VanRamblings has added four reviews to our thrived and became an institution over the years; 165 reviews are now available. Included in today’s update: new reviews for the documentary David Hockney: The Colors of Music, Public Lighting, Iran’s The River’s End, and Michael Haneke’s The Time of the Wolf.
Ill Fated? Not in the end for B.C. feature

Not many films are as appropriately titled as Ill-Fated.
A sort of Greek tragedy set in the midst of a trailer-trash community in the B.C. Interior, it is the story of a long and arduous journey both onscreen and off.
For Vancouver-based first-time feature filmmaker Mark A. Lewis, the rocky road to the festival circuit was marked by the death of a friend, endless financing shortfalls, the B.C. forest fires and a near-miss at Cannes.
But he’s finally made it with his feature about a man named Earl (Peter Outerbridge) who, seeking redemption for his past sins, returns to the community he left as a teenager only to find Jimmy (Paul Campbell), the now-teenage son he abandoned there, desperately trying to escape the ignorance and crushing poverty and get away to college.
The remainder of John McKay’s Canadian Press story is available here.
More Screenings Added to the Festival Lineup
As of this writing, the following screenings have been added …
Arahan: Thursday, October 7th, 9:30 p.m., at the Ridge
Czech Dream: Wednesday, October 6th, 4:30 p.m., Granville 6
Dutch Light: Thursday, October 7th, 6:30 p.m., Granville 6
Havana Suite: Tuesday, October 5th, 6:45 p.m., Granville 6
Henri Cartier-Bresson — The Impassioned Eye: Thursday, October 7th, 9:45 p.m., Granville 2

As of this morning, VanRamblings has added four reviews to our thrived and became an institution over the years; 160 reviews are now available. Included in today’s update, you’ll find reviews for Israel’s Checkpoint, George Bush: Faith in the White House, Russia’s The Last Train, and Holland’s highly-rated South.
Dragons and Tigers award winner announced

First off, before we get around to announcing the winner of the 2004 Vancouver International Film Festival Dragons & Tigers award, mention should be made that VanRamblings is, indeed, aware that although there are only five full days remaining in the 23rd annual edition of the Film Festival, there are additional screenings available on Friday, October 9th, which ought to give many an opportunity — up until the dinner hour, anyway — to catch films, before the Festival shutters its doors for another year.
Here, then, is the press release for the Dragons & Tigers award winner …

For the eleventh year running, the Festival is pleased to offer the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema to the most creative and innovative feature by a new director from the Asia-Pacific region. The award is given to a first or second feature. We’re very grateful to Brad Birarda of Dundee Securities for continuing to sponsor this award, and the series as a whole.
The award — which again includes a $5,000 prize to the director — was announced before the mid-Gala screening of Electric Shadows.
This year’s jury was comprised of Peggy Chaoi from Taiwan, Hong Sang-Soo from Korea and Christoph Huber from Austria. The three jurists have issued the following jury statement: “It was a privilege to serve on this year’s jury, where we encountered an interesting and diverse selection of Asian films. We had a long debate about whether or not to give any films a Special Mention — because we didn’t want to discourage the other film-makers whose work we appreciated but couldn’t include. But we finally decided to cite three films that we found remarkable for various reasons.”
The films cited, in alphabetical order, are:
The Big Durian by Amir Muhammad from Malaysia
For its witty and unusual handling of an incident which ultimately allows deep insights into the racial tensions in Malaysian society.
Good Morning Beijing by Pan Jialin from China
For its compelling mixture of parallel narratives and uncompromising depictions of the darkness and frustrations of city existence.
Sund@y Seoul by Oh Myung-Hoon from Korea
For taking pieces of real-life experience — pieces never likely to fit into conventional narrative forms — and holding them together through to the end, creating a resonance that is anything but banal.
Our unanimous choice for the 2004 Dragons & Tigers Award:
THE SOUP, ONE MORNING by Takahashi Izumi from Japan
For its visual and emotional precision in mapping out the slow decay of a relationship. The film gradually accumulates an overwhelming power which can only come from feelings that the director and his actors have experienced and inhabited for themselves.

Full Coverage of the New York Film Festival
While we in Vancouver, British Columbia are experiencing the final few days of the 23rd annual Vancouver International Film Festival, down south and on the other coast, the folks in New York are being treated to the 42nd annual New York Film Festival .
Full coverage of the event is available in a special section of the New York Times, including a Manohla Dargis review of Tropical Malady, and A.O Scott’s review of Look at Me. The latter film is the Closing Gala screening film for the 23rd annual Vancouver International Film Festival.
The New York Film Festival will also be honouring Pedro Almod�var.

