My first film at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival was Cleanflix (review), a documentary which explored the issues surrounding the sale and rental of edited versions of R-rated movies to observant Mormons in Utah. I knew that after seeing the film, I wanted to ask the creators many more questions than they could have fielded during the post-screening Q&A. So, thanks to David Magdael and Margot Hardy from TC:DM Associates, I was able to sit down for half an hour with the creators of the film during what must have been a very hectic week for them. In addition to co-directors Andrew James (on the left in the picture above) and Joshua Ligairi (on the right), we were also joined by producer Amber Bollinger.
Since the interview deals with some plot points in the film, it really makes sense to read my review first.
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Tagged as:
censorship,
mormonism,
religion
Sorry for the short notice, but just found out about this today (hat tip to my friend Judy Gombita). The University of Toronto is holding a weeklong series of events entitled, “Confession and the Cinema of Uninhibition” featuring films, lectures and a roundtable discussion of the work of Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin, who will be in attendance at all events. Here’s the schedule:
- Tuesday 12 January, 7:00pm, Innis College Town Hall — “May I Blow my Bugle Now? My Life in Clips” (Illustrated lecture by Guy Maddin on his major influences and favourite films)
- Wednesday 13 January, 7:00pm, Innis College Town Hall — “Machine Gun Lullabies and Short Sleep” (Guy Maddin illuminates the short film as an artistic form)
- Thursday 14 January, 7:00pm, Innis College Town Hall — My Winnipeg (Film screening with live narration by Guy Maddin)
- Friday 15 January, 3:00pm, Jackman Humanities Building Room 100 — Roundtable Discussion of Guy Maddin’s films, chaired by Kay Armatage (Cinema Studies Institute)
- Friday 15 January, 7:00pm, Innis College Town Hall — Brand Upon the Brain (Film screening with Guy Maddin in person)
All events are free and open to the public. The series is sponsored in part by U of T’s excellent Cinema Studies Student Union (CINSSU)
Tagged as:
canada,
guymaddin,
winnipeg
The National Film Board recently released Filmmaker-in-Residence, a DVD box set of Katerina (Kat) Cizek’s pioneering work with St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Cizek was “embedded” as a filmmaker working at the hospital for a period of several years and was free to pursue any story she found interesting. The resulting work included several films, a photo exhibit, and one of the earliest and best uses of the web to tell documentary stories. And quite apart from the innovative use of technology, the project has had an enduring positive effect on the community the hospital serves. To describe her work as life-changing would be no exaggeration.
In yet another connection from my time at the Summer Institute of Film and Television this spring, Kat was teaching a workshop and because she and Peter Wintonick (my workshop teacher) had worked together on a film (Seeing Is Believing), they swapped classes for a day. I knew immediately that Kat was someone who was very in tune with potential of new technologies, especially the web, and so I was eager to see her work with St. Mike’s. I’m still working my way through this generously-packed box set, but I had the chance to ask her some questions about the project via email. Special thanks to the NFB’s Jennifer Mair for facilitating the interview.
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Tagged as:
nfb
I met Paramita Nath a few months ago when we were classmates at the Summer Institute of Film and Television in Ottawa. We were both in Peter Wintonick’s Docology workshop and over the five days we were there, I got a glimpse of both her perfectionist side and her considerable charm. Near the end of the week, she let it slip that she had a completed short film that she might like some feedback on. Despite playing back on a small laptop screen, Found (review) knocked our socks off. On the last day of the workshop, she found out that it had been accepted by the Palm Springs Shortfest. Since then, the film has played several other US festivals and now, on the eve of Found’s hometown premiere at TIFF, I sat down to talk to her about her background and the experience of making her first short film.
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Tagged as:
#tiff09,
canada,
shorts
Enfances (Childhoods) (Directors: Yann Le Gal, Ismaël Ferroukhi, Corinne Garfin, Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, Isild Le Besco, Safy Nebbou): This very interesting idea, brought to realization by French director Yann Le Gal, brings together six short films, each concerning a pivotal moment in the childhood of six great film directors: Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, Jean Renoir, Jacques Tati, Alfred Hitchcock, and Ingmar Bergman. I hadn’t heard of any of the segment’s directors before, but three or four of the segments were outstanding. My favourite is the story of how Fritz Lang, at the age of ten, discovers a family secret that changes his politics and his whole outlook on life. Also excellent was the recollection by Jean Renoir of how his friendship with a peasant child who teaches him how to hunt and steal gives him an appreciation for the injustice of class distinctions. The segments on Welles and Hitchcock, though good, were perhaps the weakest. But the segment on Jacques Tati was perhaps the closest in spirit to an actual Tati film. The gangly Tati is too tall to fit into his class photo, so he wanders off into the school on an almost wordless adventure. The way he ends up in the photo is pure physical comedy. The segment on Bergman rounds out the film, and if I’d been more familiar with his work, I might have appreciated it more.
I really enjoyed the way each segment not only told a story from the director’s life, but was also directed in their signature style. Although these omnibus films are always bound to be uneven, these six stories moved along at a great pace and made for a very enjoyable (and hopefully enlightening) experience.
Official site of the film
(8/10)
Tagged as:
childhood,
children,
cinefranco,
france
