The Flipside of Image+Nation, The Sequel
Image+Nation has almost come to a close. This is the last weekend to be able to see films created by, starring and geared towards audiences in the LBGT culture, or even just film enthusiasts such as myself. While there are certainly films that the gay community could appreciate more, others are emotionally moving or artistically viable independent of subject matter. In all, what has been screened so far has been a different viewpoint of life that is refreshing and intriguing. Here’s a recap. Read more »
Tags: Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens, Antarctica, Be Like Others, Boystown, Bruce LaBruce, Gabriel Fleming, Ice Blues, Image+Nation Film Festival, Image+Nation08, Juan Flahn, On the Other Hand Death, Otto Or Up with Dead People, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, Ron Oliver, The Beirut Apt, The Lost Coast, The Universe of Keith Haring, Yair Hochner
Film Festivals | 
November 30, 2008 | Comments Off
The snow started falling near midnight on Monday night; this is nature’s way of hinting at a nice week to stay indoors for some good films on DVD. As you know well, nature has been completely out of whack the last few years. Instead, we are left with mostly junk, and the spawn of junk (see image at left). No mainstream blunder exemplifies this week better than Meet Dave starring a miniature Eddie Murphy controlling a large Eddie Murphy and directed by Brian Robbins who brought us a fat Eddie Murphy in Norbit. Stick to the classics this week. 
Having dedicated myself to no less than 50 hours of volunteer work at this year’s Image+Nation film festival, my coverage of the event will be less a critique of the films, but rather a journal on what it’s like being on the other side of the fence. My goal will be to present a good idea of what volunteer work consists of at a festival, as well as how to deal with film enthusiasts and critics like myself. So it begins… 
Tomorrow evening, the last big film festival of the year begins. Now in its 21st year and bigger than ever, the Image+Nation Festival showcases the latest in LGBT - that’s L(esbian)G(ay)B(i)T(ransgender/sexual) film in a well-organized 10-day long event that houses screenings at the prestigious Cinema Imperial, Concordia’s De Seve Theater and the NFB on St. Denis. Over forty films will be screened. 
True Enough (La verite ou presque) is like a Parisian version of Woody Allen’s lighter comedies, replete with delightfully unfaithful characters who live relatively glamorous bourgeois lifestyles as television producers and aging novelists. Set to the backstory of the death of a struggling jazz musician from Lyon and featuring equally whimsical music, as well as a cast that plays their roles to a tee, one would think Sam Karmann’s latest would be a top comedy. Unfortunately, the truth (or at least my version of it) is that True Enough is little more than an amusing 90-minute afternoon break that never manages to bring out the depth of character of an Allen movie, nor the out-and-out laughs of a Wilder comedy. 
In 1930, French director Rene Clair directed a film that is seen as one of the most vital in the move from silent film to “talkies”. While there are lines of dialogue dropped in at key moments to move along the plot, the majority of the film is a combination of gestures and music Beneath the Rooftops of Paris (Les toits de Paris). Hiner Saleem’s 2007 film shares the title and affinity for silent communication rather than dialogue, but the similarities end there. Starring classic film star Michel Piccoli, who lives in the tight halls above the Parisian streets, the film is both fanciful in its near lack of dialogue and heartbreaking in its depiction of a man’s solitude. It is a slice of life that is worth a once-over. 
Manuel Poutte’s Distant Tremors (Les tremblements lointains) is a diamond in the rough; it is the rare Montreal film festival premiere that comes as a complete surprise in its excellence in storytelling, filmmaking and mood. It is a dark and mystical film that speaks to a bigger picture in metaphorical images: that individuals may try but cannot escape from their heritage, from the customs that formed them as human beings. The Belgium director has created a disturbing yet wholly original story set in Senegal that culminates in a maddening river journey reminiscent of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I can only hope the film picks up a distribution deal for general release, as it is one of the finest foreign film experiences this year. 
Sibling Belgian directors Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne never connected with international audiences until their first attempts at long narratives in the late 1990s. With films such as La promesse (1996) and L’enfant (2005), the now middle-aged Dardennes’ have shown to be adept at creating films about the Belgian underclass: immigrants, drug dealers and petty criminals. Lorna’s Silence (Le silence de Lorna) continues along this theme, revealing a hidden world in contemporary Europe that is disheartening in the gains it makes from human lives. While this gritty piece of filmmaking may draw comparisons to 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days due to its equally biting subject matter and handheld camera, it never feels as consummate as last year’s Golden Palm winner. 
The second week of November is packed with releases from Hollywood, abroad and one from home. Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the perfect amalgam of the big budget special effects we have come to expect from wide release American superhero films along with the art design and imagination of foreign writer/director Guillermo del Toro who only a few years back was much-lauded for his Spanish-language fantasy, Pan’s Labyrinth. As an example of hybrid ideals, del Toro’s film leads the pack this week. 
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