Recycle, Rob & Report

Waste Land (2010, Brazil/UK, Lucy Walker)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

That beauty can be a woman or a stunning painting. Or it could be a pile of garbage. Or it could be all of those things put together.

Luck Walker's wonderful documentary follows Vik Muniz on his quest to transform objects from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill located in Rio de Janeiro, into a work of art. The first images that he encounters in Jardim Gramacho are large piles of garbage but once Vik interacts with some fascinating garbage pickers, then the mountains of garbage fade into the background and the pickers take center stage. Vik's interactions with the garbage pickers enable some of his artistic ideas to take hold. However, Vik's goal is not to do the art on his own but he wants to involve the workers. Also, he plans to donate the money from the art sales to improve the worker's lives. As a result, his artistic collaborations has the potential to transform the lives of some of the garbage pickers. Waste Land is a beautiful touching film that gives voice to people ignored by society and also provides plenty of life changing ideas especially around garbage generation and recycling.

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Inside Job (2010, USA, Charles Ferguson)

The art work pictured above in Waste Land ends being sold for 28,000 pounds at an auction where we don't see all the buyers but instead see their proxies following instructions via phone. Considering that there are paintings which are sold in this auction for more than a few million dollars, 28,000 is a drop in the bucket. But who are some of the people who can afford to buy such expensive works?

In Charles Ferguson's engaging Inside Job we get a glimpse of some people who have the luxury to throw millions at a single painting. Such rich people are never satisfied with just one expensive painting. They want to acquire more. For that they need money. Lots of it. And in that greed for generating money for personal benefit, they will go to great lengths, even at times at the expense of others. Such greed certainly contributed to the economic crisis of 2008. Yet, it would be too easy to blame the greed in the 2008 crisis on bankers and financial employees alone. The average person should also be held accountable for wanting to spend beyond their means. What if the average person didn't get a sub-prime mortgage? In the long run that unsigned deal would have meant one less foreclosure. On the other hand, there were cases when the average person was not greedy but just didn't know what they were getting themselves into. Inside Job gives one example of a couple who didn't speak English and signed up for a quick initial low interest mortgage to get their dream house but were then shocked to discover the real monthly payment amounts once the low interest period ended.

Inside Job lays out the step-by-step process by which banks and financial companies committed the ultimate heist. By documenting this robbery, Ferguson's film may be the only sense of justice for some people because the men who committed the financial crimes will get away with their wealth intact. In the film, the people responsible for dismantling the regulations are named yet these people are widely respected in American universities and media. You can be sure in a few years, some of these same people will be hailed as legends. The banks will always be bailed out and bonuses will never go away in the financial sector. And the huge bonuses will continue to be spent on bigger houses, cars, yachts, drugs and prostitutes. Some people are addicted to drugs while others are addicted to bonuses and financial rewards. If there are no laws to keep a check on irregular financial dealings, then financial fraud will continue.

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Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country (2008, Denmark co-production, Anders Østergaard)

As documented in Inside Job, the people who questioned the rash financial policies in America were ignored and their words were drowned out by "intelligent" men. If the truth can be plainly ignored in a democracy and financial crimes can still be committed, then one can only imagine how much crime can be committed in a nation where no truth is ever reported. Burma VJ chillingly shows how in a dictatorship reporting images of a peaceful march can be a matter of life and death. Like Inside Job, Burma VJ provides the background story to events that unfolded on television sets around the world. The images of thousands of monks marching on a street were widely seen on tv but the entire process of how those images made it out of Burma was not completely known.

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We are supposed to be living in an age of instant information and round the clock news. But the news only seems to report events after they happen. And even then, most media outlets hardly seem to scratch the surface and dig deep to uncover the true story. There are some journalists who have freedom to write the truth but in most cases, one has to wait to read the full story until the journalists publish their books. So in this sense documentaries such as Inside Job and Burma VJ do an excellent job of filling a giant journalistic gap by providing details that often don't get reported via the global media.

Chinese Cinema

The only requirement for a spotlight on recent Chinese cinema was that the selections should be mostly documentaries. With that in mind, I put down Wang Bing immediately as I had wanted to see his works for almost 2 years now. I slowly opened the gates to allow 2 non documentaries to flow through but one of these films, Oxhide, blurs the line between documentary and fiction. The only true narrative film Sun Spots has minimal dialogue and plenty of long takes so it felt right at home with the other films which offered plenty of contemplative moments.

Film List

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003, Wang Bing)
Oxhide (2005, Jiayin Liu)
He Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (2007, Wang Bing)
Crime and Punishment (2007, Zhao Liang)
Sun Spots (2009, Heng Yang)

Wang Bing

I was first alerted to Wang Bing's potential via a magnificent article by Robert Koehler in Cinema Scope. Koehler asks of Wang Bing's first film West of the Tracks: "is there a more sublime debut in recent history?"

