Toronto International Film Festival
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Joe Berlinger, Crude
A STILL FROM DIRECTOR JOE BERLINGER’S CRUDE. COURTESY FIRST RUN FEATURES. Joe Berlinger is a filmmaker who makes documentaries that tell important stories with integrity, while still always entertaining his audiences. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1961, Berlinger studied English and German at Colgate University, and got his first taste of the movie business while working on TV commercials at an advertising agency in Frankfurt. After deciding he wanted to make films, he moved to New York City, where he got a job working for the Maysles brothers. Berlinger’s first foray into directing was the documentary short Outrageous Taxi Stories […]
by Nick Dawson on Sep 9, 2009 -
TORONTO 09: GUY MADDIN’S NIGHT MAYOR
Over at Movie City Indie, Ray Pride posts a two minute clip of Guy Maddin’s short film Night Mayor which will have public screenings at TIFF on Saturday, Sept. 12 @ 4:00PM (ISABEL BADER THEATRE) & Sunday, Sept. 13 @ 1:15PM (JACKMAN HALL – AGO). Looks like vintage Maddin to me. A description of the short reads: The filmmaker whose cinematic style inspired the term “Maddinesque” delivers a fantastical film about the night mayor of Winnipeg, an inventor of Bosnian descent who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to transmit distinctly Canadian images across the Great White North. Guy […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 8, 2009 -
Michael Tucker on His and Petra Epperlein’s How to Fold a Flag
With their latest film, How to Fold a Flag, documentary filmmakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein have come full circle. Their first feature was 2004’s Gunner Palace, which told the story of soldiers in the Army’s 2/3 Field Artillery as they patroled the streets of Baghdad in late 2003 and early 2004. Told in a gritty style that threw viewers right into the midst of conflict, the film resisted an overt political agenda, focusing instead on the daily lives of the troops. The Prisoner: Or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair followed, a chillingly Kafkaesque story of an Iraqi […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 6, 2009 -
Gaspar Noe’s Enter The Void By Michele Civetta
The Further Adventures of Death Tripper, Ouroboros and What lies Beyond Jupiter Cannes, France. In a cinematic year filled with visions of extreme sex and violence, the enfant provocateur of French cinema Gaspar Noe illuminates a phosphorescent direction forward. In person Noe could be mistaken as the progeny of Aleister Crowley with sunken-in, charcoal-lined eyes and shaved head. But lurking behind this visage is a filmmaker who courts controversy with vivacity and confidence. The last time Noe was at Cannes was to premiere his film Irreversible; he ingratiated himself into the hearts and minds of audiences willing to be subjugated […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 5, 2009 -
INDIEGOGO & SNAGFILMS JOIN FORCES
In a press release sent out yesterday the fundraising/promotion site, IndieGoGo, and the documentary film site, SnagFilms, announced a partnership where select IndieGoGo works-in-progress are featured on the SnagFilms site. Three works have been on the site since mid-July and according to the release have received over half a million impressions on SnagFilms and promotional partner sites. Those three projects are: Connected, by Tiffany Shlain – Connected takes audiences on a stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind. Pelotero, by Jon Paley – A Dominican baseball story. Tapestries of Hope, by Michaelene Christini Risly – Two activists from two corners […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 4, 2009 -
CHARLES DARWIN BIOPIC TO OPEN TORONTO ’09
Announced this morning, the Toronto International Film Festival will open its 34th edition Sept. 10 with Creation, starring Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly playing his wife. Director is Joe Amiel. The festival describes the film as “part ghost story, part psychological thriller, part heart-wrenching love story. Torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place, Darwin finds himself caught in a struggle between faith and reason, love and truth.” TIFF also announced the four Gala Presentations and eighteen Special Presentations. The Boys are Back, […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 14, 2009 -
“BELLA”
Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006 followed by an impressive festival circuit run, Mexican director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde‘s moving debut feature follows the events that occur during one day in New York City to a former soccer star turned Mexican restaurant cook (Eduardo Verástegui) and a fired waitress (Tammy Blanchard), who recently learned she’s pregnant. The two take a trip to the burbs that reveals how the events of the past have made them who they are today. A spotlight on Mexican family and commentary on Latino stereotypes as much as a touching […]
by Jason Guerrasio on May 5, 2008 -
Winter Chill
In 2005 indie director Larry Fessenden was troubled by the state of the world—specifically, by our leaders’ callow response to the threat of global warming. So he did what he does best: He made a horror movie. The Last Winter, about a skeleton crew of oil-dredge workers afflicted by madness and other disturbing phenomena in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, revisits some of the tropes in Fessenden’s spooky 2001 feature Wendigo, including a fearsome, shape-shifting deer-spirit. The film was overlooked when it premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, later acquired by IFC First Take (releases September 19), and recently […]
by Damon Smith on Sep 18, 2007 -
STILL TRYING TO GET TO TORONTO?
There are 30 days left before the start of the Toronto International Film Festival. If you want to attend, online distribution/online community Jaman may be your last hope. It’s currently holding a “Win A Trip For Two” contest to TIFF. If you register to Jaman by August 17 you’ll be in the running. Grand prize winner receives: round-trip coach airfare for two, 3 nights stay at the Sutton Hotel, 2 tickets to the Closing Night Gala, 6 tickets to be redeemed for your choice of films, 1 programme book and film schedule, and 2 festival t-shirts. Click here to register.
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 7, 2007 -
BLOGGING TORONTO
The Toronto Film Festival doesn’t start until later this week, but already its new doc blog is off to a great start. It’s both an online destination to update yourself on festival news as well as a place for Festival filmmakers to write about everything from the making of their films to other films at the festival they’ve been compelled by. There are a bunch of great pieces already up. Here, for example, is Sophie Fiennes on her Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, a three-part documentary in which Slavoj Zizek analyzes films by such favorite directors as Hitchcock, Lynch and Tarkovsky: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 4, 2006
