Engaging Cinema. Engaging Minds.
Friday, February 7
7 p.m. Opening Party
8 p.m. Assholes: A Theory
Director: John Walker
Language: English
(82 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Animal Behaviour
by Alison Snowden and David Fine, 14:27 min, 2018
Some grapple with the challenge of treating other human beings decently. Others are just… assholes, claims Professor Aaron James in his New York Times bestselling book, Assholes: A Theory. This intellectually provocative film takes a playful approach to uncovering why asshole behaviour is on the rise in the workplace, in government, and at home.
It’s a thoughtful accounting of society’s most noxious people, balancing psychology and anecdotal shit-talking, with special loathing reserved for financial-sector hustlers, blustering faux-populist politicians and surfers who cut into other surfers’ waves… which was what inspired James to write his book in the first place.
Read a review > here
Saturday, February 8
1:30 p.m. Pain and Glory
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
(113 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Do I have Boobs Now
by Joelle Cabu and Milena Salazar, 6:42 min, 2017
A new film from Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar is always an event, but there’s something especially bittersweet here, served up alongside the visual pleasures that are such a signature of his work. For one thing it marks a reunion between the director’s first alter ego, Antonio Banderas, who became a star via his mid-80s work with the director, and Almodóvar himself – and both are 35 years older… In a whirlwind of self-reflexivity, Banderas, riffing on Almodóvar right down to the curly salt-and-pepper hair – and giving the performance of his career in the process – plays Salvador Mallo, a film director depressed by his mother’s death, suffering from the aftereffects of back surgery, and, basically, at the end of his tether. Frustrated by his inability to make films and facing his own mortality, he sees a chance to reunite with a former lover, the actor Alberto (Asier Etxeandia) with whom he rose to fame, as both a possibility for redemption and a potentially disastrous journey through the past. Both deeply moving and, as with every Almodóvar film, wistfully funny, Pain and Glory shows that the master is still in peak form.
Read a review > here
Saturday, February 8
7 p.m.Parasite
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Language: Korean with English subtitles
(131 min)
South Korean master filmmaker Bong Joon Ho (The Host, Memories of Murder) delivers an unpredictable comic suspense thriller with his Palme d’Or-winning film, Parasite. The Kims, a poor family of four, reside in a cramped basement apartment where they struggle to make ends meet, stealing nearby Wi-Fi signals and folding pizza boxes for a delivery joint to make money under the table. Sick of their underclass existence, they set their sights on the Parks, a rich family looking for an English tutor for their teenaged daughter. The crafty Kims plot and scheme, and soon infiltrate the affluent home one-by-one, each of them manipulating their way into household gigs without the Parks realizing that they’re related. However, once they’re settled in, things don’t go according to plan, and simmering class tensions are not so easily suppressed.
Bong contrasts and skewers these two family units while casting a critical gaze at the system that pits them against one another. Darkly funny and palpably urgent, Parasite is a universal tale of economic disparity, social polarization, and human desperation that does not fit conveniently into any one simple category: it is a satire, tragedy, and allegory all at once and not least a supreme entertainment.
Read a review > here
Sunday, February 9
1:30 p.m. One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk
Director: Zacharias Kunuk
Language: In Inuktitut, English with English subtitles
(113 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Lake
by Alexandra Lazarowich, 5 min, 2019
In the northern reaches of Baffin Island in 1961, Noah (Apayata Kotierk) sets out on a traditional Inuit hunt only to run headlong into progress personified in the form of “Boss” (Kim Bodnia), an emissary who’s come to make a proposition on behalf of the Canadian government: assimilation in exchange for shelter and services. In the extended showdown that ensues, Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner) crafts unhurried yet urgent cinema that’s steeped in fatalism and devastating ramifications.
Read a review > here
Sunday, February 9
7 p.m. Frankie
Director: Ira Sachs
Language: English
(98 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short At Any Time
by Peg Campbell and Jennifer Mascall, 6 min, 2019
Unfolding over the course of a late summer’s day in the fabled resort town of Sintra, Portugal, FRANKIE follows three generations who have gathered for a vacation organized by the family matriarch (Isabelle Huppert).
In this fairy tale setting, husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and lovers, stirred by their romantic impulses — discover the cracks between them, as well as unexpected depth of feeling.
