In the first Wavelengths short film program, Open Forms, landscape is explored, challenged and assaulted through fascinating experimental work. In Brouillard- Passage 14, experimental filmmaker Alexandre Larose guides us on a path through a forest glade that finishes at a lakeside dock. The surrounding images float freely in the shot, while the viewer’s focal point […]
Trick of Treaty? Masters ‘”In 2013 our people still have to do drastic measures in order to get acknowledged” is one of the painful truths stated in Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin’s newest exploration of the hardships faced by Canada’s oft abused Aboriginal peoples. Sadly, Trick or Treaty? would benefit from some of that radicalism, as the lack […]
The Judge Gala (Opening Night Film) It’s not that the Robert Downey Jr./Robert Duvall familial, courtroom face to face is patently unwatchable, but it feels as if it were created by robots in a laboratory that were programmed to exactly pin-point the kind of legal drama that would slay in the sticks. Hotshot big city […]
The Valley Below Discovery Albertan Director Kyle Thomas weaves together the story of four people living in Drumheller in his debut feature film, The Valley Below. The four character’s stories are told through self-contained vignettes, following their struggles as the film progresses. Kate (Mikaela Cochrane) is about to leave her small-town life and small-town boyfriend […]
Samba Gala Samba is a beautifully crafted film that explores the illegal immigrant experience and its impact on human dignity through humour and heartbreak. Directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache re-unite with actor Omar Sy following their critically acclaimed comedy-drama Les Intouchables. Here, the story focuses on a Senegalese man named Samba Cissé (Sy) who has sought refuge in […]
The third program of TIFF’s Short Cuts International focuses on the everyday decisions and words we use and how the impact of those decisions and dialogue, or lack of them, can be just a world shaking as the ones we agonize over. In The Tricycle Thief director Maxim Bessmertnyi takes us to Macau and into […]
Waste Land Vanguard A character drama about a Belgian homicide detective struggling to maintain his humanity, Pieter Van Hees’ Waste Land doesn’t end up amounting to much, but it’s well acted and made by an assured filmmaker. Jérémie Renier gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as Leo, a cop assigned to high profile, often grisly murder […]
The Price We Pay TIFF Docs Ever wanted to know how tax shelters and offshore banking works and why you as an average jane or joe could never have enough money to use them? That’s what’s being explored in the latest documentary from Harold Crooks, the man behind The Corporation and one half of the […]
Beats of the Antonov TIFF Docs Politics, identity and music converge in South Sudan in this offering from war reporter and filmmaker Hajooj Kuka. Kuka’s subjects are the Sudanese of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountain regions. The people of this area have long suffered under the Al-Bashir regime out of Khartoum in the north. […]
The Yes Men Are Revolting TIFF Docs Director Laura Nix and The Yes Men tackle climate change in their latest documentary, The Yes Men Are Revolting. The duo of Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, activists cum pranksters who stage phony press conferences, impersonate executives and commit various forms of fraud all in the name of […]
Letters to Max Wavelengths “What does the diplomat for a country that isn’t recognized do when he comes to the office in the morning?” This question is one of many posed by French filmmaker Eric Baudelaire in his latest essay film, Letters to Max, and sets the theme and tone for the film. This story […]
Wild Tales Special Presentations Wild Tales, an anthology film, has a mixed definition of what makes something wild. It begins with something that’s easily considered its wildest element, an massive EC Comics-style revenge plot that begins and ends in a few joyfully sadistic minutes. Other times, and for a bulk of its duration, the tone […]
Actor and first time filmmaker Adam MacDonald is what I like to call a smart, badass, nerd. Chilling out on a rooftop patio in Downtown Toronto on one of the hottest days of the year, the warm , chatty, and enthusiastic MacDonald starts off by slightly nerding out about the bar’s choice of Interpol on […]
Rosewater Special Presentations As a first time feature director, television personality Jon Stewart still has a bit to learn. As a writer, however, he has constructed a taut and thoughtful drama based on the true story of imprisoned British journalist Maziar Bahari. Bahari (played here in an understated and dignified turn from Gael Garcia Bernal) […]
I am chatting with Bang Bang Baby director Jeffrey St. Jules on the day he’s actually completing his first feature length effort prior to its debut at TIFF this coming Monday. One would think that his film would have been completed by now since he has worked on it for the better part of a […]
