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Personal Appearances |
Bruce Greenwood flew from Toronto to Vancouver to attend the opening night of The 2004 Vancouver International Film Festival, where his independent movie - Being Julia - kicked off the festivities. He and co-star Lucy Punch were the only stars of the film to attend as the others attended The Telluride Festival in the United States, so Bruce was the star used to introduce the film to Vancouver audiences on premiere night. Reports indicate he told a story about Istvan Szabo's direction using a flawless Hungarian accent.
This year's VIFF guests will include such young Canadians as Show Me actors Kett Turton and Michelle Nolden; The Blood stars Emily Hampshire and Jacob Tierney; The Limb Salesman star and cowriter Ingrid Veninger; thespians Bruce Greenwood and Lucy Punch, from opening film Being Julia; Callum Keith Rennie and Rebecca Jenkins from Wilby Wonderful, along with costar and director Daniel McIvor; directors Don McKellar (Childstar), Jem Cohen (Chain), Peter Lynch (Dem Bones), David Weaver (Siblings), John L'Ecuyer (Le Goût des Jeunes Filles), and Alan Zweig (I, Curmudgeon).
Arriving from farther afield, among many others, are Maren Ade (Germany's Forest for the Trees), Lin Yue (China's Foliage), Hiroki Ryuichi (Japan's L'Amant), Dahna Abourahme (Palestine's Until When...), and the USA's Bart Everly (Let's Get Frank).
On a more unusual note--literally--Margaret Leng Tan, subject of Sorceress of the New Piano, will fly in from Hong Kong and introduce the film on a piano she'll bring with her--a toy piano, to be exact.
Fest is all about audience Unlike other events, there's no glitzy red carpet -- just great documentaries, Asian program, Canadian films
The Vancouver Province
Thursday, September 23, 2004
by David Spaner VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Where: Granville 7, Pacific Cinematheque, Ridge Theatre, Vogue Theatre When: Sept. 23 through Oct. 8 Tickets: Information at 604-685-8297 or www.viff.org.
The Vancouver International Film Festival is one of the world's great film festivals.
It's not something people talk about -- maybe because it comes on the heels of the glitzy Toronto festival, maybe because it just isn't the way in self-effacing Vancouver.
But, there, I've said it.
Vancouver is the third largest-attended festival in North America and it does some things better than any filmfest anywhere.
Its Asian program is the biggest Asian festival outside Asia, its Canadian Images section is the best Canadian festival, and its documentary program was breaking ground long before Fahrenheit 9/11 was breaking box-office records.
Best of all, the Vancouver filmfest is an event perfectly attuned to the city it represents. Surrounded by the trappings of a North American culture obsessed with celebrity, filmfest organizers refreshingly steer clear of red carpets and other glitzy nonsense. Their approach is in sync with the unpretentious West Coast sensibility, reflecting the values of its director Alan Franey and his staff, putting films before film industry.
"We're an audience-oriented festival, not a business-oriented festival," says Franey.
There is only room for one Toronto-style showmart/glitzfest in North America. Vancouver's lower-key approach is nothing to fret about. It's something to celebrate.
Graham Peat, the founder of Videomatica, has been going to the festival since it began 23 years ago.
"It's still my favourite big festival," he says. "Alan has never lost sight of the fact that it's a people's festival. It's still totally accessible."
This year's festival, which opens tonight with the Annette Bening-Bruce Greenwood film Being Julia, brings 370 films to Vancouver audiences over the next couple of weeks.
The festival will showcase a new international independent-film sensibility, derived in part from the lower cost of making movies. The digital Vancouver indie, Everyone, for instance, was made for $23,000 and a limitless passion by everyone involved.
"I think a lot of the films in the program this year have been made with very little money," says Franey, noting the innovative Sundance prize-winning feature Primer.
"There's a sort of sense of freedom with a lot of these films because the cost for making films has come down. People are more willing to experiment."
The festival also reflects the heightened interest in documentaries. "The Corporation was in our program last year and, even if I'd hoped, I wouldn't have bet that it would go on to such acclaim and be seen by so many people," Franey says. "Although we've always shown a lot of political documentaries there's an increase in the quality of the films and there's an increase in the public to see them."
This year's documentaries range from Monumental (about Sierra Club founder David Brower) to Film as a Subversive Art (about the early New York cinema scene).
And the Asian Dragons and Tigers program, including gala Electric Shadows, continues its innovative approach.
"We were the festival that showed the first of the new underground Chinese cinema. Now many festivals do," says Franey. "We have a lot of people from around the world who attend the festival for the Dragons and Tigers program."
The Canadian Images program has played a major role in developing audiences for the Vancouver indie-film scene and forged links between Canada and the rest of the world.
"Why should we be getting taxpayers' money if we're not here to promote a healthy international film culture, which is part and parcel of a healthy Canadian film culture?" says Franey. "To me, those two things are intrinsically entwined. And we don't need to be spending taxpayers' money on promoting the very blockbuster-type films that are killing world cinemas everywhere."
Which brings us back to the fest's non-glitz approach.
"With glitz comes a lot of trappings," says Franey. "It comes with spending your resources on glitz instead of on other things. You can't be all things to all people. You have to take a stand and say what are we here for? Are we here to support culture or are we here to support the hegemony of Hollywood over all other national cinemas.
"To me that's a very clear choice to make. Let's not forget the fact that while we're on 10 screens for a two-week period, how many other screens are there also operating at the same time throughout the Lower Mainland? All the malls, the SilverCitys and so on. That's a lot of screens and they're showing the same films during the film festival as they show year-round.
"You don't have to go to the film festival but if the film festival didn't exist, you wouldn't have a chance to see all the other films that are made. It's very clear to me.
"There's no direct relationship between how much it cost to make something and sell it and the quality of the work. There really is none. It's hard to convince people of that when it comes to the movies."
For the next two weeks, you'll have the opportunity to see that for yourself.
dspaner@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2004
Bruce loves Being here:
Julia star pleased his film chosen to open local festivalby David Spaner This year's gala opening of the Vancouver International Film Festival was more than another movie-opening for Bruce Greenwood.
It was a homecoming. The opening-night Being Julia is the latest movie featuring the Vancouver actor, who now lives in Los Angeles.
"Actually, I've never come to a big fancy opening of anything I've done here," says Greenwood. "It was nice to share the party with people I love and family."
Greenwood, who graduated from Magee secondary, left the city in the early 1980s and went on to acclaim, starring in such films as Double Jeopardy, The Sweet Hereafter and Thirteen Days.
Besides opening VIFF, Being Julia, Istvan Szabo's British period piece co-starring Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons, earlie opened Toronto's big filmfest.
Greenwood says film-festival openings aren't so different than the studio-movie openings for films he's appeared in such as I, Robot and Hollywood Homicide.
"You do a glossy red-carpet opening in Toronto and then you follow that up with a day or two of talking to one reporter after another -- usually on camera for a day and usually print for a day," Greenwood says. "And that's essentially what you do opening a big movie for a studio.
"The difference is that when you're opening a big movie for a studio that's not in a festival you don't bump into everybody you've ever worked with and you don't get a chance to see 30 films that you otherwise wouldn't even know existed."
Greenwood says Being Julia's Budapest shoot was particularly enjoyable.
"My days off I'd sit by the river and read and write, drinking cappuccino and watching the Danube go by. Then I'd have to shlep into work with Annette Bening. It doesn't really get a lot better." For the full interview see Vancouver Province
 Being Julia |