We’ve listed the films for you alphabetically by title within the Dramatic Features and Documentary genres, and the Shorts are grouped by screenings. We’ve also given some biographical information on the director, where available, as well as a few outside reviews, again where available.

DRAMATIC FEATURES

19 MONTHS (Canada)
Director: Randall Cole
78 minutes
Sat Feb 7 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 1:00 PM

Nineteen months, according to scientists, in first-time director Randall Cole's mockumentary, is how long it takes for a romantic relationship to deteriorate into boredom. On the verge of that milestone, Rob (Benjamin Ratner), a perpetual student living on his dad's money, and Melanie (Angela Vint), a painter have decided to organize their break-up in advance so there'll be no hard feelings. Wanting to avoid the usual pain, jealousy and loneliness so many others go through they agree to stay together until each of them has found a new partner.

Cole's eminently charming feature debut is an absolutely hilarious look at the collision of modern love and age-old anxiety. Ratner is a total delight, packing deep wells of repressed anger into a performance of giddy neurotic wit. Cole attains a wonderful intimacy amidst the rush of sly insight and big laughs. As Rob and Melanie's shaky emotional revolution collapses into resentment, jealousy, and manic desperation, the nosy film crew continues to roll.

The Director:
Randall Cole studied filmmaking at Concordia University where he wrote and directed 5 short 15-mm films. Not long after graduating, he directed the 35-mm short The Green Dart and has gone onto to write several feature length screen plays. 19 Months is his feature debut.

“This affable hybrid of American Movie and Modern Romance drew sellout crowds.”
Jason Anderson, Eye

AT FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON (Iran/France)
Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
106 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 3:00 PM
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 7:15 PM

A daring, courageous, and talented young filmmaker with her own signature, 24 year old Samira Makhmalbaf is changing the way we see the Middle East. At Five in the Afternoon, a feature that sifts through the rubble of global politics and finds this: an ounce of hope mixed with buckets of despair.

The hope appears early in the unveiled face of Nogreh (Agheleh Rezaie), a young woman who, without the knowledge of her pious father, has chosen to resume the education long denied her by the ousted regime. She removes her burqa, lets her earrings dangle openly, and dons a pair of pretty white shoes that, seen in repeated close-ups, become the symbol of her progressive march.

The Director:
Twenty-four year old Samira Makhmalbaf has already had three films in competition at Cannes where she received jury prizes in both 2001 and 2003.

“the nobility of the actors suffuses the film with sympathy and humanity”
Contemporary World Cinema

“a skillful melding together of social and political analysis with dramatic and poetical visuals. Some of the sequences of this new film are simply stunning.”
The LondonTimes

BASTARDS (CANADA)
Director: Mort Ransen
99 minutes
Sun Feb 8 Alix Goolden Hall 7:00 PM

You have to hand it to Mort Ransen: he’s attempted something nobody else has – he’s decided to make a communal film. While living on BC’s Salt Spring Island, Ransen found himself a video camera, recruited the locals, and decided to make the first Canadian Point-Of-View (POV) feature film. So what does that all mean?

It mean’s Mort’s the lead, and the camera sees only what he sees. Yes, when you see Bastards, you are Mort. Which is kind of like being Woody Allen, only without the cradle robbing.

Bastards is an experimental feature which revolves around an improbable relationship between Sam (Mort Ransen), a retired man, and a homeless young woman Finnie (Lisa Repo-Martel) – a professional protester at war with all the “bastards”, mostly men, who she considers are making a mess of the world. The film is seen through the eyes of Sam. Except for the final shot in the film, we never see him, but only what he sees. There are no cutaways, no subplots. The other actors look directly at the camera. We know only what Sam knows and we find out about things when he does. The audience is Sam. What happens to him, happens to us.

The Director:
Producer-writer-director Mort Ransen began his career as an actor after studying with the legendary American teacher Peggy Furey. He acted briefly and directed on stage before turning to film in 1961, when he joined the directing staff of the National Film Board of Canada. For the NFB he wrote and directed 17 films, winning 15 international awards. Since leaving the NFB in 1984, he has directed seven feature films, most notably the critically acclaimed Margaret’s Museum (1995). More recently, Ransen produced My Father’s Angel,(1999) the award-winning first feature by Davor Marjanovic. His most recent work as director was the Gemini-nominated documentary Ah… The Money, the Money, the Money, produced for the NFB, about the logging conflict on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, where Ransen makes his home.

THE BIG EMPTY (USA)
Director: Steve Anderson
Canadian Premiere
92 minutes
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM
Mon Feb 2 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 9:45 PM

John Person (Jon Favreau), after a decade in Hollywood, has but two commercials and three segments in a canceled series to his credit. A sweet-natured teddy bear of a man, John nevertheless refuses to give up, but his nerdy next-door neighbour Neely (Bud Cort) has him nailed when he offers him a proposition that cannot be refused. Deliver a suitcase to a man called Cowboy or risk having made public every conceivable embarrassing personal thing.

The Director:
This is a directorial debut for Anderson who has shot several documentaries for PBS, trotted the globe for CNN and was on hand to capture the LA riots.

“Anderson has a flair for sweet-hearted love-starved characters.”
LA Weekly

“The Big Empty is a much more romantic fable than Swingers, the singles comedy that established Favreau, but has a similiarly jovial, unpretentious charm.”
Los Angeles Times

“Writer/director Anderson introduces familiar characters and situations but
imbues them with a sense of humor and a twisted view of danger.”
Peter Martin, AFI Review

Opening Short: WAY PAST (Northern Ireland) Mairead McClean, 10 minutes Sometimes life feels like a fairy tale. Is the story already mapped out or is it a territory still waiting to be charted? Way Past follows Una, a young girl sent out on an errand - what should be a simple trip turns into an unexpected journey. Will she be able to find her own way home?

CUBA LIBRE (USA)

Director: Juan Gerard
Canadian Premiere
109 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Star Cinema 7:00 PM
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM

Set in 1958 Cuba during the wane of the Batista regime. The turmoil seems distant to the small town of Holguin, where a charismatic grandfather looks after his family and friends, humoring the local Police while assisting the rebels. As Castro's rebels draw ever closer - the grandson (Mendez) watches endless Hollywood movies, dreaming of glamour, wrapped in magic.

Then one night, Holguin's power supply is cut by Castro's rebels during the climax of a Doris Day film at the local cinema and its inhabitants must adjust slowly to a darker though still rich existence. As the situations grow more dangerous, and family members are faced with the possibility of separation, Cuba Libre becomes more absorbing, and its light comic tone turns palpable.

First-time director Juan Gerard creates a winning style that is surprisingly fresh, going easy on the light-to-darkness metaphor as he brings the town to vivid life (Cuba Libre was filmed in the Dominican Republic) with a multinational cast which includes Harvey Keitel as the boy's majestic, casino-running grandfather.

The Director:
Born in Holguin, Cuba, Juan Gerard moved to the US soon after the Revolution. Graduating in engineering and architecture, Gerard went on to work as an art critic as well as in the film industry. He wrote and produced Shortcut to Paradise, co-produced Absolution and is now coming out with his first feature film, Cuba Libre.

“...a lively, nostalgic blend of Cinema Paradiso and Hope and Glory.”
Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald

DELICATE ART OF PARKING (Canada)
Director: Trent Carlson
Director in Attendance
90 minutes
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 3:00 PM
Tue Feb 3 Star Cinema 7:00 PM

This hilarious feature film debut by Trent Carlson, is a mockumentary that has more inspired plot twists and laugh-out-loud moments than most Hollywood feature films these days. Shot throughout Vancouver, the film begins with Lonny, a documentary filmmaker who has never completed a film, disdainfully examining the role of the parking enforcer (or meter maid to most of us) in modern society. Soon, though, Lonny finds himself on the brink of busting open one of the biggest (and first?) conspiracies ever to hit city workers.

The Director:
Trent Carlson was the winner of the Golden Zenith Award at the Montreal film festival recognizing it as the best Canadian film of the festival. It was also chosen as the runner up for the most popular film at our west-coast fest.

“The gift of comedy is rare and wonderful, no description can possibly convey the unique sensibility of The Delicate Art of Parking.”
Infest

“...a laugh-out-loud tour of duty with Vancouver’s least appreciated civil servants.”
Whistler Film Fest

Opening Short: BLUE LIKE A GUNSHOT (Canada) Masoud Raouf, 5.5 minutes With its interplay of shadow and light, of paint in movement, Blue Like a Gunshot is a work of great visual power. It is also a reflection on our world. In its evocation of the conflict between civilization and nature, the absurd vanity of human warfare contrasts with the harmony of the natural world.

EASY (USA)
Director: Jane Weinstock
BC Premier
95 minutes
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 2:00 PM
Sat Feb 7 Alix Goolden Hall 9:00 PM

For Jamie Harris (Marguerite Moreau) a sharp-witted twenty-five-year-old, love is hard to find. It seems much easier just to settle for sex. A self-described jerk magnet, she thinks she wants a relationship, but jumps into bed with one impossible guy after another.

As the movie takes off, she has two guys on the hook - scrumptious John (Naveen Andrews), a poet and her former teacher, and savoury Mick (Brian F. O’Byrne), a comic talk-show host whose guests include a designer of S&M gear for vegans. Both boyfriends are delicious, decent guys who apparently love her. To help her decide between them, she has to resort to extreme measures. Like celibacy.

The Director:
While she has written and directed several highly acclaimed, visually striking short films that have screened at festivals such as Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, and Venice, Jane Weinstock’s Easy is her debut feature film. Drawing on influences such as French New Wave directors Godard and Truffaut as well as melodrama icon John Cassavettes, Weinstock creates real and energetic characters partially through a liberal use of art and architecture in the telling of her story. As a past writer of art criticism and the wife of an artist she sprinkles the film with visual treats by Barbara Kruger, Malerie Marder, Laurie Simmons and Catherine Opie to name a few. Easy was shot in just 21 days.