Read a review > here
Monday, February 10
7 p.m. And Then We Danced
Director: Levan Akin
Language: In Georgian with English subtitles
(106 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Reviving the Roos!
by Vivek Shraya, 16 min, 2019
Georgian traditional dance – the sheer physicality of which is frequently jaw-dropping – takes centre stage in Levan Akin’s gay coming-of-age tale that is as courageous for its celebration of homosexuality in a country that still considers it “deviancy” as it is beautiful in the way its saturated colours and depth of field, so typical of Georgian filmmaking, suit the movements of the dance.
Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani, enthralling as both dancer and actor) falls for fellow dancer Irakli (Bachi Valishvili), and their slow coming together is reflected in the rehearsals and performances of this stunning art form. As well as being both emotionally and thematically evocative, with years of pent up longing and repressed self-identity expressed in the tilt of a hand or a sideways glance, the fact that Georgian dance is hyper-masculine and staunchly nationalistic – while featuring both same-sex and opposite-sex duets – allows for sexual tension to heat up the rehearsal studio. As the characters come to terms with their sexual desires and identities in some remarkably interesting ways, Akin privileges Merab and Irakli’s spirit and resilience, and the joy of the dance.
Read a review > here
ADDITIONAL SHOWING
Tuesday, February 11
1:30 p.m.Parasite
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Language: Korean with English subtitles
(131 min)
South Korean master filmmaker Bong Joon Ho (The Host, Memories of Murder) delivers an unpredictable comic suspense thriller with his Palme d’Or-winning film, Parasite. The Kims, a poor family of four, reside in a cramped basement apartment where they struggle to make ends meet, stealing nearby Wi-Fi signals and folding pizza boxes for a delivery joint to make money under the table. Sick of their underclass existence, they set their sights on the Parks, a rich family looking for an English tutor for their teenaged daughter. The crafty Kims plot and scheme, and soon infiltrate the affluent home one-by-one, each of them manipulating their way into household gigs without the Parks realizing that they’re related. However, once they’re settled in, things don’t go according to plan, and simmering class tensions are not so easily suppressed.
Bong contrasts and skewers these two family units while casting a critical gaze at the system that pits them against one another. Darkly funny and palpably urgent, Parasite is a universal tale of economic disparity, social polarization, and human desperation that does not fit conveniently into any one simple category: it is a satire, tragedy, and allegory all at once and not least a supreme entertainment.
Read a review > here
Tuesday, February 11
7 p.m. When We Walk
Director: Jason DaSilva
Language: English
(78 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short The Zoo
by Julia Kwan, 11 min, 2018
Six years after When I Walk, which chronicled director Jason DaSilva’s experiences with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, the filmmaker/activist documents a new challenge. After his marriage ends and his wife and child relocate 2,000 miles away to Texas, he struggles to remain involved in his young son’s life. DaSilva is then forced to make the heartbreaking choice between staying in New York, where he has around-the-clock home support that allows him to maintain a sense of independence, or moving to Texas, where the state-run Medicaid would force him to live in a nursing home.
DaSilva focuses the camera on himself, providing a raw and honest look at his advancing illness while reflecting on fatherhood, his own upbringing with separated parents, and his experience navigating harsh inequities in Medicaid care for people with disabilities. Through this introspective style, the unflinching When We Walk acts as a love letter from father to son and shows DaSilva’s unwavering determination as he balances parenting with retaining access to the medical care he needs.
Read a review > here
Wednesday. February 12
1:30 p.m. Midnight Family
Director: Luke Lorentzen
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
(81 min)
Mexico City has only 45 public ambulances serving a population of 9 million. Hence the need for private ambulance services. Luke Lorentzen’s bracing, visceral, and complex documentary takes you inside one such enterprise led by the Ochoas, a working-class family who make their keep rushing to 911 calls that are unlikely to be serviced by the public system.
Using an unflinching vérité style that doesn’t gloss over the realities of the Ochoas’ enterprise, Midnight Family embeds the viewer in a morally hazy universe of political corruption and economic disparity. It’s to Lorentzen’s considerable credit that the Ochoa operation doesn’t come off in a one-dimensional fashion; this is no charity born of noble intentions. Often going days at a time without ever finding patients whose insurance plans can cover their lofty costs, these would-be paramedics double as salesman who just so happen to toil in a line of work where the stakes are literally life and death.
