VIFF 2005 received so many strong films from central and eastern European and U.S. indie filmmakers that it built new programming streams around them for this year’s event. This represents a new direction for the fest, which, outside of the Dragons & Tigers: The Cinemas of East Asia sidebar, tends not to cover specific regions.

‘Once we looked at what we’d selected, we realized that many of these films came from central and eastern Europe, so it only made sense to group them together under this heading,’ explains VIFF programming associate Mark Peranson.

Highlights of this 15-film series, dubbed The New World, include the North American premiere of Wrong Side Up, Czech director Petr Zelenka’s comedy about modern-day love and manners in his home country, and a newly edited version of Austrian director Paul Rosdy’s New World, a doc that traces the history of central Europe from the early 1900s on, and which gives the program its title.

Hungarian Roland Vranik’s Black Brush makes its international premiere, detailing the lives of four stoned slackers eking out a living as chimney sweeps and enduring some very weird adventures. ‘The film portrays the phase… after high school and before college, when one has no idea what to do with one’s life,’ Vranik tells VIFF. ‘This lifestyle can be funny and entertaining for a while, but beyond a certain point it gets scary.’

A dozen U.S. indie films also made the cut, leading to the creation of the American Independence sidebar, adds Peranson. ‘It’s interesting to note that these films reflect a generational reaction to the movies of Quentin Tarantino,’ he notes. ‘They tend to be more introspective and less brash.’

Included in this program is Andrew Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation, his follow-up to 2003’s Funny Ha Ha. The new film, a comedy, chronicles wannabe rock star Alan (Justin Rice) as he moves to New York to form a band, then gets involved with his friend’s girlfriend.

Peranson also cites the Canadian premiere of Who Killed Cock Robin? as a standout, despite its cold reception from many viewers at Sundance. Directed by Travis Wilkerson, the experimental drama, set in Montana and centering on one young man’s life there, is a meditation on what America once was, and what it has become.

For something completely different, Josh Gilbert’s doc a/k/a Tommy Chong, which bowed at Toronto, looks at the $12 million spent by the U.S. government to bust one-half of Cheech & Chong for selling blown-glass hash pipes over the Internet. Peranson points out that the film is a homecoming of sorts, as Chong was born in Edmonton and began his career in Vancouver.