Weinstock has taught film history at UCLA and Cal Arts and written numerous articles on film and art for Art in America. She has also participated in the Sundance Director’s Lab. Her short, The Cleanup, was distributed in the U.S. and was shown on European television.

"Jane Weinstock, in her first feature film brings formidable wit, irony and intelligence to Easy; this is a movie that works the genre stuff in a new way.”
Kay Armatage, Toronto Film Festival

EXPIRATION (Canada)
Director: Gavin Heffernan
Canadian Premiere
102 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 12:00 PM
Sun Feb 1 Multi-Cultural Centre 9:30 PM

What begins as a coming-of-age drama soon ascends to the lofty heights of a film about chance encounters, paths taken and doing the right thing. The inevitability of each character's actions is based more upon predetermination than conscious choices, and Heffernan presents an authentic and sincere depiction of the consequences of following the only road seemingly available.

The Director:
Gavin Heffernan wrote, directed, and acted in his first feature film The Steaks , budgeted at $800 and shot over 10 months while attending his freshman year at McGill. The Steak’s sold-out charity premiere raised over $1500 for the Michael J Fox Parkinson’s Foundation. Heffernan began writing Expiration, his 7th screenplay, in 2001. Having just graduated from Mcgill he is now making the festival rounds and after rousing successes at New York and Los Angeles screenings, Expiration is making its Canadian Premiere at our Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival.

“it’s smart, funny and engaging, with a touching sense of humanity”
Flipside

“the textured, painterly digital video cinematography is downright gorgeous at times; coupled with the haunting ethereal score by Jon Day and the rhythmic editing, Expiration often achieves a beautiful sense of poetry.”
Film Quips

FATIGUE (Wales)
Director: Michael Barnes
Canadian Premiere
84 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 2:00 PM
Sun Feb 8 Alix Goolden Hall 9:00 PM

This first feature by Michael Barnes took five years to produce, and the results are stunning. The film begins with a scene that will grab your attention, and won’t let go until the stunning end. With the same energy and stylized technique as films by such respected filmmakers as Wong Kar-Wai and Danny Boyle, Fatigue is relentless in its re-working of the urban crime thriller genre, with a plot highly motivated by revenge and honour.

It is in Cardiff that we find Mitchell Willow, whose only creature comfort is the strobe light that allows him to sleep well at night. Circumstances force him to become ostensibly a courier for a Welsh crime boss, but Mitchell soon finds himself more entrenched in the bleak Welsh underworld, much deeper than he’d expected. A diamond deal goes horribly wrong, and after betrayal, double-crossing and murder, Mitchell goes to the only refuge he knows: his girlfriend Rachel’s flat in London. Found there by the Welsh thugs, Mitchell will do whatever it takes to keep Rachel safe, and to get back the diamonds. With so much at stake, Mitchell finds that only one of these can be rescued.

“...visually inventive pacey thriller with a dark subtext.”
Keiron Self

“...compared with the work of Quentin Tarantino and numerous Brit gangster films”
South Wales Echo

GAZ BAR BLUES (Canada)
Director: Louis Belanger
115 minutes
Sun Feb 8 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM

Louis Belanger's second feature, is a must see film. It's an affecting drama, keeping sentimentality safely at bay, about a family who runs a gas station in smalltown Quebec.

Gaz Bar Blues offers a straight-up, linear narrative - which is the last thing you'd expect from Belanger. We meet the family patriarch, Boss, who is played by Quebec superstar Serge Theriault, and the three disgruntled sons who help him run the gas bar. There's no mother figure, but a wise sister (Fanny Mallette) drifts in and out as a much-needed sounding board. The charm of this film is in the believable details: how Boss gets his sons up at 4 AM with relentless calls from the kitchen; how the grudges between the sons grow increasingly bitter; how the local tossers at the gas bar help raise the kids; and how the ailing Boss is terrified by his kids' wanderlust.

Winner of several prizes at the Montreal World Film festival including the Ecumenical Prize, the Special Grand Jury Prize and Most Popular Canadian Film.

The Director:
Louis Belanger’s first feature, Post Mortem; a musing on necrophilia, won him a cache of prizes and the respect of the Montreal film community.

“His story is small and crisp -- it is a tribute to his roots.”
Joanne Latimer, Montreal Mirror

“...a well-paced poignant film, which manages to successfully balance drama and occasional raucous humour.”
Linda Dawn Hammond, Orcasound Films

HAM AND CHEESE (Canada)
Director: Warren P. Sonoda
World Premiere
88 minutes
Fri Jan 30 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 7:15 PM
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 4:00 PM

Two aspiring actors, with no talent, are the subject of this hilarious film made by Warren Sonoda in his directorial debut. Richard Wolonski (Mike Beaver) and Barry Goodson (Jason Jones) are two vastly different people who share one thing in common: they both feel they are only one break away from becoming the next big Hollywood star. They don't realize, however, that your dreams will only take you so far when your talent is lacking entirely.

The Director:
Beginning his career in grade 5 with his super 8, 24-minute opus, Escape from Space, Ham and Cheese is the first feature film from award-winning, veteran music video director Warren P Sonoda. Having over 90 music videos, four #1 hits, and 6 national awards Sonoda brought years of production experience to the Ham and Cheese plate. He has written six feature scripts and optioned three of them. Ham and Cheese is having its world premiere here at the VIFVF.

“Working actors will love it and non-working actors will laugh and re-examine themselves.”
Performer Magazine

HEADRUSH (Ireland)
Director: Shimmy Marcus
North American Premiere
85 minutes
Fri Feb 6 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM
Sun Feb 8 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 1:00 PM

A crazy, caper comedy about two young Irish stoners, Charlie and T-Bag, orbiting society in a haze of dope and dreams. When Charlie gets dumped by his girlfriend Vicky, and gets kicked off the dole, he crashes to earth with a thud, desperate to get her back.

T-Bag hears through his dealer Blowback that the Uncle, a notorious underworld criminal is looking for new drug mules, so Charlie conceives an elaborate scam to smuggle a consignment of cocaine back from Amsterdam. A series of comic coincidences begin to unravel their carefully laid plans and Charlie and T-Bag find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into trouble.

Best Feature in the Galway Film Fleadh 2003 and winner of the Miramax Scriptwriting Award.

The Director:
Winning the Mirimax Script writing award in 1999 for Headrush, Shimmy Marcus has been tipped by the Sunday Times as ‘a star filmmaker of the future’ and has already been compared to both Tarantino and Kubrick. Siting influences such as Withnail and I and Midnight Cowboy, Marcus has made a film not for the critics but for the audience, with themes rooted in friendship and love and the lengths people will go to to maintain them.

“Headrush is breaking new ground in Irish Cinema - its bold, brash impact is carried with remarkable assurance.”
Irish Emigrant Publications

“Shimmy Marcus has the potential to be Ireland’s answer to Tarantino”
Six Magazine

“...an extraordinary technical achievement.”
Irish Times

Opening Short: IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING (Uruguay) Walter Tournier, 6 minutes A character comes to life and discovers his environment.

IMITATIONS OF LIFE (Canada)
Director: Mike Hoolboom
75 minutes
Tue Feb 3 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 9:45 PM

Ever thoughtful, often hypnotic and always, always beautiful; filmmaker Mike Hoolboom finds himself venturing out into the unknown again to tackle the meta-non-fictional in Imitations of Life. What an irony it is that where film and images fail to express the true nature of life, words and adjectives will always fail to explain exactly what it's like to watch one of Hoolboom's films.

Like his previous work, Tom (VIFVF 2003), Hoolboom employs a large mixture of found footage with his own hand-cranked and hand-created imagery. But whereas in Tom, he was concerned with the course of history of one life, the scope of Imitations of Life dares to construct a poetic meditation on memory, the unconscious, and our world as image.

The Director:
Mike Hoolboom is one of Canada’s most prolific experimental filmmakers. His films Frank’s Cock and Letters from Home both received the Festival’s NFB-John Spotton award for best Canadian short film. He has also been the subject of retrospectives in Toronto, Cork and Nyon. His films include White Museum, Kanada, Valentine’s Day, House of Pain, Panic Bodies and Tom.

“...the images are captivating and the film is compelling.”
Toronto International Film Festival

LITTLE BROTHER OF WAR (Canada)
Director: Damon Vignale
95 minutes
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 1:00 PM
Tue Feb 3 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:45 PM

The trauma of a 9 year old boy dealing with the loss of his parents is at the heart of this touching new film by Damon Vignale, making his feature film debut. With rave reviews at the 2003 Vancouver International Film Festival, this Canadian feature is sure to elicit a similar response at this year’s VIFVF. In addition to issues relating to coping with loss, the film sensitively explores the bonds Aboriginal Canadians find with their past, via an unlikely route, and also provides hope in the form of the forging of new relationships as a way of healing.

Damon Vignale has compassionately created a wonderful film about loss, self-discovery and emotional rebirth. With very subtly interspersed fantasy sequences that reflect Jay's inner expression of his link with his paternal Aboriginal ancestors, Vignale's film has depth and texture rarely seen in a first feature. Shot mostly in Langley, B.C., Little Brother of War very confidently examines several issues, posing questions without explicitly offering answers. In the face of Hollywood fare that beats the answers into you, it is refreshing to see a film that takes such pride in making the viewers think for themselves.

The Director:
Little Brother of War is Damon Vignale’s directorial feature film debut. His producing credits include the award winning festival hit Zacharia, nominated for five Leo awards including best picture. Other credits include numerous television commercials and music videos, and he is currently polishing the screenplay for his next project.

