Festivals
The 8 Fest is celebrating its 4th year in 2011 with another weekend of small gauge films (like 8mm, Super 8 and 9.5mm) at Trash Palace from January 28 to 30th. Its first program selection comes from the “$100 Film Festival” in Calgary all curated and hosted in person by Melanie Wilmink, entitled “Go East, Young West, Go East!” Filmmakers from this program include Luke Black, Kyle Whitehead, Lauren Simms, Liz Pimie, Alexander Sakarev, Steven Kajorinne, Yaz Arima, James Reckseidler, Cara Mumford, Alex Mitchell, Spencer Estabrooks, Hernan Moreno, Doreen Wood, Vincent Varga and Caitlind Brown....
Filmmaker Paul Clipson was on hand to present four of his films during The 8 Fest 2011. The first three films were shorts done to ambient film scores. Clipson really understands the importance of music and sounds in abstract small-gauge filmmaking. This was the strongest program of the festival and Clipson is by far my favorite small-gauge filmmaker working today. If you ever get a chance to see Paul Clipson’s work, I highly recommend it....
Ona is a dialogue-less short film about desire. Following two people alone on a floating dock, they are lying and relaxing on the surface, but underneath they are pining for each other deeply. While it appears on the surface to be a short largely dedicated to beautiful shots of water, landscape, and the human body, it is really a study in desire. Masterfully capturing the way the mind visualizes it shows the internal world of both these people as they fumble towards intimacy. It is a stunningly beautiful short film that should really be seen by everyone (although, caution, there’s...
Miercoles 8 / Martes 7 is a very surprising and complex story. The title translates to “Wednesday the 8th / Tuesday the 7th” and the narrative follows that order. Opening on one of our main characters, the teenaged Ursula and a friend running from an unseen threat, we are thrown into Ursula’s life at the speed she lives it: fast. It’s her 16th birthday and she’s got a very large shiner on her left eye. Dressed in her school uniform, but not at school we follow her as she makes her way to her mother’s work to say hello to...
This is a brilliant, poignant and funny three-minute short film about a man who was having trouble connecting with people socially. When someone suggested to him that he try social media, his life becomes an obsessive mission to perpetuate the growing legacy of David Leonard Sutton, the persona he puts on when he’s online. The story is told in “video diary” format, with an interesting ending that is both darkly funny and thought provoking. Whether we use our own identity or we assume another one, are we really ourselves when we’re online? When we invest in other people online, what...
The Advantage of the Hitman is a short film about a man who is has left San Juan for Spain. Once there, he tries to find work to earn enough money to allow his girlfriend to follow him. After avoiding becoming overly involved in gang violence at home, he agrees to do one hit in order to allow the woman he loves to join him. This is a very well made short that makes its point in only 6 minutes, with lasting effects on the viewer, making you think about what the costs of living in a culture where gang...
The 11th annual aluCine Latin Film and Media Arts Festival runs from November 18 to 21 and includes films from Latin American filmmakers on a variety of topics. The festival’s highlights include The Land Left Behind, as well as filmmaker and panel discussions. Click to check out all our coverage....
For the next two weekends, beginning Saturday November 20 and ending Sunday November 28, Toronto will be treated to another film festival – the 2nd annual Canadian Labour International Film Festival. This festival gives voice to the world of labour and focuses the spotlight on working people, telling their own stories in their own words and in their own images. Their mission is not only to screen these films, but also to encourage the making of them to show at this and other festivals....
Sitting here in Toronto it’s easy to forget that there are people in other parts of the world who are living in unimaginable circumstances, fighting for their safety, lives, families and livelihood everyday. At the end of 2009, it was estimated by the UN that there were 4.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Columbia, all of whom had been violently removed from their land, losing their homes, husbands, wives, children and jobs. The Land Left Behind is a documentary the follows a number of such IDPs through their struggles to regain some semblance of normalcy in their lives, and...
You might not know this about me, but when I was nine I wrote a script for Terminator 3. I didn’t like how Terminator 2 ended and I thought the story needed to continue. I literally read every book on screenwriting and story creation I could get my hands on (not that many in middle-town Ontario, but still, enough). I used to sleep with Lew Hunter’s Screenwriting 434 beside my bed, just under my notepad so that if I woke up in the middle of the night I could both get the idea down and get it right. Despite the...
For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, “pastiche” is a term used in art to describe something that is an imitation or homage. So when I saw a panel with director Clement Cheng entitled “Pastiche with a Purpose – Revivals and Revisions of Hong Kong Martial Arts”, I really couldn’t resist. I’m a huge fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, but what always fascinates me is their ability to tell a meaningful story, while still entertaining and engaging the “things move quickly and go crash” part of my brain....
