Not a Festival Review, I just felt like writing

Whenever I start getting depressed, worried, afraid, I think about the Earth.

Right now, the cars are parked. The airplanes are grounded. The cruise ships are docked. The skies are a little clearer, and the ocean looks refreshingly clean. The birds continue to sing, the flowers continue to bloom. It's springtime, and the Earth is taking a hesitant breath for perhaps the first time since the start of the industrial revolution, a couple of hundred short years ago. 

Our Covid situation is filled with irony.  Indigenous humans, so often exploited or ignored, lived on these lands for hundreds of thousands of years, with reverence and respect for the Earth.  The path of "modern" humans, focussed on industrialization, animal agriculture, and profit, has led us to this place, collectively and globally fighting extinction.

That Higher Level - Victoria Film Festival 2019

For now there remains an occasional place in the world (ie Cuba) where all young people are encouraged to become whoever they aspire to be.  However sparse, resources are made available to guide and nurture an individual's innate talents.  The result?  A society overflowing with music and dance, art, philosophy, healing.

That Higher Level immerses us into a world few of us are privileged to experience, a world where human emotion and experience merges with centuries old music that's brought again to life during "the most ambitious tour of probably any orchestra in the country ever."

That Higher Level was produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)’s BC & Yukon Studio in Vancouver in association with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and will enjoy its world premiere in Victoria with filmmaker John Bolton in attendance.

That Higher Level screens Saturday, February 9th at 6:15 pm at The Vic Theatre.  You can buy your tickets HERE.

Easy - Victoria Film Festival 2019

Life.  Death.  Birth.  Rebirth.

Serendipity.

A merging of cultures.

An unlikely hero.

This film has all that, and more.  

Easy screens Thursday February 7th at 6:30 pm at Odeon #5, and Saturday February 9th at 12:15 pm at SilverCity #3.

You can buy your tickets HERE.

Warrior Women - Victoria Film Festival 2019

What does freedom feel like?  

I'd say it's about being seen for who I am (rather than judged for who I "should" be), accepted and loved as an independent spirit, encouraged to live and grow without fear of any sort of invasion, psychological or physical, in a place where I'm surrounded by people who share my values and my worldview.  

How about you?  What's your idea of freedom?

Listen to the stories these Warrior Women share. Some were stolen from their parents,  survived boarding schools (similar to Canada's residential schools), found strength during the civil rights movement, witnessed or participated in the occupations of Mt Rushmore, Alcatraz, Wounded Knee and most recently Standing Rock.  All their lives they've fought back against a systemic policy of genocide intended to erase any trace of them and their ancestors.  Somehow they are still alive, still organizing, still laughing.  

We're blessed to hear their stories and to imagine, for a moment, how freedom might feel for them.

Warrior Women screens Thursday February 7th at 8:45 pm at The Vic Theatre.  You can buy your tickets HERE.

Seder-Masochism - Victoria Film Festival 2019

Have you ever wondered about what goes on in the hearts/minds/spirits of men who believe that there's only one deity?  That it's absolutely all-powerful, and decidedly of the male variety?  It must be quite the ego rush to live in that world.  Right?!?

In fact, early civilizations incorporated a lot of Goddess representation in their spiritual belief systems.  There are actually tons of artifacts, it's quite fascinating.  But God the Father won that particular spiritual battle, and here we are.

Award winning filmmaker Nina Paley might not have graduated from Community College, as her Father wanted her to, but it seems she read some of the best books on the subject (they're listed in the credits) and she's obviously spent a lot of time thinking about it all.

Plus, she has a very creative imagination and is some kind of technological wizard. You'll want to see this film. And you'll want to buy the soundtrack.  

Seder-Masochism screens Wednesday February 6th at 6:00 pm at Parkside.  Buy your tickets HERE.

L’autre Rio (The Other Rio) - Victoria Film Festival 2019

If you've been fortunate enough to witness, or be part of, the often creative and colourful Olympic protest movement, you'll already be aware of the multi billion dollar, private, NGO International Olympic Committee's (IOC) neo-colonialist policies and influence as they move from city to city around the globe.  

In 2016 the IOC landed in Rio de Janeiro and while L'autre Rio doesn't show the impact on the entire other city, it does offer a rare glimpse into one very interesting community just across the tracks from the Maracanã stadium.  

As they go about their daily tasks for survival, a TV blares, "in this Olympic world we are all equal."

Yes we are.  We are all equal victims of the IOC and the question we could (and should) be asking is, why does the IOC insist on establishing themselves, like a virus, in a new neighbourhood in a new city every two years?  And why do we let them?  Why don't they just build one site, like the original Games in Athens, and leave the rest of the world alone?!  (Hint: the answer has to do with ongoing money and power and land appropriation and corporate and government corruption).  