“Damon Vignale’s directorial debut is a heartwarming and spirited drama.”
Amy Beling, VIF

Opening Short: Bid 'Em In (USA) Neal Sopata, 3 minutes It's about a slave auction...It's about a travestry of social justice...and it's an animated musical? Prepare for a taste of Neal Sopata's powerful scribblings that will move you deep down.

LOVERS AND LEAVERS (KUUTAMOLLA)(Finland)
Director: Aku Louhimies
Canadian Premiere
119 minutes
Mon Feb 2 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 7:15 PM
Fri Feb 6 Star Cinema 7:00 PM

A comedic and engaging look at the notion of romantic love as portrayed in the movies, in contrast to the reality of love as it occurs in everyday life. Iiris Vaara (Minna Haapkyla) is a thirty-year-old Helsinki bookstore clerk searching for the picture perfect romance. Iiris is obsessed with romantic Hollywood movies. The idealistic Iiris spends her time spare time watching films and dreaming of finding her one great love.

When friends introduce her to Marko a young film director (played by Peter Franzen) everything appears to fall into place. Matching each other quote for quote with lines from their favorite films Iiris and Marko appear to have found the perfect romance. But when their idealized relationship begins to waver and Marko breaks things off, Iiris soon discovers that maybe she was more in love with the idea of love than with Marko himself.

Nominated Best Picture at the Academy Awards in Finland and winner of Best Picture Award at festivals in both San Jose and Durango. Included on top ten list for Variety Magazine.

The Director:
Thirty-one year old Aku Louhimies has studied at the Finnish University of the Arts and in the US. His previous credits include comedy and drama series as well as documentaries for television. His feature film, The Restless premiered in 2001.

“...the film in drenched in references and clips form high profile Hollywood fare.”
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

“Lovers and Leavers is a delightful romp through life on and off the screen.”
Singapore International Film Festival

LOVE, SEX AND EATING THE BONES (Canada)
Director: Sudz Sutherland
100 minutes
Wed Feb 4 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM
Sat Feb 7 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM

Named one of the top 10 Canadian films by the Toronto International Film Festival. Sly, raunchy and very, very funny, this debut feature by Toronto's Sudz Sutherland should be one of this year's breakout hits.

Michael (Hill Harper) is a promising photographer, security guard and regular customer at a shop called Pornocopia. In fact Michael has problems "getting it up" without his choice videos. His new girlfriend. Jasmine, (Marlyne N. Afflack), a market researcher who's wary but sees the potential in her immature new man is just emerging from a self-imposed bout of celibacy and....hates adult videos.

Love, Sex and Eating the Bones is gut-splitting funny while dealing with one of Canadian societal taboos in a really light-hearted way that one could actually describe as sweet and innocent.

The Director:
Winner of the City-TV Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film and included in the top ten list generated by the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

“Though Sutherland closely patterned his debut after urban com-roms like Brown Sugar, its mix of raunchy humour and sexual politicking is rich with local flavour.”
Jason Anderson, Eye

“Love, Sex and Eating the Bones was a pleasure to watch and sets a high standard for independent films. It 's a romantic comedy done right.”
Random Accuracy

Opening Short: ISLET (Canada) Nicholas Brault, 7 minutes With bold lines reminiscent of the stark simplicity of Inuit art, this cautionary tale is a reminder of the interconnectedness of all things. We are all affected by the fate of the Arctic, which each year is disappearing a little farther into the ocean.

MARGARETTE’S FEAST (Brazil)
Director: Renato Falcao
80 minutes
Tue Feb 3 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM
Wed Feb 4 Star Cinema 7:00 PM

This Brazilian film is one of the only silent films since the silent era ended more than 70 years ago to fully capture the energetic spirit upon which its silent forbearers relied.

Upon losing his job, Pedro (performed with the perfect blend of sympathy, pathos and comedy by Hique Gomez) is determined to not allow his recent bad luck to affect his glass-is-half-full outlook. Living in poverty with his large family and several others, Pedro makes every meal time a vaudeville performance. With his wife’s birthday looming, Pedro continues to plan a grand feast for her. In the face of political corruption, racism and not able to catch any sort of a break, by sheer determination Pedro fights against all odds and never lets on to his family that he is unemployed and that the future looks bleak. A party the scale of which is on par with everything Pedro does can be the only result.

With more surreal episodes and plot twists than a David Lynch film, Margarette’s Feast offers the viewer more than a mere silent comedy. And like the best silent comedy of Charlie Chaplin, the laughs thinly disguise harsh social critique, which is at the center of the film.

The Director:
Margarette’s Feast is Renalto Falcao’s first feature film. He studied in New York and Los Angeles under major directors of photography such as Laslo Kovacks, Sol Negrin and Oscar winning Richard Shore. Falcao has worked as the director of photography on over twenty short films and four full-length features.

“...manages to conjure the entire range of human emotions.”
CinemaTropical

“Falcao holds the audience's attention sans dialogue in this ingeniously crafted, black-and-white homage to silent films of the twenties.”
Diana Sanchez, Toronto Film Festival

Opening Short: FAST FILM (Austria) Virgil Widrich, 14 minutes Fast Film is a chase through film chases, implemented using print-outs of found-footage frames, which are then folded and animated. A kiss, a happy couple. But then, the woman is kidnapped, and the man sets off to save her. A dramatic rescue story full of wild chase scenes begins. The audience is taken to the center of the Earth and the enemy's headquarters. On its surface, Fast Film tells a simple story. The catch is that all its scenes were taken from 300 different works produced in the course of film history, and the heroes change identities an equal number of times. But as in Virgil Widrich's Copy Shop (2001), the extraordinary technology used during production is the first thing that stands out about Fast Film. No less than 65,000 paper printouts of individual images were employed. After being folded into thousands of objects such as planes and train cars and arranged in complex tableaux, they were photographed with a simple digital camera and loaded into a computer image by image. At least three different images, the background, the foreground image and an intermediate zone, were used to make up each frame. In certain sequences, this increases to 30 visual layers. The fast and furious story of Fast Film unfolds on the surfaces of the paper objects. Its twists and turns are so well thought-out that additional details can be found in each viewing. What was initially intended to be an homage to action movies breaks new ground in the genre because of its extreme density. This tour de force through film history, from its silent beginnings to present-day Hollywood, lasts just 14 minutes: truly a fast film which could hardly be more furious.

MOVING MALCOLM (Canada)
Director: Benjamin Ratner
82 minutes
Thu Feb 5 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM

Moving Malcolm tells the poignant story of aspiring novelist Gene Maxwell and his hopeful obsession with his former fiancee Liz Woodward (Elizabeth Berkley of Roger Dodger, Curse of the Jade Scorpion). As Gene prepares a plan to win back the heart of this B-movie actress, his well-intentioned yet colourful family vehemently protests and his best friend aggressively intervenes.

The story begins with Liz dumping Gene at the altar only to unexpectedly return on his doorstep over a year later with an unusual and audacious request, will he move her elderly father, Malcolm (John Neville of Spider, Sunshine), to a new apartment while she flies off to Prague to star in a low budget sci-fi movie? Gene secretly seizes this opportunity to recapture Liz’s ellusive love and agrees to move Malcolm - a distinctly articulate, if occasionally foul-mouthed Englishman with relationship issues of his own.

As Gene and Malcolm make the big move a colourful and enlightening relationship develops between the two. Gene’s plan to win back Liz also seems to be working, albeit long distance. Things take a painful turn however, as Liz once again breaks Gene’s hopeful heart. But this time, through Malcolm’s inadvertent example, Gene is able to regain his self-respect and re-open his heart to those who know and love him best.

The Director:
Benjamin Ratner is known as one of Canada’s busiest actors. He has won a number of prestigious awards including the Film Can Best Actor Award and has appeared in films such as Dirty, Zachariah, Looking for Leonard, Wrongfully Accused and Ignition. His most recent film work includes 19 Months, See Grace Fly, God Boy and A Problem with Fear. Ratner has also appeared in over 25 television series including Beggars and Choosers, DaVinci’s Inquest and 7 Days. In addition to his acting work Ratner has also done a great deal of writing as well as production work. Moving Malcolm is his directorial debut.

“a light-hearted, delightful comedy somewhat reminiscent of early Woody Allan with a smart script, with some worthy performances and a feel good premise.”
Angela Baldassarre, Sympatico

“Ratner’s Gene Maxwell is just like [Ben] Stiller’s on-screen comic persona.”
Susan Maxwell, Toronto Star

NAKED PROOF (USA)
Director: Jamie Hook
96 minutes
Sun Feb 1 Star Cinema 7:00 PM
Wed Feb 4 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 7:15 PM

This romantic comedy tells the story of Henry, a graduate student of philosophy, whose world is undone by a very pregnant woman who may or may not actually exist. Naked Proof is an utterly original take on the old “boy-meets-girl” scenario, in which the boy may be mad, the girl may be a product of his subconscious, and nothing may be taken for granted except perhaps the impossibility of proving anything at all.

The Director:
Seattle director Jamie Hook has been active in the Seattle film scene as a producer, cinematographer, editor, writer, film critic as well as being the founder of the Northwest Film Forum and Pinwheel Pictures. The Naked Proof is his directorial feature-length film debut.

“...this is a comedy for intellectuals - smartly written, with a lot of great dialogue.”
Film Threat

“Naked Proof stands as a sharp-witted dramatic comedy about, of all things, the meaning of life.”
Seattle International Film Festival

Opening Short: STORMY NIGHT (Canada) Michele Lemieux, 10 minutes First published in 1996 as Gewitternacht, and subsequently translated into 13 languages, this "condensed philosophy lesson" has now come to life as an animated film to delight the eyes and hearts of viewers of all ages. A little girl and her dog on a stormy night, a thousand questions running through her head. Her thoughts take off in all directions, come suddenly back to earth, bounce off the invisible walls of her consciousness. In the middle of the night, the child observes the infinitely intimate as well as the universal. The wind whips up stronger and stronger, then the storm explodes: her darkest fears surface. What if? Gently, discreetly, with love and humour, Michele Lemieux explores the child's thoughts by casting doubts, but never allowing anxiety to surface. She is candid, she is lucid, but above all, she is serene. For over 20 years, the artist's admirers have never tired of the wonderful worlds she creates. Stormy Night is an expression in movement and colour of her immense talent.