Read a review > here
Wednesday, February 12
7 p.m. Who You Think I Am
Director: Safy Nebbou
Language: French with English subtitles
(101 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short The Hook Up
by Michael V Smith, 6 min, 2019
An acting tour de force from Juliette Binoche anchors Safy Nebbou’s genre-bending, near-Hitchcockian combination of romantic drama and dark comedy. Binoche is Claire, a 50-year-old lit prof and mother of two, unhappily divorced from a husband (Charles Berling) who left her for a younger woman. She, too, likes them young, but after a particularly unfulfilling hook up, she decides to resort to social media for revenge – she constructs a 24-year-old avatar and goes catfishing. However,when young Alex (François Civil), the roommate of the ex she wants revenge on, takes the bait, things begin to spin out of control for the increasingly guilt-ridden Claire…
Be prepared to be wrong-footed repeatedly: Nebbou, aided by Binoche’s masterful ability to play comedy and drama within the same line delivery, blithely shifts from humour to melodrama, beautifully finessing a twisty screenplay full of surprises. This is a fascinating film that is not going where you think it’s going…
Read a review > here
Thursday, February 13
1:30 p.m. Les Misérables
Director: Ladj Ly
Language: French with English subtitles
(102 min)
Set in the same suburban Paris neighbourhood, Montfermeil, used by Victor Hugo as the location for the Thénardiers’ Inn in his Les Misérables, debuting director Ladj Ly’s urgent and incendiary police-thriller shows how seemingly ubiquitous police brutality in the banlieues leads to the inevitable hardening of the largely Muslim populations who live there. Contrasting a trio of cops on the Anti-Crime Squad – innocent newcomer Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), Gwada (former model Djebril Zonga), a black officer who is not above exploiting his position for personal gain, and loose cannon Chris (co-writer Alexis Manenti, superb), the racist de facto leader – with the locals, who seem to solve their many problems more easily when the police aren’t around, Ly immerses us in a world of poverty and internecine power struggles. When video images of young Issa (Issa Perica) taking a police flashball in the eye during a standoff between police and a group of angry teens start making the rounds, the s*** hits the fan…
Read a review > here
Thursday. February 13
7 p.m. nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up
Director: Tasha Hubbard
Language: English
(98 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Woman Dress
by Thirza Cuthand, 6:28 min, 2019
On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley’s rural property with his friends. The jury’s subsequent acquittal of Stanley captured international attention, raising questions about racism embedded within Canada’s legal system and propelling Colten’s family to national and international stages in their pursuit of justice. Sensitively directed by Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption, the stark history of colonialism on the Prairies, and a vision of a future where Indigenous children can live safely on their homelands.
Read a review > here
Friday, February 14
1:30 p.m. Sometimes Always Never
Director: Carl Hunter
Language: English
(92 min)
Carl Hunter’s film takes grief, mystery, and messy family relations and turns them into dramedy gold. Alan (Bill Nighy) is a dapper, impish boomer in search of his long-missing son. Peter (Sam Riley) is his other child, a more reserved sort who tends to be embarrassed by his father’s shenanigans. As the film opens, the two are on their way to the morgue: a body has turned up, and it may belong to the boy who, one evening years ago, stepped out for a walk and never came back…
As the film goes on, it offers low-key suspense, lots of laughs, and some poignant reversals. Scrabble lovers in particular should be delighted with the movie, but in fact it’s for everyone who loves fine acting and good old-fashioned British wit. Hunter laces the movie with funky set design and some retro visual effects, giving it a zany, whimsical feel. Nighy is superb as usual; a master of comic understatement, he imbues his character with a poise that vainly masks a broken heart.
Read a review > here
Friday, February 14
7 p.m. The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open
Director: Kathleen Hepburn (co-director), Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (co-director)
Language: English
(105 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Harwood Island
by Betty Wilson, 14:34 min, 2019
Discovering Rosie (Violet Nelson), a pregnant teenager, sobbing and barefoot on a rainy East Vancouver street, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) swiftly intercedes, initially offering shelter in her own apartment before working feverishly to get the girl access to proper support networks so that she needn’t return to her abusive home. As these two Indigenous women embark on a revelatory odyssey to a safe house, they must confront society’s assumptions about them, overcome their preconceptions about one another, and reflect on their own respective self-images.
Unfolding in a series of masterful long takes shot on 16mm by cinematographer Norm Li, this deft drama from Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn (Never Steady, Never Still) employs a riveting combination of intimacy and immediacy. The urgency of the “real time” pacing is complemented by the inherent drama of their tenuous bond. A small-scale, high-stakes story shaped by larger socioeconomic and cultural forces, The Body Remembers is one of the most significant narrative films this city has produced.
