Blog - Edmonton International Film Fest 2004
Post-Fest Blog
It's a wrap and I'm pretty satisfied. EIFF 04 was a good one despite the snow. Awesome to have the new international stuff come in. Although I didn't get to see everything, I did see a lot and I had a few favourites of the bunch: Seven Times Lucky, Childstar, Ice Men, Minor Keys, and the Woodsman from the North American section, and Exils, Kontroll and Poem from the international crowd.

I'm just now trying to get through my reviews for all of the ones I saw, including the 5 packages of shorts that I watched. All mostly good and interesting fare.

Blog – Day 6 – Tuesday, October 19

Last night of the festival. Crazy. Only 6 days but seems more like 6 weeks. Including Kontroll which I’m waiting for I’ll have watched 19 films in total, a personal best. That’s an average of about 3 a day. If I had planned better I could’ve gotten them all in including workshops. Getting screenings in pre-fest is the key but also research and planning, you know, mapping the time out. My bad but still pretty good. I’m glad to be leaving the fest on this note. Kontroll is supposed to kick ass. I just watched Exils. Good use of music to progress a story.



Blog – Day 5 – Monday, October 18

Up for the 4th set of international shorts in the CBC series. I missed the second but caught the others. Planning on the Ottawa animated shorts and the Soho Shorts too if I can manage it.

After this there’s Ottawa at 5 pm, then Woodsman at 7 and Seven Times Lucky at 9:30. I feel bad at not catching Bad Education and Five Obstructions during the media screenings last week. They’re on at the same time as the two I’ve got going on tonight and I’m not missing Woodsman for anything.

Good shorts but not all short. The longest was 24 minutes long; the briefest, about 8 minutes. Tran Scan was a good idea that totally weighed down my eyelids. I lost 2 – 3 minutes in there somewhere I think.

Absence of Emily was my favourite but Dim Sum and Maree came close. Stolen Moment was conceptually strong but had trouble keeping my interest. The idea was also not new but well-produced anyway, like a Spielberg film if that means anything to anybody.

Now to the Garneau for the Ottawa animation. Sidewalks are slippery. There are puddles. Cars slide thru stop signs. Pedestrians are on high alert. This is a dangerous festival. I’m not in Edmonton. This is Kabul.

Ottawa ended late. Late, late, late. The program guide listed it as 87 minutes, starting at 5 pm. Should’ve been out by 6:30 at the latest, right? I had to walk out at about 6:48. Just after I left I realized I left my gloves behind so I had to be escorted back just as the lights were coming on and people were filing out. So much for leaving early to save time. Then I had to go a few blocks to my car (thank God I parked close), brush off the new inch of snow and hit it to within 3 blocks of the Princess, find parking if possible and race on foot. I’m a festathlete, I tell you. I got in just as the film was being announced. The Woodsman, the highly praised Kevin Bacon pedophile movie. Kind of like Monster. Very good. A fair insight into a soul haunted by demons. I’m gonna finish tonight up with Seven Times Lucky which should be lighter fare than some others I’ve seen. Lighter probably than 5 Obstructions and Bad Education.

Blog – Day 4 – Sunday, October 17

The Maysles docs were a bit much for me. Somnolescent. I mean well done but the sound on the first (Salesman) was not good although the subjects were pretty fascinating. Grey Gardens was of much better quality but the subjects – an elderly mother and her middle aged daughter living together – are the two most annoying people I’ve even seen on screen


Getting through those sure was an accomplishment for me. These docs are so highly regarded and important examples of early direct cinema. Albert Maysles did some Q&A after of course. He’s done some great work, most notably Gimme Shelter about the troubled Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in 1970. He talked about the kind of projects he’s working on now including another one about Christo, the large artist. It’s taken a couple of decades to put this film together. I think it would be fascinating to do a documentary on Al as he does a documentary on somebody else. You heard it here first. My idea. Someday it will happen and people will flock to it and love it.


The international shorts are definitely international today. Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Spain. Faves were Alice et Moi and Ce N’Etait qu’un reve. Frissons d’etes was mostly good but the ending was so bad it spoiled all that came before it for me.


Next up is Mieko Ouchi’s Minor Keys at 5 pm at the Garneau so I guess I’m walking again. Getting the exercise in. Walking all the way to the Garneau and then walking all the way back to the Princess (where I just came from) to do the Ginger Snaps double bill starting at 7 pm.


Minor Keys is less than an hour long, maybe 55 minutes. I’ve wondered before if that makes it a feature or a short film. Where do you draw the line? Huh? Where do you draw it, punk?


Mieko Ouchi is someone I’ve never met but I do have a connection. Several years ago she did a short called Samurai Swing. Actually pretty good too. I helped sponsor it. She held a fundraising drive at Sidetrack Café one night and asked people to just give money outright to support the project. Doing so earned them a sponsor credit in the film. I put down $20 and now you see my name in lights.

Also Mieko is on the EIFF board. I don’t know if she pulled strings to get her short screened at the EIFF. I never said that.