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (UK)
Director: Philippa Lowthorpe
Canadian Premiere
90 minutes
Fri Jan 30 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 9:45 PM
Tue Feb 3 Multi-Cultural Centre 9:30 PM

The Other Boleyn Girl is based on the book by Philippa Gregory and explores the story of Mary Boleyn, (Natascha McElhone) who was mistress to King Henry VIII, (Jared Harris) before he married her sister, Anne. Described as a tale of sex and royal intrigue this is no ordinary historical drama, in fact the actors, under the direction of Philippa Lowthorpe, improvised the script bringing freshness to the piece that is often lacking in historical drama.

The hardships the Boleyn girl's endured by being treated as property of their family as was customary at that time - is still hard to comprehend. As Mary's father says to his already married daughter, "The King desires you, and I should not have to remind you to have a daughter of the Boleyn family in the King's favour would be of great advantage." Little is known about the relationship between Mary and King Henry VIII but it is believed that she had two children by him.

The experimental approach works extremely well in this film. From the handheld shots to the characters talking directly to the camera The Other Boleyn Girl moves at a pleasing pace to eye and mind and succeeds in this innovative approach to historical drama without losing the authenticity of the story.

The Director:
Philippa Lowthorpe built her reputation as a documentary maker with award winning films such as Enniskillen, about an IRA bomb that devastated an Irish community and Three Salons; a cult movie set in a Blackpool hairdresser. She won the Women in Film and TV award for Creative Originality and went onto make this feature length drama The Other Boleyn Girl.

“a movie that feels very much like a good play.”
Scott Colbourne, The Globe and Mail

“it uses techniques of modern documentaries such as one-on-one confessions by the main personae to make the story more accessible.”
Film Scouts

THE RAGE IN PLACID LAKE (Australia)
Director: Tony McNamara
89 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 1:00 PM
Mon Feb 2 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM

A fantastically funny film, The Rage in Placid Lake is full of hilarious moments and peculiar characters. Placid Lake, played superbly by Musician Ben Lee, is the child of hippie parents Sylvia and Doug (Garry MacDonald and Miranda Richardson in unforgettable performances), on the cusp of graduating from high school. Through a series of flashbacks we see the life of Placid Lake thus far. Bedsides the burden of his name, the young Placid is forced to be the brunt of his parent’ self-indulgent and idealistic lifestyle. Doug is the passive drive time guy on CARE-FM and Sylvia is a self-centered documentary filmmaker.

On his first day of school his parents send him in a dress to offset “gender stereotyping” and from this day forward he is beaten up at school everyday for being different. With no support from his frustratingly passive parents, who tell him to “take the positive” out of every situation, Placid longs for a sense of normalcy. His need to fit in versus his own rebellious nature causes him to make many funny but ill-conceived decisions. Gemma (played by Rose Byrne), his crayon-eating best friend and repressed love interest tries to support the oddly rebellious Placid while struggling with her own life issues, but as Placid transforms himself, to the horror of his parents and Gemma, into a yuppie insurance salesman, he only succeeds in further alienating himself from those around him.

This impeccable first feature by theatre director Tony McNamara is adapted from the play the Café Latte Kid and offers a laughable and ironic look at the ideas and ideals by which people live their lives. The film debut of Ben Lee as the sensitive Placid is totally believable, coupled with fantastic performance from the supporting cast and a solid storyline make this film wickedly entertaining.

The Director:
Tony McNamara is an AFTRS graduate. He has written four plays, The Cafe Latte Kid, The John Wayne Principle, The Recruit, and The Virgin Mim, which have been produced in Australia, New Zealand and England. Tony has written for television, The Secret Life of Us and has written and directed several award winning short films. The Rage In Placid Lake is his first feature film as director.

“this is a funny, subversive and loveable comedy, a celebration of oddball lives in a bland world.”
Limelight Magazine

Opening Short: SUFFERING (Northern Ireland) Gary Mitchell, 9 minutes A young family finds itself torn apart by tragic circumstances. Isolated, the characters deal with their loss in a personal way.

RAZOR EATERS (Australia)
Director: Shannon Young
North American Premiere
96 minutes
MIDNIGHT MADNESS!!!
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 11:30 PM

The Razor Eaters are five motivated, pissed-off, young men who launch an anarchistic crime spree against the city of Melbourne, filming all their deeds on home video. The task of stopping them falls to young Detective Danny Berden, who is not afraid of bending the rules to apprehend his prey. But Danny’s world is soon turned upside down as he attempts to juggle a relentless enemy, the hungry media, “fans” at the crime scenes and his own darkening obsession with stopping the gang. After the Razor Eaters discover his identity, they declare war on the taskforce assigned to stop them, paving the way for a thrilling, suspenseful climax.

The Director:
After producing horror movies at his suburban high school, Shannon Young was accepted into the Melbourne Institute of Technology where he directed his first 16mm guerilla feature Stygian which won at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

REPUBLIC OF LOVE (Canada)
Director: Deepa Mehta
95 minutes
Thu Feb 5 Star Cinema 7:00 PM
Sun Feb 8 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 3:00 PM

It's been said more than once that when two people get married, it's actually not two people who are joining together. In reality, it's two histories that are being combined for all time. The Republic of Love is about what happens when two histories fall in love at first sight, then try to figure out what happens next.

Tom is a charismatic late-night radio talk show host, whose unconventional upbringing has made him a little too quick to fall in love and marry, resulting in three divorces before the age of 40. Fay is his total opposite; her romantic ideal has not yet been attained and is unlikely ever to be due to her impossibly high expectations as a result of living with the perfection that is her parents’ rock solid marriage. This unlikely pairing proves the rule that in love, there are no rules and the couple meet and fall deeply in love at first sight. All is faultless, until Fay’s parents’ marriage breaks down suddenly, out of nowhere. After 40 years of wedded bliss Faye's father (Edward Fox) feels smothered by his wife's (the ever so fabulous Martha Henry) love, and leaves her. Faye's world shatters, and disenchanted by love, breaks up with Tom.

Mehta's fingerprints are all over this film, the Indian music, the melodramatic moments, the colours that are both muted and bold at the same time to create a gracefully acted and gorgeously shot love story by Carol Shields.

The Director:
Writer, director, producer Deepa Mehta released her debut film, Sam and Me, in 1991. The film went on to win honourable mention at the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or competition. Her second film, Camilla, starred Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda. The controversial and much-loved Fire, the first film in her India trilogy, earned her an enormous amount of critical acclaim. Her next film, Earth, the second in the trilogy, won numerous international awards and was India’s entry for the 1999 Academy Awards. In 2002, Mehta wrote and directed the box-office smash Bollywood/Hollywood. The final film in the India trilogy, Water, is slated for production in fall 2003.

“The Republic of Love is Mehta’s most assured film to date. It touches people’s lives and loves as it skates between creating a fairytale romance and looking at the morning after.”
Toronto International Film Festival

“In the leads, Emilia Fox and Bruce Greenwood are terrifically engaging. They definitely enhance the film.”
Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail

Opening Short: MORE SENSITIVE (BC) Gail Noonan, 2 minutes Life threatens to annihilate art as a lounge singer performs to a completely indifferent audience in a bar. Fortunately he is blessed with a level of self-absorption which renders him oblivious to their reaction (or lack there of).

ROBOT STORIES (USA)
Director: Greg Pak
85 minutes
Sat Feb 7 Capitol 6 3:00 PM
Sun Feb 8 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM

Robot Stories offers a surprisingly moving and unorthodox look into the nature of human relationships by using the most inhuman of objects -- robots. First time award-winning feature filmmaker Greg Pak tells of the universal need, regardless of species, space, or time to connect with something outside of ourselves. The concepts of love, death and family explored in these four vignettes are set against a backdrop of human’s interactions with robots. These stories far from your traditional science fiction, manage to hold a recognizable mirror to human behaviour. The robots serve as the perfect backdrop to illustrate our alienation from each other and ourselves.

Winner of 23 international awards including: Grand Prize at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, best Screenplay at Hamptons International Film Festival, Special Jury Award for Emotional Truth at the Florida Film Festival, Audience award at Boston Fantastic Film Festival and Best Feature Audience Choice at Fantastik Film Festival Sweden.

The Director:
Greg Pak is an award-winning writer and director. His feature screenplay Rio Chino won the Pipedream Screenwriting Award at the 2002 IFP Market and a 2003 Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship. Pak's short film Fighting Grandpa has won twenty prizes, including a Student Academy Award, and has played in over fifty film festivals. Greg's comic shorts Asian Pride Porn and All Amateur Ecstasy are among the most viewed films at AtomFilms.com. His shorts Mouse, Po Mo Knock Knock, Cat Fight Tonight and The Penny Marshall Project have won awards and screened in dozens of film festivals around the world.

Greg Pak was the cinematographer of The Personals, an Academy Award winning short documentary, and was recently named one of 25 Filmmakers to Watch by Filmmaker Magazine. Greg studied political science at Yale University, history at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and film production at the NYU graduate film program.

“one of the most moving pieces I’ve seen all year.”
John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune

“The powerful serenity and grace of Greg Pak’s film is delightful to behold.
What so easily could have been a goofy sci-fi flick about robots and humans instead is an acute study of life in and of itself, robots or not.”
Austin360.com

Opening Short: MACHINE SHOP (USA) Witek Rosowski. 3 minutes An old electric fan starts to turn. The machinist inserts a steel rod into a metal lathe. Wheels turn. Sparks fly. He moves from milling machine to drill press to grinder. The rough piece of metal takes the shape of a spoon. The electric meter hums. He stirs his coffee with the spoon as he has done with hundreds of other spoons.

