When We Were Marks: Best Canadian Film

Showing posts with label Best Canadian Film. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Onion Skin

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Onion Skin

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Joseph Procopio's short film Onion Skin as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Teen Film.

Onion Skin

*****

The Official Final Deadline of the YoungCuts Film Festival was June 15th.

We are in the process of finalizing our Top 100. There is still an opportunity for films that we haven't received yet to trickle in after the deadline, we thought that we would begin announcing some of the films that we know will be included in our Top 100.

These won't be announced in any kind of order and they should not be interpreted as any kind of ranking, just that we have all the material for this particular film and that we do consider it one of the Top 100 short films by filmmakers 25 and under that we have seen (and will see) out of more than a thousand films that we have screened from more than 30 countries.

*****

Our Heroine

This week, we will be announcing some of our favourite Teen films leading to the announcement of all the films that will play in our Teen screening.

Announced so far as Best Teen films:
Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron's Switching Worlds
Jeremiah James' Send Me To Babylon
Nic Weinfeld's The 36
Phillip Bernardino-Gomez' MeJohn

*****

With Friends Like These...

Onion Skin

Joseph Procopio

Directed and Written by Joseph Procopio

While maybe just a touch long, Onion Skin is an incredibly mature film from such a young filmmaker.

(Of course since this is Joseph's 10th film, he has a bit more experience than most 16 year old directors.)

The film is incredibly well-filmed and well-framed with a touch of magic realism.

Our judges especially liked the way that the friends of the two main characters acted as a disapproving opinionated Greek chorus.

*****

... Who Needs Enemies?

Runtime: 12 min: 27 sec

*****

The Rise of Thumbs...

Completion: March 2011

*****

The Death of Romance

Country of Origin: Canada (Ontario)

*****

Our Hero

Synopsis: A high school student turns heads when he decides to avoid text-messaging a girl in this comedy-turned-romance about the power of letter writing.

*****

The Note

Filmmaker Bio: Onion Skin is 16 year old Joseph Procopio's 11th film - a 10-minute narrative romantic short about the power of letter writing. Following a Casting Working Workbook Talent search in Toronto, Joseph discovered 5 new performers that he directed for Introduction to the screen in Onion Skin. He also hired seasoned character performer Jacqueline Tarne for the role of Wisdom.

*****

Wisdom

Onion Skin was produced with the help of a beginner high school/college crew and extras from 7 schools across Ontario. Joseph is currently writing his feature film directorial debut, while hoping that Onion Skin will help secure representation or the interest of a theatrical distributor. Joseph has been directing without pause, directing 11 short films since his debut at the age of eight with his film, Nine Times Eight. To date Joseph's 10 films have received 36 First Prizes and have screened at over 100 festivals worldwide.

*****

Making Eye Contact

Production Notes: Pre-production of Onion Skin began with a full screenplay beak-down, production strip-board, and an official Casting Workbook announced audition courtesy of Susan Forrest Casting. Film Office Location Permits and Front Row Insurance was then secured for a six day shoot on location at Villanova College in King City, and at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

*****

Eye to Eye

Filmmaker Age: 16

*****

Fireworks

The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival will begin on Thursday, September 29th. Screenings will be at the Guzzo Spheretech beginning on Friday, September 30th. The Teen Screening will be on Friday September 30th at 1PM. This will be a free screening presented as part of Les Journées de la Culture (Culture Days). The screening will end with presentation of the award Best Teen film. Stay tuned for details on how to enjoy the amazing films that we will be presenting including Onion Skin!

*****

Connection

Saturday, July 16, 2011

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Foodsploitation

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Foodsploitation

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Adam Bagatavicius' short film Foodsploitation as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Quebec Film.

Foodsploitation Title Card

*****

The Official Final Deadline of the YoungCuts Film Festival was June 15th. While we will only announce our full selection of our Top 100 around July 15th and while there is still an opportunity for films that we haven't received yet to trickle in after the deadline, we thought that we would begin announcing some of the films that we know will be included in our Top 100.

These won't be announced in any kind of order and they should not be interpreted as any kind of ranking, just that we have all the material for this particular film and that we do consider it one of the Top 100 short films by filmmakers 25 and under that we have seen (and will see) out of more than a thousand films that we have screened from more than 30 countries.

*****

Foodsploitation

Adam Bagatavicius

Directed and Written by Adam Bagatavicius

Foodsploitation is the best kind of experimental film.

It tells a coherent story. It's fun and funny. It rather gently satirizes horror films while simultaneously asking a serious question about how much we think about the food we eat and how we prepare it.