I cannot answer that question as I still have many recent debut features to go through but I can assert that his 2003 film is indeed a "sublime debut". The film, divided in three parts, is shot in North Eastern China and requires an investment of 9 hours from its viewers but it rewards those patient viewers with plenty of riches. I like to label his film as a pure documentary where the camera patiently records everything in sight and allows viewers to listen in to all the daily noises while leaving plenty of room for them to draw their own conclusions.

The first part (Rust) is almost 4 hours long and is the pick of the bunch. The camera moves freely and shows the workers in their everyday factory surrounding and captures them as they go about their daily tasks or takes a peak into the workers break area and locker room. As a result, the film allows us to get to know each person a bit better thereby adding depth to each person's personality. We understand their views a bit better and are not surprized to see them behave the way they do. Also, Wang Bing smartly places his camera either at table height or at eye level, thereby giving the impression that the viewer is either seated at the worker’s table or is standing in one corner of the room looking at the different people walking in and out.

Part II: Remnants moves the camera away from the factories into the worker's residential quarters. Since the factories are in the process of going bankrupt and shutting down, the workers will have to be relocated as their factory provided houses will be torn down. Watching a neighbourhood in the process of destruction feels similar to Costa's In Vanda's Room which captured the demolition of the Fontainhas slums. The one difference between In Vanda’s Room and West of the Tracks is that while Costa confined himself mostly to just one room, Wang Bing wanders through multiple alleys and homes giving us a more complete picture and impact of the destruction. We also get to see the laid off worker's kids and observe how their lives will be altered by the factory shutdowns. Part III: Rail perfectly ties the film together with its comparatively brief 2 hour running time. We get to board the railcars and are introduced to the workers that drive the trains to and from the factories. This final segment allows us to piece together all the lives that are dependent on the factories existence giving us a full sense of impact the plant shutdowns will have on the nearby surroundings.

A truly impressive debut film that works hard to give a complete picture of the factories and workers that once kept an economy moving!!

Wang Bing completely switches gears with Fengming. The film’s opening shot follows He Fengming up to her apartment through a snowy pathway. The initial sequence feels like a shot straight out of West of the Tracks. However, once the camera enters the apartment, it stays stationary for almost the next 3 hours and does not leave the apartment. There are almost no close-ups for at least the first hour of the film and the camera only slightly moves back and forth a few times during the film's duration. The stationary camera might have been a handicap but He Fengming's story is so powerful and engaging that one soon forgets the boundary between the screen and He Fengming. The viewer is like a guest seated in her apartment listening to her tragic story in complete detail. This guest perspective is emphasized by two examples -- bathroom break and the sunset. When He Fengming has to take a bathroom break, the camera stays stationary giving the impression that the seated viewer is indeed patiently waiting for her to return. During the first hour, the sun slowly sets and darkness gradually starts to make its way into the apartment, only for He Fengming to get up and turn on the light before proceeding with the story. These two examples appear to take place in real time and only add to the illusion that the viewer is listening to the story in one continuous evening.

The Spotlight almost turned into a one man show with 12+ hours of film by Wang Bing and a further two films (Coal Mine and the short film Brutality Factory) up for inclusion but I decided to put off a separate spotlight on the director until I viewed his first fictional film The Ditch which premiered at Venice and TIFF and is currently playing in Montreal. Ofcourse, I would like to see his 14 hour documentary A Journey of Crude Oil but a DVD release is surely out of question, or is it? Over to IFFR to see if their Tiger Release DVD label will oblige.

Still staying in North Eastern China..snow and law

Police enforce laws. Citizens break laws.

Sounds simple enough. But what if the laws aren't fair? What if the laws impede people's everyday lives? These are some of the questions that pop up in Crime and Punishment as Zhao Liang's camera observes the everyday routines of the border police as they try to enforce laws, arrest and question thieves/criminals/law violators. Sometimes the criminals do not cooperate and that leads to usage of force by the officers. On two occasions, the camera was asked to be turned off after a beating started and the audience can easily guess what happened next. The camera spends enough time observing each arrested individual and that method allows one to question if the arrested person is guilty or innocent. In one case, we get an example of a person, Old man Wang, who clearly knows that he has violated the law but is trying his level best to find any wiggle room that he can.

