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10 Nights' Dreams (Short)
[IMAGI] Dragons and Tigers
plays in Imagination Practice
Latest in the series of "overlay" collaborations between the two artists. Ten tiny chapters, each representing a dream.
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10 on Ten [TENON] Nonfiction Features of 2004
Abbas Kiarostami adds to 2002's Ten, about a woman who drives around talking with various passengers, with a digital documentary not only on the making of that masterpiece but on the digital revolution itself. In ten compelling lessons, Kiarostami outlines his anti-Hollywood methodology--no actors, no music, no crew--while navigating the outskirts of Tehran.
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100% Woman [UNSEX] Canadian Images
plays with The Unsexing of Emma Edmonds
Michelle Dumaresq is one of B.C.'s top competitive downhill mountain bike racers. So why is there an effort afoot to oust her from the competition? Because Michelle used to be Michael and several of her competitors think that gives her an unfair advantage. 100% Woman follows Michelle from the 2002 B.C. Cup, her first pro race, to the World Championships in Austria. Reactions range from racing superstar Missy Giove's words of support to talk of a boycott from some of the other racers. Michelle's grace, humour and passion for racing hold steadfast in the face of lost friendships and an outspoken opposition to her presence in the competition. A thought-provoking film about what it means to be a "real" woman in the world of competitive sports.
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The 10th District Court--Moments of Trial [TDIST] Spotlight on France
Ten years after Caught in the Act, Raymond Depardon returns with another masterpiece about the French justice system. In his latest chronicle of the comedie humaine, Depardon puts his tripod right in the Parisian courtroom, capturing defendants and their lawyers as they amusingly attempt to weasel their way out of petty crimes and misdemeanours. Unmissable.
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18 Pictures from the Life of a Conserve Factory Girl (Short)
[MISSD] Cinema of Our Time
plays in Missed Connections...
A 27-year-old female factory worker longs for new life in Ágnes Kocsis' expresssionistic short.
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20 Fingers [20FIN] Cinema of Our Time
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.
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7 Universal Solvents (Short)
[PHANT] Canadian Images
precedes The Phantom of the Operator
This lush dance film explores human transformation as dancers partner with physical, social and metaphoric solvents.
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A Feather Stare at the Dark (Short)
[IMAGI] Dragons and Tigers
plays in Imagination Practice
Before this earth existed, there was a pre-world inhabited by other beings, good and evil. The pre-world experienced both growth and decay, but it was the decay which finally produced the birth of the earth as we know it.
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Accordion (Short)
[ELLES] Canadian Images
precedes Elles étaient cinq
Mind-bending, ever-changing images, created using sepia ink on paper, explore clashing urges of sexual attraction and the search for love in this powerful animated short.
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Addicted to Acting [ADDIC] German Indies
Berlin’s celebrated Ernst Busch Academy for actors is famous for its tough regimen and its Russian techniques. Andres Veiel’s inspiring documentary follows four would-be thespians over a period of four years, resulting in a thoroughly appealing look at a rarely seen process. Audience-award winner, Panorama section, 2004 Berlin International Film Festival.
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The Adventures of Iron Pussy [ADVEN] Dragons and Tigers
preceded by Whatever Happened to Ms. Machiko?
Special agent Iron Pussy goes undercover to crack a drug ring. Screamingly camp mix of romance, Buddhist piety, mild political satire and torch songs, all given a retro twist by co-director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. With Whatever Happened to Ms Machiko? (Japan, 30 mins), Shirakawa Koji's jolly musical about a girl with deficient gaydar.
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After the Day Before [AFTER] Cinema of Our Time
Attila Janisch’s terrifying thriller about a mysterious stranger who may or may not have been involved in a brutal murder is as unconventional as it is creepy. "Uncompromising, risk-taking contemporary European arthouse filmmaking at its best."--Variety
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Alexandrie... New York [ALEXA] Cinema of Our Time
An absolutely unique musical comedy about an Egyptian director who travels to New York and is reunited with the woman he loved 40 years before. "In his 38th film, Youssef Chahine expresses nostalgia for the America that once made him dream--and now revolts him. The film performs a tightrope act between two times and two cultures. A perilous exercise, but Chahine pulls it off perfectly."--Le Monde
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An Algerian Dream [ALGER] Changing the World
Jean-Pierre Lledo profiles the fascinating Henri Alleg, a French national of Jewish descent, publisher of Alger Republicain, Algeria's one truly independent newspaper during French colonial rule. As the now quite elderly man returns to Algeria to reminisce about his imprisonment at the hands of the French and his camaraderie with other resistance fighters, recent Algerian history is brought vividly to life.
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All the Teachers I Have Known (Short)
[PASSA] Canadian Images
plays in Passages
An eccentric and lighthearted tribute to the enduring impact of teachers.
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Almost Forgot My Bones (Short)
[RELAT] Canadian Images
precedes Relativity
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."
