October 4-5, 2009 - First Flick of the
Season
The Necessities of Life
102 minutes, Canada, 2008, English Subtitles
The Necessities of Life,
from prolific documentary filmmaker Benoît Pilon, is a gorgeous, elegiac
story that examines Canada’s rich heritage of multiculturalism by seeking
out a period when there was virtually no contact between the Inuit and the
rest of Canada. Working from a sensitively crafted script by veteran
filmmaker Bernard Émond (La
Neuvaine,
Contre toute esperance),
Pilon has created a highly accessible film that was recently selected as
Canada’s official entry into the Academy Award®
competition for 2008. The film also won three awards, including the Special
Grand Prize of the Jury at the 2008 MontrealWorld Film Festival.
Set in the 1950s,
The Necessities of Life
recalls a time when tuberculosis was still an epidemic and a serious problem
for many underserved communities. As the disease spread, many Inuit were
forced to leave their homes in search of treatment elsewhere. As the film
begins, Tivii (a mesmerizing performanceby
Atanarjuat’s
Natar Ungalaaq) is brought to a sanatorium in Quebec City, where he is told
he has to leave his family behind and face treatment alone. Suddenly he
finds himself removed from everything he knows, surrounded by a language he
does not speak, and facing a future that is uncertain.
Luckily, he has a nurse, Carole (Éveline Gélinas) who is kind and nurturing,
and who wants to see Tivii thrive. She cannot speak Tivii’s language, but
she has an orphan, the Inuit and bilingual Kaki (Paul-André Brasseur),
transferred to Tivii’s ward to translate. The two form a strong connection
as each, in his own way, struggles with his health and plans for productive
years ahead – back home.
While
The Necessities of Life
covers vast terrain – the socio historical period in which it is set, the
contrasting worlds of its characters, the universal language of compassion
that can bind people together – it is Ungalaaq’s exquisite performance that
elevates this film from what is already elegant, humanist and skillfully
crafted into a truly poetic work of art.
Director:
Benoît
Pilon
Cast:
Natar
Ungalaaq, Paul-André, Brasseur, Éveline Gélinas
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October 18-19, 2009
AMREEKA
91
minutes,
USA,
2009, English, PG
The film is anchored
in Ms. Faour’s wonderful portrayal of a warm-hearted, self-reliant woman
stretched
to the breaking point who perseveres in the face of overwhelmingobstacles. –
Stephen Holden, New York Times
One
of the most talked-about works at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival,
Amreeka
is a stunning
addition to the genre known as social realism – those films that employ
largely unknown or non-actors to convey situations reflecting some of the
more sobering, harsh realities of the world today. This humanistic film is
deeply touching on many levels.
New York-based
filmmaker Cherien Dabis was born to Palestinian-Jordanian immigrants, and
her remarkable first feature tells a story very close to home. The narrative
revolves around protagonist Muna, a Palestinian woman who is happy to get a
green card to the United States and thereby leave her West Bank home. She
sets off with her teenaged son, Fadi, and settles in small-town Illinois
with her sister’s family. The journey, of course, is riddled with trouble.
Challenges arise from the get-go as Muna is interrogated at the airport and
left humiliated and furious when her tin of cookies is confiscated – it
contained all the money she had in the world.
The film’s setting
in the early days of the Iraq insurgency adds a devastating intensity to
Muna’s plight – everyone from her region looks and is treated like a
suspect. Though she was a bank clerk in Ramallah, the only job she can find
in her new home is flipping burgers, and her son has anything but an easy
time trying to get by in the disastrous social Petri dish that is high
school.Yet despite these grim circumstances, redemption and survival are
indeed possible within the world of the film, in no small part due to Mona’s
infectious optimism and great spirit.
This is an evocative
feature telling a story that really must be told, from a perspective we are
not always privy to – the everyday, hard-working person caught up in events
she certainly did not have any control over but which have affected the
entire course of her life.
Amreeka
is riveting viewing.
Director:
Ramin Bahrani
Cast:
Souléymane Sy Savané, RedWest, Diana Franco Galindo
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November 8-9, 2009
Every Little Step
96 min,
USA, 2008, English
The highlight
of the film is the extraordinary archival footage of Bennett talking about
the show and of scenes from the original show...
You don’t have to love musicals or even theater to love Every Little Step. –
David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle
Broadway has produced
many legendary productions, but
A Chorus Line
and the story
behind it remain special.