As of this afternoon, VanRamblings has added a further six reviews to our thrived and became an institution over the years; more than 155 reviews are now available. Included in today’s update, you’ll find new reviews for Qu�bec’s Alter Egos + shorts, Germany’s Berlin Blues, Holland’s well-reviewed Dutch Light, Abbas Kiarostami’s highly rated Five, and two ‘slag’ reviews for Sri Lanka’s Scent of the Lotus Pond, and Cuba’s Seven Days, Seven Nights.
VIFF Housekeeping Information: New Films, Additional Screenings

Hits are emerging at the 23rd annual Vancouver International Film Festival. Even though The World According to Bush will air on the CBC’s Passionate Eye on Sunday, October 17th at 10 p.m. and again on Friday, October 22nd at 10 p.m, Vancouver Film Festival attendees obviously want to experience the documentary on the big screen with fellow Festival aficionadas.
Machuca is another break out hit, as are the remaining films listed directly below. As of today, additional screenings are available for …

• 20 FINGERS: Granville 6, October 3 (2:20 p.m.)
• BERLIN BLUES: Granville 6, October 3 (5:00 p.m.)
• FOUR SHADES OF BROWN: Granville 6, October 3 (8:00 p.m.)
• HARI OM: Vogue, October 3 (1 p.m.)
• MACHUCA: Vogue, October 6 (9:30 p.m.)
• UP AND DOWN: Granville 6, October 6 (7:30 p.m.)
• THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BUSH: Granville 7, October 7 (4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)

For more VIFF programme updates, click here.
Who’da Thunk? A Pro Bush Film Added to Film Festival Lineup
Where are all the pro-Bush films? Thought you’d never ask. The fine programming folks at the Vancouver International Film Festival actually found one! Billed as “an alternative programme to Fahrenheit 9/11, George W. Bush: Faith in the White House is a timely new ‘70-Minute Documentary on the Most Resolutely Faith-Based Presidency in Modern Times’.”
Director David W. Balsinger describes his film in this way …

“He is the commander-in-chief of the world’s greatest superpower. The leader of the free world. The head of the executive branch of the U.S. government. The weight of responsibility is enormous, and it drives George W. Bush to his knees … in prayer and supplication. Like no other president in the history of the United States, George W. Bush boldly, publicly, and genuinely lives out his faith on the job.”

According to BBC correspondent Justin Webb …

“Nobody spends more time on his knees than George W. Bush. The Bush administration hums to the sound of prayer. Prayer meetings take place day and night. It’s not uncommon to see White House functionaries hurrying down corridors carrying Bibles. Decide for yourself whether President Bush’s faith has been good for America! But whatever you decide, his faith will change and inspire you!”

Says Frank Rich in The New York Times …

Of the many cultural grenades being tossed, the one must-see is George W. Bush: Faith in the White House, specifically marketed in ‘head to head’ partisan opposition to Fahrenheit 9/11. This documentary first surfaced at the Republican convention in New York, where it was previewed in tandem with an invitation-only, no-press-allowed ‘Family, Faith and Freedom Rally’, a Ralph Reed-Sam Brownback jamboree thrown by the Bush campaign for Christian conservatives. Faith in the White House gives the imagination room to run riot about what a 21st-century crusade might look like in the flesh. A documentary conceived as a rebuke to Fahrenheit 9/11 is nothing if not its unintentional and considerably more nightmarish sequel.”

No one can say that VanRamblings, or the Vancouver Film Festival, fails to provide equal time for the opposition. Frank Rich is probably right, though, when he opines that George W. Bush: Faith in the White House “is nothing if not [Fahrenheit 9/11’s] unintentional and considerably more nightmarish sequel.” George W. Bush: Faith in the White House screens at the Granville 5, this coming Thursday, October 7th at 4 p.m.
Euro Hipsters Attend the Vancouver Film Festival
German actor and co-screenwriter Jan Stahlberg will be a Festival guest for the Berlin Film Festival award winner Quiet as a Mouse, from October 6th through 8th. His award-winning film screens first on October 6th at 9:30 p.m. at the Ridge; and again on October 8th, at 2 p.m., at the Granville 4.
Dutch director Martin Koolhoven will be in town for his gripping character study, South, from October 3rd through 8th. Koolhoven’s film screens at the Granville 3 this coming Monday, October 4th at 6:40 p.m., and again on Wednesday, October 6th, at 2 p.m., at the Granville 4.