Category Archives: Cinema

VIFF 2021 | Sandy Gow’s Knock-Out, Must-See International Shorts

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Year-in, year out, at the very heart of the Vancouver International Film Festival lies the always spectacular, phenomenally moving — and sometimes, downright funny — International Shorts programmes, as curated by VIFF’s International Shorts programmer, Sandy Gow.

In the past VanRamblings has written this about Sandy …

“Every now and then, we get to be our true selves, our best selves. Sandy, who like many of us is ‘of an age’, has come into his own in recent years — honest and forthright, humane and caring, employing wit and warmth and intelligence and an unparalleled love of cinema, in the job he has undertaken. As mentioned above, Sandy curates the International Shorts programme. How very, very fortunate we VIFF cinéastes are to have in place for us, a VIFF staff person of such unparalleled integrity, as well as an abiding warmth of spirit, an individual who prioritizes films not just as ‘craft’, but of immense heart and cinematic intelligence.”

Three notes should be made about the International Shorts programme …

  • The International Shorts programme is too often overlooked by VIFF patrons who while striving to see the best in world cinema neglect to consider that the birth of the features that emerge as life-changing events at VIFF often occur within the realm of ‘the short’, a film in the truest sense (despite its abbreviated length) that garners the necessary attention to allow the novice filmmaker a film career;
  • For years, Sandy Gow has curated International Shorts programmes, that offer VIFF patrons one surety: most, if not all, of the films in any given International Shorts programme will come to represent the best experience to be had inside a darkened theatre, or at home through VIFF Connect. Sandy’s heart, intellect and wisdom are poured into the decisions he makes in choosing from among the 1600 entries that culminate in the 29 shorts included in the four curated programmes at VIFF2021, a winsome combination of intimate, humane, thoughtful, provocative, revelatory, and heartbreaking chronicles of the human condition;
  • Competition. Take a gander at your Facebook feed, or listen to the conversations in the lineups as passholders “discuss” how many films they’ve seen that day, and what their “count” of films screened is as of any given day — in some sense VIFF is, at times, a “competition” to see the most films (and why not? what a treat to see 100+ films!). Imagine the following: take in a screening of every one of the 29 shorts in the four IS programmes, and your number of films screened will burgeon! Although a gentle humility defines the approach of the VIFF veteran to her fellow Festival patrons, a bit of boastfulness from time to time surely cannot be out of place. Twenty-nine films added to your list of feature films seen at VIFF2021, and a glorious and transformative 465 minutes in the cinema! At VIFF, we call that bliss .

In a recent conversation with the slightly rumpled professorial-looking Sandy Gow, he told VanRamblings that over the past year he and his team have screened a record 1600 short films — 200 more entries than last year — while on the way to creating the curated and juried four International Shorts programmes that have found their way onto VIFF’s 2021 film schedule.

In these waning days of the 40th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, if you’re looking to be delighted, moved, informed and to be introduced to a ‘new’ filmmaker, who very well may become the next David Fincher, Kathryn Bigelow, Ava DuVernay or Pete Docter, Sandy’s International Shorts programme is the place to be, and the very best part of VIFF 2021 yet to be explored.

Mr. Gow discusses each of the 4 International Shorts programmes this year …
(click on each programme link to go to the VIFF page for the programme)

International Shorts: Animation
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“The animation programme in 2021, we had so much good animation, so many great submissions. The programme last year was hugely successful, probably the most successful shorts programme in VIFF’s entire history. The animation programme this year is a little more mature, with more serious themes, in a wonderfully diverse programme, where every short is different: in style, in approach, in theme, ranging from the various serious to the humorous. I love animation, and never more so than this year. In 2021, this great animation programme is simply not to be missed.”

International Shorts: Life Labs
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“This series is about choices people make in their lives, and how that affects other people. In each of the shorts in the Life Labs series, someone is making a choice that is going to have serious implications. Some of my favourites are included in this programme. I really loved MeTube: August Sings ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima’, which is so hilarious, a loud and crazy mash up of sci-fi and opera.”

International Shorts: Have We Ever Learned?
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“We as human beings like to think of ourselves as intelligent and rational, as having accomplished so much during our time as a species on this Earth — and yet there are aspects of our behaviour as individuals and in society that causes us to continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. You’d think we’d  have learned by now, but clearly we haven’t. Those are the issues that are addressed this year in the Have We Ever Learned? Shorts programme. Topical, political, adventurous, serious, humourous — like A Roll in the Hay which, by the way, is also a great little thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time.”