SAINTS AND SOLDIERS (USA)
Director: Ryan Little
Canadian Premiere
90 minutes
Fri Jan 30 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 9:45 PM

In mid-December 1944, Hitler’s Army blitzkriegs through the Ardennes Forest into Belgium, sparking the wintertime offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge. Soldiers Greer and Gunderson find themselves held captive with over one hundred other American soldiers. As panic and confusion ensue, German soldiers open fire. Greer, Gunderson, and a handful of others manage to escape the massacre and try to find their way back to allied territory.

Winner of a number of major prizes including the Grand Prize at the Heartland Film Festival and the Audience Choice Award in San Diego, Sacramento, Long Beach and elsewhere.

The Director:
Canadian born filmmaker Ryan Little graduated from Brigham Young University in film. He has directed multiple award winning film shorts including the World War II film The Last Good War and Freedom on the Water. Little has also directed the feature film Out of Step, a romantic drama about a Latter-day Saint student in New York City. Little also serves as the Director of Photography for the award winning documentary Brides on the Homefront and the feature comedies Singles Ward and RM.

SEDUCING DOCTOR LEWIS/LA GRANDE SEDUCTION (Canada)
Director: Jean-Francois Pouliot
110 minutes
Fri Feb 6 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM

This film was smash hit in Quebec this summer with its winning mixture of endearing characters and blue collar hilarity.

In the little harbour village of St-Marie-La-Maudern, the once bountiful fish stocks have plummeted, collapsing the thriving community and forcing the fishermen to rely on government welfare. Salvation is at hand: a multinational corporation is considering building a factory on the tiny island. The inhabitants of this proud, but down-on-its-luck, island village see an opportunity to restore the village to greatness. Unfortunately, due to insurance reasons, the factory cannot be built until the village has a resident doctor.

Led by comically unscrupulous and big-hearted Germain (Raymond Bouchard, Trudeau), the 150 villagers transform the village to try to make it more appealing to young Doctor Lewis and so the seduction begins.

Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival 2004
Winner of the Dramatic Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival 2004

The Director:
After studying Communication Arts at Concordia University, Jean-Francois Pouliot went onto to become the director of Fabrique D'Image; one of the largest production houses for audiovisual advertising. After twelve years in advertising, Pouliot is making his feature debut with La Grande Seduction (Seducing Doctor Lewis).

“a definite crowd pleaser, this uproarious comedy is Quebec’s answer to Waking Ned Divine.”
Diane Burgess, VIFF

SEE GRACE FLY (Canada)
Director: Peter McCormack
90 minutes
Fri Jan 30 Star Cinema 7:00 PM

Riveting and honest, See Grace Fly draws us into the world of 38 year-old Grace McKinley a talented and delusional schizophrenic. Her mother has died, and the police want to talk to her; but Grace has taken to streets of Vancouver to spread the word that the end of the world is coming.

Grace’s younger brother Dominic, a missionary working in Sierra Leone is called home to deal with his mother’s funeral and Grace’s increasingly erratic behaviour. Aided by Grace’s psychiatrist, her best friend Gigi and his friend James, Dominic struggles to find Grace and the answers she may have about their mother’s death. In his search he is confronted with his past and the reality of his sister’s illness. At the same time he is forced to question the nature of his faith and reality itself.

The Director:
Pete McCormack is an award winning novelist, screenwriter, playwright, musician and director. He has written two novels, Shelby and Understanding Ken. He also wrote, directed and edited the film Adding to the Tree, and wrote The Blue Butterfly.

“a brilliant ensemble cast -- the reason awards were invented.”
The Montreal Gazette

“a heart-wrenching first film.”
The Globe and Mail

“one of the most brilliant films to take on religious themes since Jesus of Montreal.”
La Presse

THE SUIT (EL TRAJE) (Spain)
Director: Alberto Rodriguez
BC Premiere
102 minutes
Wed Feb 4 Capitol 6 6:45 PM
Thu Feb 5 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 7:15 7:15 PM

Do clothes really make the man? Well, they certainly make a difference to the character in The Suit, a comedy drama and the first feature film by Spanish director Alberto Rodriguez.

Patricio is an illegal African immigrant living in Seville and eking out a living as a parking lot attendant. One day he receives a simple but rather elegant suit as a tip. When Patricio loses just about all of his other worldly possessions, the suit becomes his only rather tenuous link to his past. Rodriguez makes his feature film debut a wry, engaging look at the plight of immigrants and the often contradictory ways modern identities are created.

With interesting landscapes, impeccable acting and character that continually reveal themselves, The Suit is a unique and engaging film.

The Director: Alberto Rodriguez was born in Seville, Spain, on May 11, 1971. Since 1998 he has worked as a director and screenwriter. The Suit is his first full-length feature film Other works include Prologo a una Historia de Carreteras, Bancos, and El Facto Pilgrim.

LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLVILLE (Canada)
Director: Sylvain Chomet
2 Oscar nominations!
80 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 9:15 PM

In this animated French feature film, a boy named Champion trains relentlessly for the Tour de France with the help of his loyal grandmother and overweight dog, Bruno. When the big race comes, Champion and his fellow racers are kidnapped by some box-shouldered thugs who spirit them off to Belleville (a surreal impression of 1930's-1950's Manhattan) where they are forced to peddle as part of a clandestine gambling operation.

The Director:
French born Sylvain Chomet studied at the prestigious comic-strip studio in Angouleme. In his work as an animator he has published several book-length comics including Secrets of a Dragonfly and Bug-Jargul (an adaptation of a Victor Hugo novel). Since 1993, Chomet has been based in Canada. During this time he has completed his short film, Lady and The Pigeons which won a number of prizes including the Cartoon d'Or Prize, the Grand Prize at the Annecy Festival and both the Audience Prize and the Grand Jury Prize at the Angers Premiers Plans Festival.

“one of the eeriest, most inventive and loveliest animation sequences I have ever seen.”
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

“a wildly imaginative and wholly original creation.”
Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Daily News

Opening Short: WOMAN (Latvia) Signe Baumane, 10 minutes Woman is a visual poem about the creation of a woman and her two ways to create an encounter with a man. In one, she brings him death, and in the other she gives him love.

WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF (Denmark)
Director: Lone Sherfig
105 minutes
Fri Jan 30 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM
Mon Feb 2 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM

This Scottish film (made by Danish filmmakers) tells a story of life, love and death that seriously gets under our skin thanks to a sensitive, insightful script and terrific performances from the entire cast. After his latest suicide attempt, Wilbur (Jamie Sives) moves in with his older brother Harbour (Adrian Rawlins) at the back of the family-run bookshop in Glasgow. The brothers couldn't be more different; Wilbur is darkly charming and deeply unambitious, while Harbour is optimistic, cheery and energetically efficient. Harbour has dedicated his life to caring for their ill father, who has recently died, and must nowtake care of Wilbur. He suggests that Wilbur find a girlfriend, but it's Harbour who finds love with Alice (the eternally imploding Shirley Henderson), a mousy woman with a pre-teen daughter. These four characters form themselves into an inseparable family, but one of them has a secret that's just too scary to talk about.

The Director:
Lone Scherfig is a Danish filmmaker who studies at the University of Copenhagen and the National Film School. She has written and directed short films, radio plays, dramas and television series. Her first two features were The Birthday Trip and Our Own. She is part of the Dogma 95 film movement that espouses a form of cinema verite that eschews special effects and the glitzy treatment of subjects in favour of found setting, natural light and hand held camera work. Her previous film Italian for Beginners won the Silver Bear juried prize at the Berlin film festival and the FIPRESCI award.

“…a love story, a melodrama and tear jerker that packs a considerable amount of punch.”
Allan Hunter, Screen International

“…wonderfully melancholic left-field comedy about love, death and suicide. Genuinely affecting, this film is guaranteed to leave a big goofy grin on your face. Outstanding!”
Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman

DOCUMENTARIES

5 SIDES OF A COIN (Canada)
Director: Paul Kell
BC Premiere
70 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 9:45 PM

Paul Kell has created the definitive film on hip hop culture, tracing its historical roots from the 1970's and bringing the story to the present. The Vancouver-based, Concordia University film school graduate spent more than four years producing this documentary, and the results are simply astounding. By including interviews and performance footage of virtually every credible artist in the hip hop world, (to name just a very few: De La Soul, Michael Franti, DJ Spooky, Gil Scott-Heron, Grandmaster Flash, Mixmaster Mike, Jazzy Jay, Miho Hatori of Cibo Mato and Gorillaz, KRS-One, Biz Markie, and actor/musician/cultural commentator John Lurie), Kell has produced a film that will be studied as a comprehensive document depicting the greatest cultural/musical movement of the past 20 years.

The Director
5 Sides of a Coin is Paul's first feature since graduating from Montreal’s Concordia University’s Cinema Production program. His previous body of work is an eclectic blend of experimental and narrative short films and documentaries. Currently, Paul is co-producing and directing the Emcee Battle reality TV series Scorch the Mic.

“As solid a history of the expanding culture as any old-schooler could want.”
John Griffin, Montreal Gazette

“To comprehensively articulate a cultural phenomenon as complex as hip-hop is impossible, but director Paul Kell presents the five sides: in a seamless flow of kinetic energy creating an infectious, vibrant documentary, blasting the screen with red-hot beats and intensity.”
Shaz Bennett, AFI FEST 2003

BREAKFAST WITH HUNTER (USA)
Director: Wayne Ewing
BC Premiere
91 minutes
Thu Feb 5 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 9:45 PM
Sat Feb 7 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM

This feature-length documentary chronicles Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s successful attempt to avoid being placed in the system, jail and/or rehabilitation, by rogue Aspen City cops that conspired to bust him for drunken driving on the eve of an important local election. This political story interweaves with his struggle to bring his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to a proper life as a feature film starring Johnny Depp and Benecio Del Toro. The cast of characters he meets on his odyssey includes Depp and Del Toro, Warren Zevon, John Cusack, Ralph Steadman, and fellow journalists George Plimpton and P.J. O’Rourke.

