government grants of economic sustenance, or sponsorship monies from VIFF’s main financial supporters. But these are the days of post-economic collapse and continued economic uncertainty — the monies just weren’t there to ensure that the Vancouver International Film Festival would endure. With VIFF’s movement out into the community this year, Festival administration projected break-even, but more likely another loss.
Over the course of the past year, Alan’s job was very much on the line. The consequence of another financial loss for the Festival in 2013 would mean that Alan’s options would be limited — the Board (Alan was no longer protected by Michael Francis, who had resigned his position as Chair some years back) would demand Alan’s resignation in the face of a Vancouver film festival in which the public had seemingly lost confidence.
Contrary to the most salutary administrative VIFF projection of 2013 box office, with its uncertain move into the community, and early 2013 Festival days of torrential downpour, VIFF patrons flocked to the Festival. On Day 3 of the Festival, in conversation with VanRamblings, Alan turned to us to say, “Weather forecasters are advising Vancouverites to stay at home, warm and safe and away from the winds and torrents of rain. Instead, cinephiles are flocking to our Festival in record numbers, line-ups are long, and — although, perhaps, it is too early to say with authority — the future of our Festival, an important cultural institution, seems quite assured.”
The Board would not be pushing Alan out of his position as Festival Director following what will, in the days to come, come to be reported as a halcyon year in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Alan Franey takes his leave as Festival Director, of his own volition and secure in the knowledge that he leaves our Festival not without challenges that are still to be faced, but in a much more secure position financially than anyone could reasonably have predicted coming into the 32nd edition of our utterly transformative — and world class — film festival by the sea.
In the days to come, we will write of Alan’s legacy — and his peculiar, yet humane and wildly successful style of arts adminstration — but not in this post. You’ll just have to wait.
Where to from here? — yes, we’re finally going to get around to answering the question posed eight paragraphs above.
The transition to a new Festival Director, and a new style of arts administration, will not be an easy one.
Perhaps, as Alan hopes, all will go well, and a salutary succession plan — one in which a senior VIFF programmer will assume benign artistic provenance over the Festival — will occur. That and, of course, herefords will fly, natural fruit jelly bears will cascade from the sky directly into our open hand, and each night forever anon we will, each and every one of us, sleep the sleep of angels, secure in the knowledge that it is today, as it will be tomorrow, a world where social and economic justice will remain, as it has forever, the universal circumstance of our plenary condition.
No, all will not be well. How do we know this? Two words: Vision Vancouver.
Given its penchant for morbid control, we believe Vancouver’s once and future civic administration will most assuredly, and without a shred of doubt, come to exercise an unsavoury control over the selection process of a new Festival Director for the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Somewhere across this vast globe of ours, a Vision Vancouver and Tides Foundation-supported Hollyhock acolyte — currently employed elsewhere in a circumstance of jurisdiction as a senior film festival arts administrator — will make her way to Vancouver to assume the post Alan Franey will vacate in 2013. Perhaps VIFF will install a caretaker Festival Director. But most probably not. If one can be said to “know” Vision Vancouver, at all, Vancouver’s is a municipal administration intent on building a legacy of control far beyond their period of electability. Not a pretty picture, or one that serves the long term interests of the devoted fans of world cinema who live across Metro Vancouver, and across the globe, who each autumn as we have for many many years, find ourselves resident within one of the world’s finest festivals of foreign language, independent, Canadian, and non-fiction cinema.
The behind-the-scenes machinations respecting Alan’s replacement will be of Machiavellian proportion — all out of the public eye, of course, but let us hope that among those inside the smoke-filled rooms will be a person of conscience, someone who is committed to transparency, who will leak information of consequence and import, akin to extemporaneous manner.
VanRamblings is melancholy, dejected, verklempt.
Alan is stepping down. Our Festival will never be the same again, and although Vancouver’s international film festival will endure, the mise en scène of our beloved Festival will be forever changed. Maybe a good thing.
But in the short term, probably not.
VanRamblings wishes Alan and Donna well, and at next year’s Festival very much look forward to viewing the world cinema Alan — in his continuing capacity as a VIFF programmer — will have brought to our shores, for the screenings of his films of choice, deep inside the darkened cinematic coliseums of the 2014 Vancouver International Film Festival. Alan Franey’s Statement of Resignation
This 2013 Vancouver International Film Festival has been my 26th as Festival Director and it will be my last in this role. I hope to remain very much involved with VIFF but to focus on programming. I also hope to live a more balanced life and to have more time for other pursuits. Don’t we all?! For me that day has come.
It has been a privilege for me to lead this organization for so long, and there are many people I will remain grateful to. Our senior staff and board have been working towards this executive transition for a few years, and we are fortunate to have several deeply knowledgeable and dedicated long-term employees who work 60-80 hour weeks on our behalf. We all look forward to building on this year’s success. This work is a pleasure and brings its own rewards.
We live in a digital world in which quality is not always easily gleaned from quantity. Many directions for VIFF may be considered. My hope is that we will keep our eyes focused on our long-standing mandate to value cinema as an art form and as a bridge between peoples. This will surely serve us well in the future.
Gracious, hope-filled, father, husband, arts administrator no more.
The 32nd annual Vancouver International Film Festival concluded its 16-day run on Friday, October 11th. The winners of two juried awards, and six audience awards were announced prior to the screening of VIFF’s closing film, Arie Posin’s The Face of Love, at The Centre. The Dragons & Tigers winner was announced earlier in the Festival.
