Shaun Hayes-Holgate

Planet ofthe Arts vol. 4 no.1 |

12

FILMS OVER

7th Vancouver International Film Festival aa ee ee eee

“Coming to a Theatre Near You” or, more specifically :

The Ridge, 3131 Arbutus (at 16th)

The Van East, 2290 Commercial (at 7th) The Hollywood, 3123 Broadway

The Pacific Cinemateque, 1131 Howe

The Film Festival is here again, September 30 through to October 16th, this year highlighting films from the Pacific Rim. There will be 120 feature films, each screened twice over the 16 days of the festival. Hopefully there will be enough opportunity to see every film on your list.

In amongst all the infamous rumour vultures circling over the heads of last years’ Board, were some legitimate complaints by the public about the availability of tickets. The Board has tried to address this situation this year. We'll see how it works. Showing each film twice is one tactic. Also, press passes have been limited. Apparently, there were hundreds of them issued last year. Further, the VTC surcharge on advanced tickets has been removed — as has the VTC as an outlet.

Tickets can be purchased, in advance, any day from noon to six at the Ridge , or between 9:30 and 5:30 at the Orpheum. Single tickets cost you $5.50 regular or $4.00 for a matinee, plus your $1.00 one time membership. $100.00 buys you a gold pass to everything, including opening and closing nights. $45.00 buys you a pass for any 10 films. $44.00 buys you an unlimited day pass, a choice of 90 films. So, if you can fit in 4 films a day for sixteen days, that works out to just under 69 cents a film. Quel deal. Oh, and programs are free again.

This year there are no limos, less films, and one less cinema than last year. Working under a smaller budget (a $500,000 one-time Federal grant smaller) this year’s festival organizers have set themselves a formidable task amidst a flurry of controversy (just check out the articles in the Straight or V Magazine): to try to make this year’s festival more accessible, more egalitarian, yet maintain the range and quality of films and high profile set by last year.

Oh yeah, the films. Personal “must-sees”: Salaam, Bombay!, about Indian street kids, and Commissar, the film from the USSR banned for twenty years for its’ depiction of Soviet anti- Semitism. Also, not to be missed from the USSR, Little Vera, showing a modern day Soviet Union, unemployed, punked-out and bored. Hong Kong gives us Chinese Ghost Story starring a witch with a 40 ft. gut-sucking tongue, and Rouge, about a woman who returns after three years to find out why her lover didn’t go through with their double— suicide pact.

Ken Russell’s Lair of the White Worm prom- ises to be a real gross-out, and Mortuary Acad- emy, from the makers of Eating Raoul, is winning kudos for defining new limits of taste. Peter Greenaway fans have got to see Drowning By Numbers, just to see what the compulsive director has to say about the entire history of English art and culture through his set designs alone. Bird, the Charlie Parker story directed by Clint Eastwood, will be out in the main theatres before the festival is even over.

T've heard good things about Francis Mank- iewicz's new film, Revolving Doors—’some of the most important things in your life happen when you're still too young to notice”. Speaking of which, maybe everyone at the college should see I Will. Not Make Any More Boring Art, Bill MacGil- livray’s film about NSCAD.

Oh, and talking about the College, several films made here last year will be openers for the features (see Mike Smart’s story in this exciting issue), as will be Nettie Wild’s A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Phillipine Revolution, in which many film students were involved.

Oh, (again) if you like lush but weird, try Argentina’s Love Is a Fat Woman or Spain’s Fabula de la Bella Palomera. Great titles.

So, check out the program. A lot of these features are by first-time directors, there'll be receptions and workshops at Praxis and Cineworks, so pick up a phone and find out what’s going on.

Ann Marie Fleming

Festival des Films du Monde [Sse es ee aaa eae

Montreal is a very happening kind of place, even without one of North America’s biggest film festivals. So, Montreal with the Festival des Films du Monde, with my five day schedule, was to prove overwhelming.

My dilemma began when I arrived in Montreal after a nauseating bus ride from Ottawa. In cities back east there are two seasons:winter,and construction. By late August every major artery in and out of Montreal has been torn up . Because of this massive road removal, a bus ride scheduled for one and a half hours stretches out to over three hours.

