Yardbird: Mitzi Ruhlmann in what may be VIFF2012’s finest onscreen performance
Year in, year out the International Shorts programme emerges as one of the most overlooked aspects of the Vancouver International Film Festival. Attendance at screenings is sparse, buzz is muted, if present at all, and very few VIFF patrons — amidst what seems to be at times almost a cacophony of films — allow themselves to have the films in the shorts programme wash over them and change their lives forever going forward.
Early on Tuesday evening, in Theatre 5 at the Granville 7, VanRamblings took in a screening of the International Shorts programme, Teen Tales, a cinematically lovely and moving, curated programme of six international short films, five of which we are over the moon about, films as well-crafted as the most accomplished films at this year’s Festival, the collective work of a group of young directors whose films we will come to admire for decades into the future, the skill of these shorts auteurs, simply peerless and embodying always a filmic intelligence, a love of the craft of filmmaking, with an absolutely shattering and utterly original presentation of narrative.
More Inside the Beltway Coverage of VIFF 2012
VanRamblings feels quite disappointed in ourselves on having focused so much attention in the early VIFF posts on various VIFF ‘glitches’ this year (and let’s face it, in every other year of VIFF’s existence, and to be perfectly honest — in every other Film Festival anywhere on this planet) that has dogged the opening days of Vancouver’s annual exhibition of world cinema.
Still and all, as a journalist, one supposes that it is our duty to report out in order that you have information you can work with. This has been the oddest year for VanRamblings VIFF coverage, though, pretty much bereft of our tried-and-true capsule reviews, focusing instead on the day-to-day machinations on the periphery of VIFF, rather than films? Odd that. Oh well.
Anyway, the above said, here we go again for today …
Our Children: VanRamblings attended a 1pm, Monday, Vancity screening of Our Children, only to be told minutes before the screening that VIFF had been able only to acquire a degraded, time-coded production screener of the film, rather than the promised DCP ‘print’. The New York Film Festival, whose Fest is running simultaneously with ours, has both a DCP ‘print’, as well as an appearance by the film’s director, Joachim LaFosse. NYFF50 probably has in its possession the only English-subtitled DCP on the continent. New York will screen Our Children this Friday and Saturday evenings. Will VIFF find a way to acquire / have shipped the DCP of Our Children currently residing in the big smoke? And what does the snafu mean for VIFF filmgoers?
On Monday afternoon, VanRamblings spoke with VIFF Print Traffic Co-ordinator Kathy Evans about the matter. We expressed a concern that the screener currently in VIFF’s possession — in addition to degradation of film quality — is also missing 2 minutes of content, involving a crucial scene establishing the lead character’s state of mind and her consequent inexorable decline into tragedy. For VanRamblings, we would have stayed to watch Our Children; even a degraded, time-coded DVD screener — but a screener missing crucial footage?
Here’s what VIFF’s Kathy Evans told us about the matter: the producers of Our Children have let her know that they are anxious to get a DCP version of the film to us in time for next Monday’s and Thursday’s VIFF screenings. The producers have every incentive to do so, given that Our Children is Belgium’s Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee, and any buzz the film could garner at our VIFF Fest would only serve to help the film’s chances to gain entry as one of the five finalists in contention for an Oscar. On a concluding note: Ms. Evans assures VIFF filmgoers that she and her team are “working diligently” to ensure that VIFF acquires a DCP ‘print’ of the film as it is meant to be seen, assuring us as well, that she will keep VanRamblings apprised on any developments in the matter, so that we can keep you informed.
Note should be made that in the 31 years that VanRamblings has attended VIFF, print acquisition problems has, annually, proven a concern, as it does for each and every Film Festival in every jurisdiction across our planet. In VanRamblings’ experience, VIFF administration conducts itself always with diligence, fortitude, integrity, sincerity and strength of purpose in serving the needs of VIFF patrons. If there’s a resolution to the matter involving Our Children to be had, senior VIFF admin, and Ms. Evans and her team, will find the resolution satisfactory to the needs of VIFF patrons.
VIFF2012: Starlet director Sean Baker in a Q&A, Sunday morning, following film screening
Sean Baker, who brought his new film, Starlet — the provocative May-December friendship drama  — to VIFF2012, at the Q&A following an early morning screening of the film (above) told the audience that the film had found a North American distributor in Music Box Films — who have acquired a number of films screening at our VIFF, for distribution in Canada and the United States, including Ira Sachs’ well-reviewed, Keep the Lights On, and VIFF favourite Any Day Now. VanRamblings reader Joan Skosnik was kind enough to write to us with the information that the Alan Cumming / Garret Dillahunt period drama had been acquired for distribution. Music Box Films acquired Canadian Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee Monsieur Lazhar last year, and took it right through the Oscar process, where the film emerged as an even odds prospect for a win. Will the same thing happen for Starlet, Any Day Now or Keep the Lights On? VanRamblings thinks not, and believes that these three films are unlikely to return to Vancouver, unless VIFF Vancity programmer Tom Charity picks them up for a one-week run. Distribution is a costly process, and when you’re talking about distributing films that cost only $250,000 to make in the first place, although those films might find release to theatres there’ll be next to no money for marketing and advertising the films, so who’ll even know that they’ve found a home at a cinema in our town, post-Festival?
Maybe the three films referred to above will return to Vancouver, maybe they won’t. Clearly, they’re all worthy films. VanRamblings’ advice? Why risk possible disappointment? See them as part of your VIFF2012 film schedule!
The first three days of the 31st annual Vancouver International Film has proved to be nothing less than spectacular.
Although VanRamblings’ Festival started out a bit on the meh side, Friday and Saturday were knockout punches in terms of film quality. As was mentioned yesterday, the counterintuitive (at least for us), heartfelt drama, Any Day Now , has emerged as the most well-acted, poignant, and accomplished piece of indie filmmaking we’ve seen thus far at VIFF2012.
Nuala (Grade: B+): Renowned Irish journalist, feminist TV producer and host, book reviewer, teacher and New York Times best-selling author Nuala O’Faolain, who passed on May 9, 2008, was the second eldest of nine children, the daughter of neglectful parents — a raffish social affairs columnist father, and a book-loving, alcoholic mother. Somehow, through her love of literature, a beauty which brought her many (many) lovers, and the undampened spirit she carried within her throughout her life, Nuala prevailed. As British poet Philip Larkin wrote, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.” Odds-on favourite to win Best Non-Fiction Film at VIFF2012 (no mean feat that considering the superior quality of VIFF docs this year), Nuala is must VIFF viewing in 2012. One final screening, Wednesday, October 3rd at 11am, Vancity Theatre.
Any Day Now (Grade: A-): The Audience Award winner at Tribeca this year, winner of Best Actor (Alan Cumming) and Best Director (Travis Fine) at the Seattle Film Festival in June, among a raft of other awards, this touching, tragic, sentimental and (fortunate for us) at times wildly comic 1979-set apparently true period drama explores the discrimination to which gay men have long been subjected, and the lengths to which one must go to engender tolerance and civil rights. Far from pedantic or a polemic, the at all times honest and beautifully-etched story of Paul, a closeted deputy district attorney who falls in love with Rudy (Alan Cumming), a flamboyant, lip syncing drag queen, and the fight the two wage to adopt Marco (Isaac Leyva), a teen with Down syndrome, offers as intimate and nuanced a character-driven drama as you’re likely to see this year. A film not to miss. Screens again next Saturday, October 6th at 11am at the Vancity Theatre, and on Monday, October 8th at 9:30pm, Empire Granville 7.