Our only mild criticism is that the film is just over one minute too long. Not that it isn't entertaining at 6 minutes, But if it was 5 minutes, it would be one of our 5 nominees for Best Short Short film and have an excellent chance to win the category.

The Chef: Hallway Horror

*****

Runtime: 6 min : 6 sec
Completion: April 2011
Country of Origin: Canada (Quebec)
Ligne du Film: Une fantaisie de nourriture exploitée. Spécialiste de cuisine crue et d'humiliation gastronomique, aucun ingrédient n’est à l’abri du Chef.
Tag Line: A food exploitation fantasia. Specializing in cringe cuisine and gastronomic humiliation, no ingredient is safe from The Chef.

The Chef: The Gripping Hand

*****

Synopsis: Le Chef prend les aliments d’un sac d'épicerie en otage et les pousse au-delà de leurs limites de douleur et de plaisir. Filmé du point de vue de chaque ingrédient, le niveau de l’utilisation fluctue de la terreur à la titillation; la Noix de Coco est empalée, la Carotte subit une circoncision malpropre, l'Oignon pleure à cause du chatouillement torturé et les Bleuets sont écrasés sous une pression extrême.

Présentant Tante Jemima à ses débuts dans le film Blaxploitation et mettant en valeur Le Chef dans son plus grand rôle au retour de son incarcération à la suite de ‘Pains sur le Bunsen Burner', préparez-vous pour une conclusion explosive qui laissera vos yeux avec une infection intestinale et incapable à tout jamais de regarder la nourriture de la même façon. Où a dormi VOTRE épicerie la nuit dernière?

*****

The Chef's Egg Guillotine

Synopsis: The Chef holds a bag of groceries hostage, and pushes them to the furthest reaches of pain and pleasure. Shot from the perspective of each ingredient, the exploitation meter ranges from terror to titillation as Coconut is impaled, Carrot undergoes a sloppy briss, Onion weeps from tickle torture, and Blueberries crack under the pressure.

Introducing Aunt Jemima in her Blaxploitation film debut, featuring The Chef's biggest comeback role since his incarceration following 'Buns on the Bunsen Burner', get ready for an explosive ending that will leave your eyes with gastro, and never able to look at food the same way again. Where did YOUR groceries sleep last night?

*****

Chef the Ripper

Filmmaker Statement: The Chef's Twitter Account

*****

The Chef Decapitates Ginger

Filmmaker Age: 25

*****

The Chef Slices, Dices, He Julienne Fries

The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival will begin on Thursday, September 29th. Screenings will be at the Guzzo Spheretech beginning on Friday, September 30th. Stay tuned for details on how to enjoy the amazing films that we will be presenting including Foodsploitation!

*****

The Chef's Taste Test

Friday, July 15, 2011

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Snowball

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Snowball

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Eric Bent's animated film Snowball as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Animated Film.

Mission Complete While Under Fire

*****

Snowball

Eric Bent

Directed and Written by Eric Bent

Sometimes simple is best.

It is always tricky to tell a complete story in the context of a micro-short.

Snowball manages this tricky feat using simple animation techniques. (Note that by simple, we don't mean undifficult.)

While not exactly the same technique and used for humour rather than drama Snowball reminded the judges of great dramatic animated films from Montreal done in a similar style - most notably The Street.

Back to the Enemy

*****

Runtime: 1 min: 5 sec
Completion: 2010
Country of Origin: Canada (Quebec)

Synopsis: A young man becomes the target of a snowball thrower while making a snowman. Will he ignore it....or get back at him? (Somewhat based on a real event)

Turning to Face the Enemy

*****

Filmmaker Bio: Eric Bent is an animator, visual artist and (sometimes) musician originally from Aylmer, Quebec but now based in Montreal. He is currently undergoing his final year in the Film Animation Program at Concordia University, but plans to continue making films well after he graduates.

Filmmaker Age: 23

Filmmaker Statement: This film is based on something my older brother did to a neighbour's kid when we were young. I figured it would be a funny idea, and the simplicity of it made it ideal and easy to animate considering the technique (charcoal on paper).

*****

Thursday, July 14, 2011

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Oh Hey! - Drunk Driving PSA

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Oh Hey! - Drunk Driving PSA

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Bryce Bladon's short film Oh Hey! - Drunk Driving PSA as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Short Short Film.

Matt Hamilton

*****

Oh Hey! - Drunk Driving PSA

Bryce Bladon

Directed and Written by Bryce Bladon

It is hard enough telling a coherent story in the super short form of a public service announcement.

Making it funny is even tougher.

