Hello friends, I wanted to send out a quick note saying what a pleasure it was to once again watch Canada's best at this years Toronto International Film Festival. From moments that took me deeply into emotions in such films as Crackie and the short, The Spine, to the spunk of Leslie, My Name is Evil and wit of Cooking with Stella; I got to have the privilage to witness so many golden moments on-screen in these past 9 days that I won't soon forget. One thing is sure, Canadians should be proud that they have such amazing talent in their home and native land.

Until we meet again....that's a wrap!

I have always wanted to visit the East Coast of Canada, but somehow this has not happened for me yet. Like every Canadian girl (or in my case, Canadian as of the age of six) I have dreamt of being Anne Shirley and reciting the Lady of Shalott, while laying stricken with inspiration on a bed of rocks caressing the East Coast waters. What Sherry White has inspired of me through her beautiful debut feature film has strengthened this desire to make this a reality in my near future. Shoot, if I could I would pack my suitcase today and ask White to be my personal guide through Newfoundland.

 Yes I know that Anne of Green Gables is set in PEI and Crackie is set in Newfoundland, however there is just something serene and magical that White captures of her native Newfoundland that makes me think if how I enjoy watching Anne and her bosom buddy Diana frolic through nature, similarly to the way Mitsy does. For Mitsy nature is her silent muse to escape her troubles, a place of quiet in her world which is often bombarded with the sound of yelling and confrontation.

Crackie fufills the tradition of great story-telling in its simplest form by mixing emotionally-intelligent directing with outstanding performances. I was touched to reflect on the un-compromising love that Mitsy has for her mother, even if her mother is not fit as a parent. Then there is the way Mitsy's grandmother controls her in hopes of protecting her, yet somehow manages only to damage her granddaughter.

The film shows three generations of women that inherit dysfunctional into everyday life, the witty and sharp-tongued grandmother (Mary Walsh), the lost, self-absorbed and neglectful mother (Cheryl Wells) and the sweet and often neglected adolescent daughter, Mitsy (Meghan Greeley). Mitsy however shows a vulnerability and need to love and be loved far more openly than both her mother and grandmother. This then leads her to form a special bond with a crackie dog named Sparky. Sparky is not enticing and cute like a puppy, in fact he much like these women; a living being that shows wear of scars of the surface as a reminder of suffering endured. Mitsy becomes instantly obsessed with wanting to save Sparky from being put-down by the sleazy, older man that she is sleeping with that works at a local fast food restaurant. She dedicates herself to coddle this dog with patience, attention and love.

It is hard to believe that this is Sherry White's first feature film - she shows the craftsmanship and eye of a seasoned director. Mary Walsh is also a perfect casting, she literally brings an all-encompassing energy to every moment she is on-screen and rightfully shines as one of Canada's premiere talents. Alongside Walsh is a remarkable debut by actors like Greeley and Wells, and esentially what you are left with is a complete package of delight!

The multi-dimensional nature of all these women is what makes this film a thought-provoking and real journey. The complexities of survival, the volatility of placing happiness into the hands of someone who cannot provide an environment for you to be at your best, these are the ideas that bring Crackie to be a sympathetic and heart-touching tale.

 

 

Leslie, My Name is Evil is bloody brilliant. From the moment the film starts with a sequence of images depicting Jesus and Christian iconography, juxtaposed with photos and footage of the Vietnam War and American life in 1960's, you enter a world that catalogues a poignant social commentary of the time with a post-modernist spin.

BC native Reginald Harkema has made a kick-ass film! The energy of the actors on-screen is magnetic, and the colourful and campy anti-realism feel distinguishes the set and wardrobe to give full sensory to the viewers. The music of Paul Kehayas is also a perfect fit for the psychedelic and wild ride the movie takes you on.

I will admit that I was a little worried to see how humour would even be layered into the grim tale of Charles Manson and his female followers. Made with so much intelligence and wit however, the uncomfortable fades away and laughter and entertainment prevail!

The story of Leslie (Kristin Adams) is revealed and the empathy you have for this young woman quickly grows - Leslie has a hard time coping with her parents' divorce and soon after is pressured to make a decision by her mother that traumatizes her.

You see, Leslie is not really evil, but once she is seduced by tabs of LSD and free love notions she is naively seduced to the Manson family compound. Here she is re-invented as Lou-Lou, an evil born from Leslie. You begin to wonder how someone could be driven to the edge of no reason due to disconnection from happiness in life and the hope of living.

