TIFF Features
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Five Questions with Rampart Co-Writer/Director Oren Moverman
The Rampart scandal, which caused a huge black eye for the LAPD in the ’90s, has been sensationalized on TV shows like The Shield and movies like Training Day, but if The Messenger showed us anything it’s that Oren Moverman is not interested in embellishing anything in his films, so his latest, Rampart, should be no exception. For the film he reteams with The Messenger star Woody Harrelson who plays a corrupt LAPD cop who must come to terms that with the scandal the fun is now over. And if having Moverman and Harrelson making a film together again isn’t […]
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Five Questions with You’re Next Director Adam Wingard
With his features Home Sick, Pop Skull and A Horrible Way to Die, Adam Wingard is carving out a reputation as one of the most imaginative and visually sophisticated directors working in modern horror. His films are mindful of genre conventions, finding ways to subvert them through unexpected characterizations that have real psychological depth. His latest movie reinvents the home invasion thriller. We spoke to Wingard about blood, style and directing other directors. Filmmaker: Your previous film, A Horrible Way to Die, tweaked the serial killer genre by setting it within the world of addiction and recovery, and exploring those […]
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Five Questions with Urbanized Director Gary Hustwit
With Urbanized, filmmaker Gary Hustwit brings his celebrated documentary trilogy to a close. Beginning in the world of typography by exploring a single font in Helvetica, the series gained weight by moving to the world of objects in Objectified and now telescopes miles overhead to examine contemporary urban design. We spoke to Hustwit about what’s changed and what’s stayed the same as he has produced — and distributed — these stylish and intellectually engaging films. Filmmaker: Your previous two design oriented docs have wound up dealing with subjects other than the the explicit ones of their titles. For example, Helvetica […]
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Five Questions with God Bless America Writer/Director Bobcat Goldthwait
After building a career as one of the wackiest comedians of the ’80s, Bobcat Goldthwait has spent the last decade redefining himself as a director making awkward satires like Sleeping Dogs Lie and World’s Greatest Dad while directing episodes of Chappelle’s Show. For God Bless America, his latest feature directing effort executive produced by Richard Kelly, Goldthwait looks at our obsession with Reality TV. Screening in TIFF’s Midnight Madness section, a 45-year-old man (Joel Murray) and a teenage girl (Tara Lynne Barr) go on a Bonnie and Clyde-esque rampage after the country unites in the ridicule of a simpleminded contestant […]
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Five Questions with Albert Nobbs Director Rodrigo Garcia
For almost 30 years a passion project of its star, producer and co-screenwriter, Albert Nobbs , directed by Rodrigo Garcia, offers Glenn Close the role of a lifetime. She plays the eponymous heroine, a withdrawn hotel waiter who has concealed her gender in order to live a sheltered, emotionally circumscribed life. Set in turn-of-the-century Dublin, it costars Janet McTeer and Mia Wasikowska, and it is co-written by the Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville. We asked Garcia five questions about the challenges of directing a cross-dressing period piece. Filmmaker: What was the most important quality for you to express to the […]
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Five Questions with The Forgiveness of Blood Director Joshua Marston
This year in Berlin, seven years after his debut feature, Maria Full of Grace, premiered at Sundance, New York-based writer/director Joshua Marston unveiled his follow-up, The Forgiveness of Blood. Winner of the festival’s Screenplay Award (for Marston and Andamion Murataj’s script), the film sends Marston from the Colombia of Maria to a village in Albania, where local traditions include the protection of family honor through blood feuds. Marston focuses on a teenage boy who is collateral damage in one of these disputes, unable to leave his home for fear of being killed for his father’s dispute. We asked Marston about […]
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TORONNA ON MY MIND
The social network has made festival overviews easier to assemble. Besides the dvds that are made available in advance, several websites (Festival Scope, Cinando) make features available after their market premieres, which may have taken place at Festival A before their official screening at Festival B. Doing the circuit certainly makes Toronto more manageable. Since it is not a competitive event (they don’t have to be, as some insist), a number of films have been shown elsewhere (Cannes, Berlin, Sundance), so you might have several titles under your belt without ever having a market badge. Some publicists send links and passwords […]
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Five Questions with Last Call at the Oasis Director Jessica Yu
For Oscar-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu’s latest film, Last Call at the Oasis, she looks at the frightening realities of the current global water crisis. Produced through the social issue giants Participant Media, Yu’s film has the makings of a must-see like An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. Filmmaker: Tell us a little about what your film is about? Yu: Last Call at the Oasis is about the water crisis, which is global and urgent, yet largely hidden here in the U.S. The film tells stories of people who are on the front lines in dealing with water shortage or contamination, […]
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Five Questions with Jeff, Who Lives At Home Writer/Directors Mark and Jay Duplass
Last year Mark and Jay Duplass ventured into the world of studio filmmaking when they made the dramedy Cyrus for Fox Searchlight. At this year’s TIFF the Duplass brothers and Searchlight will premiere their next effort, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms and Susan Sarandon. Filmmaker: Tell us a little about what your film is about? Duplass Bros: It’s about a 30 year-old guy named Jeff (Jason Segel) who believes, heavily, in fate. He bides his time in his mom’s basement, eagerly awaiting the day that the universe will deliver his destiny upon him. When his […]
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LEE DANIELS’S “PRECIOUS”: BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE By Jason Guerrasio
In this excerpt of our interview with Lee Daniels on his award-winning film Precious, which will be in the upcoming Fall issue, Jason Guerrasio talks to the director-producer about his connection with the book the film is based on, molding first-time actor Gabby Sadibe into Precious and his conflicts with the crew while making the film. Precious screens at the Toronto International Film Festival this evening and will be in theaters in November. Filmmaker: Did reading Push bring back any memories of what you went through growing up in Philly? Lee Daniels: I had not experienced the things that Precious […]
