The Vancouver International Film Festival is pulling out all the stops for its 28th annual installment, Oct. 1-16.
VIFF opens with Vic Sarin’s Canada/Ireland coproduction A Shine of Rainbows and closes with the French comedy Queen to Play, from writer/director Caroline Bottaro and starring Kevin Kline and Sandrine Bonnaire as passionate chess players. In between, VIFF will showcase 377 films from over 70 countries, and is launching two new populist programs.
In the wake of the worldwide financial crisis, the festival is programming a new series, Follow the Money, a mix of drama and docs about globalization and the economy that shed light on how the world got into the mess it’s in.
‘A festival of this size can be daunting, so this series gives some shape that represents the zeitgeist,’ says festival director Alan Franey. ‘This topic is on people’s minds, so we wanted to address it.’
Another new program, Audience Award Winners, showcases international festival favorites.
‘We want that populist, democratic force to have a place in the festival,’ says Franey.
FTM films include the Canadian premieres of We All Fall Down: The American Mortgage Crisis, Kevin Stocklin’s documentary about why the U.S. mortgage system collapsed; The Market – A Tale of Trade, Ben Hopkins’ sharp-witted drama set amidst the Turkish black market; and Vegas: Based on a True Story, Iranian master Amir Naderi’s allegory about a family living on the Vegas fringe whose world is turned upside down after a stranger offers to buy their rundown house.
The AAW series includes Sundance award-winning Afghan Star, in which documentary filmmaker Havana Marking follows would-be singers auditioning in Afghanistan for an American Idol-type program that the organizers hope will ‘move people from guns to music.’
Another AAW is the Slamdance Audience Award winner Punching the Clown (U.S.), filmmaker Gregori Viens’ hilarious take on making it in the music business.
About 150,000 people are expected to turn up for the festival from Vancouver’s diverse population.
‘The strength of the festival is the city itself and the fact it is so multicultural,’ says Franey. ‘There is a real diversity here and interest in the rest of the world.’
The Dragons & Tigers program is a case in point. A pillar of the festival, this series is considered one of the most pre-eminent showcases of Asian cinema in the world. This year Dragons & Tigers presents 35 features, four mid-length films and 22 shorts. It will feature five world premieres, including Chinese filmmaker Yang Heng’s Sun Spots, a tale of love, betrayal and revenge.
Other Asian cinema highlights include the global sensation Breathless (Yang Ik-June), and the North American premieres of Liu Jiayin’s comedy Oxhide II and two new films from Ann Hui, The Way We Are, a prize-winning family drama, and Night and Fog, a harrowing drama about domestic abuse.
A real Asian treat is Kamui, considered one of the best ninja movies ever made, adapted from an epic manga story by Sai Yoichi.
The environmental section, The Way of Nature, offers both depressing news on the state of the planet as well as more hopeful themes of reconnecting with nature.
Eco-films include the world premiere of Daniel Schweizer’s Dirty Paradise (Switzerland/France), about a remote region of French Guiana that is being devastated by gold mining; the North American premiere of A Blooming Business, Ton van Zantvoort’s (Netherlands) portrait of the dirty realities of the flower business; and the Canadian premiere of Sweetgrass (U.S./U.K./France), a panoramic film about the annual journey of sheep to summer pastures in Montana.
The festival is also inviting more international short films to screen, with 90 international and 50 Canadian shorts represented.
‘There’s more people interested in short films now that the Internet is the force to be reckoned with, so we want to stay current with that trend and be inclusive,’ says Franey.
FRANEY’S TOP INTERNATIONAL PICKS
Way of Nature (Sweden), Nina Hedenius
‘Its about life on a remote and well-managed Swedish farm. I had a smile on my face the whole time – it is a very special film.’
Bluebeard (France), Catherine Breillat
‘I was bowled over. I personally love fairy tales, the universality of them. They take us very much back into childhood imagination – even though this is very much an adult topic.’