The Vancouver Int’l Film Festival held its big press conference this morning. The festival runs September 29 to October 14 — a little later than usual, which means that, for once, my birthday will fall during the first weekend instead of during the middle weekend — and the actual schedule will be made public this weekend. In the meantime, there’s a long list of films that catch my eye, a few of which I’ve mentioned here before. Work beckons, so I’ll be brief:
Gala screenings:
Water (dir. Deepa Mehta; Canada, 105 min.)
U-Carmen in eKhayelitsha (dir. Mark Dornford-May; South Africa, 120 min.)
L’Enfant (dir. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne; Belgium, 95 min.)
Special presentations:
Manderlay (dir. Lars von Trier; Denmark/Sweden/UK/France, 139 min.)
Dear Wendy (dir. Thomas Vinterberg; USA/Denmark, 105 min.)
Caché (dir. Michael Haneke; Austria/France, 117 min.)
North Country (dir. Niki Caro; USA, 123 min.)
Fateless (dir. Lajos Koltai; Hungary/Germany/UK, 140 min.)
Screenings in honour of famous directors who were born in 1906:
My Dad Is 100 Years Old (dir. Guy Maddin; Canada, 16 min.)
Rome, Open City (dir. Roberto Rossellini; Italy, 100 min.)
Bonjour tristesse (dir. Otto Preminger; USA, 94 min.)
Films I want to see that have Canadian content:
3 Needles (dir. Thom Fitzgerald; Canada, 124 min.)
Beowulf and Grendel (dir. Sturla Gunnarsson; Canada/Iceland/UK, 104 min.)
Eve & the Fire Horse (dir. Julia Kwan; Canada, 93 min.)
… Christian content:
Arvo Pärt: 24 Preludes for a Fugue (dir. Dorian Supin; Estonia, 87 min.)
Bardo (dir. Lin Tay-Jou; Taiwan, 10 min.)
Cafundó (dir. Paulo Betti & Clovis Bueno; Brazil, 101 min.)
The Devil’s Miner (dir. Kief Davidson & Richard Ladkani; Germany/USA, 85 min.)
Hell (dir. Danis Tanovic; France/Italy/Belgium/Japan, 100 min.)
Omagh (dir. Pete Travis; Ireland/UK, 106 min.)
Shin Sung-Il Is Lost (dir. Shin Jane; South Korea, 103 min.)
Twist of Faith (dir. Kirby Dick; USA, 87 min.)
… Mormon content:
Banking on Heaven (dir. Dot Reidelbach; USA, 90 min.)
The Divided State (dir. Steven Greenstreet; USA, 89 min.)
… Jewish content:
Go for Zucker (dir. Dani Levy; Germany, 90 min.)
Little Jerusalem (dir. Karin Albou; France, 96 min.)
Live and Become (dir. Radu Mihaileanu; Israel/France, 140 min.)
Protocols of Zion (dir. Marc Levin; USA, 90 min.)
… Muslim content:
Diameter of the Bomb (dir. Steven Silver & Andrew Quigley; Canada/UK, 83 min.)
Le Grand voyage (dir. Ismael Ferroukhi; Morocco/France, 108 min.)
Of Love and Eggs (dir. Garin Nugroho; Indonesia, 89 min.)
Paradise Now (dir. Hany Abu-Assad; Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/France, 90 min.)
Yasmin (dir. Kenneth Glenaan; UK, 87 min.)
… Buddhist content:
Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet (dir. Luc Schaedler; Switzerland, 97 min.)
The Giant Buddhas (dir. Christian Frei; Switzerland, 95 min.)
The Silent Holy Stones (dir. Wanma-caidan; Tibet, 102 min.)
Other dramatic features I want to see:
Crash Test Dummies (dir. Jörg Kalt; Austria, 93 min.)
The District! (dir. Áron Gauder; Hungary, 95 min.)
Measures to Better the World (dir. Jörn Hintzer & Jakob Hüfner; Germany, 90 min.)
Princess Raccoon (dir. Suzuki Seijun; Japan, 111 min.)
Other documentary features I want to see:
a/k/a Tommy Chong (dir. Josh Gilbert; USA, 95 min.)
Aristide and the Endless Revolution (dir. Nicolas Rossier; USA/Switzerland, 82 min.)
Based on a True Story (dir. Walter Stokman; Netherlands, 75 min.)
Giuliani Time (dir. Kevin Keating; USA, 130 min.)
Slavoj Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual (dir. Ben Wright; UK, 70 min.)
The White Diamond (dir. Werner Herzog; Germany/Japan/UK, 88 min.)
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