International Shorts: Seniors Day
Available on VIFF Connect through October 11th

“The common theme in the Seniors Day programme is that the protagonists in every film are, essentially, older people. They’re not the lay down and die people, they’re a pretty feisty bunch. The Seniors Day programme, again, is a great collection of some really humourous films, as well as those tending to the more serious. My favourite film in all of the International Shorts programmes is Don vs Lightning — which is the best comedy I’ve screened in a long time, starring Peter Mullan (pictured above), a really established actor. In fact, that’s one of the common themes in the Seniors Day programme, three of the shorts — including Roy and Charon — have really established actors, who have lent their talent to young, up and coming filmmakers. It really pays off is all I can say.”

VIFF cinephiles: You’ve got your work cut out for you as this year’s glorious —  yet somewhat truncated —  40th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival draws to a close this upcoming Thanksgiving Monday, October 11th.

VIFF 2021 | Awards ‘Season’ at the Vancouver International Film Festival

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Long one of the most hopeful aspects of our homegrown, always engaging and utterly moving Vancouver International Film Festival arises on the days when VIFF makes its awards announcements, two of which came today.

B.C. Emerging Filmmaker Award | VIFF 2021

Winner of the 2021 VIFF B.C. Emerging Filmmaker Award: Director and tyro Indigenous filmmaker Trevor Mack who, according to the synopsis on the VIFF website for Mr. Mack’s winning film, Portraits of a Fire, “delivers an accomplished, open-hearted first feature both made about and in collaboration with his First Nations community of Tl’etinqox (Chilcotin) Nation.

Special Mention: First-time filmmaker Elizabeth Lazebnik, for her psychologically rich and uniquely immersive film, Be Still .

B.C. Best Film Award 2021 | Vancouver International Film Festival

Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux & Kirk Thomas’ Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball, the homegrown story about the legendary basketball collective that changed the game forever through their impressive arsenal of tricks and moves, even in the face of racism, rejection, and conformity. The film’s world première :  9pm on Friday, October 8th, at the Vancouver Playhouse.

VIFF 2021 | NYFF59 and VIFF2021 Share 17 Films

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As has long been the case, the prestigious, oh-so-heavily juried and highly and lovingly curated New York Film Festival, and our local, homegrown Vancouver International Film Festival share many films, as is the case once again this year.

Today on VanRamblings, our annual virtual visit to the Big Apple / Gotham City, and the very fine New York Film Festival.

Here are the 17 films the NYFF59 and VIFF40 share in 2021 … enjoy!

VIFF 2021 | 40th Annual Vancouver International Film Festival, Oct. 1st – 11th

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After going online in 2020, the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) returns on Friday, October 1st thru Monday, October 11th — to celebrate its 40th annual edition with a vibrant hybrid in-person and streaming lineup, with 85% of the VIFF 2021 film slate available online not just for loyal VIFF fans locally, but for patrons throughout British Columbia and across Canada, through the VIFF Connect online streaming web portal.

Although the Vancouver International Film Festival has traditionally commenced in late September with a two-week run, the somewhat truncated 2021 hybrid edition running from Friday, October 1st thru Monday, October 11th, will still feature 113 groundbreaking and celebrated original films, with 80 narrative and 33 documentary features arriving from 50 countries across the globe, 24 of which are world premières, 26 North American and 28 Canadian feature film premières, 6 of which are made by BC filmmakers. Eighty curated short films are also featured in the VIFF 2021 lineup, 36 of which are Canadian.

Strict British Columbia COVID-19 public health and safety protocols will be in place for in-person screenings, including mandatory mask wearing in screening rooms and common areas, and BC Vaccine Card proof that cinephile patrons have been vaccinated, before patrons will be granted access to the eight VIFF cinema venues.

VIFF executive director Kyle Fostner says he believes there’s a growing group of patrons who are ready to return to the theatre.

“Culturally, as an organization and as a community VIFF needs to have some kind of statement of intent around returning to cultural activity and to cinema,” Fostner says, pointing out that two local independent theatres, the Rio and the Cinematheque, have already been open for some time and attracting audiences.