The Director:
Wayne Ewing has produced and directed over thirty documentaries for American television networks. His first twenty-two films were broadcast as a part of the Bill Moyers Journal series on PBS. The Emmy nominated Blood's of 'Nam followed on PBS as a part of the Frontline series. Also for Frontline, Ewing produced and directed A Journey To Russia during the last days of the Brezhnev era.

In 1992, the feature film director Barry Levinson asked Ewing to design the visual style of the dramatic series Homicide: Life On The Streets. Ewing's handheld cinematography and innovative editing scheme brought a style of reality to drama that television critics have credited with changing the look of American dramatic television in the 1990's.

“other pics---notably Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Where the Buffalo Roam tried to translate Thompson’s “gonzo” writings and lifestyle to the screen, but never really found the right balance between comic absurdity and the revolutionary spirit of the 1960’s. But, Breakfast, given intimate access, succeeds by giving audiences the man himself, undiluted, 200 proof.”
Scott Foundas, Variety

THE GIFT (USA)
Director: Louise Hogarth
70 minutes
Wed Feb 4 Multi-Cultural Centre 9:30 PM
Sat Feb 7 Alix Goolden Hall 7 PM

Louise Hogarth’s The Gift is a challenging examination of the very darkest side of the HIV epidemic: the deliberate giving and receiving of the virus that causes AIDS. Shot mostly in San Francisco’s Castro district, one of the largest gay communities in the world, the film introduces us to “gift givers” (those who know they have HIV and deliberately pass on the virus through unprotected sex), “bug chasers” (those who deliberately seek out infection), and the practice of “bare back parties” (where safe sex is not only frowned upon, but is barred). In interviewing a very broad range of men in this community, no real patterns develop to answer the why this is happening.

(There will be a panel discussion after the film hosted by AIDS Vancouver Island.)

The Director:
Louise Hogarth co-produced The Panama Deception, which won an Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary, and was the director, producer and writer of Ollie Mae Johnson’s Petition for Clemency, which won the Wiley P. Manuel Award. She is the founder and director of the independent documentary company Dream Out Loud Productions. Her documentaries have dealt with issues such as AIDS, human rights and poverty.

“...a subject that could easily have been sensationalized is treated evenhandedly in a film that suggests that in an effort not to offend, AIDS educators have sent out messages that are too vague and timid to register.”
Stephen Holden, The New York Times

“...it’s a story so shocking that you want to believe that it’s a hoax.”
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

Opening Short: BELONGING (UK) Tamara Gordon, 38 minutes This is a film about truth and reconciliation, about Cambodia's search for justice for the 2 million that died in the Killing Fields. But it is also a film about nature and nurture, about cultural identity and about personal responsibility. The central character is Li-Da Kruger, formerly Li-Da Men, an escapee from Cambodia who was adopted by a Western family 26 years ago. Deciding to return to her homeland and discover her cultural roots, she is scared of what she will find out about the life she might have had in the paddy fields, and about those of her family that survived. Were they victims or oppressors? Li-Da is embarking on a journey that will take her across a country which, like her is fearful of the past.

HOW TO BE A MODEL (Canada)
Director: Allison Beda

How To be A Model follows Peggi LePage in what she says will be her last year as a professional model. At 27 years old, Peggi realizes she is at the end of her career, and allows former model Beda and a film crew to follow her around the world: to New York, London, Paris and Toronto, as she continues to hustle to make a living. Divided in 12 steps, the film’s chapter-like structure de-mystifies the profession by offering a realistic list of what it takes to succeed: meet the physical requirements; be a business person; resign yourself to be taken at face value; get rejected; plan on being alone; and, finally, plan on a second career. Despite frequent rejection, LePage is as ambitious as the 16 year-old models interviewed, and what results is, in Beda’s words, a “documentary on what it really feels like to be a model.”

The Director:
Allison Beda traveled the world (Paris, Milan, London, Toyko) equally horrified and enthralled by the fairytale that is the fashion industry. Realizing that it wasn’t quite fulfilling enough, Beda quit modeling and went to film school where she began making art films. She has a degree in film from Simon Fraser University and received a Master of Fine Arts in film production from the University of British Columbia. Her previous films include Colour, You Are Not the Boss of Me, Look Who is Fucking Sorry, Be Zero Be and Know Your Alphabet.

“an intriguing inside look, filled with insight and shattered stereotypes.”
The Province

“a revealing guide to being a model, a filmmaker and a friend.”
Diane Burgess, VIFF

MAGICAL LIFE OF LONG TACK SAM (Canada)
Director: Ann Marie Fleming
90 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 6 6:45 PM
Mon Feb 2 Star Cinema 7:00 PM

Long Tack Sam was a Chinese acrobatic performer and magician who left home at a young age to pursue his dream to entertain. After moving to Austria and then New York in the early 20th century, Long Tack soon became one of the world’s most sought-after vaudeville performers. With his Austrian wife acting as his manager and his two young daughters part of his show, Long Tack Sam was both a top-flight performer and a model family man, roles at which his success is confirmed in the film through the exquisite use of interviews, home movies, correspondence, and press clippings. The film follows Long Tack Sam’s life from his childhood to his death, a life as interesting and at times as seemingly far-fetched as the most imaginative narrative films can concoct. And most amazingly, everything we learn about Long Tack Sam was true.

The Director:
Ann Marie Fleming has written, directed and produced over twenty films incorporating various techniques such as animation, documentary, experimental and dramatic. Her work has screened at film festivals around the world. Among her most recent credits is a 45-minute animated drama Lip Service - A Mystery, which explores issues of community and identity through the eyes of a lipless woman. Fleming’s film Blue Sky; a personal response to the events of 9-11, won the best Canadian short film award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Fleming has created a richly textured, first-person road movie that stands as a exhilarating testament to the power of magic, art and the Long Tack legacy.”
Canada NewsWire

“a documentary that, while obviously intelligently researched,has a pleasing fairy-tale tone.”
Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly

Opening Short: PROJECTION: LES ARTISTES DE L'ATELIER LYRIQUE DE L'OPERA DE MONTREAL (Canada) Adrian Wills, 7 minutes A seducer...a hired killer... a caustic jester and his most prized possession, his daughter... enter the inner world of four students from L'Atelier Lyrique de Montreal as they perform Verdi's Rigoletto at Place des Arts, on the stage of their mentors, the Opera of Montreal. Projecting: The Artists of L'Atelier lyrique de L'Opera de Montreal is a lyrical five minute film showcasing the talents of the students of L'Atelier lyrique de L'Opera de Montreal while revealing the transformation of these artists into the characters they play in Verdi's Rigoletto. By the films' end the audience will understand what is required by these dedicated young performers to become skilled artists in the world of professional opera.

ONE OF MANY (Canada)
Directors: Jo Beranger, Doris Buttignol
Canadian Premiere
94 minutes
Wed Feb 4 Alix Goolden Hall 9:00 PM

The Canadian government’s decision to send Native Canadian children to residential schools is now looked at as one of the largest failures of an integrationist policy that was attempted a generation ago. In order for Native children to better “fit in” with Canadian culture, they were forcefully taken away from their homes and sent to “industrial boarding schools”, which taught the white man’s way. What resulted, though, was a generation of Native Canadians with no knowledge of their past and traditions, and with no sense of who they are and where they came from.

One Of Many focuses on Sally Tisiga’s journey across Northern Canada in search of her roots, bringing her two adolescent boys along to help teach them of the injustices she faced, as well trying to find who they really are. As Sally sadly states, “my history is a history of not belonging”, and when we visit the reserve on which she was born, we see that she is a complete stranger on her home grounds. Since the time the RCMP took her away in the 1960's, she has lived in countless foster homes, and in five provinces. The film not only searches for the answers to why the children were removed from their homes and what good could have possibly come from this act of gross cultural negligence, but it also explores how a victim of these policies has been affected.

KAINAYSSINI IMANISTAISIWA: THE PEOPLE GO ON (Canada)
Director: Loretta Sarah Todd
BC Premiere
70 minutes
Sun Feb 1 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 12:00 PM

The People Go On is a remarkable and beautiful documentary that provides a window to an ancient cultural wisdom with a timely teaching. It is a soulful and multi-layered story of the Kainai people who have been living in the Blackfoot territory of Southern Alberta for thousands of years. These proud and passionate people have a rich connection to their land, to spirit and to their community that is poignantly contrasted with the sterile museums in London and New York that house some of their “kidnapped” cultural artifacts.

The People Go On is an inspiring film that gives us hope for the future by reassuring us that, despite everything that they have endured, the Kainai people still have direct access to an ancient wisdom that can benefit all of us. Now is time for their voice to be heard.

The Director:
Loretta Sarah Todd is an internationally acclaimed director and writer known for her powerful visual storytelling. Her films have been screened worldwide including at Sundance, the Yamagata Documentary Festival and the Museum of Modern Art. She has received many prestigious awards including a Rockefeller Fellowship, the Mountain Award and others. Among Loretta’s credits are the documentary Remembering Chief Dan George, and productions with the National Film Board including Forgotten Warriors (nominated for a Genie), Hands of History and The Learning Path. Two of her dramatic scripts have been produced for television. Loretta is also known for her insightful writing and speaking on Aboriginal art and media issues.

