What a crazy four months it has been for me and At Shutter Speed. It is officially the new year for my blog, but I am already a third of the way through the year. So happy 1/3 third of the new year!!
I think it is the perfect day to blog because tomorrow is National Canadian Film Day and next week Hot Docs International Film Festival begins.
NATIONAL CANADIAN FILM DAY
If you are an avid movie goer, a film bluff, or a patriotic Canadian, then this day is meant for you!
What is this day you ask? All across Canada, theatres in select cities are screening only Canadian Film. Most screenings are free too!
Here are some in my hometown, Toronto, that I am most excited for:
The Grand Seduction | CBC Atrium | April 20th | 7PM
Ginger Snaps | Fox Theatre | April 20th | 7PM
Corner Gas: The Movie | Brentwood Library | April 20th | 2PM
Dr. Cabbie | York Memorial CI | April 20th | 9AM
HOT DOCS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
North America's largest international documentary film festival is just around the corner and I could not be more excited.
Last year, I was able to watch 22 films (on top of working and attending all the parties and networking events). PHEW.
This year, I've been fortune enough to take advantage of film screeners, and will be telling you some of my festival favourites.
How to Build a Time Machine | dir. Jay Cheel
Holy Hell | dir. Will Allen
Girls Don't Fly | dir. Monika Grassl
Under the Sun | dir. Vitaly Mansky
Jay Cheel takes us on an extraordinary adventure between two characters obsessed with "time travel". One drawing inspiration from H.G. Wells novel The Time Machine, while the other, a professor of mathematics, wanting to find an equation that solves time travel.
Holy Hell is exactly as it sounds. Filmmaker Will Allen joins The Budhist Society in California with a hundred other members. What starts as an ideal retreat and community focused group turns into a nightmare. Watch as the leader of the group destroys each persons life in his own masochistic pursuits of an ideal society.
Girls Don't Fly drew my attention initially because of the title. I said to myself, what do you mean girls don't fly... of course we do. In a small Ghanaian town, a group of determined and strong willed young women attend a local flying academy. Their dreams of a better future for themselves and their families seem distant and far away, and they endure verbal abuse from the director of the academy. He is a British imperialist with archaic views of Ghanaian culture. At the heart of this sad story is white colonialism taking place today. Will the women prevail over the male white power? Watch and see!
Under the Sun is one of the most clever documentaries I have ever seen. Fighting strict filming limitations, the North Korean government and its control over the image, director Vitaly Mansky tells us a story and asks us to read in between the lines. In this case, I mean that he shows us footage in between each take - before the government official yells "ACTION". "WAIT," you say, "action?" "Is this not reality, is this not a documentary showing truth?" Truth for us is recognizing the lie in each scripted and practiced dramatizations. The government attempts to show us an ideal family through the perspective of an eight year old girl. However, there is nothing ideal about the situation or family or work environments. The horror unfolds and the pressure reaches its peak at the end, when the little girl is unable to contain her tears. We are left hearing the final words of the government official regulating the shoot, "tell her to stop crying. Think of something happy."
What am I most excited for?
The list really does go on but I had to hold back for the sake of making this a relatively short blog.
There is so much film action going on in Toronto this month. I hope you have the chance to go out and share in the success of all our great Canadian filmmakers!
- Jenn