Hot Docs

Today the Hot Docs audience award winner (and nine runners-up) were announced. My own favourite among the films I saw at Hot Docs this year was The Experimental Eskimos, about three Inuit men who as 12-year-old boys in the ’60s were sent away from their families and community to school in Ottawa, as part of a secret “experiment” by the federal government.

Quebec City and Robert Lepage

I was in Quebec City last week for an international librarians’ conference,  and I really enjoyed Robert Lepage’s art installation about Quebec’s history (created in honour of the city’s 400th anniversary).  Historical photos, films, and animations are projected onto enormous grain silos at 10 p.m. each night.

Speaking of Robert Lepage, if you like Quebec City, a neat pair of movies to watch one after the other are  Hitchcock’s I Confess and Robert Lepage’s Le Confessional.  They both take place in Quebec City, and the Lepage film contains interesting references to the Hitchcock film.

Club Native

Tracey Deer’s documentary Club Native is showing at Toronto’s NFB Mediatheque (150 John St.) on June 21, 23, 34, and 25. I saw this terrific film at the Hot Docs festival in April. It tells the stories of four women who live in Kahnawake (a Mohawk reserve in Quebec). Two of the women are the offspring of mixed marriages (they have one Mohawk parent and one white or black parent), and two of the women have fallen in love with non-Native men. All four women face the possibility of losing their membership in the reserve as a result.

Persepolis

I recently saw the animated film Persepolis, which Marjane Satrapi based on her own graphic novel (or rather, autobiography) about growing up in Iran before and after the Islamic Revolution. Seeing the film prompted me to go back and reread the book, looking for all the subtle differences between the two — always a fun pursuit after seeing a film adapted from a book!. If you haven’t read the book I highly recommend it:

Good and bad times for Canadian film lovers

I loved Sarah Polley’s film Away from Her, so I was thrilled that it won so many awards at the Genies last night. I believe Polley is only the third woman to win the award for Achievement in Direction; Micheline Lanctôt won for Sonatine in 1985 and Sandy Wilson won for My American Cousin in 1986. Sarah Polley was also nominated for an Oscar for her screenplay, as was Julie Christie for her womderful acting in the film.

At a time when it should be celebrating, the Canadian film industry is having to defend itself against an alarming clause in the proposed Bill C-10 which would allow the Ministry of Heritage to deny tax credits (a key component of Canadian film funding) to films it deems offensive or contrary to public policy. This part of the bill was eloquently opposed this morning on The Current by film producer Sandra Cunningham and director Atom Egoyan.

Polley’s script was based on Alice Munro’s short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” If you’d like to read the story, it’s included in Munro’s book Hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage.

Prestigious prize for Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan recently won the Dan David Prize. Each year a foundation in Tel Aviv gives out three prizes, for achievements related to the past, the present, and the future. This year the $1 million prize related to the past is for “creative rendering of the past,” and it was split among filmmaker Egoyan, novelist Amos Oz, and playwright Tom Stoppard. Egoyan was cited for his exploration of Armenian history and culture in several films, especially Ararat (the DVD can be borrowed from Media Commons).

Egoyan is currently at U of T as the Distinguished Visitor in Theatre, Film, Music and Visual Studies. The students who run Diablo’s café were so excited when Egoyan became a customer that they put a quarter he’d spent there on permanent display.

Fugitive Pieces opens the Film Festival

Tonight’s opening gala at the Toronto International Film Festival is Jeremy Podeswa’s adaptation of Fugitive Pieces. If you haven’t read this amazing novel by U of T alumna Anne Michaels, you can borrow it from Laidlaw Library. I really liked Jeremy Podeswa’s earlier film, The Five Senses — it’ll be interesting to see what he does with Fugitive Pieces!