Vancouver International Film Festival 2004 -Films by Director

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Dahna Abourahme

		Until When... [UNTIL] Changing the World Palestine, USA, 2004, 76 min With attention to the experiences of all generations, but particularly that of today's youth, Dahna Abourahme has directed a documentary which insightfully and poetically articulates the frustrations, fears and hopes of Palestinian refugees living in Dhiesheh, a camp near Bethlehem. ( more... )

Tawfik Abu Wael

		Thirst [THIRS] Cinema of Our Time Israel, Palestine, 2004, 110 min Financed with Israeli money but thoroughly Palestinian in sensibility, Tawfiq Abu Wael’s debut feature concerns an authoritarian father who drags his shamed family to an isolated spot to eke out an existence. The tragedy that ensues exhibits "a delicate equilibrium between drama, stunning visuals and metaphoric undertones..."--Variety ( more... )

Maren Ade

		The Forest for the Trees [FORES] German Indies Germany, 2003, 81 min With high hopes, mousy Melanie leaves the countryside to start her teaching career, but is confronted by rebellious students and the loneliness of the big city. She soon befriends her neighbour, but Melanie has little sense of where to draw the line. Maren Ade's impressive digital debut begins as a well-observed story about an over-enthusiastic young woman, but ends up grippingly raw, truthful and universal. ( more... )

Jörg Adolph

		Channel-Swimmers [CHASW] German Indies Germany, 2004, 92 min Of the 6,000 attempts to swim across the English Channel, only 500 have succeeded. Starting out as a record of German Christoph Wandratsch's attempt to break the record for the swiftest crossing, Jörg Adolph's film becomes a gripping documentary on the idea, history and dangers of swimming that 33-kilometre stretch of water. ( more... )

Behrooz Afkhami

		The River's End [RIVER] Cinema of Our Time Iran, 2004, 90 min A young man, haunted by the memory of his late father, abandons his life in Isfahan and travels to Tehran, seeking a haven. Behrooz Afkhami has fashioned a dreamlike narrative that chronicles his young narrator's downward descent with sympathy and visual flair. ( more... )

Anne Aghion

		Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda? [INRWA] Changing the World France, 2002, 55 min In this important film about reconciliation, Anne Aghion investigates the Gacaca tribunals which hear the cases of Rwandans in prison for their roles in the 1994 genocide. Screens with: In Rwanda We Say... The Family that Does Not Speak Dies. ( more... )

		In Rwanda We Say... The Family that Does Not Speak Dies [INRWA] Changing the World France, 2004, 54 min As prisoners are released under the Gacaca laws, Annie Aghion returns to the hillsides of Ntongwe, Rwanda, to witness the reuniting of prisoners and survivors. Screens with: Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda? ( more... )

Aihara Nobuhiro

		10 Nights' Dreams (Short) [IMAGI] Dragons and Tigers Japan, 2004, 7 min Latest in the series of "overlay" collaborations between the two artists. Ten tiny chapters, each representing a dream. ( more... )

		Memory of Red (Short) [IMAGI] Dragons and Tigers Japan, 2004, 4 min Several of Aihara's Buddhism-inflected animations have been screened in VIFF before. This strange frottage animation is poised between motion and stillness, between the internal and the external. ( more... )

Mania Akbari

		20 Fingers [20FIN] Cinema of Our Time Iran, 2004, 72 min Actress and filmmaker Mania Akbari's important and powerful look at gender relations in Islamic Iran is structured as a set of seven conversations--all save one conducted in a moving vehicle--between a progressive woman (Akbari herself) and a traditional man (Bijan Daneshmand). Fluid and fluent, very smart, and beautifully filmed. ( more... )

Tomas Alfredson

		Four Shades of Brown [FOURS] Cinema of Our Time Sweden, 2003, 192 min Unlike anything you’ve seen before--and therefore impossible to summarize--this first feature by Swedish comedy troupe "Killing Gang" is frequently hilarious, often surreal and occasionally dark and disturbing. Essentially an acerbic survey of contemporary Swedish society, the film gives us four separate stories spanning the geography of the country. ( more... )

Leanne Allison

		Being Caribou [BECAR] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 70 min Newlyweds Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison follow, on foot, the annual migration of the caribou from their wintering range in central Yukon to the spring calving grounds on Alaska's coastal plain. This stunning documentary reveals the threat posed by American oil and gas drilling to these northern creatures. ( more... )