Every Little Step,
an audience favourite at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival®,
captures the magic of the much loved show by filming the casting process of
the 2006 stage revival. The concept is self-referential, given that the very
plot of A
Chorus Line
is about casting a musical, but the filmmakers add another layer by
examining how the original show was born when Michael Bennett recorded a
group of dancers speaking in confessional mode. Fans of the show may get
goosebumps hearing these audio tapes, while newcomers will discover what
made Bennett (in the words of
A Chorus Line’s
finale) “one singular sensation / every little step he takes.”
This is the third
documentary that directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo have premiered at
the Festival. Stern has built a prolific career producing film and Broadway
shows, including
The Producers
and
Hairspray.
His participation afforded the crew extraordinary access behind the scenes,
and for anyone who loves theatre,
Every Little Step
is cause for
hip-swaying, high-kicking celebration. In auditions, we see performers
giving everything they’ve got for songs like “I Can Do That” and “At the
Ballet.” We meet the original performers Donna McKichnie and Baayork
Lee(whose personality and short stature inspired the character Connie),
along with the aspiring dancers who hope to revive those roles. Watching so
many talented hopefuls express theirdifferent interpretations of each
character is mesmerizing. But who will get the parts? The directors deftly
follow the process to the end – the heartbreak of being cut, the
exhilaration of being chosen. The result is one thrilling combination, every
move this film makes.
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January 10-11, 2010
An Education
UK,
2008, 95 mins
Cast: Peter
Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson, Dominic Cooper
The 1960s were a time of change. So is life
when you are 16. That combination propels
An Education, set in London in
1961, and makes it an unforgettable coming-of-age story. Attractive,
bright, 16-year-old Jenny is stifled by the tedium of adolescent
routine; she can’t wait for adult life to begin. One rainy day her
suburban existence is upended by the arrival of a much older suitor,
David. Urbane and witty, David instantly charms Jenny and introduces her
to a glittering new world of classical concerts, art auctions, smoky
bars, and late-night suppers with his attractive friends. He replaces
Jenny’s traditional education with his own more-dangerous version. Just
as the family’s long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into
Oxford has seemed within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of
life.
Will David be the making of Jenny, or her
undoing? Every so often a performance comes along that is so captivating
that it becomes an instant classic. Carey Mulligan's enchanting
performance as Jenny is one of them. Channeling the spirit of a young
Holly Golightly, she makes Jenny's character blossom on screen from a
girl into a woman, and transforms herself from an actor into a star.
Director Lone Scherfig's complete understanding of Nick Hornby's
extraordinary script brings its many dimensions to vivid life.
Recipient of the World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic and the World
Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic.
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January 24-25, 2010
The
Damned United
UK,
2009, 98 mins
Cast: Michael
Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Henry Goodman, Maurice Roeves
The
team behind Frost/Nixon and The Queen--producer Andy Harries, writer
Peter Morgan and star Michael Sheen--re-unite for this rollicking story
of 70s-era football manager Brian Clough (Sheen). But don't think this
is your standard football movie--here the footy takes a backseat to a
wonderfully well-acted and darkly humorous story of friendships gone
sour and egos run rampant.
Set in 1960s and 1970s England,
The Damned United tells the
confrontational and darkly humorous story of Brian Clough's doomed
44-day tenure as manager of the reigning champions of English football
Leeds United.
Previously managed by his bitter rival Don Revie, and on the back of
their most successful period ever as a football club, Leeds was
perceived by many to represent a new aggressive and cynical style of
football—an anathema to the principled yet flamboyant Brian Clough, who
had achieved astonishing success as manager of Hartlepool and Derby
County building teams in his own vision with trusty lieutenant Peter
Taylor.
Taking the Leeds job without Taylor by his side, with a changing room
full of what in his mind were still Don's boys, would lead to an
unheralded examination of Clough's belligerence and brilliance over 44
days. This is that story. The story of The Damned United.
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February 7-8, 2010
Cooking with Stella
Canada, 104 mins
Cast
Don
McKellar, Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, Vansh Bhardwaj, Shriya Saran
Transplanting the upstairs-downstairs comedy to New Delhi, Dilip Mehta
has crafted a delightful feature debut scripted in collaboration with
his acclaimed sister, director Deepa Mehta. Featuring charming turns
from Don McKellar and Lisa Ray and a standout performance by Seema
Biswas, Cooking with Stella is great fun to watch as it offers a glimpse
of how Canadians live in India's capital.
