If there’s one thing to cleanse the bitter taste an impending winter might put in one’s mouth, it has to be September’s international film festival. This year the CIFF has a big four Calgary-made movies on its bill, as well as four LGBT selections, lots of Canadian premiers and over 70 shorts.
Oscar buzz is humming around some of the slated films, including psychological thriller Whiplash, and the creepy-toned Foxcatcher starring Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, who give stunning depiction to a real life story of a mentally deteriorating coach’s obsession with a brother’s success in boxing. David Cronenberg’s ‘blackhearted best’ Maps to the Stars, a satire on Hollywood’s treatment of child stars, is another film receiving a lot of talk. You can bet with the A-list cast – Robert Pattinson, John Cusack, Mia Wasikowska and Julianne Moore (who took best actress at Cannes this year for her portrayal of Havana, a fading actress) – this screening will be sold out in a flicker.
New this year will be the sale of alcohol, sponsored by Big Rock, at all Globe Cinema screenings playing after 6pm. Additionally Telus Spark has offered to host a student series on September 21st, featuring the works of young filmmakers aged eight to 18 years old.
The CIFF programmers have left six empty time slots on the Sunday that ends the festival for screenings that audiences vote for throughout the 11 days of film showings. So if you see something you like, be sure to go online and vote for it.
Below is a quick synopsis of three of the LGBT tagged selections (Queens & Cowboys getting a review on page 30), as well as five of the films that programmers Brenda Leiberman and Stephen Schroeder chose to highlight at the CIFF media launch last Tuesday.
LGBT Tagged:
Pride – World Cinema Series – UK
Based on real events that occurred in 1984, Britain, the high energy film Pride tells the unlikely story of London’s out LGBT community teaming with Welsh miners in pursuit of justice. Funny, brash, boisterous and colourful, Pride illustrates the strength that ensues when disparate groups join forces to fight their oppression.
Plays: Sunday, September 21st @ 9:15pm, Eau Claire
Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity – Documentary Series – Albania/UK/US
"Anything that’s too safe is not action," states Streb, choreographer of an extreme action troupe of fearless acrobatic dancers that all share the belief they can fly. Watch in exhilaration as these women and men challenge ‘art, aging, injury, gender and human possibility’.
Plays: Friday September 19th @ 5:30pm, Globe and Thursday September 25th @ 7:30pm, Globe
Two 4 One – Canadian Cinema Series – Canada
Possibly the best plotline in recent film history, what happens when a transgender man in transition becomes pregnant whilst helping out an ex with her artificial insemination? Meet Adam, the man who must now re-evaluate his identity, his feelings for Miriam and a host of other things. This film makes its world premier in Calgary, with cast members in attendance and a Q&A to follow the screening. Shot in Victoria, BC and promising a ‘blend of emotions in the viewer’, this is a selection not to miss.
Plays: Sunday, Spetember 21st @ 7:15pm, Eau Claire and Tuesday, September 23rd @ 5:15pm, Eau Claire
Programmer Favourites:
Boy Choir – Headliner Series – US
Starring Kathy Bates and Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman, Boychoir tells the story of an 11-year-old boy sent from his small town home in Texas to attend the historical American Boychoir boarding school. Hoffman, playing the choirmaster, sees the potential in this wayward boy, and thus a music-as-a-force plotline is developed. Directed by François Girard (The Red Violin), the moving film was shot largely in the school it pertains to take place in.
Plays: Wednesday, September 24th @ 6:45pm, Eau Claire
Coming Home – World Cinema Series – China
Director Zhang Yimou (Hero, Raise the Red Lantern) draws us down yet another teary, nuanced and moving road with captivating lead actress Gong Li playing an amnesiac struggling to regain her memory and reconnect with her imprisoned husband following the rouse of the Cultural Revolution. This film played at Cannes and TIFF previous to landing in Calgary.
Plays: Monday, September 22nd @ 6:45pm, Eau Claire and Thursday, September 25th @ 4:30pm, Eau Claire
Project M – Science Fiction – Canada
Director Eric Piccoli takes viewers to a sort of apocalyptic Quebec in need of water. Nine hundred days into an experimental mission in the Earth’s orbit, seeking to find an alternate source for the needed H2O, nuclear war breaks out below. Stranded aboard their vessel, the protagonists are left to deal with the aftermath. Project M makes its world premiere here.
Plays: Saturday, September 20th @ 7pm, Eau Claire
Out of Mind, Out of Sight – Documentary Series – Canada
"Riveting" was the word Schroeder used to describe this film, the impact evident in his face as he spoke of the documentary that looks into the Brockville Mental Health Centre, a forensic psychiatric hospital, where people who have committed violent crimes are sent when they are found to be psychologically unfit to go to prison. Winner of the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs, the film poignantly and intimately looks in on the lives of the patients struggling to build an identity with which to re-emerge into society whilst constrained and under surveillance.
Plays: Wednesday, September 2th @ 7:15pm, Eau Claire and Saturday, September 27th @ 2:15pm, Eau Claire
Mommy – Canadian Cinema Series – Canada
From the young, haughty Quebecois director we all know and revere from J’ai tuè ma mere and Heartbeats Xavier Dolan is back with Mommy, another dramatic feat that intriguingly examines the connection between mother and son. He brings back two actresses he has worked with previously; Anne Dorval plays problem child Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon)’s mother, and Suzanne Clément plays a neighbour who becomes entangled into their intense trio. Though themes sound familiar this is Dolan at his best: 1:1 ratio, spare nothing performances, intense dialogue. This film picked up the Cannes 2014 Jury Prize.
Plays: Friday, September 26 @ 9:15pm, Eau Claire
This year packs so many intriguing films it will virtually be a need to do nothing else but see movies September 18th to 28th. The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (directed by Pierre Jeunet – Amélie) will open the fest with a red carpet gala and stars Callum Keith, Kyle Catlett and Rick Mercer in attendance. A new 3-D work by Jean-Luc Goddard, Goodbye to Language will screen, Martin Scorsese’s documentary The New York Review of Books will be shown, and The Old Trout Puppet Workshop have even offered up a Christmas-themed short. To conclude, Ally was Screaming, a Canadian suspenseful black humour film shot in Calgary, will screen at the closing gala at the Grand.
Get your ticket packs and reserve online early.