Leslie's story is neatly intertwined with that of an ordinary chap named Perry (Gregory Smith). A young and handsome man raised cleanly in Nixon American values, Perry faces temptation from his celibate Christian girlfriend when he starts fantasizing about Leslie as a juror on the Manson family trial. He is entranced by mainly Leslie, and from that instant his world is shaken and stirred with carnal desire. Harkema chooses to continuously flash images throughout the film that remind us that while this trial was going on, millions where being slaughtered in Vietnam by American hands.

This film is undeniably one of my favourites this Toronto International Film Festival. Full of so many different genres of appeal, funny and serious, campy and provocative, this makes me proud to be both a Canadian and Torontonian (it is filmed right here)!

I leave you with a snip of the Q & A following the film:

Question to Gregory Smith - What was your biggest challenge?

A: The sacrifice sequence was the first scene we shot. So I got to introduce myself to everybody covered in blood that was pretty crazy! Also that and the blood is so sticky that everything you walked by you got stuck to, flies kept landing on me and getting stuck. The whole thing was very challenging.

Question to Reginald Harkema - You said that this film was a love song to America, perhaps you could elaborate?

A: It's a love song to America, the lovely Cindy Wolfe here...who is the American, who it is also a love song to...my girlfriend of 9 years - she has this southern republican, Tennessee father who we go and visit on one Christmas, and then her mother and her family (her mom is dead now unfortunately)...her family are all liberal left-wing lesbians in Portland, so that's the other Christmas. So it's back and forth and I see the cultural wars happening in America and the cultural divide in the very relationships I have. But the thing it is that I love the southern republican father and I love the lesbians in Portland. So, it's a movie about the American cultural wars and it's a love song to them.

Words seem evasive when talking about Corey Adams and Alex Craig's Machotaildrop. This movie is trippy voyage through the visually fantastical and stylized world of mega skating brand, Machotaildrop.

Covered with trinkets and taste that immerse the palette of an 80's child like me in excitement, this film is a commentary of our obsession to commodify our souls to seek 15-minutes of fame. SHOUT OUT: we often seem to forget that when we endeavour for the spotlight, it tends to fade quicker than it burns bright. Today's celebrities satisfy the public's interest equally by succeeding and plummeting to disgrace.

Young and ambitious, Walter Rhum strives to be the next big thing in the skating world. Though his skills are not exceedingly fabulous, his drive to be someone is inherent and fiery. Reminiscent of Charlie's golden tickets from Willy Wonka to enter the chocolate factory, Walter sends a video of himself to Machotaildrop wrapped in a golden spray painted package. Before he can spell ‘F-A-M-E' he is invited to the mysterious castle where all the Machotaildrop branding magic happens!

The world that opens up to Walter is full of characters that wear costumes rather than clothes, and seem more fictional than factual in the context of reality. Characters like the Baron, a former glorious high-wire walker who is now confined to a stale wheelchair, and the sinister and sly Dr. Manfred who darkly craves fame himself.

If you are looking for something abstract, strange, full of social commentary with some good uncomfortable laughs, this film is for you. Machotaildrop is like taking a reckless ride on a skateboard and realizing when you reach the end, youth is fleeting and fickle and idols are as replaceable as brands.

So look out all you Quicksilver wearers, your clothes will one day too be out of style and passé. I advise to always keep retro within reach.

Catch the last screening of this film at AMC 7 on Friday, September 18th at 9pm.

Canada thrives on having a reputation of being a multifaceted country of many heritages that co-exist. What stood out for me in Short Cuts Canada Programmes 2 is the investigation of how immigrants express their individuality upon settling in a foreign land, and the struggles that befall those who don't feel a sense of belonging in their immediate communities.

 75 El Camino is coyly set in Sarnia's Chemical Valley, where director Sami Khan grew-up.  The fate of couple Travis and Marianne becomes split into two possible paths when they lose everything they have except for a shiny Chevy El Comino. Homeless, they are faced with holding on to this car as a token of their more prosperous past, or the chance to abandon the life they once had to break-free and travel on un-chartered adventures. The idea of a settled home is literally snatched as a present reality from the isolated couple, resulting in them being left to face some difficult challenges.

