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Tally Abecassis |
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Lifelike
[Mid-Length] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 52 min)
Director Tally Abecassis introduces us to the sometimes wacky world of taxidermy by following a group of taxidermists in preparation for a national championship in Orillia
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Hany Abu-Assad |
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Paradise Now
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(France, Germany, Netherlands, Palestine, 2005, 90 min)
Shot in Nablus, Hany Abu-Assad's timely and shocking film looks at two Palestinian childhood friends who are recruited to carry out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. Sworn to secrecy, the friends begin their journey across the border, but the operation doesn't go as planned... Best Director, Berlin Film Festival.
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Jesse Acevedo |
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Everything Blue:The Colour of Music
[Feature] - Brazilian Music
(Brazil, 2004, 76 min)
A sweeping exploration of Brazilian music--from director Jesse Acevedo--that uncovers the long history of struggle, sorrow and political dissent that underlies the soul of Brazilian samba. We follow the lives of four black women artists and one famous transvestite as they navigate the violent favelas. Beautiful to watch and wonderful to listen to.
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Aihara Nobuhiro |
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Yellow Night
[Short] - Dragons and Tigers
(Japan, 2005, 6 min)
Here flying solo, Aihara sets himself the challenge of producing "scratch animation" without his usual references to Buddhist and sexual symbolism. He describes the result as an "unknown landscape."
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Karin Albou |
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Little Jerusalem
[Feature] - Spotlight on France
(France, 2005, 96 min)
The title refers to a suburb of Paris known for its Jewish population, but it could also refer to the sense of conflict experienced by Laura and her sister Mathilde, both of whom are dealing with the demands of tradition and the disruptive power of passion. Director Karin Albou has a clear eye for the intricacies of time and place as well as the inherent complication of balancing the personal and the political.
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Bruce Alcock |
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At the Quinte Hotel
[Short] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 4 min)
In this vibrant and kinetic riff on one of Al Purdy's best-known works, the poet waxes on about beer and flowers in a small-town basement tavern.
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Natalia Almada |
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To the Other Side
[Feature] - Nonfiction Features of 2005
(Mexico, USA, 2005, 66 min)
Music is truly an international language in director Natalie Almada's documentary about corridos--traditional Mexican ballads that document the universal theme of tough times in a hard land. Drugs, violence and economic despair are turned into music, giving people who have no voice a means to communicate their experiences.
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The Amber Collective |
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Shooting Magpies
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(UK, 2005, 80 min)
The Amber Collective (Like Father, VIFF 01) again blur fiction and documentary in this powerful story about a young mother trying to get her husband off heroin and a single father whose relationship with his son is threatened by events in East Durham, a poor post-industrial community. Easily one of the best British films of the year.
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Louise Archambault |
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Familia
[Feature] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 102 min)
Familial bonds, particularly those between mothers and daughters, form the core of Louise Archambault's impressive first feature. When gambling addict Michele (Sylvie Moreau, Camping sauvage, VIFF 04) moves in with her childhood friend Janine, their teenaged daughters burgeoning friendship produces both humorous and heartbreaking results.
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Adolfo Aristarain |
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Roma
[Feature] - Vancouver Int'l Film Centre
(Argentina, 2004, 155 min)
One young man's life serves as the focal point for the struggles that tore Argentina apart in the 60s and 70s. "Argentinean director Adolfo Aristarain turns a compassionate eye towards his own spiritual and political education in the rangy, quietly affecting and rewardingly intense Roma, his most accomplished work to date."--Variety
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Florence Ayisi |
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Sisters-in-Law
[Feature] - Nonfiction Features of 2005
(UK, 2005, 108 min)
A young girl accuses her neighbour of rape; a savagely beaten six-year-old runs away from an abusive home: it's all in a day's work for the female state counsel in Cameroon. Documentarians Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi have fashioned a courageous portrait of women and girls fighting the forces of tradition, as well as the brutality and turmoil of their own lives.
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Kianoosh Ayyari |
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Wake Up, Arezoo!