As head housekeeper at a diplomatic residence in New Delhi, Stella (Biswas)
serves up delectable dishes to a succession of Ottawa civil servants.
But while she sets a divine table, some of her other activities are less
above board. Through finely orchestrated duplicity, she skims inflated
bills to pad her modest salary and raids her employers' pantry for her
own “duty free” business. Each night, the devout Christian impishly
prays to the Virgin Mary to bless her crooked schemes.
The arrival of Maya (Ray) and Michael (McKellar) initially disrupts
Stella's routine. To her surprise, the wife is the diplomat while the
husband stays home to look after their baby daughter. Even more
shocking, he has designs on her kitchen! When Michael, a trained chef,
discovers Stella's culinary talents, he asks her to be his guru and
teach him the secrets of authentic Indian cooking. She warily agrees to
this breach in master-servant protocol, and as the two begin whipping up
mouthwatering curries and dosas together, her trepidation eventually
turns to pleasure.
Meanwhile, the beautiful and virtuous Tannu (Shriya Saran) joins the
household to care for the baby. Can Stella make her an ally in domestic
subterfuge, or will the honest young nanny topple the kitchen kingpin?
Determined to protect her turf, Stella plots her slyest and most
ambitious ruse yet.
Fans of Deepa Mehta's Water might remember Biswas in a heart-wrenching
dramatic role. She is every bit as good here, but utterly transformed –
both commanding and coy, especially in her market and kitchen scenes
with McKellar. A proud and complex Indian working in a Canadian enclave,
her Stella redeems all deceptions with a radiant, irresistible smile.
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February 21-22, 2010
Cairo Time
Country: Canada
Year: 2009
Language: English
Runtime: 88 minutes
Format: Colour/35mm
Rating: 14A
He
who hath not seen Cairo hath not seen the world. Her soil is gold; her
Nile is a marvel; her women are like the black-eyed virgins of Paradise;
her houses are palaces; and her air is soft, as sweet-smelling as
aloe-wood, rejoicing the heart. And how can Cairo be otherwise, when she
is the Mother of the World ?And how can Cairo be otherwise, when she is
the Mother of the World?
--"A Thousand and One Nights"
Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), a magazine
editor, travels to Cairo to meet her husband, Mark (Tom McCamus), a UN
official working in Gaza, for a three week vacation. When he is
unavoidably delayed, he sends his friend Tareq (Alexander Siddig), who
had been his security officer for many years, to escort her throughout
the beautiful and exotic city. The last thing anyone expects is that
they will fall in love.
Cairo Time is a love letter to a city intertwined with a love story
about a woman. It began when Syrian-Canadian writer/director Ruba Nadda
first visited Cairo with her family many years ago. Returning a decade
ago with one of her sisters, (and no longer under the protective eye of
her father) they had memorable adventures. “The city was beautiful and
the people were beautiful,” Nadda recalled. “I remember the city
being alive. It’s gritty and historical and seething with humanity and I
just had to capture it on screen.” Truly, a journey through Cairo is a
journey through time and it awakens your soul.
Juliette is a woman who married young and still ardently loves her
husband, Mark, who works abroad. Their children have grown up and moved
away. Life, doing what it usually does to a marriage, has replaced their
hopes and dreams with accomplishment and responsibilities. In the back
of her head, Juliette had thought that sooner or later, she and her
husband would have time for each other, which was the reason for her
trip to Cairo.
“I love this woman,” explained Nadda. “She is quiet. And she has a
sadness that’s just under the surface which comes from a lifetime of
being by herself a lot because she’s been stood up by a husband whose
work has often taken priority.”
Unable to meet Juliette when she lands, but knowing that she is an
independent woman who is likely to head off on her own, Mark asks Tareq
to care for her. For years, Mark had trusted Tareq with his own life, so
it made sense to extend that trust to Juliette’s wellbeing.
Once at the hotel, Juliette is alone again. Unwilling to wait quietly
for her husband’s arrival, every effort she makes to venture out on her
own is rebuffed. Cairo is not a gentle city. With a population of 17
million, the noise is unbearable. The heat, mixed with dust, is
oppressive. Traffic does not adhere to lanes or stop lights. And women,
particularly foreigners, do not easily move about in public alone.
Quickly, Juliette learns that the simple activities of everyday living
in Canada, like walking across the street, become a test of wills in
Cairo. And so she turns to Tareq who shows her first, Cairo, and then
herself.