Montreal has no mountains. There’s no big natural reference point to orient yourself to the North . So, once I stepped down from the sauna-on- wheels, I walked about 12 blocks in the wrong direction and got lost. Luckily I speak a moderate amount of French, so I asked a woman on a bench “ Quel est la direction de la Place des Arts,’s’il vous plait?”. She replied, in English, that it was about 20 blocks that way. Montreal is so bilingual.

When I arrived at the Place Des Arts, where the Film Festival Office was located,I was over- whelmed by the reception I received in the Press Office. I presented my credentials as reporter-at- large for the Planet of The Arts and immediately received not only a neon-yellow press pass with my picture on it, but free coffee and this welcome-to- Montreal speech from the woman who ran the press office as well. She went on and on about how nice it was that I had come all the way from the Emily Carr College of Art because there were so many films from ECCAD, and how I was the only student media from outside Quebec, and how I was the only media from Vancouver, and how busy I would be because there were all these press confer- ences and lunches and parties, and did I want two free tickets to the opening film and did I want another cup of coffee. Taster’s Choice was a major sponsor of the film festival, so the coffee was flow- ing like water. It had the flavour of water, too.

So I got two tickets to the opening film, The Stick, a film that was made and banned in South Africa. The second day of the Festival I saw three films, attended four press conferences and missed a huge lunch for the press. On the third day of the festival I saw two films and missed a free breakfast put on by the Department of Communication, a lunch put on by the Quebec Ministry of Culture and a dinner put on by Telefilm Canada. On the fourth day I finally got the hang of things and started to ask questions like any good reporter should. I got the goods and an invitation to one of the biggest parties of the Film Festival. It was happening on Sunday night and all food and drinks were “pro- vided”. On Saturday night I took a bus back to Ottawa. I had promised my brother that I would visit him there.

I came back to Montreal on Tuesday to cover the last part of the Canadian Student Film Festi- val. I caught up on what I had missed while I stood in line at the theatre. Ann Marie Fleming thanked me for getting her involved in the Student Filmmakers Colloquium that was televised on pay t.v. across Canada. She was one of several Vancou- verites I ran into while in Montreal and, seeing how her film, Waving, won an honorable mention in the experimental category, she was the closest thing to a celebrity that I met. While leaving a press conference I did accidently poke Genevieve Bujold in the bum with my note pad, but she didn’t say anything that I could really quote in a paper of this calibre and respectability.

On Wednesday I was film festivaled out, so I took it easy and tried to see some of Montreal. I got as far as the Brasserie 300 where I drank watery draft beer and ate a French Canadain delicacy called “poutine” . Poutine is french fries, cheese curds and gravy. It may not be nouvelle cuisine but it is cheap, it tastes good and it fills you up.

On Thursday I managed one more film before I left Montreal for good. The last film I saw at the Festival des Film du Monde was a low budget Canadian film called Horses in Winter. It is about rememberance and how we fit it into our daily lives. I was hoping it would come to the Vancouver International Film Festival, but it is not scheduled . Horses in Winter is about saying goodbye to the past without losing it. After I saw it I felt quite low. I could relate to the story of a boy spending the last summer at the family cottage before it is sold. It reminded me of how I felt when my parents sold our family cottage that we had enjoyed for 14 years. I got even lower when I said goodbye to the wonderful people at the Film Festival Office . I had one last cup of coffee and then slowly walked to the Metro which would take me to the bus station and back to Ottawa. As I walked I thought of all the fun I had had and all the people I had met and all the parties I had missed, and I got sadder and sadder .

And then I heard music. There in the tunnel to the Metro was this beautiful girl with long strawberry blonde hair playing the cello. The song was familiar but I couldn’t place it. The beauty of the whole experience- the girl, the music, every- thing- made me stop. Slowly I came to realize that I shouldn’t be depressed about leaving Montreal, I should be happy for the time I had, for the people I met, for the films I saw, the food I ate, the coffee I drank, the parties I missed but heard about later on. I felt this enormous lift, and happiness filled my heart as the cello continued. Tears of gratitude almost came to my eyes. It was like the end of a great film: I swear I saw credits start to scroll up as I picked up my bag and walked, transported, down the tunnel to the Metro...