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(Iran, 90 min)
43,000 people died on December 26, 2003 in the Iranian City of Bam. Director Kianoosh Ayyari chooses to focus on the experience of one, a teacher who stumbles out the rubble and tries to help with the rescue efforts. Shooting on the spot, with actual survivors of the quake, the film borders on the fringes of cinéma vérité, with genuine news footage of the tragedy blending seamlessly into the story.
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Sarah Bachinski |
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Saved
[Short] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 18 min)
The faith of a Jehovah's Witness is tested by a beautiful young philosophy student.
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Cynthia Banks |
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She's Only Six
[Mid-Length] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 53 min)
Thirty years after being sexually abused, and as her daughter reaches the age she was when the abuse occurred, filmmaker Cynthia Banks is forced to face her past. A rare inside look at the healing process from the damage caused by childhood sexual abuse.
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Alexis Baran |
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Doll-Like
[Short] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2004, 3 min)
A highly-stylized critique of obsession with body image.
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Noah Baumbach |
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The Squid and the Whale
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(USA, 2005, 81 min)
Director Noah Baumbach draws heavily on his own experiences with this story of an erudite New York family coping with the repercussions of divorce. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are the warring parents, and newcomer Jesse Eisenberg shines as the elder son, caught in the emotional and intellectual crossfire. Winner of the American Director Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
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Allison Beda |
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Fallen
[Short] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 15 min)
A blocked writer (Dov Tiefenbach) tries to help an amnesiac (Marya Delver) unaware that he is research for her next bestseller.
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Ricardo Benet |
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News from Afar
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(Mexico, 2005, 120 min)
In an impressively crafted and moving first feature, Ricardo Benet tells the story of a young man who sets off from a small village in the Mexican highlands to journey to Mexico City in the hopes of saving his mother and father from marginalization and poverty.
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James Benning |
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13 Lakes
[Feature] - Vancouver Int'l Film Centre
(USA, 2004, 133 min)
A film of astonishing beauty, one-man filmmaker James Benning's
structural masterpiece is both a meditation on nature, and a radical
political statement. Thirteen lakes across the United States, each one
shot with one ten-minute take. But it's much, much more...
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Ten Skies
[Feature] - Vancouver Int'l Film Centre
(USA, 2005, 101 min)
A rich and intense companion piece to 13 Lakes (also in this year's VIFF), James Benning's gorgeous "found paintings" also examine light, this time directly at the source. From his backyard in California, Benning captures how what floats above us reflects what toils below. Benning at his most minimalist.
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Jonathan Berman |
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Commune
[Feature] - Nonfiction Features of 2005
(USA, 2005, 78 min)
"Free Land for Free People" was the slogan of Black Bear Ranch, a community of like-minded hippies, weirdoes and activists who moved to a remote part of Northern California to set up an experiment in free living. Since 1968, the commune has been in existence, fighting the FBI, the American government and worst of all, their own kids, who just want to be "normal."
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David Best |
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Ice Breaker
[Feature] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 54 min)
The crew of The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Henry Larsen patrol up the eastern coast of Canada and deep into remote arctic waterways. Directors Jody Shapiro and David Best have crafted a powerful portrait of the ocean and the people who protect it.
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Paulo Betti |
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Cafundó
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(Brazil, 2005, 101 min)
João de Camargo started life as a slave and ended it as a saint. Directors Paulo Betti and Clovis Bueno bring his story of love, religion, war, and slavery to heated and brimming life. In the role of de Camargo actor Lazaro Ramos is simply stunning.
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Rajkumar Bhan |
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Behind the Mirror
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(India, 2005, 88 min)
A young boy and his grandmother rediscover each other in this tale of new world meets old from writer/director Rajkumar Bhan. The rapidly changing culture of India provides the backdrop for this warm and ultimately redemptive film about the power of family ties and the pull of tradition.
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Steve Bilich |
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Native New Yorker
[Short] - Nonfiction Features of 2005
(USA, 2005, 13 min)
Steve Bilich's evocative silent documentary (with an original score) was filmed using a 1924 hand-crank camera. It traces the Native American influence on the isle of Manhattan.
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Eric Black |
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Frozen Angels
[Feature] - Nonfiction Features of 2005
(USA, 2005, 93 min)
Welcome to the no-holds-barred world of reproductive technology, California-style, where there are more procedures possible than anywhere else in the world. Is a place where you can chose your child's body type, intelligence level, skin colour, etc. from a catalogue a reproductive dream world? Or a nightmare? A mesmerizing--and sometimes chilling--documentary from Eric Black and Frauke Sandig.
