Director/writer: Thom Fitzgerald

‘For me, directing is the payoff,’ says Montreal filmmaker Louise Archambault,whose debut feature Familia is set to open the Canada First! program at TIFF. (The showcase, now in its second year, spotlights movies from first-time Canadian feature filmmakers, as well as those making their first appearance at TIFF.)

The pyrotechnics of human relationships is the underlying theme in TIFF 2005’s Canada First! program.

Those thinking that Quebec’s cinematic winning streak will have to abate at some point will have to wait for at least another year. The region has provided TIFF with solid commercial and critical hits in recent years, from La Grande seduction (Seducing Doctor Lewis) to Oscar winner Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions), and this year’s contingent arrives bolstered by awards from international film festivals and box-office success back home.

Four Canadian feature documentaries are making their world premieres at TIFF 2005, and they are all looking for an international audience. The lineup includes Allan King’s Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company (in the Masters program; see sidebar right); Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, from Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen and Jessica Joy-Wise (Midnight Madness); Souvenir of Canada by Robin Neinstein; and Astra Taylor’s Zizek! (Real to Reel).

Legendary Toronto documentarian Allan King has done it again. In his new film, Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company, which makes its world premiere at TIFF 2005, King shatters stereotypes and challenges the viewer to rethink preconceived notions and negative attitudes. It is King’s trademark, a style recognized around the world for nearly 40 years.

This year’s English-Canadian features in TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema program push the boundaries of controversy. The contingent includes Lucid by Sean Garrity, The French Guy by Ann Marie Fleming and Whole New Thing by Amnon Buchbinder. And all three filmmakers are pleased with how TIFF scheduled them.

For Canadian film distributors and producers, the best way to secure foreign sales and media attention for their films at TIFF (Sept. 8-17) is to have them seen in the fest’s opening days.

Love in all its tortured beauty, animation that blows apart the very act of creation, cell phones that transmit messages of loneliness, and family relationships stretched to the breaking point are all part of the mix in this year’s 44-film Short Cuts Canada program. Now in its second year, the Short Cuts program brings together works by new and established Canadian filmmakers from across the country, each sharing a passion for the succinct nature of the short film.

‘Everything Old Is New Again’ should be the tune on the lips of filmmakers DonOwen and Michel Brault. These two pioneers of Canadian filmmaking will have their first features revived at TIFF 2005. New 35mm prints of Brault’s Entre la mer et l’eau douce (Between Sweet and Salt Water) and Owen’s Nobody Waved Goodbye have been struck and TIFF will be the first to screen them.

The Department of Canadian Heritage has been particularly vocal about the need to better market domestic films aboard, and is putting its money where its mouth is as a supporter of the Marketing Assistance Program at TIFF 2005.

Since its inception in 1975, TIFF has had its share of unforgettable moments. For example, there was the tribute to Warren Beatty in 1984, when Jack Nicholson heckled the actor from the audience. There was also the narrowly averted riot at the 1978 premiere of In Praise of Older Women, which developed because the theater had been oversold.

Toronto: Jeff Seymour has wasted no time. The body of The Eleventh Hour, his previous gig, was not yet cold nor stiff when CTV announced that his next project, the sitcom Jeff Ltd., had been added to the net’s 2005/06 slate. Shooting got underway this month around Toronto and Hamilton, ON, and, like its star and co-creator, is already moving fast.
The show is making the most of its miniDV cameras and a skeleton crew to shoot as many outdoor and location shots as possible, says Seymour.

Montreal: Filmmaker Stephane Lapointe began shooting his first feature-length film, Une simple catastrophe, on July 16, to wrap by late August. Best known for his well-received short film Hommes en quarantaine, Lapointe has the backing of prominent Quebec producer Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal, both of Max Films, who culled the project’s $3.8-million budget.

Studio B-usy