The movie has shades of the fascinating documentary Checkpoint which showed that sometimes the job of enforcing laws isn't that clear cut. Checkpoint showed that if there are laws which disrupt people's lives and make it difficult for individuals to move about, then surely there will be situations where people will either break the law or not respect the law altogether. Crime and Punishment picks up on this idea and shows that if the law is not going to be respected, then there will be cases where police officers enforcing the law will be abused. Abusing police seems to be the first and most accessible step in defying the law. Yet, those abusing the police can end up making lives difficult for themselves especially if the police officers retaliate thereby leading the troubled citizens down a horrible cycle of crime and punishment.

At the end of the credits in Crime and Punishment one of the people thanked is Wang Bing. It wouldn't be surprizing if two directors exchanged notes as both of them shot their first films in the North Eastern part of China.

Restricting space vs opening up space / darkness vs bright light

Oxhide

Jiayin Liu's remarkable tactic of shooting in a darkened confined space perfectly illustrates the living conditions in her parent’s apartment. The restricted camera angles depict the tiny size of the apartment while the lack of lighting indicate that her parents don’t have enough money for electricity or that they don’t get running power for long durations. It is a fascinating experiment to illustrate lack of physical space by squeezing out space in front of the camera thereby invoking a disorienting claustrophobic effect in the viewer.

After a while, the family’s situation is apparent and we learn enough about the dynamics in the household. Oxhide shares a cinematic space with Pedro Costa’s In Vanda’s Room. In both cases, the directors form a solo crew and carefully control their environment and only feed us information in pieces (be it is visual or audio) as per their choices. However, Costa was restricted in his choices because he only had a few hours to shoot in the slum every day. Whereas, Jiayin Liu was not as restricted yet chose to be. Also, Costa had no choice but to shoot in a darkened and restricted space but he was able to get some light for his shots by using broken mirrors and other objects as reflectors because he wanted his character’s faces to be visible. On the other hand, Jiayin Liu wants us to get a sense of her parents living situation and does not want much light to filter in the frame.

Oxhide gives out bits of information to the viewer in tiny increments and that makes for a satisfying conclusion when all the pieces are put together after carefully listening in to all conversations.

Sun Spots

In a complete contrast to Oxhide, Heng Yang opens up space in front of the camera in his second feature Sun Spots. His camera stays still and absorbs everything in front of the brightly lit settings. Slowly, objects and humans enter the frame and gradually leave but the camera stays still. There are no pans and no cuts during each fixed shot.

In Sun Spots, the breathtaking background of mountains/rivers provides a peaceful, calm setting while the characters saunter into the frame. The gangster and love triangle story is also a fascinating experiment about how a lot can be conveyed with as little as possible. The dialogues are sparse yet the character's body language depicts enough of their behavior to follow the chain of events. Finally, the decision to shoot in HD gives the film a beautiful richer than life quality.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this was an immensely enjoyable spotlight with all 5 works falling neatly into the contemplative cinema category. Each work requires an investment from the viewer and also leaves plenty of fodder for the viewer to draw their own conclusions.

fade to white...and then pitch dark....

It was almost ten years ago that I first heard about Jose Saramago’s book Blindness. By then, I had read his The History of the Siege of Lisbon. Even though the core concept of ..Siege of Lisbon was interesting (how adding a single word in a novel could alter the historic meaning), I was baffled by Saramago’s writing style which consisted of sentences spanning multiple pages and not separated by any periods. Plus there were no quotes for a conversation between characters as their words were separated by commas. This meant that I could not stop at just any place in the middle of my reading and had to continue on for another 50 pages or so before a natural stoppage appeared. In a way, this style is good because it ensures that the reader is fully engaged and forced to read each word slowly lest they lose track of things. But on the other hand, this style does make for an exhausting read. Shortly after I finished reading the book, Saramago won the Nobel Prize in Literature and his other books gained popularity. And Blindness was a title that popped up quite a bit in conversations with friends. It turned out that the book’s popularity spread in an infectious manner, just like the blindness disease in the book, and most people around me swore of the book’s greatness and urged me to read it. Unfortunately, since I was exhausted after reading The History of the Siege of Lisbon I was not in any mood to tackle another book written with endless sentences.

