VIFF Centre Year-Round Programmer Tom Charity selects the must-see films of August, including overlooked classics, VIFF Live events and a stunning new release.
Tom, what films are must-sees at the VIFF Centre this August?
August is dominated by the Getting Real acting series and the 21st Century Classics series. I’m thrilled by the reaction to both. It makes me think how much I like passes, because as a programmer, I kind of knew In the Mood for Love was going to sell out — so many people love that film. But when you’re building a series, the hope is that people are not only going to come to their tried and tested favorites but also be adventurous and check out films that they maybe haven’t heard of before.
Zodiac
The Headless Woman
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
With the 21st Century Classics series, along with big films like Zodiac or Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, there are films people haven’t seen like Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, The Headless Woman or even Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman. Coincidentally, we’re showing Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire in the Pantheon series in August. A lot of people rate that as a highlight of the last decade, and rightly so, but I wanted to throw a spotlight on Sciamma’s next film, which I think is even better, but which I don’t think found the same audience yet because it’s such a small film. And sometimes small really is beautiful.
I think the pass encourages people to go off the beaten track a little bit more. The pass for the 21st Century Classics is $99 for 25 films. You can do the math, it’s a great deal. And I guess VIFF+ is an ultimate kind of pass, right? So I encourage passholders and VIFF+ members to take advantage of it for films they might not otherwise see.
What VIFF Live events are coming up?
The lineup of VIFF Live events in August is spectacular. It’s maybe the strongest single month that we’ve ever had, and we’re offering a VIFF Live Ticket Pack to see any three events for just $80.
On August 10, we’ve got Bonnie Northgraves doing a jazz tribute to Louis Armstrong, and the performance is paired with the documentary Jazz on a Summer’s Day, which is such a wonderful film in its own right, maybe the best jazz concert film. It was recorded at Newport in 1959 and has a stellar lineup of jazz greats: Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Aggie Lee and many more.
It’s Oscar Peterson’s centenary, and on August 16 we have three of Vancouver’s best jazz players doing a tribute to Oscar Peterson alongside a terrific thriller called The Silent Partner, which is the only film Oscar Peterson ever scored. He assembled a fantastic line of musicians to record the score for this film, but there’s like seven or eight original Oscar Peterson tracks to this Canadian thriller directed by Darryl Duke, who actually lived in Vancouver.
Then at the end of the month, we have a blues show by LJ Mounteney paired with the Canadian premiere of a brand new documentary about Big Mama Thornton, which is really strong.
To round it all off, The Happiest Jazz Quintet perform songs of classic Walt Disney Pictures in a jazz style, led by Matt Grinke and Ed with a screening of The Jungle Book.
Image: © 1967, Disney
What new releases would you like to highlight?
Folktales, which is a documentary about high school. It’s a kind of gap year school from the very north of Norway. The people who go are between the ages of 18 and 20 and they go to learn skills like dog sledding and wilderness survival. The cinematography is spectacular. The film is really about the teenagers bonding. The school often attracts troubled teenagers and one of the teachers explains that the kids think they’re taking care of the sled dogs, but actually the dogs take care of the kids. You can see how the dogs bring these kids out of their shell through beautiful folk tales.
Thanks Tom!
Tom Charity has been the year-round programmer at the VIFF Centre since 2009. He is the author of the critical biography John Cassavetes: Lifeworks, and has written or cowritten several other film books. A former film editor and critic for Time Out London magazine and CNN.com, he has also written for The Times and Sunday Times, the Vancouver Sun, and many other publications. He contributes to Cinema Scope and Sight & Sound Magazine on a regular basis.