Personal reverie and diary notes aside, what about the films I saw at the Festival des Films du Monde?

The opening film of the festival,The Stick has a story similar to the plot of Apocalypse Now. Instead of one man’s journey into the heart of darkness, the director of The Stick, Derek Roodt, has a special unit of the South African Army , called a stick,travel into Angola to destroy a village suspected of hiding enemy guerillas. The soldiers of the stick are portrayed as mass murderers and the blacks in the film as voodoo-crazed jungle bunnies. The violence is excessive and senseless, but then, sois war. At a press conference the next day, the director said he had made this film for young South Afrikaaners about to enter the army, and he wished it had opened in Johanesburg instead of Montreal. The Stick has been picked up by a major theatre chain and so will show up soon in movie houses across Canada and the United States.

Of the the three films I saw on my second day of the Festival,The Yen Family would be the one most likely to come to Vancouver. It is the simple story of a modern Japanese family who spend every single moment of every single day earning money. They get up early in the morning and, with the help of a band of senior citizens, they run a lucrative newspaper route. While Father is helping the seniors deliver papers and the occa- sional package, Mother is preparing box lunches for office workers,and phoning up lonely bachelors with erotic wakeup calls. Brother and sister are put to work helping mother. The Family worships the Yen, but their belief system and their money making ventures are destroyed when Grandmother, who has not been herself for several years, comes for a visit. The Yen Family is cute, but the cuteness becomes tiring as the film drags on. The film ends as if it were a pilot for a Televison series, which should give you an idea as to how deep The Yen Family is.

[ih Vancouver Injernalonal Elim Festival

‘Coming to a Theatre Near You” or, more specifically =

‘The Ridge, 3131 Arbutus (at 16th)

‘The Van East, 2290 Commercial (at 7th) ‘The Hollywood, 3123 Broadway

‘The Pacifie Cinemateque, 1181 Howe

‘The Film Festival is here again, September 80 through to October 16th, this year highlighting films from the Pacific Rim. There will be 120 feature films, each screened twice over the 16 days of the festival. Hopefully there will be enough ‘opportunity to see every film on your lst.

In amongst all the infamous rumour vultures ireling over the heads of last years’ Board, were some legitimate complaints by the publie about the availability of tickets. The Board has tried to address this situation this year. We'll sce how it works. Showing each film twice is one tactic. Also, press passes have been limited. Apparently, there were hundreds of them issued last year. Further, the VIC surcharge on advanced tickets has been. removed — as has the VIC as an outlet.

‘Tickets can be purchased, in advance, any Gay from noon to six at the Ridge , or between 9:30 ‘and 5:30 at the Orpheum. Single tickets cost you {$5.50 regular or $4.00 for a matinee, plus your {$1.00 one time membership. $100.00 buys you a {gold pass to everything, including opening and closing nights. $45.00 buys you a pass for any 10 films. $44.00 buys you an unlimited day pass, a choice of 90 films. So, ifyou can fit in 4 films a day for sixteen days, that works out to just under 69 cents afilm. Quel deal. Oh, and programs are free again,

‘This year there are no limos, less films, and one less cinema than last year. Working under a smaller budget (a $500,000 one-time Federal grant smaller) this year’s festival organizers have set themselves a formidable task amidst a flurry of controversy (just check out the articles in the Straight or V Magazine): to try to make this year’s festival more accessible, more egalitarian, yet ‘maintain the range and quality of films and high profile set by last year.

‘Oh yeah, the films. Personal “must-see” Salaam, Bombay!, about Indian street kids, and ‘Commissar, the film from the USSR banned for twenty years for its’ depiction of Soviet anti- Semitism. Also, not to be missed from the USSR, Little Vera, showing a modern day Soviet Union, ‘unemployed, punked-out and bored. Hong Kong gives us Chinese Ghost Story starring a witch with a 40 ft. gut-sucking tongue, and Rouge, about a woman who returns after three years to find out why her lover didn’t go through with their doublo— suicide pact.