And that was that. Then three years earlier, I found Blindness in a book sale and decided to finally buy it. Unfortunately after repeated tries, I couldn’t make it past page 150. I had hoped to finish the book before Fernando Meirelles’ film version was released but I gave up and decided to watch the film instead. Oddly, the first 30 minutes of the film were quite painful to view as having known the story, there was no mystery and everything appeared quite superficial and poorly done. The film did eventually become interesting when the dark savage human nature was exposed. Still, I was left with mixed feelings regarding the film. Reading the book, one can conjure up their own visual path while objectively following the character's plight. But the problem with the film adaptation is Fernando Meirelles’ attempts to impose a visual style (example: having multiple shots of the blurred white vision the characters have) thereby wanting the audiences to experience the characters disorientation. As a result, the film is caught between a visual style which does not integrate well with the depiction of the characters. I felt the strongest aspect of the film is near the end when the visual style is temporarily suspended and we observe the savage humans at work. We observe how morality can be easily dropped within a mob when individuals either find comfort & a safe haven in their group or get a fake sense of power when encouraged by a thug. In a way, the latter part of the film makes for a character study to observe humans at their worst akin to Philip George Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment documented in his book The Lucifer Effect. But even if the visual style of Blindness was dropped in the editing room and the film became a pure character study, it would still pale in comparison to the intense German film The Experiment. While The Experiment is based on Mario Giordano’s book, it is loosely inspired by the Stanford prison experiment and shows how humans either conform or rebel against roles they are thrown in.

Saramago does not explain the blindness disease in the book because he is more interested in studying the human condition. In that regard the blindness is a hook to get people isolated together so that Saramago can conduct his Stanford prison like experiment. Although, Saramago’s experiment is not a study of pure blindness as the characters contain a woman who can see and a man who was born blind thereby making him more aware of situations around him. Not having finished the book, I can’t comment on how rich his story is but besides the visual style, there is nothing original in the film – the characters act as one would expect them to given the situations. There are some who take a power role and demand things from others while some easily become the victims. Then there are the rebels who want to fight. Sure one can say aspects of the story hold up a mirror to our society when some rules are taken away. But these aspects could be studied in other ways and not by infecting characters with a mysterious blindness.

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It was by pure coincidence that after I finished watching Blindness I saw Errol Morris’ documentary Standard Operating Procedure. Morris’ film looks at the incidents of abuse that took place at Abu Ghraib and is a real life horrific case study in the manner of the Stanford prison experiment. In fact, Philip George Zimbardo talks about Abu Ghraib in his book The Lucifer Effect because he was asked to testify in the courts regarding one of the soldiers involved in those sick acts.

Standard Operating Procedure is a visually sharp film that allows the audience to make up their own minds regarding the incidents. Morris ensures his camera lingers on the soldier’s faces a bit longer than usual and lets them naturally open up. There are plenty of instances where Morris shifts his camera’s position (either to the left or right) as the soldiers talk thereby ensuring we take the soldiers words with a grain of salt – did the soldiers act on their own? Or were they just following orders?

The outcry from the prison pictures ensured that the soldiers who were seen doing things in the pictures were the only ones accused. But Morris shows that there were other personnel standing outside the frame who were also guilty but were spared. And no one seems to be talking about the setup of the prison and the interrogation procedures as they contributed to the abuse. This is where Philip George Zimbardo's work is important as he talks about the environmental conditions that play a factor in tranforming people from good to evil behaviour. But people don't want to listen to that either. They just want to get rid of the "bad apples" so that they can get on with their happy lives. Blindness & The Lucifer Effect do show how most people can become those "bad apples" given the circumstances but our current society is more interested in blaming individuals rather than studying the overall situations that cause individuals to act in certain ways.

Blindness and Standard Operating Procedure do make a dark double bill of sorts – they depict humanity at its worst and the combined crimes from both films range from rape, sexual abuse to murder. In Blindness everyday people mutate into villains while in Standard Operating Procedure it is the military that resorts to evil.

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Ratings out of 10

Blindness: 6.5

Standard Operating Procedure: 9

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On another note: the events in Abu Ghraib are predicted in Jon Ronson’s hilarious yet dark book Men who Stare at Goats, a soon to be made film. In Men who Stare at Goats we learn about some of the techniques used to disorient Iraqi prisoners so that they would talk. In one case, the prisoners were trapped in dark shipping containers with strobe lights keeping them awake along with loud blaring music of the Barney song (yes the purple dinosaur) repeatedly played. What kind of demented torture technique is this? But this is just a minor torture technique as opposed to the other truly sick ones that have been going on for decades yet the public is blissfully unaware. So when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out, people just wanted closure by punishing those in the pictures as opposed to questioning the entire setup that has encouraged such acts for decades.

Dispatches from VIFF

Cinema, Cafes, Crêpes, Curry, Beer and plenty of rain:

24 films in 6 days!! That total is even more remarkable considering I only started with two films on Day 1 and only viewed a single entry on my last day. I missed out on a further 10 days of the festival which would have enabled me to catch even more vintage films. For now, 6 rain soaked cinematic days was a perfect tonic.

Day 1: The journey starts:

5 am. Quiet, silent sleepy city. The drive from Calgary to Vancouver took a shade under 10 hours because of the lack of traffic encountered leaving that early in the morning. A few snow flurries on the way, some rain but other than that, it was smooth driving. Luckily, I was not the one behind the wheel as my good friend drove me to the promised film land.