Do not miss this rare opportunity to witness the otherwise invisible brilliant, hard-working determination of the 100+ families who occupy the IBGE squat in the abandoned government building.   

And stay tuned for the IOC's next project, L'autre Tokyo.  

L'autre Rio screens Monday February 4th at 9:15 pm at the Capitol Six.  You can buy your tickets HERE.

Animal Behaviour - VFF 2019

Adorable, isn't it, watching animals dressed up and behaving like humans?  They show us something about ourselves in a cute, nonthreatening way. 

This brilliantly directed and produced short film could easily inspire a weekly TV or Netflix series.  The characters might evolve beyond the anthropomorphic, and express how they're really feeling, inside their own skins.  

The female Pig, representing animals with mental capacities similar to a 3 year old human, could talk about what it's like to spend her life in a gestation crate, unable to move or turn, repeatedly impregnated until she's finally sent to slaughter.  A male Pig could share how he feels about being castrated without painkillers, also a common industrial farming practice.  The endangered Gorilla could finally find the source of her/his rage - loss of habitat due to increasing human populations demanding more land for agricultural activities like palm oil production.  Etc.

Animal Behaviour offers a safe and fun way to look at some aspects of human behaviour.  But what if human behaviour is inextricably linked to and influenced by the ways we collectively and unconsciously treat our animal friends?  If you were an animal, subjected to human behaviour, what would you want to talk about in a group therapy session?

Animal Behaviour is currently shortlisted as Best Short Animation for the 2019 Academy Awards.

Animal Behaviour screens alongside 3 other short films Monday February 4th at 8:00 pm at Parkside, you can buy your tickets HERE.

3 Faces - Victoria Film Festival 2019

A central premise of 3 Faces seems to be: "Everything falls apart without rules."

Whether those are traditional rules determined lifetimes ago, or new rules that change every other day, life even in the remote unwalled valley lands bordering Azerbaijan and Iran would be impossible without them.  Or would it?

There are rules (beliefs, customs, traditions) about how best to release a man's foreskin, rules about how to treat a dying bull, regularly changeable rules about the best way to share a windy one lane road.  But the central tenet seems to suggest that the line is fuzzy around whether or not it's okay to take your own life and/or fake your own suicide just to get the attention you need so you can finally get where you want to be.

Maybe it's the cultural divide that has left me without any clear resolution. Maybe I'm not meant to really "get" any big meaning from 3 Faces.  The title, for example, continues to elude me.  Maybe it's that the pure entertainment of it all ought to be enough.  

It's certainly interesting to ponder life in the region, so different from our own in so many ways, and so similarly filled with various colourful characters and, strangely, a familiar need for cellular phones.  And rules.

You can buy tickets, and I recommend you do, by clicking here.  

3 Faces screens Sunday February 3rd at 9:15 pm, and Thursday February 7th at 4:15 pm at the Capitol 6.  

Love, Scott - Victoria Film Festival 2019

If we're lucky, at some point along life's journey we realize that those strong emotions we like to blame on others are actually only our own.  Other people can't really "make" us feel any particular way (as in, he "made" me so mad.) People can do or say things that trigger or provoke us, awakening strong feelings and emotions that consequentially cause us to say or do things (maybe things we regret), but ultimately we are the only ones who can control what we're thinking and feeling.  More specifically, I am in control of my emotions.  You are in control of yours. 

That said, if every woman were to stab every man who ever looked at her lustfully in a bar, there'd be a lot of women behind bars.  

Nanaimo born Scott Jones, guilty only of trying to come to terms with his own sexuality, admits to sending a vibe to a guy in a bar.  That guy, I'm guessing, felt things he didn't like feeling, for whatever reason. He might have said, to himself, "hmm ... interesting ... I'm feeling this thing and it's provoking these thoughts.  But these are my feelings and my thoughts.  That guy, who looked at me, isn't responsible for my feelings and thoughts. I have no reason to hate him."  Unfortunately, that guy didn't have the guidance or training or understanding to think those thoughts. That guy felt something powerful that inspired him to stab, and nearly kill, Scott Jones.

It's just lucky that Scott Jones didn't tell the court that he had looked at that guy in that way in that bar that night. Imagine the line of questioning that would have followed: "what were you wearing, how many other times have you been at that bar by yourself," etc.  

Haters gonna hate.  If only we could figure out why, and help them, and stop it.  Love, Scott is a good place to start.  

Directed by Laura Marie Wayne, one of Scott's best friends, Love, Scott screens Monday February 4th at 6:00 pm at Parkside and Wednesday February 6th at 9:15 pm at the Capitol Six.  You can buy your tickets here.

Love, Scott (Trailer) from NFB/marketing on Vimeo.

