Forget the Hollywood stars and directors. Put aside the galas, gossip and giggles. Take your mind off the popcorn and pop culture.
If you let it, Cinefest can help you understand the world
around us and its many complicated issues.
Hardcore cinephiles have already made their lists of
must-see documentaries and films with real life settings and
themes.
The latter include James Longley's film Iraq in Fragments, which will be shown Sunday, Sept. 24 at 11 am. It received rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival winning awards for best film, best director and best cinematography.
From 2002 to 2005, Longley (Gaza Strip) filmed an Iraq that
isn't like the one we see on the nightly news. He splits his
own film into detailed thirds, tracking a young boy in Baghdad,
two brick-baking Kurdish families in the north, and the Shiite
movement of Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf.
The director says, "It was never my intention to make a 'war
documentary'." I wanted to make a film about Iraq as a country,
about the people of Iraq.
"Iraq is such a unique place and for so long nobody could
easily make films there; I could barely constrain my desire to
document everything. I wanted to film 10 stories at once, all
in different parts of the country. In the end, I only filmed
six different stories. Three of those stories made it into the
final film."
Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn's The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, will be shown Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 4 pm.
The movie explores the history of the Inuit people.
The film is set in 1922 in Igloolik and is described as "the
story of the last great Inuit shaman, Avva, and his beautiful
and headstrong daughter, Apak." Their story is told by a Danish
scientist who arrives to record their unique way of life.
Kunuk's 2001 film, "Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) won the Camera
D'or in Cannes and then the prize for best Canadian film at the
Toronto International Film Festival. The Journals of Knud
Rasmussen premiered at the recent Toronto International Film
Festival.
After the Wedding, a Danish film, is the gala presentation
Wednesday, Sept. 20. It is not really about a wedding. Rather
it is a commentary on rich and poor.
A transplanted Dane, Jacob, runs a struggling orphanage in
one of India's poorest regions. Jacob considers Westerners
criminally spoiled yet he agrees to return to Denmark to meet
with a wealthy entrepreneur who may be willing to save the
orphanage.
The entrepreneur cancels his meeting with Jacob and suggests
they discuss things at his daughter's wedding the next day.
Catch a Fire will be shown Monday, Sept. 18 at 7 pm.
It is a political thriller which takes place during South
Africa's turbulent and divided times in the early 1980s, as
well as in the new South Africa of today.
Derek Luke portrays real-life hero Patrick Chamusso who is
apolitical, but is transformed by witnessing the misuse of
power.
The film stars Tim Robbins as an anti-terrorism officer.
Screenwriter Shawn Slovo is the daughter of white South African
anti-apartheid activist Joe Slovo.
Cinefest starts this Saturday evening with a festive party
at Science North.
The first film, a Canadian/British production shot in Wawa, is the festival opener. Snow Cake stars Allan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver. Sudbury film-goers will be among the first in Canada to see this film.