Two films -- Silence vs Noise, Inner vs External conflict:

Films seen:

In Memory of Myself (2007, Italy, Director: Saverio Costanzo)

Soo (South Korea, 2007, Director: Sai Yoichi)

7 pm: I could not have picked a more difficult movie to start my film experience with. The Italian film In Memory of Myself is set inside a monastery and shows a man's (Andrea) struggle to give up the outside world for a life in religion. The long silent takes allows one to fully contemplate the spiritual difficulties Andrea is going through. A captivating film that forces one to think about the relevance of a life spent in devotion to religion.

Soo on the other hand is the complete opposite of In Memory of Silence. The first few minutes of the film offer some quiet before the loud car crashes, bullet firing, slicing, dicing and chopping take place. The film clearly has been influenced from Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance but Park Chan-wook's films have a solid framework within perfectly encapsulates the violence. Whereas, in Soo the needless scenes of killings reduce the film's dramatic impact and end up turning the movie into a cartoon where the bad guys refuse to die despite being sliced in half and shot multiple times. The story of a brother avenging his twin's murder has been covered before as well.

Day 2: 5 films, Asian delight:

Films seen:

Times and Winds (Turkey, 2006, Director: Reha Erdem)

Slingshot (Philippines, 2007, Director: Brillante Mendoza)

Ploy (Thailand, 2007, Director: Pen-ek Ratanaruang)

Foster Child (Philippines, 2007, Director: Brillante Mendoza)

Secret Sunshine (South Korea, 2007, Director: Lee Chang-Dong)

All 5 films were very good but the two Mendoza films are simply outstanding. Both films are shot in a verite documentary style outlining everyday life in the shanty slumps of Philippines. Slingshot depicts how corrupt politics can thrive on the backbone of poverty while the slum residents struggle to make a living. Foster Child looks at foster families not only in Philippines but how such families inter-relate with their American counterparts.

Tony Rayns along with Brillante Mendoza:




The films are remarkably shot with the camera smoothly flowing between long shots and close-ups. The visual style seems even more impressive considering that Slingshot and Foster Child took about 11 and 12 days in shooting time respectively, which is just an incredible feat as the films were shot in location in tight quarters of a real slums. In the Q&A session, Mendoza mentioned that he and his crew found a way to integrate some of the actors with the slum residents to produce such free flowing films. I could not help but think of Jeffrey Jeturian's brilliant The Bet Collector (Kubrador) which is shot in a similar manner in a slum. As film critic and VIFF programmer Tony Rayns highlighted that it is truly remarkable that one person managed to make two such outstanding films in one year!

The day got off to a very good start with the Turkish film Times and Winds. A beautiful film which looks at simple village life during different times of day and through the passage of seasons. The film mainly focuses on three children and how they learn to adapt to the changing world around them.

In between the two Mendoza films is another balanced work from Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Even though Christopher Doyle has not shot this film like Ratanaruang's previous efforts (Last Life in the Universe, Invisible Waves), the visual images (shot by Charnkit Chamniwikaipong) still convey the cool bluish tint as Doyle's previous collaborations with Ratanaruang did. The main story of Ploy revolves around a marriage in a flux and takes place mostly in a hotel room. Like his previous films, a touch of murder hovers over the film but it is far more delicate than in his older ventures. What is interesting this time around is that Pen-ek Ratanaruang blurs the line between reality and dreams as each character's dreams are spliced with the cinematic reality that is taking place. Initially, the dreams and reality may seem confusing but gradually it becomes easier to distinguish between what is fabricated and what really is happening.

The night ended with a well tuned Korean flick, Secret Sunshine. The film starts out with a single mother, Shin-ae(Jeon Do-yeon) moving to Miryang (the town name translates to secret sunshine) with her younger son. Shin-ae is shown to be carefree and some of her decisions lead to tragic incidents. This is where the film takes us on a roller coaster of a journey as we literally see her character break down on screen. The acting is fabulous and no wonder Jeon Do-yeon was awarded as best actress in Cannes. Even when we think that her character might get some hope, events happen which shake her foundation and leave her in a worse situation than she found herself in to begin with. To director Lee Chang-Dong's credit, he has included the wonderful character of Jong Chan (Song Kang-Ho) in the story. No matter what the situation is, Jong offers support to Shin-ae and as a result provides a positive ray of light in her otherwise dark life -- he is the counter balance to all the negativity that takes place in the film.