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Feb 28 & March 1, 2010
Prom Night in Mississippi
Director: Paul Saltzman
With: Morgan Freeman
Year: 2009
Runtime: 90 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: NR
"They
have separate proms and they have separate homecoming queens, one white
and one black. I said, ‘How stupid can that be."
– Morgan Freeman
We are very fortunate to live in a society where the idea of a racially
segregated prom is preposterous. Sadly, the notion was quite a
comfortable one in Charleston, Mississippi, until extremely recently. In
2008, that tradition changed, and Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman was
there to capture it in the compelling Prom Night in Mississippi, which
premiered at the 2009 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary
Festival.
Charleston is a very small town, and while black and white students have
been going to school together since 1970 (years after desegregation
first took effect), their proms have always been separate. Actor Morgan
Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy, Million Dollar Baby), who grew up in
Charleston, had long felt that the segregated prom situation had to
change, and in 1997 he offered to pay for the entire prom if it was
integrated. But the idea had too many opponents, so it was put on hold
until 2008, when Freeman returned and made the offer again. This time
the school accepted.
As Freeman points out, the students themselves seemed to have little
problem with an integrated prom – in fact, most embraced it. The main
resistance was an older generation fixed on old ways. As the film
illustrates, the younger generation is very much ready to endow the
future with its own, more progressive beliefs.
Saltzman interviews several students (including the high school’s one
interracial couple), teachers and parents, and allows viewers access to
the very scaled-down white-only prom, as well as the integrated prom
itself. Tensions, excitement and the broader social context are all
explored in an engaging manner, and it is truly exhilarating to see the
entire town come together around an event so clearly vital to the
concept of social progress.
March 21-22, 2010
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Everlasting Moments
Director: Jan Troell
Year: 2009
Runtime: 131 minutes
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish with English subtitles
Rating: PG
Set
in Sweden at the dawn of the twentieth century, Everlasting Moments has
an epic scope that encompasses everything from socialist and evangelical
movements to industrialization and urbanization. But it also operates on
a far more intimate, human scale. An official selection of the 2008
Toronto International Film Festival®, this episodic story inspired by
true life offers a profoundly personal look at cultural shifts through
the history of one family. Maria (Maria Heiskanen) is swept away by the
loutish rake Sigfrid (Mikael Persbrandt, who delivers a phenomenal
performance) and marries him at a young age. Sigfrid can’t keep a job
but possesses a unique gift for stumbling home roaring drunk at the
worst possible moment. Eventually, his rage and frustration manifest
themselves on the domestic front. Confronted with a bleak future, Maria
strikes up a friendship with Mr. Petersson (Jesper Christensen), the
proprietor of the local photography shop, and begins taking her own
pictures. For her, photography is a near magical window on a world she
knows little about, and a welcome respite from her tumultuous home life.
Her new pastime raises troubling questions, however: is the satisfaction
she gets from it worth her marriage, one of the few constants in her
life? Everlasting Moments reverses conventional thinking about history.
It’s not the great man on horseback but the housewife with a camera
whose actions really change the world. In particular, Maria’s decisions
have a profound effect on her children – especially her daughter Maja,
who serves as narrator. In a rather telling irony, Maria’s independent
nature affects Maja so powerfully that her daughter can no longer
understand when Maria chooses to place her family first. Exquisitely
shot and intensely cinematic, Everlasting Moments is an affectionate
tribute by one generation to its predecessors, one that’s more moving
because of the cultural schism between them.
April 11 - 12
Horse Boy
Director: Michel O. Scott
Year: 2009
Runtime: 93 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
“A lyrical, heartbreaking, and deeply stirring meditation on the mystery
of autism.”
– Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
The horse bunches its muscles for the
final steep ascent of the high mountain pass. The rider leans forward to
help him, trying at the same time not to crush his five-year-old
autistic son, Rowan, sitting in the saddle in front of him. Before them
stretches a vast wilderness of high tundra. Somewhere in there is the
shaman the father is seeking. “Will he heal my son?” the father asks
himself. “Will he even know how?”
In The Horse Boy, filmmaker Michel Orion Scott captures a magical
journey into a little known world. The documentary feature chronicles
Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff ’s very personal odyssey as they
struggle to make sense of their child’s autism and find healing for him
and themselves in this unlikeliest of places.
