समाचार

The Vancouver International Film Festival, which will take place from September 30 to October 15, is known for bringing the world to people in and around Vancouver. Moreover, it also has Canadian films in its line-up. All in all, expect to see some Canadian films that are currently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The opening film will be the Canadian-Italian co-production Barney's Version. Other Canadian films include:

* A Drummer's Dream, by John Walker

* A Night for Dying Tigers, by Terry Miles

* A Simple Rhythm, by Tess Girard

* Altitude, by Kaare Andrews

* Amazon Falls, by Katrin Bowen

* An Ecology of Mind, by Nora Bateson

* Barney's Version, by Richard J. Lewis

* Breaking the Silence: Burma's Resistance, by Pierre Mignault and Hélène Magny

* Curling, by Denis Côté

* Everywhere, by Alexis Durand-Brault

* Father & Sons, by Carl Bessai

* Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, by Sturla Gunnarsson

* Guido Superstar: The Rise of Guido, by Silvio Pollio

* Les amours imaginaires,...

The Vancouver International Film Festival is my baby. In its 29th year, this is the event I look forward to every year. The lists I've kept through the year come out and I eagerly look through the list of titles in search of those little gems and every year Viff responds with a huge assortment of titles. This year's festival is no different.

Some of the titles we're most eagerly anticipating include Tsumetai Nettaigyo’s Cold Fish (trailer), Gareth Edwards’ Monsters (trailer, review), Jo Sung-Hee’s apocalyptic road movie End of Animal, Carl Bessai’s Repeaters (trailer) and Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats (trailer, review).

There's loads more so be sure to check the titles (so far) after the break. Many more to be announced in the coming days.

Canadian Images

Altitude (Kaare Andrews), B.C.

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A weekend getaway aboard a small plane turns deadly for a rookie pilot and four teenage friends.

From the title alone you can pretty much infer that it didn’t go down too well, because it’s doubtful that they make a movie about how well it all went down. So, there’s that. There’s also the fact that the preview trailers on the DVD consist of low-rent, low budget crime thrillers starring a bunch of D-listers straight out of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (Gary Busey, Daniel Baldwin, Tom Sizemore…need I say more?). So you can imagine how low my expectations were for this particular low-rent, low budget crime thriller.

Our story concerns Carmine “Istante” Cavelli, a young filmmaker attempting to scrounge up money to finance his feature film, aptly titled V.I.O.L.E.N.T, with each letter corresponding to a separate story. Unfortunately, few others [read: no one] share his enthusiasm for the project, and thus he is forced to go back to...

SP Entertainment

The mean streets of Vancouver are the gritty setting for this based-on-fact story of drugs, crime and artistic aspirations. "How It All Went Down" is more successful as a depiction of sordidness than as a character study with emotional impact. The film, which opens Friday in Los Angeles, will serve mainly as a calling card for producer-director-writer Silvio Pollio, who also stars.

Pollio has an onscreen intensity and a director's eye for detail and atmosphere, but his script fails to generate a compelling reason to care about his protagonist. The first-time feature director stars as Carmine "Istante" Cavelli, a would-be filmmaker whose desperate attempt to raise cash for his project leads to a career as one of the biggest drug dealers in the Pacific Northwest. Cavelli was a film-school friend of Pollio's who showed him his diary before disappearing in 1997. He remains missing, but the film chooses a less open-ended story line for this Italian-Canadian kingpin.

When producers turn down his work-in-progress, a collection of vignettes that deal explicitly with such themes as sadomasochism and gay-bashing, Istante, convinced of his genius (viewers won't be) and in debt to everyone, reluctantly turns to dealing in order to raise the $400,000 he needs to finish the movie. But he quickly loses sight of his artistic vision as the cash starts rolling in. Even an arrest doesn't slow Istante down, instead strengthening his resolve to rule the neighborhood. His network of dealers operates out of a transients' hotel, with a constant exchange of crack rocks and money under shut doors.

Even as he's raking in the profits of others' addictions, Istante preaches rehab to vulnerable young runaway Stella (Daniella Evangelista). But just when he's getting her some help, a taunting call from his ex pushes him over the edge, and he binges on his wares with an insane vengeance that Pollio captures well.

Although the music is almost consistently wrong, Pollio, his cast and crew create a convincing picture of the seldom-seen seamy side of Vancouver. Horace Morris, who worked for the real-life Istante, makes an impression in his acting debut as a down-and-out dealer.