I should mention the FAVA thing last night. Met some unique individuals and conversed with them on topics both cinematic and social. Attendance was low I guess because of the weather but that’s okay. More brie for me.


Mieko Ouchi’s Minor Keys has a good crowd in attendance. People must be eager to see this doc that’s been in the works for 4 years from what I hear.


I think that the support for the EIFF is having some growing pains. It wants to be so much more and I’m sure that one day it will be but right now maybe it’s the weather keeping people away but an injection of interest from the public is much needed to push and prod people into seats and get that momentum going.


Minor Keys was awesome. A totally absorbing look in the lives of two violin prodigies, their struggles and successes, both personal and professional. It was almost mesmerizing. Of course the hypnotically brilliant music played by the young masters might have had something to do with it.

The ability to brave the weather should merit me a festival prize, especially since it’s getting worse. Not with snow though, just the biting cold. Nasty. Plus I don’t know what the weather will hold for the last 2 days.

Now at the Princess for the Ginger Snaps double feature. Lots of goth horror groupies here. A little too exuberant to fully appreciate the nuances of appropriate theatre behaviour. They’re just excited I guess.


After the shows, all good. Great to see a couple of genre expanding horror movies come out of Canada. Now I think we need a sasquatch gone wild video.

Blog – Day 3 – Saturday, October 16

Snow. A foot of it on my car this morning. Good thing  traffic was light or it totally would’ve sucked since I was running late.

Going to the Princess II for the Demystifying Formats workshop. I’m gonna be early. Go figure.


The workshop was just a bit out of my league as it didn’t take more than a minute for the panelists to get right into technical jargon. I was hoping to use the phrase pan’n’scan in a question but I think they would’ve shone a flashlight at me and escorted me out of the building with much disdain.

Still when one guy brought up Michael Mann’s Collateral, a film that I recently watched and also had a strong opinion of, I seized on that and waited for the right moment to talk with him more about it when all of the highly qualified directors, dps and cinematographers in the audience had left.

There wasn’t a 5 pm screening anywhere so I was kind of stranded for 3 hours after Ice Men. That was an interesting drama about 5 guys who get along but shouldn’t. Too many pent up feelings, unexpressed rages, secrets and lies. It was set at a lake cabin during a deep freeze but that isn’t why they’re called Ice Men. It’s because they like popsicles. And they’re so cold inside.

So afterward I plunked down at an internet café and paid about $10 to surf and drink coffee for an hour. Total ripoff. They didn’t even have skim milk for my joe. Plus the internet wasn’t that great. Bastards. Capitalist pigs. Grrr.

Figured I’d drive around a bit and brush off the car. Snow still flying nice and wet. The organizers changed this fest from March to October so the weather would be milder. Nice cold snap that they didn’t plan on. Mother Nature must have connections with the Vancouver or Toronto IFFs.

Now I’m at the Garneau waiting for the 7 pm start on the Albert Maysles double whammy of documentaries: Salesman and Grey Gardens. Afterward there’s a reception at L’Attitude. I’ve got 3 drink tickets but instead I think I’ll go the FAVA party to mingle.

Blog – Day 2 – Friday, October 15

I hemmed and hawed about the big dilemma – my first here and hopefully last.

Do I go to the special presentation with Deepa Mehta at the Princess, Distant Thunder and Earth, or head downstairs to Princess II and check out the first of the four International Shorts series plus Poem? I did so want to do the former because I watched Mehta’s film Camilla in the theatre ten years ago and it still sticks vividly as a very emotional, impactful film. Powerful, moving performances. That (and this can’t be said very often) and a scene with Bridget Fonda and Jessica Tandy skinny dipping. Now that’s cinema!

Anyhow I took the low road down to Princess II. Going to the shorts series is like seeing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Doesn’t around too often in my life. Also you can watch ten of ‘em in an hour and a half. Something about condensed storytelling that I’d like to learn. And Poem was pretty high on my list. Higher than Earth if you can believe it. So here I am. The Sub-Princess is nicer than I thought it would be. I’ve never been obviously. It’s like a hidden secret, a pleasant surprise.

So it’s Shorts first, then Poem. Afterward I’m trekking 5 blocks west and then another 5 north to the Garneau for Temptress of a Thousand Faces, a cult martial arts film from the Shaw Brothers studio. I’ve never heard of it before but reading about it in the EIFF Guide has my interest piqued. Sounds like a blend of psychedelic Austin Powers with high camp James Bond, with a little Bruce Lee and Kill Bill thrown in the pot as well. Excellent!


International Shorts #1: done! Pretty good for the most part. Had a few faves like Mall Man, Rumpy and Commentary: On. This last one was the best. Very filmic, good use of dvd setup menu features as a format device. Clever. The series ended with Hogtown Blues which told a sad story well. I just wish that it wasn’t the last one because now it’s stuck in my head when Rumpy would have been more appropriate considering the chilly October evening 2 weeks from Hallowe’en.

I’m waiting for Poem and I’m in the front row because I need to stretch my legs. You cannot do that anywhere else in P II but here.