Snow Hides the Shade of Fig Trees (La Neige Cache l'ombre des Figuiers) is a touching story of 6 immigrant men that work together and deliver flyers. Though very different in appearance from one another, the common thread that binds these men together in a brotherhood is the nostalgia for their homelands. Touching and sad, the story pushes the reality of struggle and depression that many immigrants feel once displaced from their hereditary cultures.

Director Ryan Mullins, on the other hand, highlights remoteness from modern living and knowledge in his thoughtful documentary. Volta pieces together a larger understanding of the separation felt in many remote areas of less developed nations from the larger well-developed world. Rural Ghana is the setting of this passionate examination of the continual battle to balance the old world traditions within the new world order. Hope comes in the forum of using Ghana's abandoned theatres being used as a gathering spot to communicate ideas and information that would otherwise be inaccessible.

I have often pondered and written about my own diaspora as an East Indian-African-British-Canadian and these shorts all manage to show that this is a struggle that is universally faced by immigrants. Together these works are a powerful appeal for human empathy and recognition of the challenges that face the preservation of cultural diversites world-wide, not only in Canada.

The time is 9:16pm. The location is the Isabel Bader Theatre on Charles St., one of the many theatres that will be hosting TIFF 2009 films. Tonight is a very special night-the launch of Short Cuts Canada Programming with instalment 1. There is no doubt that the line-up is out in full force tonight, and those who have had a helping of this healthy dose of Canadiana before will know that this series brings together an array of eclectic national talent.

The crowd seems to generally between 25-35 and there is no shortage of colourful chatter amongst the excited people. A woman in-line declares that she hopes to catch all of the Canada Short Cuts Programming as she finds it a great opportunity to see works of multiple artists under the cover of one ticket price. Once seated in the theatre it is clear that the support for Canadian shorts lives large in the hearts of a close to sell-out venue that anxiously wait to see what's in store.

Now it's time for the show.... An exhale releases from me when the lights turn back on and I smile with satisfaction:

A conscious mind can take a journey of real vs. surreal, humans often battle with the stillness of welcoming life vs. the movement of being faced with death and this is a metaphor and reality on screen tonight. Caitriona Cantillon's Swimming Lesson transports to a place of domestic familial awkwardness but still manages to touch the heartstring of feeling realistic and relative to family life.  The stillness of the water somehow manages to make the moments of this short flow with intensity of wanting to know more about how the relationships have become so confrontational between 2 daughters and a mother, that though overbearing, feels painfully estranged from her children.

The Spine is a melancholic and beautiful walk through the journey of a long-term relationship of a couple that seems to love madly and love each other madly. That is, madly both in a hopelessly tragic and romantic way. The main side-effect through all the years of marriage is a loss of communication and respect of what brought them to each other in the beginning. Dan and Mary are two multi-faceted characters and Academy Award winner Chric Landreth's quirkiness is strong and bold.

Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq staring in Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael's Tungiijuq proves to be an intelligent collaboration of unique minds. My exposure earlier in the summer to Tagaq singing at Harbourfront Centre and now on-screen, wins me over as a fan of her intensity and rawness. Scenes of graphic carnivore behaviour ignite reaction and the briskness is perfect as a setting. The connection of Inuit culture and nature is never lost as the guiding spirit of life and death. Being transfixed to Tagaq's anthropomorphism is simply stunning. 

An education is given about what a baby is exposed to through dangerous hazards in everyday life, from eating to the ingestion of led in toys and paint finishes.  My Toxic Baby is a lively journal of Min Sook Lee's commitment to her daughter, Song Ji, and the devotion of mother to child is warming and motivating to promote activism and awareness. Helping is the fact that all the babies in the film seem to be ridiculously cute!

La Chute falls into the distress of elementary school teacher Marie's life in a moment that provokes her to make a choice to confront a parent of one of her students about child abuse. Whether what motivates her is an act of obsession as a persecutor or the mindfulness of a caregiver is in question.

Short Cuts Programme 2 continues today at 4pm at Isabel Bader Theatre.

Q: What made you choose to to get involved with Coopers Camera?
Dee: "Well I knew Warren [Sonoda], the director from working with him in music videos. When he asked me if I wanted to work with him again, of course the answer was yes!"

Q: So Coopers Camera...what would you say was your inspiration for hair and make-up in the film?
Dee: "My inspiration was 1985. When I first got the script and read it...the opening page said: Christmas, December 25th, 1985. I was able to start picturing the characters and it went from there."