Meanwhile, VIFF Expanded has partnered with two B.C. venues to present films in-cinema to British Columbians outside of the Lower Mainland, with 8 screenings scheduled at the Tillicum Twin Theatres in Terrace, and 12 VIFF films set to screen at the newly renovated Patricia Theatre in Powell River.

(Note: each film title — and more — throughout this column links to the VIFF website page)

Japanese-English director Will Sharpe’s The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, a whimsical Victorian biopic starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, was selected by VIFF Associate programmer Curtis Woloschuk as VIFF’s opening night film —  on Friday, October 1st, with Céline Sciamma’s exquisite Petite Maman — which débuted at the Berlinale earlier this year acclaim — and a favourite of Mr. Woloschuk’s, selected as VIFF’s closing night film, on Monday, October 11th.

The array of titles given special presentations assembles a collection of works by leading filmmakers spanning the globe, from …

    • One Second (China) by Fifth Generation filmmaker Zhang Yimou;

https://youtu.be/Ej7FSmzijNE

    • Memoria (Thailand/Colombia/U.K.) by Thai indie director Apichatpong Weerasethakul;

    • Drive My Car (Japan), Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s adaptation of a short story by author Haruki Murakami, available only as an in-person screening. A favourite of VIFF International Films programmer, Alan Franey;

    • Belfast (U.K.), an autobiographical film by British filmmaker Kenneth Branagh, recent winner of the Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival;

    • The Power of the Dog (Australia/New Zealand), the “other” Benedict Cumberbatch film at VIFF this year, and winner of the Silver Lion for Jane Campion as Best Director, at Venice 2021;

    • Bergman Island (France/Sweden) by French writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve;

“Seventeen VIFF films will be available as in-person screenings only,” VIFF’s International Films programmer Alan Franey told VanRamblings.

“And that includes Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s sombre drama about love and loss, that was for me an engrossing and exalting film experience, and a film not to be missed. Arising from concerns about piracy, I was unable to move various studios to release their films to our secure streaming VIFF Connect platform.”

As part of VIFF’s 40th anniversary celebrations, the festival will present a free online tribute talk. VIFF Leading Lights will spotlight Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu (Like Father, Like Son) in conversation with South Korean filmmaker Bora Kim (House of Hummingbird), whom Kore-eda chose as an emerging director to discuss filmmaking with.

Other speaking engagements at VIFF Talks will feature film professionals sharing their expertise, including documentary filmmakers Julie Cohen (My Name is Pauli Murray) and Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee).

On the industry side, online events include master classes with Mare of Easttown director Craig Zobel and The Suicide Squad editor Fred Raskin, as well as a talk by The Green Knight’s production designer Jade Healy.

Canadian productions receiving special presentations include the Indigenous sci-fi drama Night Raiders (Canada/New Zealand) by Cree-Métis director Danis Goulet, starring Vancouver’s Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, and All My Puny Sorrows (Canada), director Michael McGowan’s adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2014 novel.

More  VIFF 2021 highlights include VIFF AMP , the annual forum for music in film, which runs from October 8 to 10; VIFF Totally Indie Day on October 2nd, devoted to independent filmmakers and cinema; and the VIFF Immersed exhibition, October 1 to 11, to showcase virtual reality and augmented reality storytelling.

VIFF Ticket Info | VIFF Connect | In-Person | Passes | Tickets & Ticket Packs

As has long been the case, VIFF will offer a wide array of different ticket packages and passes: patrons can purchase an all-festival, all-access in-person pass for $725, while the VIFF Connect pass will be available for $110 for a household, $80 for an individual, with a $60 student rate. The four-ticket in-person pass price is set at $48, seniors $44, students, $32. Regular in-person admission will cost $15 – $17.

In 2021, patrons may enjoy the big screen cinematic experience, or watch from the comfort of their home, or mix and match to create a personal festival journey.

“VIFF’s lineup offers a plurality of perspectives, with powerful narratives from Indigenous filmmakers, poignant stories from female perspectives, and bold work that confronts critical issues such as colonialism, racism, and the climate crisis,” says Woloschuk. “The films VIFF programmers have selected testify to the power of creativity, reminding us: even when it’s darkest, we can dream.”

“I think the minute I see a VIFF screening of 100 appreciative audience members rapt in attention watching a VIFF film in-cinema it will be a victory,” enthuses Fostner, who adds that despite the ravages of the pandemic, VIFF remains strong.

The Vancouver International Film Festival is presented on the traditional and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, and the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil‑Waututh) Nations.