Read a review > here
Saturday, February 15
1:30 p.m. The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open
Director: Kathleen Hepburn (co-director), Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (co-director)
Language: English
(105 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Harwood Island
by Betty Wilson, 14:34 min, 2019
Discovering Rosie (Violet Nelson), a pregnant teenager, sobbing and barefoot on a rainy East Vancouver street, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) swiftly intercedes, initially offering shelter in her own apartment before working feverishly to get the girl access to proper support networks so that she needn’t return to her abusive home. As these two Indigenous women embark on a revelatory odyssey to a safe house, they must confront society’s assumptions about them, overcome their preconceptions about one another, and reflect on their own respective self-images.
Unfolding in a series of masterful long takes shot on 16mm by cinematographer Norm Li, this deft drama from Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn (Never Steady, Never Still) employs a riveting combination of intimacy and immediacy. The urgency of the “real time” pacing is complemented by the inherent drama of their tenuous bond. A small-scale, high-stakes story shaped by larger socioeconomic and cultural forces, The Body Remembers is one of the most significant narrative films this city has produced.
Read a review > here
Saturday, February 15
7 p.m. Closing Party
8 p.m. Men’s Room
Director: Petter Sommer, Jo Vemund Svendsen
Language: In Norwegian with English subtitles
(75 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Buffy
by John Walker, 6:20 min, 2010
Petter Sommer and Jo Vemund Svendsen’s documentary follows a choral group made up of modest, unpretentious middle-aged men. These guys make no claims to great artistry; they just love to sing, laugh, and bond, and their time together is precious. We see them preparing for their biggest gig ever – opening up for rock giants Black Sabbath – as their conductor Ivar is suffering through the final stages of cancer. His condition worsens as the concert date approaches, but the maestro soldiers on, and the film grows in poignancy with each passing moment…
With a repertoire that includes Billy Bragg and Dennis Leary, the choir never fails to entertain; the movie is full of wonderful renditions. Sommer and Svendsen have made a lighthearted film about heavy subject matter; its subjects may not wear their hearts on their sleeves, but we can feel their emotions nevertheless. There are moments of great sadness here, but also of triumph, and it’s a pleasure to spend time with these men.
Read a review > here
Sunday, February 16
1:30 p.m. Men’s Room
Director: Petter Sommer, Jo Vemund Svendsen
Language: In Norwegian with English subtitles
(75 min)
Preceding the feature will be the short Buffy
by John Walker, 6:20 min, 2010
Petter Sommer and Jo Vemund Svendsen’s documentary follows a choral group made up of modest, unpretentious middle-aged men. These guys make no claims to great artistry; they just love to sing, laugh, and bond, and their time together is precious. We see them preparing for their biggest gig ever – opening up for rock giants Black Sabbath – as their conductor Ivar is suffering through the final stages of cancer. His condition worsens as the concert date approaches, but the maestro soldiers on, and the film grows in poignancy with each passing moment…
With a repertoire that includes Billy Bragg and Dennis Leary, the choir never fails to entertain; the movie is full of wonderful renditions. Sommer and Svendsen have made a lighthearted film about heavy subject matter; its subjects may not wear their hearts on their sleeves, but we can feel their emotions nevertheless. There are moments of great sadness here, but also of triumph, and it’s a pleasure to spend time with these men.
Read a review > here
ADDITIONAL SHOWING
Sunday, February 16
3:15 p.m.Parasite
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Language: Korean with English subtitles
(131 min)
South Korean master filmmaker Bong Joon Ho (The Host, Memories of Murder) delivers an unpredictable comic suspense thriller with his Palme d’Or-winning film, Parasite. The Kims, a poor family of four, reside in a cramped basement apartment where they struggle to make ends meet, stealing nearby Wi-Fi signals and folding pizza boxes for a delivery joint to make money under the table. Sick of their underclass existence, they set their sights on the Parks, a rich family looking for an English tutor for their teenaged daughter. The crafty Kims plot and scheme, and soon infiltrate the affluent home one-by-one, each of them manipulating their way into household gigs without the Parks realizing that they’re related. However, once they’re settled in, things don’t go according to plan, and simmering class tensions are not so easily suppressed.
Bong contrasts and skewers these two family units while casting a critical gaze at the system that pits them against one another. Darkly funny and palpably urgent, Parasite is a universal tale of economic disparity, social polarization, and human desperation that does not fit conveniently into any one simple category: it is a satire, tragedy, and allegory all at once and not least a supreme entertainment.
Read a review > here