JURIED AWARDS
The Canadian Images jury announced two awards. The jury members were actress Gabrielle Miller (Corner Gas, Robson Arms, Moving Day); former BC Film Commissioner and Co-ordinator of the Motion Picture Arts Programme at Capilano University, Dianne Neufeld; and former Executive Producer for programming at Radio Canada, in BC & the Yukon, Michèle Smolkin. The Award for Best Canadian Feature Film
The award for Best Canadian Feature Film, and its $10,000 cash prize, is shared this year between Jason James’ That Burning Feeling, and Jeff Barnaby’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls. The following is the jury statement on the two winning Canadian films at VIFF 2013 …
Rhymes for Young Ghouls is a very powerful and beautifully produced film, with a stellar cast and excellent photography and design. Depicting the after-effects of the trauma inflicted by residential schools on the First Nations population, it also succeeds in telling a universal and touching story of an oppressed people trying to survive, rebuild and come to terms with their suffering. Using a highly creative vocabulary, from realistic to metaphorical, from fantastic to poetic, Jeff Barnaby demonstrates a promising and already impressive talent as a filmmaker.
That Burning Feeling is one of the best comedies the jury has seen in a long time. With a witty, smart and highly-articulate script, a talented cast and beautiful production, it makes for a wonderful self-deprecating portrait of Vancouver, with its condo maniacs, yoga lovers, community activists and other odd characters. While making us laugh along the way, it tells the human story of trying to find authenticity in a crazy world. Jason James is a rising filmmaker to watch with his wit, keen eye and intelligence.
Most Promising Director of a Canadian Short Film
The $2000 cash prize was awarded to Mathieu Arsenault for Nathan …
The Canadian short film that visually and emotionally walks the line between stories that use abrupt beginnings and endings and stories that change their point-of-view midstream. The rugged handheld camerawork and dynamic editing capture the emotional journey of an irresponsible young man learning to become a father. This unflinching and heartbreaking film is most worthy of the award for most promising director of a short film.
Women in Film + Television Artistic Merit Award
The WIFTV jury — Mary Margaret Frymire, Lisa Ovies and Ana Valine — told those in The Centre’s Closing Gala audience that, “We’re thrilled to award the 18th Annual Artistic Merit Award to Chloé Robichaud for her outstanding film, Sarah Prefers to Run. Robichaud’s clear and compelling direction, coupled with a strong lead performance from Sophie Desmarais, made for an engaging story that ran away with the audience’s hearts.”
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Rogers People’s Choice Award
Like Father, Like Son (Japan), directed by Kore-eda Hirozaku won the Rogers People’s Choice Award. All of the festival’s feature films — dramas and nonfiction — were eligible. Festival-goers chose the most popular film by rating every film they saw on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). VIFF Most Popular Canadian Film Award
The audience chose Down River, directed by Ben Ratner, for the VIFF Most Popular Canadian Film Award, presented by Canadian Images programmer, Terry McEvoy. Here’s a review written by Olivia Law, in The Ubyssey. VIFF Most Popular Canadian Documentary Award When I Walk, directed by Jason da Silva, won the VIFF Most Popular Canadian Documentary Award, presented by Canadian Images programmer, Terry McEvoy. Here’s The Hollywood Reporterreview. VIFF Most Popular Canadian Environmental Documentary Award Salmon Confidential, directed by Twyla Roscovich, won the VIFF Most Popular Canadian Environmental Documentary Award, presented by Canadian Images programmer, Terry McEvoy. The Straightreview. VIFF Most Popular Documentary Film Award
The audience chose Desert Runners directed by Jennifer Steinman, for the VIFF Most Popular Documentary Film Award, presented by Festival Director, Alan Franey. Here’s Mark Adams’ review in Screen Daily. VIFF Most Popular First Feature Award
The audience chose Wadjda, directed by Haifaa Al Mansour, for the VIFF Most Popular International First Feature Award, presented by Festival Director, Alan Franey. Here’s Oliver Lyttlelton’s review on Indiewire.
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED AWARDS
Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema
Anatomy of a Paperclip (Yamamori Clip Koujou no Atari) by Ikeda Akira of Japan won the 20th annual Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema and a cash prize of $5,000, supported by Brad Birarda. Presented to the director of a creative and innovative film from East Asia that has not yet won significant international recognition, the award was previously announced on October 3rd. Thanks are also due to Dragons & Tigers series sponsor Fairchild Media Group. BC Spotlight Awards BC Emerging Filmmaker Award — $7,500 cash prize sponsored by UBCP / AFBS and a $10,000 equipment rental credit from William F. White, was presented to Lawrence & Holloman, directed by Matthew Kowalchuk. Best BC Film — $10,000 development bursary provided by The Harold Greenberg Fund and a $10,000 post-production services credit from Finalé Editworks, presented to The Dick Knost Show, directed by Bruce Sweeney. #mustseebc Award — Leap for Your Life, directed by Gary Hawes
At the Closing Gala, the Vancouver International Film Festival extendeds its thanks to Creative BC, CineCoup, The Harold Greenberg Fund, William F. White, UBCP, AFBS, Finalé Editworks, Canon Canada, ET Canada and Vancouver Magazine.