Q: What did 1985 mean for you in  terms of hair and make-up, and does that transpire in the film?
Dee: "Yea, I guess so. When I think of 1985, I think of the big hair, the make-up was very crazy at the time...it was never about being subtle. Also remembering that once you read the script, you start understanding where these people are coming from and who these characters are. From there you are able to base looks and pull from that era. Knowing that there is a teenage girl, Heather....knowing that she is around 16-17. Obviously she's gonna be a little fashion forward when it comes to the hair. Where as Samantha B's character, Nancy Cooper, obviously her make-up is not gonna be so avant-garde."

Q: What is your favourite 80's trend, and did any of the characters have this trend? {Dee laughs cheekily and looks at me. I know this look}
Dee: "My favourite look would probobly have to be...the big hair!" {more laughter expels}"You know me, you know that I love my hair REAL big. I made sure that any of the women had big hair."

Q: How did you and the stylist ensure that the overall look came together for these characters?
Dee: "Actually the stylist, Laura Montgomery, who is amazing...this was our first time working together. We each got a copy of the script and from there, you know, when you get a script you have to break it down by character, by day, beforehand. Then we got together for the wardrobe fitting and met the cast and I saw what Laura had pulled. Seeing the actors, and doing the read-through, and then looking at the wardrobe, I began to piece together what these characters sense of style was."

Q: Who would you say was your favourite character look to put together in Coopers Camera?
Dee: "Everyone looks amazing. But for a mans character, it was Mike Beavers character, Uncle Nicky. With Mike we sat down and Mike brought a nice handlebar mustache to me on the day. He asked me what I thought, I loved it...and then talking to him I said that said, I have hair extensions - I'm gonna give you a mullet! This is Canada...1985. Mullets, were everywhere! You actually could not get around them. For a woman, my favourite look would probably have to be Heather. Simply because I pulled her from my cousin. I remember sitting there and watching her tweeze her bangs and put on frosted pink lipstick.
I say, "Well I guess we all make mistakes in our past."

Q: What is your tip for us to set aloud a blazing 80's look?!
Dee: "#1: you need to have blue eyeliner and electric blue eye shadow. #2: you need to have a nice brick coloured blush. Don't be shy about putting it on. #3: you need a frosted pink lipstick and a can of aquanet. Dude, back-comb, tease the big Flock of Seagulls thing. AND don't forget your crimper!"

Good times kids - the 80's equals good times. I encourage those who go see Coopers Camera to bring their best look to the theatre and battle it out! No crimpers should be used as weapons.

 

I have been lucky enough to see quite a few film that have emerged from Quebec this year at TIFF - Charlebois resignates with me deepest. Why? She takes the bull by the horns. There is no hesitation, no fear and no fluffing of Kiki Labrèche's tale of woe - it is in your face.

When you open up the chest of this film, you find it is filled with a bleeding heart  that echoes meloncholy. The complexity of the film never once looses your attention, and you in fact can't help but empathize with Kiki's destain and what seems as pre-destined, unfortunate fate.

Charlebois explained to the audience at the Q & A following the film, Borderline this was very much a labour of love. She shares the story is fiction and non-fiction, based 50% on a pair of novels, 25% based on her life and 25% of pure fiction. A viewer asked her, "why this film?" Charlebois laughed and answered, "we thought we have something to say." Did they ever have something to say.

There is such a sensitivity this film places around the topics of childhood isolation, mental illness in the family, substance abuse and the quest to find true love. The performace by Isabelle Blais is nothing short of phenominal. Each angle, each shoot, the attention to detailing, makes this film alive in texture and message.

What sits with me is Charlebois words. "This movie is about the most important love...the love of yourself."

Borderline screens next on Friday, September 12th at 6:30pm, and again on Saturday, September 13th at 12 noon.

The third installation of the Short Cuts Canada brought out an eclectic crowd (image right) of 20-40 year old movie buffs out in force and merited the same enthusiasm in number response as its predecessors.

The investigation of the search for personal happiness and relationship fulfillment were brought to life in all the featured shorts, through sparking a engaging conversation around independence, sex, sexuality, fetishes and desire. But it was not all just serious.

There was a balance reached (keeping me from falling off my chair) by infusing a great sense of humour and heart in Pat's First Kiss, Forty Men for the Yukon and Green Door. The journey also pubically transported the private minds of Bedroom, Midi, Passage and Sunday, for us to all witness something foreign in practice.

