The Toronto International Film Festival Group has narrowed its global scope down to celebrate local filmmaking. The group announced its sixth edition of Canada’s Top Ten at a film industry event on Dec. 12 in a campaign to promote the burgeoning talent of homegrown filmmakers to the global forum, and remind local audiences that Canadian cinema is something to be proud of.
The list, which has no order (how Canadian!), is selected by a 10-member panel of industry professionals who consider any film by a local filmmaker that has either opened in theatres or premiered at a Canadian festival in 2006. Each film from the list will be showcased at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall, beginning this weekend, with the filmmakers of most selections on hand for Q & As.
Past winners have included Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott’s The Corporation (yes, it is Canadian), David Cronenberg’s A History Of Violence, and Jean-Marc Vallee’s C.R.A.Z.Y.
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen
Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn follow-up 2001’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner with a documentary-style account of the first contact between European settlers and the Inuit. Tensions rise between an aging shaman and his rebellious daughter after the intrusion of Danish explorers in their Artic community. Both an intimate family drama and a portrait of cultural collision, Journals was given the royal treatment when it was selected for the Opening Night Gala at last year’s TIFF.
Screening: Friday, Jan. 26 at 6:30 p.m.
Monkey Warfare
VVVv
Writer/director Reginald Harkema’s film, a wry send-up of the French New Wave and Canadian cinematic drollness, picked up a Special Jury Prize at TIFF for proudly exhibiting the “indie spirit of the north.” Don McKellar and Tracy Wright star as an off-the-grid, dumpster-diving bohemian couple, whose onetime flame-both for political anarchy and for each other-died out ages ago.
The pair rummages through Parkdale for remnants of history from lawn sales and trash sites, not so much for nostalgia’s sake as to flirt illicitly with online consumerism. Sparks begin to fly when a dope-dealing firecracker named Susan (Nadia Litz) takes an interest in the fringe couple and their recycled knowledge of militant revolutionaries from the late sixties.
Screening: Saturday, Jan. 27 at 8:45 p.m.
Reginald Harkema & guests in person.
Sharkwater
Director Rob Stewart utilizes his knack for underwater cinematography in a documentary that has picked up scads of prizes on the festival circuit. The film is an urgent plea for the international community to abandon the stigmas they place on predatory sharks, emperiled animals with strong importance to the aquatic food chain. Stewart spent many years below sea level to reveal how long-line fishing, corrupt Latin governments, and the Taiwanese mafia’s ravenous demand for shark fins pose a danger to the ocean’s ecological balance.
Screening: Sunday, Jan. 28 at 1:00 p.m.
Rob Stewart in person.
Radiant City
Tracing the legacy of suburbia through history with a satiric bent, Gary Burns and Jim Brown’s documentary is a critical peek into the windows of gated communities. The film garnered a Special Jury Prize at the Vancouver Film Festival, and is being hailed as a hilarious and mischievous look both at urban sprawl and the documentary genre.
Screening: Monday, Jan. 29 at 8:45 p.m.
Gary Burns & Jim Brown in person.
Manufactured Landscapes
VVVV
Currently competing in the documentary category at Sundance after winning the Best Canadian Feature award at TIFF last year, Jennifer Baichwal’s film is an examination of what “made in China” truly means. The documentary follows renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky on his latest excursion through the industrially booming China. Baichwal manages to bring cinematic depth to natural devastation with sweeping pans and a curious zoom-almost as glorious as Burtynsky’s own legendary stills.
Screening: Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 8:45 p.m.
Jennifer Baichwal in person.
On the Trail of Igor Rizzi
Winner of the CityTV Award for Best Canadian First Feature at TIFF, Noel Mitrani’s film follows a grief-stricken ex-soccer player, Jean-Marc Thomas, whose life is left in shambles after the death of his love, who never knew his feelings for her. The downward spiral continues when Thomas gets involved with the criminal underworld to pay the bills, and accepts an assignment to whack a certain Igor Rizzi…
Screening: Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 8:45 p.m.
Noël Mitrani in person.
Congorama
Michel, a down-on-his-luck Belgian inventor, discovers that he is an adopted French Canadian. Zut alors! Traveling to Quebec, Michel finds nothing but bad fries, bad beer, and difficulty coping with an identity crisis. Quebec director Philippe Falardeau’s film has done the festival rounds at Cannes, Vancouver, and Toronto, and was awarded Best Canadian Feature at the Atlantic Film Festival.
Screening: Thursday, Feb. 1 at 8:45 p.m.
Philippe Falardeau in person.
Away From Her
VVVVV
The poster child of Canadian cinema, director Sarah Polley delivers a sure-handed feature debut with her adaptation of Alice Munro’s short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain. With devastating performances from Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie, Away From Her is a deeply affecting portrait of a long-enduring relationship where fond recollections fade and painful ones hurt even more than before. A couple married for over 50 years, Grant and Fiona are slowly being torn apart by Fiona’s mental deterioration from Alzheimer’s disease. After premiering to widespread acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Polley’s film is generating even more buzz at Sundance. This film about memory loss is leaving some lasting impressions in the film world.
Screening: Friday, Feb.2 at 8:15 p.m.
Sarah Polley in person.
A Sunday in Kigali
A romance between a white journalist, Bernard, and a Tutsi waitress, Gentille, is severed by the Rwandan genocide. Having escaped, Bernard desperately returns to Kigali to seek out Gentille, or to learn of her death. Robert Favreau’s film cuts before and after the massacre to build an urgent tension that pivots on the unknown fate of Gentille, while revealing the devastation that took place over those crucial days in Kigali.
Screening: Saturday, Feb. 3 at 8:30 p.m.
Robert Favreau in person.
Trailer Park Boys: The Big Dirty
Scheming up their most preposterous scam to date, Sunnyvale misfits Ricky, Julian and Bubbles hatch a plan to steal large amount of coins-because change is untraceable-in yet another attempt to get rich quick. Meanwhile, Ricky’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Lucy has found work at a gentlemen’s club, something that complicates his plans to finally marry her. Released on October 6, Trailer Park Boys was the highest grossing film in Canada that week. The film grossed 1.3M in its first weekend-not too shabby when you consider its ridiculously small $5,000 budget.
Screening: This screening has already occured.
The Festival series will also present three panel discussions:
Manufactured Realities: Documentary Panel with the directors of Manufactured Landscapes and Radiant City.
Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007 6:30 p.m.
New Quebec Cinema with the directors of Congorama, A Sunday in Kigali, and On the Trail of Igor Rizzi.
Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007 6:30 p.m.
Monkey Warfare Case Study with the cast and crew of Monkey Warfare.
Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007 6:30 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.topten.ca or over the phone at 416-968-FILM.