“...weaving together stories from the Kainai with experimental historic images, filmmaker Loretta Todd creates a new form of documentary...”
Global Visions Film Festival

“Loretta Sarah Todd takes viewers on a visually lush journey, exploring the significance of language, memory and knowledge on Kainai life.”
National Film Board

TOTEM: THE RETURN OF THE G'PSGOLOX POLE (Canada)
Director: Gil Cardinal
70 minutes
Sat Jan 31 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 7:15 PM

Any film by Gil Cardinal is a welcome offering, and Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole is no exception. This new film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, tells the story of the attempted repatriation of a 130-year-old totem pole stolen from an Aboriginal community in northwestern British Columbia in 1929. Taken to Sweden more than 70 years ago, Totem traces the process of a culture’s attempt to reclaim its past and its heritage. In the process, the film raises questions of who owns cultural artifacts, particularly those that were stolen from their rightful owners.

In 1991, the Haisla people discovered that their long-missing totem pole, raised in 1872 at the traditional land Misk'usa, had resided at a museum in Stockholm, Sweden since its disappearance. Cardinal examines the complex negotiations that would ultimately lead to the return of the original totem pole to its rightful home. As with so many stories of Aboriginal Canadians attempting to acquire tangible links to their past, this story contains disappointments and injustices. After successful negotiations between the Haisla and the Swedish government, conditions were placed on the Haisla as to make the return of the totem a virtually impossible task, particularly without the help of the Canadian government.

Winner of the Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award presented by the National Film Board.

The Director:
Gil Cardinal is a director, writer and producer of Metis descent whose work explores aboriginal themes. His documentaries include Our Home and Native Land, The Spirit Within, Foster Child and David F.A.S. In addition to directing episodes of the series North of 60, The Rez and Mentors, he co-wrote and directed the mini-series Big Bear. Most recently he wrote and directed an episode of the series Chiefs. Gil is based in Edmonton.

“Cardinal successfully layers compelling interviews, striking imagery and rare footage of the master carvers.”
Dreamspeakers Film Festival

“...the film captures the spirit of the people’s long battle.”
Canada NewsWire

LOS ZAFIROS: MUSIC FROM THE EDGE OF TIME (Canada)
Director: Lorenzo DeStefano
85 minutes
Mon Feb 2 Multi-Cultural Centra 9:30 PM
Thu Feb 2 Multi-Cultural Centra 9:30 PM

To those whose lives they briefly touched, Los Zafiros are legends. A musical phenomenon molded by their time and place, The Sapphires caused a sensation at home and beyond throughout the 1960's. Thirty years after their breakup, fans around the world wonder whatever happened to the singing youths from Havana.

Though they enjoyed international acclaim, touring widely throughout Eastern and Western Europe, the group has remained in relative obscurity outside of Cuba. Their brilliant mix of American-inspired Doo Wop touched by Afro-Cuban rhythms, Salsa, Son and other traditional Latin forms can best be described as “World music” before there was “World music.”

Music from the Edge of Time explores the memories of Manuel Galban and Miguel Cancio, the two surviving members of Los Zafiros, as they are reunited in Havana. The film also features the perspectives of numerous Zafiros family members in Miami and Havana, international musicologists, and musical colleagues of the group.

In evoking the Cuban post-revolutionary epoch of the 1960's, this feature-length documentary presents a vivid, moving, and balanced portrait of the remarkable musical success story that was Los Zafiros.

The Director:
Lorenzo DeStefano is an experienced producer, writer and director for theatre (Natural Affection and Providence), film (Lads and Bu's World) and television (Life Goes On).

“crowd-pleasing, with big screen potential… a magical,historical and emotional odyssey.”
Variety

“Lorenzo DeStefano’s salute to Los Zafiros, often referred to as 'the Beatles of Cuba' will jerk tears out of the most stony-eyed.”
Laura Emerick, Chicago Sun-Times

SHORTS

SHARP POINTS
Sun Feb 1 Alix Goolden Hall

FROM HARLING POINT (Canada)
Director: Ling Chiu

Home for the traditional Chinese is the village of the father’s origin. Home is where the bones of one’s ancestors are buried and where one must return at death. But do the old ways and rituals divide us when they are meant to connect us to each other? Where is home if not the place where all of us belong?

From Harling Point is a beautiful and haunting tale of life and death in Victoria’s Chinese community during the twentieth century. This tender film skillfully weaves together the history of the windswept Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point with the assimilation experiences of two Chinese women growing up in Victoria. The strands join together to create an aesthetically textured braid of historical hardship, cultural curiosity, personal experience and visual impressions that is by turns melancholy, humorous and hopeful.

The Director:
From Harling Point is Ling Chiu’s first documentary with the National Film Board. Her other films include Tethers and Tee Hee Hee. Ling is a graduate of the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University and the Film and Video Program at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Currently she is in post-production on her first 35 mm short, A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum.

“Chiu renders a compelling meditation on the experience of being caught between home and away.”
Vancouver International Film Festival

"This beautifully expressive film uses archival materials and interviews to trace the history of the Vancouver Island cemetery.”
Canada NewsWire

SUZUKI SPEAKS (Canada)
Director: Tony Papa
World Premiere

Suzuki Speaks captures the passion, vision and inspiration of Dr. David Suzuki as he shares the most important message of his career in a way never before seen. In the tradition of Manufacturing Consent and If You Love This Planet, Suzuki Speaks centres on Dr. Suzuki speaking spontaneously about humanity, interconnectedness and our place in the universe. Acting as if we are separate, humans have become a super-species, depleting the planet at an alarming rate. World-renowned scientist and environmentalist, Dr. David Suzuki moves beyond current paradigms and offers his radical view of the change.

The Director
Tony Papa, established producer, director and editor has always placed creativity in the forefront of his life and his career. He spent 7 years in New York studying music, dance, acting, film production and photography and combined his knowledge to create music videos. His talents soon caught the eye of Dire Straights front man Mark Knopfler, who hired Papa to direct the music video for their #1 hit Private Investigations.

Followed up soon there after with another music video for Huey Lewis and the News (Heart of Rock and Roll). Papa soon found himself in Los Angeles making short films. Refining his skills in Vancouver, Papa developed a form of storytelling he called the Musimentary, which combines music video with documentary to tell a larger story. One Musimentary entitled Beauty and the Beast: Ocean Falls, garnered a Much Music Video award in 1995.

Papa furthered his experimentation in a long form experiential film entitled Traveler scored by world renowned flutist, Paul Horn which premiered on Bravo and won Best Cinematography at the Toronto Short Film Festival. In 1996 Tony Papa formed Avanti Pictures and soon won the Best Artistic Film at the Hot Docs festival (1997) for performance documentary True Prince: Vladimir Malakhov.

Some recent projects include Opre Roma: Arise Gypsies, shown at Montreal and Vancouver Film Festivals, Ice Time For Old Guys and the critically acclaimed dance drama, ICE: Beyond Cool, a stunning visual and musical explosion, utilizing innovative techniques and going straight to the heart of contemporary youth issues.

HEART SHAPED BOX OF GRIEF
Mon Feb 2 Multi-Cultural Centre 7:15 PM

CHEVROGAY (Canada) Brian Smith, 1 minute
While window shopping for a new car, a 1959 family gets more salesman than they bargained for. A real family "outing".

EXCHANGE (USA) Kai Zhang, 2 minutes
An animated relationship statement.

MINNIE (Canada) Erica Eyres, 4 minutes
Minnie is a failed dating video. The character stumbles awkwardly through her barren apartment while hiding behind a bear costume. The young woman wishes to communicate and seeks a relationship. Her efforts are unsuccessful because she never fully reveals her face and cannot remember her telephone number or address.

BREAKUP (Victoria) Garfield L. Miller, 7 minutes
What happens when pride and apathy take over? A young couple sit at a diner and try to hash out their troubled relationship but sometimes words just get in the way.

EXERCISE WITH CHING YUNG (USA) Wenhwa Tsao, 8 minutes
Exercise with Ching Yung is a personal experimental/documentary film about the filmmaker's retired father who likes to exhibit his own creation of Tai Chi in public and sings Karaoke with his friends.

KISS (BC) Kevin Fair, 15 minutes
Freddy's in love with his dream girl. In his imagination, he's the undeniable hero; in reality, he's a bumbling klutz whenever she's near. If only he could just be himself.

IN THE LAND OF THE BLIND (Victoria) Andrew Struthers, 16 minutes
A short story about the difference between looking and seeing. Kent is a suspected pedophile who falls for Clara, a blind motorcycle courier.

A MILE TO MIDSUMMER (Switzerland) Balex Boutellier, 27 minutes
When adolescent frustration explodes into full-grown fury...The bonds of friendship and loyalty inside Drescher's clique are strong - even stronger than family ties. Roaming the fields and forests around suburban Anytown, Drescher and his boys find that even the strongest bonds can tear under the stress of distorted emotions. One night Chris ruins the party and runs away with Drescher's girl, Nicole. Afraid of losing his firm grip on the boys, Drescher castigates Chris, unwittingly awakening an uncontrollable destructive force in the young man - a force that threatens to consume both Chris and the entire clique.

AGROPHOBES GALORE
Sun Feb 1 Multi-Cultural Centre 7:15 PM

TOILETMAN (Holland) Johan Kramer, 5 minutes
A man is stuck in the toilet and reflects on his life.

INSOMNAMBULIST (Canada) Ben Bruhmuller, 7 minutes
A stop-motion animated short about a dreamer losing himself in the dream.

FADE IN: (Canada) Frank Procopio, 12.5 minutes
A crime thriller with comic overtones in a quasi feel-good period-piece kind of way, something between Wertmeuller and Kubrick, like Egoyan, but in an ultra-low mini-DV format." Setting out to do just that, a writer stuck in Script Development Hell is suddenly jolted by a Wall of Silence between his thoughts and a laptop with attitude.

PLAY (France) Christophe Blanc, 13 minutes
All the computer gaming companies tell you that they are changing the way people play video games. Only Christophe Blanc is changing the way people play great video games of the past.