Lisandro Alonso

		Los Muertos [MUERT] Cinema of Our Time Argentina, France, 2004, 76 min Where Lisandro Alonso's debut La Libertad created a circular structure out of a day in the life of a woodcutter, his mysterious, masterful follow-up, Los Muertos, takes the form of a straight line. A 54-year-old man is released from jail and travels by canoe along the river towards his now-adult daughter, while hiding a dark secret... ( more... )

Brad Anderson

		The Machinist [MACHI] Cinema of Our Time Spain, USA, 2003, 98 min Brad Anderson's smart and stylish thriller, starring Christian Bale and Jennifer Jason Leigh, tells the dark tale of Trevor Reznik, a lathe-operator who hasn’t slept in over a year. In a machine shop, occupational hazards are bad enough under normal circumstances; throw insomnia into the mix, and people start losing limbs... and minds. ( more... )

Nimród Antal

		Kontroll [KONTR] Cinema of Our Time Hungary, 2004, 105 min The Budapest subway system is the setting for Nimród Antal's dark thriller, an action-packed and blackly humorous look at the denizens of that subterranean world as they try to deal with a killer on the loose. The most popular indigenous film in Hungary last year, it has style to burn. ( more... )

John Appel

		The Last Victory [LASTV] Nonfiction Features of 2004 Netherlands, 2003, 88 min What do GM Place and the main square of Sienna, Italy have in common? In both are played out the elemental passions of man. At least that is the perspective that John Appel's modest, artful, perfectly delicate film inspires as it documents Sienna's famous town-square Palio horse race. This fierce contest between the Tuscan city’s districts provides an angel's eye view of a community's passions and traditions and, by implication, all human endeavour. ( more... )

Adi Arbel

		Lullaby [DIFFE] Nonfiction Features of 2004 Israel, 2004, 52 min Hebrew and Arabic voices merge in Adi Arbel's intimate and emotional documentary that interweaves the experiences of mothers whose children have been killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Screens with: Different Drummers: Daring to Make Peace in the Middle East. ( more... )

Aditya Assarat

		Motorcycle (Short) [MINXX] Dragons and Tigers Thailand, 2003, 14 min ( more... )

		Waiting (Short) [MINXX] Dragons and Tigers Thailand, 2003, 25 min ( more... )

Olivier Assayas

		Clean [CLEAN] Special Presentations Canada, France, UK, 2004, 110 min Maggie Cheung took away Best Actress at Cannes for her wrenching performance as the widow of a Canadian rock star trying to kick drugs and win her young son back. Olivier Assayas's nimble direction charts Cheung's movement from a state of disequilibrium towards a state of relative peace. ( more... )

Greg Atkins

		Build (Short) [STOLE] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 23 min Garnet, a flunking architecture student secretly turns to hustling to support his alcoholic mother. He manages to keep up the daily façade until Crete crosses his path. ( more... )

Shona Auerbach

		Dear Frankie [DEARF] Cinema of Our Time UK, 2004, 105 min Telling the tender tale of a young mother's elaborate and often misguided attempts to shelter her deaf son from the truth about his violent father, Shona Auerbach's assured first feature sidesteps the standard dysfunctional treacle, offering instead uniquely poignant insights, great warmth and a full dose of flinty Scottish wisdom. ( more... )

Paule Baillargeon

		Jean-Pierre Perreault--Giant Steps [JEANP] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 54 min This intimate documentary portrait by Paule Baillargeon (Claude Jutra: An Unfinished Story, VIFF 02) artfully shifts between the life and the work of the choreographer renowned for his groundbreaking 1983 production Joe. With shorts that encompass poetry, movement and performance. ( more... )

David Barison

		The Ister [ISTER] Nonfiction Features of 2004 Australia, 2003, 189 min David Barison and Daniel Ross' absolutely unique video-essay, based on Martin Heidegger’s 1942 lectures on a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin, is a geographical journey from the mouth of the Danube in Romania to its source in the Black Forest, and a philosophical voyage through the themes of technology, ecology, politics, memory and mortality. ( more... )

Marco Bellocchio

		Good Morning, Night [GOODM] Cinema of Our Time Italy, 2003, 105 min Inspired by the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978, Marco Bellocchio has created a thoughtful and superbly realized portrait of Chiara, a young Red Brigade member living in an extreme set of circumstances and struggling to decide whether the choices she is making are truly justified. ( more... )