A complex condition that dramatically affects social interaction and
communication skills, autism is the fastest-growing developmental
disability today. With more children diagnosed each year than with
cancer, diabetes, Down syndrome and AIDS combined, it is estimated in
the U.S. alone, cases of autism could reach four million in the next
decade. While theories on its origins abound, there is no consensus in
the medical community on either causes or treatment.
Rowan Isaacson was diagnosed with autism in April 2004, at age two and a
half. The charming, animated child had ceased speaking. He retreated
into himself for hours at a time, screamed inconsolably for no apparent
reason, flapped his arms and babbled. For the Isaacsons, as for so many
other parents, autism seemed to have snatched away their child’s soul.
Rowan’s parents, Rupert Isaacson, a human rights worker, author and
former professional horse trainer, and Kristin Neff, a psychology
professor, sought out the best medical care for him. But orthodox
therapies had little effect on Rowan.
Then came the day Rowan ran away from his father, got through the fence
of their neighbor’s horse pasture, and in amongst the hooves of the
horse herd. Rupert had stopped riding since Rowan’s autism had kicked
in, thinking it unsafe for his son to be around horses. Now he froze,
heart in mouth, praying Rowan would not get trampled. Instead, the
herd’s boss horse, a notoriously grumpy old mare named Betsy, pushed the
other horses away, bent her head to Rowan, and began to lick and chew
with her lips: the equine sign of submission. Rupert had never seen a
horse voluntarily make this obeisance to a human being before. Something
direct, something beautiful, was clearly passing between boy and horse.
So Isaacson began to ride with Rowan on Betsy every day, and
Rowan—amazingly—began to talk, to engage with the outside world. He
asked himself, was there a place on the planet that combined horses and
healing? He did some research: the country where the horse was first
domesticated, where the nomadic horse life is still lived by most of its
people, is also the one country where shamanism—healing at its most raw
and direct—is the state religion. Mongolia.
What if he was to take Rowan there, thought Rupert, riding on horseback
from shaman to shaman? What would happen?
The Horse Boy follows Rupert, Kristin and Rowan through the summer of
2007 as they traverse Mongolia on their quest. From the wild open Steppe
to the sacred Lake Sharga, and deep into Siberia, they are tested to
their limits individually, as a couple, as a family. They find their son
is accepted, even treasured for his differences. In a world steeped in
mystical tradition and hardscrabble reality, Rowan makes dramatic leaps
forward, astonishing—the film reveals—both his parents and himself.
The film also includes interviews with some of the foremost experts in
the field of autism including Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen (cousin of comedian
Sacha Baron-Cohen) of Cambridge University; anthropologist and
researcher Roy Richard Grinker of the George Washington University; and
Dr. Temple Grandin, who is a professor of animal behavior at Colorado
State University and who herself has autism. She is also the author of
Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal
Behavior, and, more recently, Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best
Life for Animals.
The Horse Boy is part travel adventure, part insight into shamanic
tradition and part intimate look at the autistic mind.
April 25 - 26
Last Train Home
Director: Lixin Fan
Cast: Siqin Chen, Changhua Zhan, Qin Zhang
Year: 2009
Runtime: 85 minutes
Country: Canada, China, UK
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
OFFICIAL
COMPETITION, SUNDANCE 2010
WINNER, Best Feature: IDFA International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
WINNER, Best Documentary: Whistler Film Festival
WINNER, Best Canadian Film: Rencontres International de Documentaire
Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a
tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. It is the
Chinese New Year. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory
workers. The homes they seek are the rural villages and families they
left behind to seek work in the booming coastal cities. It is an epic
spectacle that tells us much about China, a country discarding
traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic
dominance.
Last Train Home, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut
film from Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan, draws us into the
fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate
annual migration. Sixteen years ago, the Zhangs abandoned their young
children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their wages
would lift their children into a better life. But in a bitter irony, the
Zhangs’ hopes for the future are undone by their very absence. Qin, the
child they left behind, has grown into adolescence crippled by a sense
of abandonment. In an act of teenage rebellion, she drops out of school.
She too will become a migrant worker. The decision is a heartbreaking
blow for the parents. In classic cinema verité style, Last Train Home
follows the Zhangs’ attempts to change their daughter’s course and
repair their ruptured family. Intimate and candid, the film paints a
human portrait of the dramatic changes sweeping China. We identify with
the Zhangs as they navigate through the stark and difficult choices of a
society caught between old ways and new realities. Can they get ahead
and still undo some of the damage that has been done to their family?