Ken Russell’s Lair of the White Worm prom- ises to be a real gross-out, and Mortuary Acad- ‘emy, from the makers of Eating Raoul, is winning ‘kudos for defining new limits of taste. Poter Greenaway fans have got to see Drowning By ‘Numbers, just to see what the compulsive director hhas to say about the entire history of English art and culture through his set designs alone. Bird, the Charlie Parker story directed by Clint Eastwood, will be out in the main theatres before ‘the festival is even over.

Tve heard good things about Francis Mank- iewier’s new film, Revolving Doors—some of the ‘most important things in your life happen when you're still to young to notice”. Speaking of which, ‘maybe everyone at the college should see I Will Not Make Any Moro Boring Art, Bill MacGil- livray’s film about NSCAD.

Oh, and talking about the College, several films made here last year will be openers for the features (see Mike Smart's story in this exciting issue), as will be Nettie Wild's A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Phillipine Revolution, in which many film students were involved.

h, (again) if you like lush but weird, try Argentina's Love Is a Fat Woman or Spain's Fabula de la Bella Palomera. Great titles.

So, check out the program. Alot of these features are by first-time directors, there'll be receptions and workshops at Praxis and Cineworks, ‘0 pick up a phone and find out whats going on.

Ann Marie Fleming

Festival des Films du Monde a

Montreal is avery happening kind of plac, even without one of North America's bigget lm festivals, So, Montreal with the Festival des Films ddu Monde, with my five day chodule, was to prove overwhelting

‘My dilemma began when I arrived in Montreal after a nauseating bus ride from Ottawa In ites back east there are two seasonawinter and construction. By late August every major artery in fand out of Montreal has been torn up. Beease of this massive road removal a bus ide scheduled fr one and a half hours stretches out to over three hours.

Montreal has no mountains, There's no big natural reference point to erent yoursel tothe North. So, once I stepped down from the sstna-on- wheels, I walled about 12 blocks nthe wrong Airection and got lost. Lackily [speak a moderate amount of French, s0 I asked a woman on a bench“ Quel ext a direction dela Pace des Arts, vous plait?™, Sho replied, in English, that it was about 20 blocks that way. Montreal is so bilingual.

‘When Turrived atthe Place Dos Arts, where the Film Festival Office was located, {was over- helmed by the reception I reeived inthe Press Office. I presented my credentials as reporterat- large forthe Planet of The Arts and immediately received not only a neon-yellow press pass with my picture oni, but free coffee and this weleome-o- ‘Montreal speech from the woman who ran the reas office a wel. She went on and on about how hice twa that Thad come all the way from the Emily Garr College of Art because there were s0 ‘many film from ECCAD, and how Twas the only student media from outside Quebec, and how Twas the only media from Vancouver, and how busy 1 ‘would be because there were all these press confer- tnces and Tunches and parties, and did T want two free tickets to the opening film and did I want another cup of coffe. ‘Taster's Choice was a major sponsor ofthe film festival, so the coffe was flow. inglike water. Tthad th flavour of water, to.

So I got two tickets to the opening film, The Stich, alm that was made and banned in South ‘Afvien. The second day of the Festival Taw thro Sms, attended four press conferences and missed = huge inch for the press On the third day of tho festival lsaw two films and missed afro breakfast pat on by the Department of Communication, a lunch put on by the Quebec Ministry of Culture and_ dinner put on by Telefilm Canada. On the fourth day I finally got the hang of things and stared to ask questions like any good reporter should. I got the goods and an invitation to oe of the biggest partes ofthe Film Festival. Tt was happening on Sunday night and all fod and drinks were “pro- vided”. On Saturday night I took a bus back to Ottawa. Thad promised my brother that I would visit him ther

Teame back to Montreal on Tuesday to cover the last pat ofthe Canadian Student Film Fest- val. Teaaght up on what Ihad missed while I stood inline atthe theatre. Ann Marie Fleming thanked sme forgetting her involved in the Student Filmmakers Colloquium that was televised on pay ty. across Canada. She was one of several Vanco verites Iran into while in Montreal ang, seeing how her film, Waeing, won an honorable mention in the experimental category, she was the closest thing to a celebrity that met, While leaving a press conference Idid accidently poke Genevieve Bujold in the bum with my note pad, but she didn't say anything that Teould really quote in a paper of this ealbre and respectability.