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Alone Together (Short)
[TWIDE] Dragons and Tigers
plays in Twentidentity
She comes back to clear out her stuff from his room, and finds a videotape...
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Alter Egos [ALTER] Canadian Images
preceded by Ryan
and Birdlings Two
and Bingo
and The End
and Walking
Laurence Green's compelling documentary portrait of fellow Oscar-nominated film animators Ryan Larkin and Chris Landreth is accompanied by samples of their internationally renowned work. Also includes Landreth's amazing 3D computer animated short about Ryan, whose career was destroyed by addiction.
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L' Amant [AMANT] Dragons and Tigers
Hiroki Ryuichi follows up Vibrator with another provocative foray into gender politics. Three men, all middle-aged losers, club together to honour the wishes of their late mentor: they buy a year from the life of a schoolgirl to do with her as they like. But she may be tougher than they are...
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And Thereafter [ANDTH] Nonfiction Features of 2004
plays with Lest We Forget
In this incisive and sensitive portrait of an aging Korean-American woman, director Hosup Lee slowly reveals the secrets of a dysfunctional family born from the woman's marriage to an American soldier and the trauma of the Korean War.
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Antares [ANTAR] Cinema of Our Time
Cool, analytical and oh so Austrian, Götz Spielmann's dark and intense drama is centred on the love lives of three different women from the same suburban housing project. Each of them is after affection in her own twisted manner, involving sex, passion, jealousy, deception and violence.
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Arahan [ARAHA] Dragons and Tigers
Ryu Seung-Wan (director of Die Bad) hits his commercial stride with a slam-bang martial-arts actioner. A gormless young cop and a cool check-out girl need to attain enlightenment fast to tackle the recently unleashed Master of Absolute Evil. The great Ahn Sung-Ki stars as their teacher.
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The Archimedes' Principle [ARCHI] Cinema of Our Time
An intelligent, articulate film about intelligent, articulate professionals, Gerardo Herrero's snappy contemporary drama perfectly captures how the personal is political and vice versa. Two women friends, one a business exec, the other a stay-at-home mom, see their worlds reversed--even to the point of swapping partners--when new priorities come into play.
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Arisan! [ARISA] Dragons and Tigers
Lively satire on the emotional travails of the Jakarta smart-set, notable for being the first Indonesian movie to take gay male characters seriously. A successful young architect, desperate to keep his gayness hidden from his domineering mother and two close gal-pals, suddenly finds himself in a romance.
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Arktika: The Russian Dream that Failed [PROTE] Nonfiction Features of 2004
plays with Proteus
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As Life Goes By [ASLIF] Spotlight on France
The town of Najac in the South of France: residents go about their daily lives. Drinks are drunk, substances are smoked, songs are sung and with each scene we grow more fond of these people and more appreciative of the immensity of small town life. Jean-Henri Meunier's charmer of a documentary will, as the filmmaker so aptly notes, "make you feel more happy and less stupid..."
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Ashes in the Thicket (Short)
[ONURI] Dragons and Tigers
plays in Onuri and Other Shorts
Shows a man so introverted that he imagines alien visitors have taken half of his body. A fine score by Rainy Sun’s guitarist, Kim Tae-Jin.
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Asshak, Tales from the Sahara [ASSAK] Nonfiction Features of 2004
Following the success of The Saltmen of Tibet, Ulrike Koch has taken the Tuareg nomads of central Niger as her latest subject. Interweaving fact and legend through stunning images, Koch follows the tribesman Nuhi as he searches for his lost camel across different deserted landscapes, exploring a culture that remains mysterious to the West.
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Baghdad Blogger/Salam Pax--Video Reports from Iraq [BAGHD] Changing the World
The pseudonymous Salam Pax came to worldwide attention as the Baghdad Blogger, an intelligent voice of reason and hope reporting for the BBC first from the heart of Saddam's dictatorship and then in the aftermath of the war. Now a filmmaker (and columnist with The Guardian), he takes his camera to the streets of Baghdad, uncovering the everyday and the extraordinary in that traumatized city.
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Baober in Love [BAOBE] Dragons and Tigers
Like Betty Blue without the misogyny, Li Shaohong's psychedelic romance takes one wild and crazy (but damaged) girl--the wonderful Zhou Xun from Suzhou River--and watches her transform the life of a bored salaryman. But then she bolts and leaves him bereft...
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Baytong [BAYTO] Dragons and Tigers
A change of pace for Nonzee Nimibutr: a Buddhist monk in northern Thailand is forced to leave his temple and move to the Muslim south to become a surrogate parent to his orphaned niece. A gently comic picture about a grown man belatedly learning the ways of the world.
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Bear Hug [BEARH] Dragons and Tigers
Wang Shaudi takes apart a typical middle-class divorce--from the point of view of the emotionally neglected son and the resentful relative who's dragged in as a babysitter. Cruelly funny and sweetly sentimental, sometimes both at the same time.