I just realized another conflict brewing for the last night of the fest. Tuesday evening at 8:00 is the closing gala presentation of Dear Frankie which the program has deemed not to be missed. That’s almost 2 hours long which takes it till 10. Then, of course, at 9:30 in a theatre more than 7 blocks away is Kontroll. Someone in the EIFF office advised me that I should go see it for the energy. She said it was like Run Lola Run which I haven’t seen yet but plan to. I hear it’s about a woman who runs. A woman named Lola.


Poem was a challenge. It was of average length but seemed longer, like 3 hours longer. I nodded off a little near the end but happy that I stayed through the credits to see the army of blue naked men have a paint war with the army of red naked women. Not something you see everyday.

One note on Poem. Beautiful language, that German. It can be soft, lilting, lulling, amazingly lush and romantic with one voice, and then turn into a guttural, visceral, hypnotic Hitler speech with the next. Amazing. My appreciation has improved for it.

Another note: I feel like writing a poem. Just not here.


The real surprise came when the movie let out and there was the cold wind and rain waiting for us at street level. A bit of October to bite at your heels and blow through your clothes. Ouch.

Now I’m at the Garneau awaiting the 11:30 start of Temptress. I think that this is the right way to do a festival: see some shorts, a couple of features, domestic, international, whatever. Get the heavy stuff in with the light but end on a fun note, especially if it’s after midnight. I hope that Temptress pays off in that way for me. It better if I’m getting home at 2 a.m.

Here’s a thought: when was the last time I saw 3 movies in one day at an actual theatre? When did I last see a midnight flick? Actually, not that long ago. Hmmm.

Blog – Day 1 – Thursday, October 14

I’m just at the Princess Theatre now, a wedding cake of a movie hall if you’ve ever been in one. I got seated early, and I’m just waiting for Childstar to start. This is my first opportunity to kind of gauge the festival and plan things out. I know I won’t get to see as many films as I would like but I’ll do what I can and it’ll have to do.

I walked over from the gala reception at the Varscona Hotel. Did I arrive there late? Yes but still you’d think that there’d be more than 15 people milling about. Okay it was just me milling. Others were in small herds conversing with the passions and inflections that you’d expect from this kind of community.

Oh hey, Don McKellar’s here. That’s cool but I’m just not sure what to do with this information. Do I just walk right up and shake his hand? Wait till there’s a pause in whatever he’s talking about to whomever he’s talking about it and then awkwardly announce that I love his work as a writer, director and actor, blahem mug parfingla. He’ll look at me with a look I’ve seen him give in several movies, kind of a stunned, stuttery alien look and say, “oh, uh, thank you. Thanks, I guess.” I’ll feel sufficiently stupid in front of this industry crowd for having committed the sin of fawning when I should be asking pertinent pointed questions. It’s almost a curse to be media at a film fest. Maybe I’ll hold the slather and drool until I have a more private moment with Monsieur M.

It is nice to see a pretty decent crowd at the Princess though. I’ve never been to a film festival let alone been a media rep at one so I have really no idea what to expect. I do have a strong belief that the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) will not be as large an event as say the Vancouver IFF, or the Calgary IFF, or the Toronto IFF. But even compared to other EIFFs from previous years, I haven’t a clue.


I’ve looked through the first few days of the film fest’s calendar and I’ve circled a bunch for my to do list. I only got to the early screening of p.s. last week so that’s one down, 40 to go. I’ll be happy if I can get 15 in but even that might not happen. I remain hopeful.

Childstar is tonight, McKellar’s film. Obviously I’m big on McKellar. I wanted to get in CQ2 and The Green Butchers tonight but they won’t happen. I can’t be everywhere, do everything.

Tomorrow is the Deepa Mehta special presentation. She’ll be showing her film Earth and Distant Thunder by Satyajit Ray. It’s a toss up for me because at the same time I’m hoping to get in the 4 part series of International Shorts starting at the exact same time. What to do, what to do?

I can’t be at the Word to Screen workshop thing going on Friday morning either. My loss. I’ll probably get in Poem at 9:00 pm and then Temptress of a Thousand Faces at 11:00 pm. I know there’s a scheduling issue here. Must resolve this before it’s too late.


After Childstar. Good show. Dark but uplifting. Sombre but happy. Joyful. I liked it. Lots of wry humour as you’d expect. Had to wait 5 minutes just shake Don’s hand and thank him for making thoughtful movies that I enjoy watching and learning from.

There was an interesting reception at the Legion a block away. Because of all the photo wanters, autograph hunters, and handshakers (me), Don M.  was just about the last to get in.

What did I expect? I don’t know. A bunch of awkward, weird rough hewn Canadians dressed like my parents talking about the lack of hockey and the up and down weather we’ve been having lately.

Instead there’s a string quartet playing the hits. They just did Coldplay; now something classical; now the Beatles. Free food available plus my media pass got me a free drink. I got no complaints, man.



Links
Edmonton International Film Fest
IMDb
Metro Cinema
Princess and Garneau Theatres
C'est Moi
Name: Scott Hayes
Email: scofrahay@hotmail.com