‘On Wednesday I was film festivaled out, so 1 took it easy and tried to see some of Montreal. T got ‘as far as the Brasserie $00 where I drank watery draft beer and ate a French Canadain delicacy called “poutine” . Poutine is french fries, cheese ‘curds and gravy. It may not be nouvelle cuisine but itis cheap, it tastes good and it ills you up.

‘On Thursday T managed one more film before [let Montreal for good. The last film T'saw at the Festival des Film du Monde was alow ‘budget Canadian film called Horses in Winter. Itis bout rememberance and how we fitit nto our daly lives. Twas hoping it would come to the ‘Vancouver International Film Festival, tit is not scheduled . Horses in Winter is about saying goodbye to the past without losing it. Aer { saw it Tele quite low. T could relate tothe story ofa boy spending the lst summer atthe family cottage before itis sold. It reminded me of how I felt when ‘my parents sold our family cottage that we had ‘enjoyed for 14 years. I got even lower when Taid ‘oodbye to the wonderful people at the Film Festival Office. Thad one last cup of coffee and then slowly walked tothe Metro which would take me tothe bus station and back to Ottawa. As I walked I thought ofall the fun Thad had and all the people [had met and all the partes [had ‘missed, and I got sadder and sadder.

‘And then Theard music. Therein the tunnel to the Metro was this beautiful girl with long strawberry blonde hair playing the cello. The song. wwas familiar but Icouldn’s place i. The beauty of the whole experience- the girl, the music, every. thing- made me stop. Slowly I came to realize that I shouldn't be depressed about leaving Montreal, should be happy for the time Thad, for the people I ‘met, forthe films I saw, the food I ate, the coffee I ‘drank, the parties I missed but heard about later on. [felt this enormous lift, and happiness filled ry heart asthe cello continued. Tears of gratitude almost came to my eyes. It was like the end of a {reat film: I swear I saw credits start to scroll up a8 picked up my bag and walked, transported, down the tunnel tothe Metro.

Personal reverie and diary notes aside, what about the films I saw at the Festival des Films du Monde?

“The opening film ofthe festival, The Stick has a story similar tothe plot of Apocalypse Now. Instead of one man's journey into the heart of darkness the director of The Stick, Derek Roodt, thas a special unit ofthe South African Army, called a stick travel into Angola to destroy a village suspected of hiding enemy guerillas. The soldiers ofthe stick are portrayed as mass murderers and the blacks in the film as Voodoo-crazed jungle bunnies. ‘he violence is excessive and senseless, but then, sois war. At apress conference the next day, the director said he had made tha fm for young South Afrikaaners about to enter the army, and he wished it had opened in Johanesburg instead of Montreal. The Stick has been picked up by a major theatre chain and so will show up soon in movie houses across Canada and the United States

(Of the the thre films Isaw on my second day of the Festival, Phe Yen Family would be the tone most likely to come to Vancouver. Itis the simple story of a modern Japanese family who spend every single moment of every single day ‘earning money. They get up early in the morning ‘and, with the help ofa band of senior citizens, they run a lucrative newspaper route. While Father is helping the seniors deliver papers and the occa- sional package, Mother is preparing box lunches for office workers;and phoning up lonely bachelors with erotic wakeup calls. Brother and sister are put to work helping mother. The Family worships the ‘Yen, but their belief system and their money making ventures are destroyed when Grandmother, who has not been herself for several years, comes fora visit. The Yen Family is eute, but the ceutenoss becomes tiring as the film drags on. The film ends asifit were a plot for a Televison series, which should give you an idea as to how deep The Yen Family is.