Day 3: 6 films + 1 short, Documentary galore

Films seen:

The Man from London (France/Germany/Hungary, 2007, Director: Béla Tarr)

Drowned in Oblivion (Belgium/France, 2006, Director: Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd)

My Winnipeg (Canada, 2007, Director: Guy Maddin)

Keepers of Eden (USA, 2007, Director: Yoram Porath)

The Counterfeiters (Austria/Germany, 2007, Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky)

Useless (China, 2007, Director: Jia Zhangke)

Our Ten Years (China , 2006, 9 min, Director: Jia Zhangke)

The short running time (approx 80-85 minutes) of three docs (Drowned in Oblivion, My Winnipeg and Keepers of Eden) allowed me to pack in 4 films before 5 pm. Although, watching these movies involved plenty of rushed walks between the Empire 7 Granville theaters to the Pacific Cinematheque. Overall, it was a good balanced film day which covered a few different genres and story ideas.

Béla Tarr's The Man from London is a stylish black and white film with a touch of noirish elements. The film is too gorgeous to remove one eye's from even for a minute and the leisurely moving camera ensures we soak up every element within the frame. Although, I preferred Tarr's previous film Werckmeister Harmonies because in that movie the tension kept mounting until a chaotic climax. Whereas, in The Man from London very early on the clock starts ticking down to an expected climax after a man recovers a mysterious brief case of money.

The Belgian documentary Drowned in Oblivion is the story about a group of men captured and tortured during Mauritania in the 1980's. The men narrate their experiences while the camera shows us black and white images of the path via which the men were captured and eventually tortured. This simple tactic of showing us the locations from where the men were taken hostage while their voices in the background describe the experiences allows us to fully grasp the horror of their situation.

I never lived in Winnipeg but lived in a small town 1 hour from Manitoba's capital. Going to Winnipeg was a big thing in those days because it was the big happening city. Over the years, I have returned to Winnipeg a few times and I always find myself relieved to leave the city. So with those sentiments in mind, I found Guy Maddin's poetic documentary My Winnipeg quite funny. The film contains some typical Canadian humour which could relate to other Canadian cities as well. Minus the sleep-walking though. And, yes the winter in Winnipeg was brutal. So I can understand Maddin's repeated urge to leave the city as that was something I often found myself saying while walking bundled in the freezing cold streets.

There have been a handful of documentaries in recent years that have showed the exploitation of natural resources in South America. Keepers of Eden goes a step further and shows the environmental damage that results when oil companies have free reign over land development. The footage of oil corrupted rivers and land is nauseating as are the scenes of the locals bodies infected by the presence of petroleum in their water supply. Such films are relevant as they help bring to light issues otherwise ignored by the media.

The Counterfeiters is a well made film about a forger who made plenty of money while producing counterfeit currency during World War II. After the Nazis imprison him in a concentration camp, he is forced to produce fake American and British currency to help in the Nazis quest to destroy their enemies economies.

I was looking forward to Jia Zhangke's documentary Useless and it does not disappoint. But before the film I found a real treat in Jia Zhangke's short film Our Ten Years. In a few minutes, Jia Zhangke manages to show how the progress of time may not eliminate loneliness but leads to the disappearance of art thanks to advances in technology.

Useless looks at clothing in china through three avenues, clothing industry who manufacture the same clothes at a rapid pace, a fashion designer who strives to create unique clothing and the individuals who tailor clothes designed to fit an individual. We are also given a beautiful look at clothes without a human body and even the naked body without any clothes. Such poetic shots only highlight the relevance of clothes in some people's lives.

Day 4: Music and the pursuit of women

Films seen:

Great World of Sound (USA, 2006, Director: Craig Zobel)

Help Me Eros (Taiwan, 2007, Director: Lee Kang-sheng)

The Girl Cut in Two (France, 2007, Director: Claude Chabrol)

Dans la ville de Sylvia & Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia (Spain, 2007, Director: José Luis Guerin)

The day started off with a pleasant surprize in the form of Great World of Sound. I had no idea what to expect from this film but it is a satiric look at a small American music producing studio. We came across young men trained to be music producers in search of raw talent but the film shows how these men are encouraged to act more like car salesmen, only looking to extract money from eager musicians.

I was eager to see Help Me Eros. The movie is directed by Lee Kang-sheng whose plays the lead in most of Tsai Ming-liang's movies. I was curious to see how Lee Kang-sheng would do on his own. But unfortunately, the film still carries a huge stamp of Tsai Ming-liang (who produced this film). Lee Kang-sheng plays a more confident version of the same character seen in Tsai Ming-liang's films. His character is still lonely and suicidal but is more bolder and reckless -- he picks up hookers with ease and is not afraid to take risks with his money. The difference in the character is evident from the sex scenes which are much more adventurous than the ones in The Wayward Cloud. Although, there is an awkward self-gratification scene included in the movie which really should have been left out. But as uncomfortable as that scene is, its presence highlights the loneliness of a female character and the lengths she would go to satisfy herself.