Bharatbala

		Hari Om [HARIO] Cinema of Our Time India, 2004, 117 min Hari Om (Monsoon Wedding's Vijay Raaz) is a rickshaw driver on the run. Isa (Camille Natta) and her fiancé Benoit (Jean Marie Lamour) are a well-to-do French couple having problems. She takes off in Hari's rickshaw and together they explore many of the most famous and memorable sites of Rajasthan. All three lives will be changed forever... ( more... )

Gastón Biraben

		Captive [CAPTI] Cinema of Our Time Argentina, 2003, 115 min A FIPRESCI-Award winner, Gastón Biraben's sensitive directorial debut is an intelligent and emotional drama told from the point of view of a young woman forced to come to terms with the realization she is the illegally adopted daughter of architects who "disappeared" during the military dictatorship. ( more... )

Simone Bitton

		Wall [WALLX] Changing the World France, Israel, 2004, 98 min Veteran documentary filmmaker Simone Bitton, an Arab Jew at home on both sides of Jerusalem and fluent in Arabic and Hebrew, offers an eye-opening look at the physical (and psychological) barrier being built to divide the Palestinian territories from Israel. A perfect example of a film that would not work on TV. ( more... )

Denise Blinn

		The Porcelain Pussy (Short) [STOLE] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 15 min A hard-boiled detective searches for stolen diamonds in an upside-down noir world where women have all the power. ( more... )

Jana Bokova

		Tango Salon--La Confiteria Ideal [TANGO] Nonfiction Features of 2004 Argentina, UK, 2003, 70 min A tango dancer herself, filmmaker Jana Bokova celebrates the lives of the tangueros and tangueras who dance at the Confitería Ideal in Buenos Aires. Old milongueros, local dancers, tango teachers, foreigners and tango stars aged from 20 to 80 share their tango stories of love, family, nationality, etc., and how the political--i.e. the economic crisis--and the aesthetic are inextricably interwoven. ( more... )

John Bolton

		Beethoven Opus 59 No 3 Allegro Molto (Short) [JEANP] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 7 min A visually dynamic rendering of a celebrated classical piece as performed by the Borealis String Quartet. ( more... )

Bong Joon-Ho

		Influenza (Short) [DIGIT] Dragons and Tigers South Korea, 2004, 28 min A security camera catches a man, Cho Hyuk-Rae, seemingly about to jump from a bridge into the Han River. How did he reach such a pitch of despair? An exhaustive trawl through surveillance-camera footage over the years allows the authorities to reconstruct Cho's life story, from his first mistake to his recourse to criminal violence. Bong Joon-Ho (director of Barking Dogs Never Bite and last year's triumph Memories of Murder) finds a typically witty new angle on the Korean economic slump. Tony Rayns ( more... )

		Sink & Rise (Short) [TWIDE] Dragons and Tigers South Korea, 2004, 9 min A sequence-shot debate under the Sungsan Bridge: do boiled eggs float or not? ( more... )

Katrin Bowen

		Almost Forgot My Bones (Short) [RELAT] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 5 min This striking video poem, written by Tanya Evanson, explores an African-Canadian woman's search for a feeling of connection in this "home without no mirrors." ( more... )

Annie Bradley

		Tongue Bully (Short) [JEANP] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 8 min Rich with emotional physicality, the poetic performance of Learie E.A. McNicolls is set against the exquisite backdrop of Havana. ( more... )

Vinko Bresan

		Witnesses [WITNE] Cinema of Our Time Croatia, 2004, 88 min Part war epic, part film-noir thriller, part Rashomon-style drama, Vinko Bresan’s moving film is based on a true story, the murder of a Serb living in a Croatian town by three young local militiamen during the Serbo-Croatian conflict. ( more... )

Robert Budreau

		Judgment Call (Short) [REMAR] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 9 min In the locker room on opening day, three umpires debate the impact of their rulings. ( more... )

Heinz Bütler

		Henri Cartier-Bresson--The Impassioned Eye [HECAR] Nonfiction Features of 2004 Switzerland, 2003, 72 min Art documentary director Heinz Bütler succeeded in engaging the great, shy photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson shortly before his death this year in a revealing and intimate discussion of his extraordinary globe-trotting body of work. Supported by commentary from the likes of Arthur Miller, Isabelle Huppert, Ferdinando Scianna and Joseph Koudelka, his photographs have never looked better. ( more... )

Jason Buxton

		The Drawing (Short) [EPITA] Canadian Images Canada, 2004, 21 min Lyrical black-and-white cinematography captures a young boy's pursuit of an errant sketch. ( more... )

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