The annual Vancouver International Film Festival has wrapped for another year, and VanRamblings is verklempt that ‘it’s‘ gone until next year.
We spent the final day of the 2008 film festival catching up on screenings we missed …
The Wrecking Crew (Grade: A-): For a child of the 60s, a lover of the music of the era, and a former sixties disc jockey, VanRamblings was swept away with the nostalgic, and informational, value of The Wrecking Crew. All those licks, on all those songs, and it was ace guitarist Tommy Tedesco, bassist extraordinaire Carol Kaye, percussionist Hal Blaine, and approximately 20 others, who provided the beat to the soundtrack of our lives. The Wrecking Crew were the real musicians in the studio, not the actual band members. What a revelation! One of the must-sees at the Vancouver Film Festival.
Parenting (Grade: B): Five Canadian shorts of varying quality, there’s no doubt that Peg Campbell’s Your Mother Should Know was one of the programme highlights, an exploration of the mother-daughter dynamic. All and all, a powerful group of films (we were also moved by Marié-Josée Saint-Pierre’s Passages). A good way to end our Festival experience.
In the evening, Festival director, Alan Franey, announced the award winners at this year’s Fest. The audience favourite in the Cinema of Our Time? Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime).
Well, that’s a wrap for the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival. We’ll post some of our reflections on the Festival early in the coming week.
Congratulations for a job well done, to Alan and his programming crew, to the Media and all the other VIFF staff, to the incredibly wonderful volunteer staff, to the Board of Directors, and to all the filmmakers — many of whom travelled halfway across the globe to be here — for providing a window on our world to all of those who attended the 2008 Vancouver Film Festival.