The Girl Cut in Two is a refreshing and entertaining film that looks at the complicated relationship between men and women. The first hour is playful as we see the sexual games between the male and female characters. Even though the film takes on a serious tone after the hour mark, it is an engaging watch.

The ghosts of Sylvia -- the two films of José Luis Guerin

Three pics of Guerin (center):





The highlight of the night had to be the two Guerin films. Simple yet beautiful! Dans la ville de Sylvia looks at a man's return to the city where he met the lovely Sylvia 6 years ago. It is clear that the man is haunted by memories of Sylvia as he seems to encounter her ghost in every female he comes across. Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia is a collection of black and white pictures mixed with text which shows how Guerin's film developed.

While Dans la ville de Sylvia is like a short story, Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia is a personal travel diary which contains Guerin's thoughts, feelings and photos. Vancouver was lucky enough to have the world premier of Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia and before the film was shown, Guerin mentioned that he was hesitant to show this to a public because it was such a personal work. After watching the film, it is clear why Guerin was a bit cautious. fotos really gives an insight into his mind as he muses about women, literature and even managed to capture some of them in pictures.

Both films are equally enjoyable on their own but are connected in an inseparable way as well. In Dans la ville de Sylvia the man keeps a diary about Sylvia. We only get a full look into this diary in fotos while Dans la ville de Sylvia transforms the still fotos into a moving picture. But the entire film Dans la ville de Sylvia can be found within fotos whereas, we only get a brief look into the fotos diary in Dans la ville de Sylvia. In that sense, fotos is a larger work while Dans la ville de Sylvia is only a subset of the complex world of Guerin's Sylvia. It is hard to say which I prefer -- Dans la ville de Sylvia is a rich visual work while fotos is a living breathing photo journal. So if I am in the mood for some graphic literature, I would opt for fotos but if I want pure visual imagery, then I would go with ville.


Day 5: Lust and border crossings

Films seen:

Euphoria (Russia, 2006, Director: Ivan Vyrypaev)

Bad Habits (Mexico, 2007, Director: Simón Bross)

The Duchess of Langeais (France, 2007, Director: Jacques Rivette)

Sounds of Sand (Belgium, 2006, Director: Marion Hänsel)

Import Export (Austria/France, 2007, Director: Ulrich Seidl)

Simplicity won out again. The story of the Russian filmEuphoria could not be more simple -- an affair and a husband's quest for revenge against his wife and her lover. But pulsating and lively music combined with breath-taking visuals made this film such a delightful experience. If the characters were not speaking Russian, one could have mistaken the plain farmlands to be that of Saskatchewan.

Bad Habits is an interesting look at a few characters who lust for food and sex. We see a nun who can't control her urges for sinful cakes and pastries while a little girl can't stop herself from having desserts. The little girl's mother suffers from anorexia and tries to force her daughter to lose weight. While the husband can't fight his urge for sex.

Even though I knew that The Duchess of Langeais would be completely different from all the films I saw at the festival, I could not ignore this work by Rivette. As expected, the film contains perfect performances and impressive set design. But I can't see the relevance of this film in this day and age. The film focused on the sexual games between the countess and the general, something which has been covered enough times before. The political games that I am sure existed in Balzac's book are not even mentioned.

Sounds of Sand is the story of an African family's journey across the sub-Saharan desert in search of water and a better life. Along the way, they come across hostile gangs on either side of the border who have no hesitation in firing bullets or kidnaping people. There are some amazing visuals of the barren white sanded deserts of Djibouti.

Import Export vs Edge of Heaven:

Import Export is an engaging look at the lives of two characters who cross the border to make a living -- Olga leaves Ukraine for Austria while an unemployed Austrian youth heads to find some work in Ukraine. The film is shot in a documentary style which gives realism to many of the sequences. But I can't talk of this movie without thinking about Fatih Akin's Edge of Heaven. Both Cinema Scope (Issue 31) and Cineaste (Fall Issue) compared the two films and trashed Edge of Heaven. The two articles complained about Akin's screenplay and lack of subtleness. Now some of the criticism is justified. Akin's film is too neat and tidy with the screenplay appearing to tie all the loose ends appropriately. Also, in many scenes, Akin makes sure the camera turns back on a spot again just to ensure the audience didn't miss the obvious. Yes, this is not subtle. But neither is Ulrich Seidl's film. In Import Export, Seidl keeps the camera focused in between a woman's leg in the internet porn office. We know what happens in this office and we didn't need to see all the detailed shots of women going about their business.Ulrich Seidl has shot his sequences without much dialogue in a verite style. But he has purposely included sequences which push the poverty and helplessness of the character (for example, the choice of jobs that Olga gets helps one to sympathize with her). So his screenplay can also be considered manipulative.

