Two hundred films bypass Vancouver every year.
Art, independent, Canadian, foreign, low-budget, experimental — the kind of films Vancouverites would flock to if there was a theatre owner in town who cared enough about film to build a thriving art-house cinema.
But there ain’t no one like that in Vancouver, and as a consequence 200 well-reviewed, high-grossing (in markets similar to Vancouver, like Portland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Baltimore, Boston and other medium-sized American cities) indie films never cross the border to find a home in Vancouver.
Each year, the Vancouver International Film Festival screens some 250 feature films, very few of which have a Canadian distributor in place. So, whether it’s Dito Montiel’s terrifically-nuanced and affecting Sundance produced A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, or the hard-hitting Australian drama Candy — neither one of which has a Canadian distributor in place — if you live in Greater Vancouver, and don’t catch a screening of many of the films included in the VIFF schedule, you’re pretty much out of luck when it comes to seeing these pictures on the big screen, or ever.

Continue reading VIFF2006: Vancouver As Cultural Backwater →

Videomatica is Vancouver’s premiere source for cinephiles, the video shop that all those who love film frequent to sate their need for international film, and a window on the world. In order to gain employment with Videomatica, job applicants are required to take a film erudition exam (see video below).
In 2006, consideration was given by the VIFF to making the Videomatica exam a part of the criteria for accepting volunteers to the 25th annual Vancouver International Film Festival. Such did not come to pass this year, but you never can tell what the future might hold. Click on the video below to see whether or not you qualify as a true, died-in-wool VIFF cinéaste.

With thanks to producer / filmmaker ‘Kino’ Klassen, and the inimitable J.B. ‘Showbiz’ Shayne, the ‘stars’ of this award-winning VIFF film short.
C’mon back tomorrow for a full VIFF posting. See you then.

The second week of the 25th annual Vancouver International Film Festival got off to a rousing start, with five more films taken in by Showbiz Shayne and Mr. Know-It-All. Having taken a brief break, we’re hard back at it …
First up: Dito Montiel’s film adaptation of his best-selling autobiography …
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (U.S.): A workshop production of the Sundance Institute (always a good sign), A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is just the kind of film you want to see at the Vancouver Film Festival: no Canadian distributor in place (so, if you don’t see it at the Festival, you’re not likely to see it on a big screen at all), well-reviewed pretty much wherever it’s played south of the border, a vibrant, slice-of-life, coming-of-age saga that jumps off the screen with a raw power and intensity that is all but missing from the usual Hollywood fare. With outstanding performances throughout (most notably from Shia LaBeouf, who plays the young Dito), this brash, affecting, sometimes violent, and entirely engaging pic screens today at 4:15 p.m. and again Monday, at 8 p.m. Absolutely one to include on your Festival viewing schedule.
Candy (Australia): A wrenching, bittersweet tale of love, life and addiction, Candy grabs you from the moment the lights dim in the theatre, director Neil Armfield’s evocative depiction of the central characters’ headlong, drug-fuelled spiral into hell on earth allowing us to bear shuddering witness to the self-destruction of heroin addiction and the devastation felt by all those who come in contact with Dan and Candy. With superb performances by Heath Ledger and newcomer Abbie Cornish at the film’s centre, Candy has already screened for the last time at this year’s Festival. Maybe it’ll come back to Vancouver’s Cinemark art-house, Tinseltown Cinema.

Continue reading VIFF2006: A Day in the Life, The Weekend Edition →

While the inimitable Mr. Shayne keeps up the furious pace of four to five films a day, VanRamblings is taking a mid-Festival break, both to recover from too many late nights (and early morning hours at work the next day), and to focus on said aforementioned work, which has somehow been put to the side just a wee bit more than VanRamblings’ employers might prefer.
Just a couple of observations, then, and back to work with us.
First off, the Georgia Straight’s 2nd Film Festival review roundup came out today, and critics Mark Harris and Ken Eisner recommend …
Congorama (Belgium, Canada and France): Mark Harris describes Congorama as “independent filmmaking at its concise best,” while Jason Anderson, writing in Eye Weekly during the Toronto Film Festival, describes the film as “eccentrically endearing,” giving it three stars. Meanwhile, Variety’s Justin Cheng seems a bit more iffy, although the only way you’ll know for sure is if you attend a screening of Philippe Falardeau’s film.
La Coupure (Canada): “Dark, gruelling, and extremely convincing,” says Georgia Straight film critic / UBC professor, Mark Harris. Adam Nayman, writing in Eye Weekly, gives the film 3 stars, saying “To call La Coupure an “incest drama” would be terribly reductive — it’s intense but never lurid, utilizing up close and personal camerawork to pare its provocative subject down to recognizably human dimensions.” Meanwhile, Film Freak’s Bill Chambers just hates the film. Again, only you can be the judge.
The Elementary Particles (Germany): Whatever happened to Run Lola Run’s Franka Potente? To find out, you’ll have to attend a screening of The Elementary Particles, for which both Variety magazine and the BBC would seem to have a great deal of affection. Meanwhile, the Straight’s Ken Eisner has this to say: “A funny, tender, sexy, and overheated adaptation of a controversial late-’90s French novel.” Now, there you go: a “keeper.”

Continue reading VIFF2006: Mid-Festival Break, But Still Lots to Report →