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Mon, September 8, 2008 |
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July 15th, 2008, By Phil Brown
TIFF Announces Canadian Line Up For 2008
 It's almost TIFF time. The NewsThe Canadian titles for the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival have been announced. Read on noble soldier... Behind the NewsThe Toronto International Film Festival has already announced most of the movies that will be appearing at the 33rd fest. Over the past few weeks titles like Larry Charles’ Religulous have been dropped. However, the bulk of the Canadian content had yet to be announced. Sure, Paul Gross’ big budget war movie Passchendaele had already been named as the opening film, ditto Adam Egoyan’s Adoration which will get a special screening. But these movies were inevitably going to be part of the Toronto Fest. With respected Canadian filmmakers in the director’s chair, they were practically admitted into TIFF the day they started shooting. However, what other works of cinematic Canadiana would be appearing at the festival remained a mystery.
The first title announced was an obvious one. After opening the Cannes Film Festival to mixed warm reviews, Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness will be granted a special screening. Written by Don McKellar and based on a apocalyptic novel by Jose Saramago, the film stars Julianne Moore as one of the few people in the world able to avoid a sudden epidemic of blindness (get the title yet?). Even though the movie wasn’t instantly loved at Cannes, the talent involved with the project is simply too strong to ignore…and besides, the Cannes critics are normally so movie drunk they can’t even see straight (hence their shocking acceptance of the latest Indiana Jones film). The other Canadian films appearing in special screenings are Philippe Falardeau’s It’s Not Me, I Swear-the first of about 800 Canadian coming of age films announced- and Deepa Metha’s highly anticipated fantasy Heaven On Earth. Metha appeared briefing at the conference commenting that the film meant a great deal to her as it is about her “two worlds coming together: Canada and India…and they come together in Brampton.” The next movies to be revealed were the two Canadian movies screening as Gala Presentations. The first is Fifty Dead Men Walking a promising film that tells the true story of 22-year-old Martin McGartland who was recruited by the British police to infiltrate and spy on the IRA and barely survived to tell the tale. It features Ben Kingsley, so it’s got to be good. Next came Michael McGowan’s One Week which is an Into The Wild-esque story about a young man in his 20s buying a motorcycle and embarking on a cross-Canada journey to avoid an impending life of suburban slavery. The movie gets two strikes for a tired concept and a leading role for Joshua Jackson, but can’t be completely written off because of all the promise shown in McGowan’s debut Saint Ralph. Following the Galas festival officials announced that Francois Girard’s now classic movie 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould will be granted a special screening as part of TIFF’s ongoing Canadian Open Vault programme. The festival really couldn’t have made a better choice as Girard’s movie has proven to hold up surprisingly well a full 15 years after its initial release. The Canadian short films were announced next. 38 titles will screen this year, which sounds like a lot until you consider that 549 movies were submitted. The top short will be awarded a $10,000 prize. Five Canadian titles were added to the Contemporary World Cinema programme. These included the English-Canadian Premiere’s of Lea Pool’s family drama Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur and Francis Leclerc’s nostalgic Montreal baseball picture Un Ete Sans Point Ni Coup Sur. The other movies appearing under the Contemporary World Cinema label are Jean Rodrigue’s intimate chamber drama Lost Song, Carl Bessai’s comedic examination of the relationship between Mothers And Daughters, and an anthology of Toronto Stories directed by local filmmakers Sook-Yin Lee, Sudz Sutherland, David Weaver, and Aaron Woodley. You’d think Canadian films would be the only movies that didn’t qualify to be in a world cinema programme in a Canadian festival, but here we are. Three Canadian Documentaries were the next movies to be added to the fest in the Real to Reel programme. Atra Taylor’s The Examined Life offers a series of interviews with some of the greatest philosophical minds. It will be just like Waking Life only without the animation or narrative…ok, it will be like parts of Waking Life. Luc Bourdon’s La Memoire Des Anges offers a study of the National Film Board and its role in the development of a national cinematic language. The final documentary announced was Michael Rogg’s Under Rich Earth which is about a remote community of farmers in Ecuador who are forced off their land to make way for an incoming mining project. Canuck art film snobs are sure to be excited by the two titles added to the Vanguard program. Rafael Ouellet’s brings Derriere Moi to town. The French filmmaker’s latest production is a sinister study of betrayal involving two young children with mysterious pasts in a small town in Quebec. Even more exciting is Bruce MacDonald’s addition to the programme, which is the first horror film of the Hard Core Logo helmer’s career. Pontypool is an apocalyptic scare flick about a deadly virus that takes over the titular small town in Ontario. The final program to be announced was Canada First!, which is dedicated to movies by first-time Canadian directors. The section will launch with Neil Burns’ Edison and Leo, the first stop-motion feature ever produced in our home and native land. Canada First! also features Control Alt Delete, easily the most bizarre film announced all afternoon. The BC production is an Y2K era romantic comedy about a computer geek who is so devastated when he is dumped by his girlfriend that he has a romantic relationship with his computer. The other titles in the programme include Before Tomorrow, Cooper’s Camera, Down To The Dirt, Nurse. Fighter. Boy., Only, Real Time, and When Life Was Good. The movies will compete for the Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film, which comes with a sweet, sweet cash prize of $15,000. All other Canadian features announced today will be eligible for the City of Toronto Citytv Award for Best Canadian Feature Film and the $30,000 cash prize that accompanies it. This year’s awards will be chosen by a jury comprised of Canadian filmmaking veterans: actress/writer/director Sarah Polly (Away From Her), director/producer Anne Marie Fleming (The Magical Life Of Long Track Sam), co-director of the World Cinema Fund Vincenzo Bungo, and producer Michael Burns. So if you’re a filmmaker in competition those are the people to bribe. This extensive list of titles will be gracing Toronto screens in September. Yessir, it’s a good time to be a Canadian film fan. There aren’t many out there, but they are all officially giddy with excitement. Comments
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