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Shane Black |
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Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(USA, 2005, 103 min)
Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan join forces in director Shane Black's neo-noir comedy that takes its title from a combination made famous by the likes of James Bond and Pauline Kael. Inspired by the wine-dark dramas of the 40s and 50s, Black's film is a twisting, turning take on the age old problem of murder most foul.
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Maria Blom |
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Dalecarlians
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(Sweden, 2005, 98 min)
Maria Blom's assured debut is a dark comedy about three sisters from a small village in the Swedish province of Decarlia. "Set during a family birthday party, [it] turns on its head the cliché of people unburdening themselves emotionally during a drink-fueled get-together... Both funny and disturbingly tragic..."--Variety
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John Bolton |
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The Harp
[Short] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 13 min)
In this classical musical-comedy, a lonely usherette contends with a troublemaking audience.
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Shonali Bose |
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Amu
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(India, 2005, 102 min)
A 21-year-old second generation Indian-American woman struggles for acceptance in both countries, while discovering a long-buried family secret revolving around the riots following Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 1984 assassination. "An extremely significant film for India... Every character richly etched... An unbelievable first film... It is truly cinema."--Shyam Benegal
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Pascale Breton |
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Illumination
[Feature] - Spotlight on France
(France, 2004, 130 min)
An impressively original, dislocating and gripping film about the boundary between "normality" and insanity, Pascale Breton's Brittany-set first feature focuses on Ildutt, a fisherman recovering from a mental breakdown who develops a passion for his grandmother's nurse. The soon-to-be-well-known Clet Beyer is astounding as a man poised on the edge between lucidity and darkness.
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Jason Britski |
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Shoulders on a Map
[Short] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2004, 5 min)
An experimental Super 8 portrait of the Rockies that muses about motion, form and Canada as a nation.
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Alexandra Brodsky |
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Bittersweet Place
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(USA, 2005, 96 min)
Hell is family. Or so it would appear in Alexandra Brodsky's debut feature about one Long Island clan dissolving around the edges. When Pappy and his two daughters, steady Suzanna and lithium-dosed Paulie, are faced with change, will they hang together or completely fall apart?
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Audrey Brohy |
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The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
[Feature] - Nonfiction Features of 2005
(USA, 2004, 93 min)
Dense with facts yet visually vibrant, veteran cinematic muckrakers Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy's (Plan Colombia: Cashing in on the Drug War Failure, VIFF 03) new film presents a persuasive argument that the motive behind the "War on Terror" is maintaining American control over remaining oil and gas reserves.
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Amnon Buchbinder |
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Whole New Thing
[Feature] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 92 min)
This funny and poignant coming-of-age story by Amnon Buchbinder (The Fishing Trip, VIFF 98) stars co-writer Daniel MacIvor as a gay English teacher who finds himself the object of affection for a precocious 13-year old who, while secure in his sexuality, fails to grasp he is not yet an adult.
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Robert Budreau |
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Dry Whiskey
[Short] - Canadian Images
(Canada, 2005, 21 min)
Based on a short story by David B. Silva, this haunting tale focuses on a son's attempt to reconnect with his father after a mysterious accident.
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Clóvis Bueno |
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Cafundó
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(Brazil, 2005, 101 min)
João de Camargo started life as a slave and ended it as a saint. Directors Paulo Betti and Clovis Bueno bring his story of love, religion, war, and slavery to heated and brimming life. In the role of de Camargo actor Lazaro Ramos is simply stunning.
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Andrew Bujalski |
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Mutual Appreciation
[Feature] - Cinema of Our Time
(USA, 2005, 110 min)
The terrific follow-up to Andrew Bujalski's cult hit Funny Ha Ha is another droll, stonefaced, dead-on-perceptive Rohmerian comedy of manners concerning the lives and loves of highly articulate post-Cassavetes post-collegians. Here, Bujalski captures the Zeitgeist by looking in on the life of recent NY arrival Alan, a rock musician in search of a band...
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Director |
Event Information |