What is Democracy? - Victoria Film Festival 2019

You know that feeling, the difference between "I have a headache" and "my head hurts"?  Be prepared for the head hurting one.  And remember, it's a good feeling!  Synapses are firing.  The brain is alive!

This "What is Democracy" thing is a discussion we all need to be having.  Soon.  Every day.  Otherwise we 99% of the 7+billion humans inhabiting this beautiful planet will soon find ourselves as voiceless as the many more billions of non-human creatures among us.

What is Democracy?  What is Wealth?  What is Health?  

We might ask ... what is NOT democracy, and compare notes. Design our own Allegory of Good and Bad Government.

"I don't care" is not an acceptable response, though it's an understandable one.  We've all been programmed not to care.

But seriously ... it used to be illegal to read.  To READ!  You gotta care about that, right?

Watch the movie.  Seriously. Don't miss it.  Demand a second screening.  Bring a friend, then go talk about it.  And then go find a safe nonviolent place to exercise your renewed activist passions.

What is Democracy screens Saturday February 2nd at 12:45 pm at 4:15 pm, at the Capitol Six.  Buy your tickets here.

Click HERE for a 20 minute interview with Astra Taylor, the Canadian filmmaker.  She's also a writer, and political organizer. Her new book, Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone, will be out from Metropolitan Books in early 2019. 

What is Democracy? (Trailer) from NFB/marketing on Vimeo.

Eternal Winter - Victoria Film Festival 2019

Being confronted by a hungry wolf in the middle of winter when you're alone in the wilderness with a dying child isn't the scariest part of this film.  But it's one of the only parts that makes any sense.

Not that the film itself is nonsensical, not at all.  The film is astonishing.  I felt like I was there, in that labour camp, alongside those women, sharing some of the most profound #metoo moments imaginable.  Just that the whole thing (the perpetual warmaking, the forced labour camps, the ongoing madness of patriarchal efforts to control and dominate everything everywhere always) is so ridiculous.  

A first thought might be "why are they treating those women and children like animals."  Then, perhaps a second thought ... why do we treat animals like "animals"?  

If you know someone in the habit of complaining, First World Style, take them to this movie.  But don't tell them where you're taking them, make it a surprise. Then, after they realize how good they have it in comparison, you can tell them you know someone who knows someone who was born into that era Hungary, but she managed to escape with her family.  So many didn't.  She's really lucky.  We're all really lucky.

Makes a person wonder what else is going on in this #metoo world, now, everyday, that we don't necessarily know about. But should.  And then, with that knowing, perhaps we can complain about it, loudly, until things actually change.  Before we're not so lucky anymore.

Eternal Winter screens Friday February 1st at 6:45 pm and Wednesday February 6th at 4:15 pm, at the Capitol Six.  You can buy your ticket here (and one for your friend).

OH LUCY - Victoria Film Festival 2018

Boys, girls, women, men, romance, sex, joy, breakup, sorrow.  Universal themes, old as time. We "fall in love," and we do ridiculous things.  We get hurt, so we hurt others. 

OH LUCY lets us peer into a funhouse mirror.  We can laugh out loud.  We can yell "NO!, what are you doing?!"  Maybe we can make some peace with ourselves, our families, our friends.  Or, like Lucy, we can simply let go of what no longer serves us.

OH LUCY screens Sunday February 11th at 6:30 pm at The Vic Theatre.  You can buy tickets HERE.

Cardinals - Victoria Film Festival 2018

For the #metoo initiated it's often, if not always, a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario. 

At the risk of giving too much away, suffice it to say that we can only hope the day will arrive when the Cardinals storyline (and those like it) will be relegated to the annals of history.

Cardinals screens Friday February 2nd at 9 pm and Sunday February 11th at 9 pm at SilverCity.

You can search for tickets HERE.

Edie - Victoria Film Festival 2018

If you're elder, fit, and able, with too many years in an abusive relationship behind you, why not choose an adventure in the Scottish Highlands over a forced trip to a nursing facility?  Sometimes you've just got to follow your heart and trust that the universe will help you be where your soul needs to be.  And maybe, like Edie, serendipity will gift you in sometimes confusing, but often amazing ways.

This film is inspiring, encouraging, nurturing.  Show me an elder person who doesn't want to hear a younger person say "if only I was a bit older."  Yeah, the plot is a bit faulty and unrealistic in parts, but it's fun to witness Edie's determination, real or imagined.

Edie screens at the Victoria Film festival Friday February 9th at 7 pm at Sidney's Star Theatre, and Saturday February 10th at 6:30 pm at The Vic Theatre.

You can buy your tickets HERE.

AUDIO: Stephen Campanelli, Director, 'Indian Horse'

Stephen Campanelli’s Indian Horse received the Calgary Film Festival’s Audience Award for Narrative Feature, and was People’s Choice winner at last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. Indian Horse is an adaptation of the Richard Wagamese’s widely acclaimed novel about an Ojibway boy, and his abduction into Canada’s residential school system.

