Toronto International Film Festival 2011
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Five Questions with Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
In the mid ’90s filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky traveled to West Memphis, Arkansas for a documentary they were making for HBO on the gruesome murders of three boys and the trial of the three teens who were charged. The film, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, gave the trail nationwide interest as Berlinger and Sinofsky revelaed a case that was hardly open and shut. Coerced confessions as well as questionable evidence and testimony made viewers uncertain if the three defendants — Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin — were guilty and the fight to […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 11, 2011 -
FREE AT TIFF
There are some great films/events going on during TIFF that are free of charge. See below. This is not a Film Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Iran (Toronto Premiere) Sentenced to six years in prison and banned from writing and making films for 20 years by the Islamic Republic Court in Tehran, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi waited for the verdict of his court appeal for months. Through the depiction of a day in his life while he’s on house arrest, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (a documentary filmmaker and former assistant director) offer audiences an overview of the current situation […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 10, 2011 -
FOX SEARCHLIGHT BUYS MCQUEEN’S “SHAME”
Last night Fox Searchlight announced from Toronto it has bought the U.S. rights to Steve McQueen‘s latest, Shame. Starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, the drama, which is screening at the fest, follows New Yorker Brandon (Fassbender) who shuns intimacy with women but feeds his desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. However, when his wayward younger sister (Carey Mulligan) moves into his apartment stirring memories of their shared painful past, Brandon’s insular life spirals out of control. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and according to the release Searchlight plans to open Shame before the year ends. […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 10, 2011 -
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 […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 10, 2011 -
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 […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 10, 2011 -
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 […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 9, 2011 -
CAMERON’S PICKS
In this video TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey gives his movie picks. Go to the TIFF site for more daily picks.
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 9, 2011 -
TORONTO 2011 PREVIEW: CANUCK ATTACK
Are you surprised that this year, some of the most anticipated films at the Toronto International Film Festival actually are by (gulp) Canadian filmmakers? Largely known to many for their solicitousness, their skills in the rink, and their charming way of saying the letter “o,” the Canadians often inspire jealousy in their film-loving neighbors to the south because of the wide-ranging institutional support that they provide for national filmmakers. The National Film Board of Canada, for instance, both produces films and distributes them to the far reaches of the country… and has been doing so for over 7o years, when […]
by Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 8, 2011 -
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 […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 8, 2011 -
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 […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 8, 2011