While Import Export is a distanced cold look at the struggles of people in two countries, Edge of Heaven is an emotional look at the connections between two nations. Import Export starts with life and ends with death. Seidl makes sure the last words we hear before the screen fades to black is "death". The manner with which the film ends with such a word is clearly contrived. But in Edge of Heaven death is never shown at the end yet it is clearly implied. Akin ensures that the film ends on a poetic note which is in keeping with the emotional focus of his film. Whereas, Seidl's film is emotionless -- it starts and ends in utter coldness. I prefer both movies and liked what each director did. I just can't put one movie down compared to the other as both films approach their topics in completely different manners.


Day 6: Final day:

I only planned one early morning movie (10 am) before catching my flight in the afternoon. And it was a perfect choice to end the festival with. Abdullah Oguz's Turkish film Bliss is a wonderful shot love story set against the backdrop of honor and old traditions.


Film Ratings and Preferred movies:

The quality of most movies was such that ratings seem meaningless. There were some clear masterpieces and the rest made for some very good viewing. In the end, I didn't regret seeing any film at the festival.

Rating (out of 10) and films in order of preference:

Foster Child -- 10

Dans la ville de Sylvia & Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia -- 10

Slingshot -- 10

Our Ten Years (short film) -- 10

Euphoria -- 9.5

Bliss -- 9.5

Secret Sunshine -- 9

In Memory of Myself -- 9

The Girl Cut in Two -- 9

Import Export -- 9

Times and Winds -- 8.5

Help Me Eros -- 8.5

Ploy -- 8.5

Bad Habits -- 8.5

Sounds of Sand -- 8

Useless -- 8

The Man from London -- 8

My Winnipeg -- 8

Drowned in Oblivion -- 8

Great World of Sound -- 8

The Counterfeiters -- 8

Keepers of Eden -- 7.5

The Duchess of Langeais -- 7

Soo -- 6.5

Cafes:

Vancouver is packed with cafes. I have not come across any other Canadian city with as many cafes in downtown as Vancouver has. In that sense, it was appropriate that this city had the world premier for José Luis Guerin's film Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia. If it were not for cafes, the core of that film would not have existed.

While the big coffee chains dominate most street corners, it is still possible to find independent places. One of my goals was to find a new cafe everyday. I managed to do so and not miss a single film in the process either.





Crêpes:

I first came across Cafe Crepe in Vancouver back in 2000. That time, there was only one location on Robson street. But when I visited the city last year, I found a second location across from the Empire 7 Granville theaters where most of VIFF's screenings were held. The venue was open late and I managed to snack on some sweet crepes after a late screening. This time around, I found myself having a breakfast crepe on more than one occasion for the 10 am screenings. Yummy!



Curry:

The international cuisine in Vancouver is second to none. Another goal of mine was to try as many different types of food during my stay. But I could not go to proper restaurants as I often had less than an hour in between my shows. Still I managed to find time for some great Japanese and Brazilian food. But one of the highlights had to be the delicious Indian food found at Rangoli. Rangoli is owned by Vij's and located right next to their famous Granville street location. Getting into Vij's is not an easy task as they don't take reservations and are only open for dinner. I found locals who claimed to have waited almost 2.5 hours before they got in. So the owners started up Rangoli, a quick sit down place open for longer hours, with the idea of making their food more available. It is much easier to get a place in Rangoli and the food is quite similar to the menu in Vij's.

If I had more time, I might have lined up for Vij's. But instead I found curry bliss at Rangoli where I dined on Day 1 before I saw any VIFF films and on Day 6 after seeing my final VIFF film.




Beer:

One of my favourite beers is Granville Island . Unfortunately as of last year, I can't get this beer in my city (for reasons unknown). So the only way I can drink this is on a trip to Vancouver. I made sure to only have this beer on every occasion in the city and made it out to the brewery's taproom where I sampled all their four beers in season.



And lastly......

Rain:

What would Vancouver be without rain? It has rained atleast once on all my previous visits. But this time around, it rained on all 6 days with the sun only making a brief appearance for a few hours. That didn't matter much as most of my time was spent inside a warm cinema. Although, there were quite a few occasions I was soaked waiting in line for my tickets. In the following pictures, film fans waited for almost an hour in the rain to see 4 Months 3 weeks 2 days for the 10 am Sunday morning show.



Well that's it! Amazing trip with some fascinating films. The 14 days of consecutive film festival movies has finally ended. Time to recover now.....