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Beautiful Boxer [BBOXE] Dragons and Tigers
You couldn't make it up: Thai boxer Nong Toom fought his way to a championship--to finance his sex-change from his winnings. Ekachai's bio-pic (starring real-life 22-year-old champ Asanee Suwan) is funny, sincere and ultimately touching.
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Beethoven Opus 59 No 3 Allegro Molto (Short)
[JEANP] Canadian Images
precedes Jean-Pierre Perreault--Giant Steps
A visually dynamic rendering of a celebrated classical piece as performed by the Borealis String Quartet.
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Being Caribou [BECAR] Canadian Images
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.
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Being Julia [BEJUL] Galas
Adapted by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood from W. Somerset Maugham's novel, this playful film directed by Istvan Szabo captures 1930s theatrical life in the story of a British star (Annette Bening) taken for a ride by a young American fan. Co-stars Jeremy Irons and Bruce Greenwood.
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Berlin Blues [BERLI] German Indies
Leander Haussmann's follow-up to the hugely successful Sun Alley (VIFF 00) is a wry, down-at-the-heels comedy about a band of drinkers, artists and oddballs trying to get by in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin shortly before the fall of the Wall. With a cool soundtrack featuring Bauhaus, Cake, Calexico, the Violent Femmes and many others.
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Big City Dick: Richard Peterson's First Movie [BIGCI] Nonfiction Features of 2004
Todd Pottinger’s "found epic" (Variety)--ten years in the making--captures one man's lifelong quest for success while providing an intimate look into the strange and wonderful world of Seattle's most eccentric street musician. Featuring interviews with such hipster fans as Jeff Bridges and Scott McCaughy (REM sideman and leader of the Young Fresh Fellows), the film garnered the audience award at Slamdance.
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The Big Durian [BIGDU] Dragons and Tigers
preceded by Lost
and Friday
and Checkpoint
and Pangyau
Amir Muhammad emerges as a major talent with a documentary (or is that mockumentary?) which finds keys to Malaysia's deep-rooted problems in the real-life case of a soldier who ran amok. Dragons & Tigers Award Nominee. With Amir's earlier shorts, Lost, Friday, Checkpoint, and Pangyau (total 36 mins.), each one a witty and sardonic personal vignette.
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Bingo (Short)
[ALTER] Canadian Images
precedes Alter Egos
Based on Greg Kotis' Disregard This Play, this surrealistic short centres on a man who is psychologically brutalized into believing he is a clown.
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Birdlings Two (Short)
[ALTER] Canadian Images
precedes Alter Egos
A filmmaker discovers her father's history at the NFB where he made an early computer animation with Norman McLaren.
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Black Ink on Sky-Blue (Short)
[HAPPI] Canadian Images
precedes Happiness Is a Sad Song
A man confronts his own isolation in relation to the multiple intimate worlds of the city.
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Blood [BLOOD] Canadian Images
preceded by Le Pont
This blunt, passionate and darkly comic tale from director Jerry Ciccoritti (Trudeau) offers striking performances from Emily Hampshire (A Problem with Fear, VIFF 03) and Jacob Tierney as a newly reunited brother and sister caught up in a hypnotic dance of blurred moralities and incestuous explorations.
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Blooming Ink Tale (Short)
[IMAGI] Dragons and Tigers
plays in Imagination Practice
With Nakayama Natsuki, Ishihara Daisuke and Onitsuka Kentaro. Music: Matsuzaki Naoto. A man is fed by a woman, but after metabolic appetites come sexual appetites. This film was not made with a computer; the white room was constantly repainted during production.
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Boats Out of Watermelon Rinds [BOATS] Cinema of Our Time
"The undoubted discovery of this year's local crop at the Istanbul Film Festival, [this] is an autobiographical charmer by first-time director Ahmet Uluçay, evoking early teen dreams about girls and movies in an Anatolian village during the 1960s."--Variety. The exuberant colours vividly capture the exquisite beauty of the Turkish countryside.
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The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan [BOYWH] Changing the World
Focusing on a refugee family temporarily living in the caves of the beautiful Afghani valley that had housed world famous 1,600-year-old Buddhist art--until it was destroyed by the Taliban three years ago--Phil Grabsky’s documentary is tremendously insightful and memorable because of its fine, human scale.
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Bridge (Short)
[STOLE] Canadian Images
plays in Stolen Moments
Hand-processed footage combines with an audio collage about meeting.
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Brothers [BROTH] Cinema of Our Time
Belying its generic title, Esa Illi’s potent drama--digitally shot and beautifully acted--packs a unique emotional punch. Younger brother Joni, diagnosed as terminally ill, flees treatment in Finland for Estonia and a relationship. Older brother Sami sets out to bring him back. A war of wills, alternately affecting and tense, ensues.
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Build (Short)
[STOLE] Canadian Images
plays in Stolen Moments
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.
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