When I walked away from the theater I was immediately aware of how my mind was racing - I felt provoked, similar to the way I did in my sexual diversity courses at U of T.

These shorts dealt with the desire for changing a latent mental longing for something new and different, into a form of something that tangible - sex and escapism were used as an extended metaphor of testimonials.

Fan-freakin-tastic!

I can't be happier about seeing these films. They just added to the buzz that TIFF 08 has placed in my system this year. I have been lucky and excited to be exposed to a variety of films that document both abstract and directly, the uncertain path of a woman in this world today, the jaded intentions she will face, and the love she will realize. Fate brought me to this theater. I ate it up and I came out full.

I love looking at people as they watch movies. Only for short periods of time when I can sneak a peak in a shy glance and not loose track of the pictures and sounds protruding from the beam on-screen. I admit that I can't help but look intently and wonder what someone is thinking when they are watching a movie. I can tell you that every woman in this cloaked dark room had an antenna up to taste, smell, listen and feel the heroism of all these female characters.

Sweaty palms and uncomfortable laughter-this is what I think of when I think of gambling. To tell you the truth, I don't think I would be much of a gambler. The only thing that really appeals to me is the shady sunglasses. I mean I was good at lying to my parents about eating my vegetables, but the idea of loosing hard earned money is just too much for my sensitive heart.

Writer-director Randall Cole puts an suspenseful and humorous take on an ordinary man caught up in gambling debts in Real Time. A fresh sigh of relief from watching has-been celebrities gamble their money is dire desperation for attention, this charming movie keeps you rolling along with Andy (Jay Baruchel) through his mishap of being chased down for borrowed money by the mob.

So Andy is given one hour to live by mob hitman, Reuban (Randy Quaid) or pay-up. When I realized the suffocation of this sort of a fate was when the first layer of sticky residue formed of my nervousness. This one hour represents a retrospective journey for Andy about his life, decisions and offenses against the people he knows.

This got me thinking...what would I do if I had one hour left to live? Hmmm. Well to tell you quite honestly, I am still not sure. I feel as though it would involve music, perhaps writing and hopefully a cocoon of the people I love around me being hysterical and chanting "PARUL, PARUL!" I picture ethnic women in saris, a soft wind and my cat.

I would like to think similar to Andy, I would try and make penance for the things I have damaged, or the people I may have hurt.

Ah but lives too short to worry now about tomorrow. The point Cole makes in Real Time is that life is bit like a double entendre, funny and sad, hopeful and full of doom. Place your bets now, but remember the stakes for tomorrow.

Mehta spoke when introducing the film, "Toronto has the best audiences," and for that you could see she was thankful. One of my favourite things about this film is that takes place in Toronto and in shoot in the Greater-Toronto-Area. You could easily identify landmarks such as Square One and the Lakeshore. This made seeing this film feel just a little bit more like home for its audience.

The journey of Chand comments that so many come from afar and unwillingly loose so much of themselves along the way. However, the hardest but most gratifying endeavor is to take your power back and take control of your destiny as you wish to see it unfold.

Being raised in the Indian culture and exposed to many films, I have not seen a director with a more formidable, realistic and genuine hope to spark social change than Mehta. I have always appreciated her work because she takes risk and deals beyond Bollywood, with the real issues at hand. Respect.

 

This time the story is Derrière moi (Behind Me). Betty, 23 (Carina Caputo), is an enticing and provocative city girl on a suburban summer vacation . Betty befriends modest and intelligent fourteen-year-old Léa (Charlotte Legault), and transforms this uncorrupted teenager to become her muse for mischief. Don?t tell me that you have never been enticed by the danger of fire!

 

 This movie spoke to the audience with little words tonight. The screen appeared with images that are foggy, quick, colorful, warming and in and out of focus. The vision felt clear - anxiousness and escapism.

 

Betty and  Léa are two girls looking to let loose for different reasons but, both desire change. Betty?s lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, and many indulgences lead them thumping through many parties, and intensifies the creation of an insatiable and dangerous bond.

Derrière moi is a journey of a friendship that gets tainted by manipulation. Sometimes the most interesting pictures can be painted on-screen through simply showing a persons life from day to day - this is what Ouellet does best.

Ouellet work excels to remind us similar to Betty, and eventually Léa, we all loose our innocence for reckless reasons.

 

Ironically I came with my best friend to see the film. I walked out of the theater with her at my side, not behind me.