HITTING ZERO (Canada) Darlene Lim, 18 minutes
Four friends, four stories, one dilemma. For Elaine, Trevor, Mark, and Melissa life is no longer about getting ahead -- it's about breaking even.

DELIVERY (USA) Anna Minkkinen, 27 minutes
Fate conspires to unite a reclusive video game junkie with her only connection to the real world: her delivery man.

BARRIERS BIG AND LITTLE
Wed Feb 4 Capitol 6 Theatre 1 9:45 PM

ANDANTE CANTABILE (USA) Yueh Liu, 24 minutes
This true story is set against the backdrop of the Great Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960's and filtered through the memories of the story heroine. It's the story of a young Chinese woman bound by love to avenge the cruel political execution of her first love and giving up her own life and musical career to accomplish this.

STEALING INNOCENCE (USA) Nancy Stein,15 minutes
Two girls - one Israeli and one Palestinian - share a special friendship despite their cultural differences and the war raging around them.

CHERRY FRUITBREAD (Canada) Laura Turek,17 minutes
If you were about to lose the one thing you wanted more than anything else in this world, how far would you go to hang on to it?

WATCHERS (BC) Kevin Shortt, 12 minutes
In an idyllic world steeped in paranoia and suspicion, Brenda must match wits with her vigilant new maid who's set on uncovering all the tough stains. Both women maintain a facade of charm and grace as they struggle for the upper hand in this clever satire that pits individual privacy against public security.

2D OR NOT 2D (Netherlands) Paul Driessen, 17 minutes
Bruno and Frieda fall in love when they spy each other from their respective mountaintops. They race towards one-another only to be blocked by what appears to be a long thin wall, which, from our vantage point, looks like a line. When Bruno is ushered inside this "wall" he discovers that it contains a strange 2-dimensional world populated by paper-thin creatures with their own peculiar rules and logic.

In the meantime, Frieda waits impatiently for Bruno to emerge on her side, watching his chubby figure bulge out of this elastic space. She listens to the disjointed interactions emanating from this mysterious world, while Bruno is becoming distracted by the puzzling dilemmas of its inhabitants. Will he succeed in helping them? Will he eventually find his way out of this strange 2D space back to the more substantial Frieda? Will she still be waiting for him?

EXCHANGE (BC) William B. Davis, 18 minutes
Exchange - a sexually charged power struggle ensues when a university professor confronts his young student with evidence of cheating. Starring Jay Brazeau and Erin Wright.

THIS OR THAT
Thu Feb 5 Multi-Cultural Centre 7:15 PM

CHOICE (BC) Colin Minihan, 64 minutes
Choice, its all around you. It’s what you face every moment of your day. You choose where you go. You choose what you do and who you do it with. And maybe more important than anything else: you choose your friends and what you let them do to you.

When a group of dope-addled small-town kids plan to pull a job at a local department store in the wee hours of the morning, they don’t think they’ll meet any resistance. After all, it’s Seth’s mum’s place and they know she won’t be around because she’ll be picking up Seth. One tied up employee and a baseball bat to the back of a security-guard’s head later and the whole thing’s down the tubes. Now, they have to choose how far they’ll go to keep their botched job from going public. Too bad it’s only the first of a lot of difficult decisions yet to come.

DAY OFF DEAD (USA) Lee Lanier & Jeffrey Dates, 7 minutes
Dead guy and dead gal find themselves in a surreal animated dead world where lost souls try to make their earthly desires come to life.

PASSING (Canada) Karen Earl, 7 minutes
Passing is a short film/video about the complex realities that come along with driving down the middle of the white dotted line, both literally and metaphorically.

PLACES TO GO & PEOPLE TO BEAT UP
Tue Feb 3 Multi-Cultural Centre 7:15 PM

THE DAY BOB WAS SAVED (Holland) Johan Kramer, 2 minutes
What happens when you put a man on a motorcycle and it breaks down? Thank God for modern technology!

ARCHISKATE (France) Laurent Vincent, 2 minutes
Tony Hawk's got nothing on Laurent Vincent and the genius of his two fingers.

USS ENTERPRISE (BC) Meesoo Lee, 4 minutes
A meditation on the true nature of Star Trek and without all the Kirk, Spock, Bones, Picard and whatnot to get in the way.

LITTLE HOLLAND (Canada) Brian Smith, 5 minutes
Little Holland is a travelogue mockumentary of the bizarre section of town "where Toronto's Dutch come out to play!" Dutch Canadian heritage is lampooned with giant tulip jousting, stiletto clogs and an annual festival called 'Holland Days".

MY TRIP TO LIBERTY CITY (Canada) Jim Munroe, 9 minutes
A Canadian tourist takes a peaceful stroll around the virtual city of Grand Theft Auto.

2 PEN 2 FURIOUS (Victoria) Daniel Hogg, 10 minutes
Kung-fu, cars and bikinis. The Pen of Fury has been stolen again and it is madder than ever. B-movies will never be the same.

LATE TWENTIES (Canada) Matthew Kelly,15 minutes
After the closing night of their play, three actors can't seem to shed the lives of their characters in this "night before, morning after" comedy.

BLACK DEMON II (Germany) Jorg Hebgen,17 minutes
A filmmaker with his film Black Demon on the way to a horror film festival through nightly Transylvania: At a deserted festival cinema-theatre a special presentation is awaiting him - and us...

DANCELAND (Saskatchewan) Jeffrey Moneo, 23 minutes
A Hermit rebuilds his childhood schoolhouse, an aging wrestler battles a deteriorating body and the world's best dancer wins a pair of ruby encrusted tap shoes. In this prairie triptych the themes of isolation, strength, and celebration bring to life the Canadian Heartland.

COLLECTIONS FROM THE ECLECTIC
Wed Feb 4 Multi-Cultural Centre 7:15 PM

DRAWING CONCLUSION (Canada) Adolfo Ruiz, 3 minutes
Through a philosophical discussion and a brief meeting between two individuals, this film explores the relationship between creating art and making choices. The animation was created using a rotoscoping technique.

FREE LINE (USA) Keum-Taek Jung, 4 minutes
Free Line is a collaborative project combining experimental animation with computer-generated sound. The principle concept is animation of abstract imagery juxtaposed with geometric figures of symbolism. The moving background imagery was created by such techniques as scratching and painting directly on 35mm film and paper as well as the manipulation of small physical object with 20 computers.

MR. ORDERLY (Victoria) Bryan Green, 5 minutes
Join Mr. Orderly, the last outpost of control in a chaotic world, for 3 short adventures. Witness, for example, the final guardian of organization as he battles an evil ear hair. Shot on Super8, this experimental comedy combines stop motion, scratch animation and digital nonsense editing to fully tickle your guts.

ON SPECIAL (BC) Stephen Philipson, 8 minutes
Somewhere in a vast warehouse full of groceries, a can of corn with a torn label dreams of being sold. Meanwhile, a young ballerina with a facial disfigurement struggles at a grueling audition. Neither makes the grade. Just as all seems lost, a serendipitous encounter reminds the unlikely soul mates that it's what's inside that counts.

SAMSARA (BC) Paul Carrier, 4.5 minutes
A citizen, on his way to the show, encounters the pitfalls of existence. But when the true nature of this existence is conjured, a test of faith reveals to his own eyes the meaning of life.

WASTED (BC) Scott Russell,10 minutes
Get your head wrapped up in plastic and ASCII art with this collection of odd little bits. It's the WarioWare Microgames of personalized video art.

CURIOUS ABOUT EXISTENCE (BC) Emily Vey Duke, 11 minutes
A collection of short episodes incorporating music, animation and live action. The viewer is drawn through a number of divergent narrative worlds. The thread that holds these worlds together is a persistent curiousity about the spiritual and material world and its inhabitants: humans, animals, the laws of nature and so on...

PLAN (BC) Fredrik Thorsen, 12 minutes
A plan to punish an accused rapist goes awry when his guilt falls into doubt.

DEAR PAM (Canada) John D. Scott, 25 minutes
Recent Canadian popular history rests on a series of icons, architectural wonders of bigness that make us seem real to ourselves: Expo '67, the CN tower, West Edmonton Mall. Then there's the latest iconic entry in Canadian history--Pamela Anderson. Arguably the most recognizable woman in the world, she is seen on TV and is the most searched (and found) name on the internet. Canadian iconicity goes global and jiggly. Part fanzine love poem, part experimental bio-pic parody, Dear Pam is a witty and humorous rethinking of Canada by a group of raging 'Pamaholics.

GETTING HEARD
Thu Feb 5 Alix Goolden Hall 7:00 PM

SPEAKING OUT-WOMEN OF UGANDA (Victoria) Peter Campbell, 34 minutes
Reveals the considerable developments in education and gender equity in a country struggling with poverty, disease, and corruption. Ugandan legislation supports women in decision-making roles in both local government and parliament, and women are making significant advances against the challenges set before them. This documentary shows women in many fields and circumstances at the forefront in forging positive society change.

KAWAK IJEN (THE SOLITARY CRATER) (UK) Philip Mulroy, 20 minutes
Kawah Ijen is an active volcano. It is also the site of labour intensive sulphur mining; there is no machinery only a stream of hardy local labourers. A contemporary twist on the myth of Sisyphus, the film follows these miners on their grueling journey-from crater to wage clerk-to ultimately question the ritual of labour.

GERMAN LESSONS (BC) Liz Schulze, 23 minutes
Bernhard Schulze, a charismatic and energetic character, guides his granddaughter Christine through Germany, where they revisit his experiences as a teenaged soldier in the final days of World War II.

INVision: Student Works
Thu Feb 5 Alix Goolden Hall 9:00 PM

Hijos de la Tierra (BC) Nelson Garcia 3 minutes
This prelude to a film, depicts t