Campanelli is a Canadian director, and long-time Hollywood camera operator, working within legendary actor/director and producer Clint Eastwood’s rarefied filmmaking circle. Among others, he’s collaborated with Eastwood on the films: ‘Million Dollar Baby’. ‘Gran Torino’, ‘Sully’, and their latest, and 21st collaboration, ’15:17 to Paris’. Indian Horse is Campanelli's second film in the director’s chair, following 2015’s ‘Momentum’.

CLICK HERE FOR A 20 MINUTE RADIO INTERVIEW


Indian Horse screens Sunday February 11th at 6:15 pm at SilverCity.  Buy your tickets HERE.

Romantic Road - Victoria Film Festival 2018

If ever a couple of elder friends tell you they're going to circumnavigate the Indian subcontinent in their 1936 Rolls Royce, grab your camera and film the heck out of their journey. That's what Oliver McGarvey did.  This is his first feature film, and it's fantastic.

Be thankful for the opportunity to live vicariously along this great adventure.  If Oliver hadn't been there to document, it's doubtful some of these exploits would be believed.  It's certain that it was a once in a lifetime enterprise, something that can never quite be reenacted. Definitely a story Rupert and Jan's family will pass along for many generations.

Romantic Road screens Friday February 9th at 6:15 pm at SilverCity and Sunday February 11th at 3:30 pm at Sidney's Star Cinema.

Watch a trailer by going to this WEBSITE HERE.


And buy your tickets HERE.

The Swan (Svanurinn) - Victoria Film Festival 2018

Sometimes the best way to survive is to "just get used to it."  Other times we go against the grain and reject what doesn't make sense.  It's not easy to forge that independent path, especially if you're a young girl living in a remote environment, isolated from a supportive peer group.

Sol's journey reminds us to stay true to ourselves, to hold onto courageous youthful insight.  Because perceptions are unique to the individual and where some experience monsters, others find only beauty.

The Swan screens Monday February 5th at 6:30 pm at The Vic Theatre.  You can buy tickets HERE. 

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin - Victoria Film Festival 2018

It's unlikely that the culture of San Francisco circa 1970 will ever exist again anywhere ever.  Young Armistead Maupin found his way there, he found himself there, as did so many beautiful creative souls.  And together they changed the world.

If you relate to the current movement towards a more fluid sexual identity you'll want to know Armistead.  After you watch this film, you will.

If you feel like you already know Armistead, you've got this film on your list of must sees at this year's festival.  

Whoever you are, you won't be disappointed.

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin screens Sunday February 4th at 7 pm at Sidney's Star Theatre, and Tuesday February 6th at 9 pm at SilverCity.

Let Yourself Go (Lasciati Andare) - Victoria Film Festival 2018

Chris Cook's review of 

Let Yourself Go (Lasciati Andare)
Francesco Amato
Italy 2017 (subtitles)

Let Yourself Go to Francesco Amato's breezy film of the same name. Its final screening at this year's Victoria Film Festival is 4pm Friday, Feb. 9th at The Vic theatre downtown.

Amato pays homage to La Grande Bellezza, and the Romans making it grande, in this throwback to the heyday of Italy's Commedia All'Italiana. Though the modern incarnation lacks the style and raw sex appeal of Marcello, Gina, and Sophia (and who could hope to match that!) Let Yourself Go does capture the essential spirit of the genre audiences on both sides of the Atlantic found irresistible.

As with the films of Monicelli, Ettore Scola and the rest of the Commedia retinue, Francesco Amato includes just enough real world grit and honest pathos to make the film funny, without being silly.

So go ahead and laugh out loud with Let Yourself Go.

Radiance - Victoria Film Festival 2018

Able bodied people take so much for granted.  We just do. 

We might think abstractly about whether it'd be worse to be born blind, or to lose our eyesight.  We can blindfold ourselves and try to get around for an hour, or an afternoon, to show some empathy.  But we'll never really know what it is to live in a world that still hasn't realized accessibility as a basic human right. 

Naomi Kawase's film, Radiance, is beautiful.  Radiant.  It's brilliantly filmed, and scripted, and it's simple while offering the opportunity for complexity.  The play within the play, the art imitating life motif, themes of loss and intrusion, insights into what happens to the brain within the darkness.

If you have a sight impaired Japanese speaking friend, you could bring them to a screening.  They'd probably have a lot to say about it afterwards.  If you're gifted enough to be able to read, perhaps think twice before complaining too loudly about subtitles.

Radiance screens Saturday February 3rd at 1:30 pm and Thursday February 8th at 9:15 pm at Capitol 6.  Buy your tickets HERE.