But making a funny PSA about Drunk Driving?

Bryce Bladon and his team up the artistic ante considerably by telling a surprisingly funny one minute story about the perils of Drunk Driving.

Bryce Bladon

*****

Runtime: 1 min : 15 sec
Completion: January 2011
Country of Origin: Canada (Alberta)
Synopsis: Two intoxicated men contemplate how to get home.

Connor Gaston

*****

Filmmaker Bio: Bryce Bladon is a man-child who friends and colleagues describe as relatively tall and pleasant-smelling. He’s received awards for his screenwriting and has works professionally in both the public and private sector as a filmographer and writer. He always feels narcasstic writing his own biography, but that doesn’t stop him from embellishing on how incredibly modest he is. Bladon typically writes and directs comedy, but has been known to dabble in drama, action, horror, and romantic-comedy/torture-porn.

*****

Bryce Bladon

Filmmaker Statement: Love. Passion. Anger. These are just three words that in no way relate to Bryce Bladon’s PSA on the dangers of drunk driving. Oh Hey is a rarely-seen comedic attempt on an otherwise serious topic.

*****

Connor Gaston Again

Filmmaker Age: 22

*****

Max Sussman

*****

Megan Russell

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Nodin (Wind)

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Nodin (Wind)

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Nodin Wawatie's short film Nodin (Wind) as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Short Short Film.

Nodin (Wind)

*****

Nodin (Wind)

Nodin Wawatie

Directed and Written by Nodin Wawatie

Wapikoni Mobile is a group who work with aboriginal youth to help them tell their stories by putting cameras into their hands. We strongly believe in that method and we believe in more strongly in the results, especially when they are great films like Nodin Wawatie's Nodin (Wind).

Nodin is a confessional animated film that confronts the tension between tradition and new cultures, in this case between Hip hop B-boy culture and Anishnabe culture.

Wapikoni Mobile Logo

*****

Runtime: 2 min: 45 sec
Completion: 2010
Country of Origin: Canada (Quebec)
Language: Anishnabe with English sub-titles
Synopsis: Nodin exprime sa fierté d'être anishnabe par la danse Hip hop.
Synopsis: Nodin expresses his Ansihnabe cultural pride through Hip hop dancing.

Bio Cinéaste: Nodin Wawatie vit à Kitigan Zibi, une communauté anglophone de la nation algonquine. Il est, depuis septembre, étudiant au Collège Algonquin d’Ottawa en Animation. Bilingue, il parle couramment l’anglais et l’algonquin. Nodin est également un très bon danseur. Il pratique autant les danses traditionnelles que le Hip hop.

En 2010, il a réalisé deux court-métrages dans le cadre du projet Wapikoni mobile : Nodin et Running Free. Très investi dans ces deux projets co-réalisé avec un ami, il a réussi à créer deux œuvres d’une simplicité mais d’une efficacité surprenante qui ont allumé les regards des jeunes et des moins jeunes. Avec leurs prouesses et leurs touches d’humour, ces films ont donné une bouffée d’air aux spectateurs lors de la projection finale. En plus de développer son regard artistique, ces réalisations lui ont permis de compléter son porte-folio pour accéder au Collège Algonquin d’Ottawa où il étudie actuellement.

Filmmaker Bio: Nodin Wawatie is from Kitigan Zibi, an Anishnabe English speaking community. Since September, he studies in the Animation program, at Algonquin College in Ottawa. Bilingual, he talks both English and Anishnabe. Nodin is also a very good dancer. He practices both traditional dance and Hip hop.

In 2010, he directed two shorts films during Wapikoni Mobile’s stop over in Kitigan Zibi: Nodin and Running Free. Very invested in these two projects which he worked on with a close friend, Nodin directed these two films with an effective simplicity that surprised both young and old. With their professionalism and sense of humour, these films were a breath of fresh air for the audience of the Wapikoni year-end projection. In addition to helping his artistic progress, these two films also helped Nodin complete the portfolio he submitted to Algonquin College in Ottawa, where he is currently studying.

Filmmaker Age: 22

*****

Monday, July 11, 2011

Fantasia 2007: Stalker

The 2011 Fantasia Film Festival announced their line-up on July 7th. Fantasia, is of course, my favourite film festival in the whole world... other than the one that pays my salary obviously.

Fantasia 2011

I intend to put up a list of what films I plan to attend at Fantasia - probably tomorrow once I pick up my tickets.

Until then, here is another of my old unpublished Fantasia reviews. This time from Fantasia 2007.

*****

Stalker (1979) Soviet Union imdb Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Written by Arkadiy and Boris Strugatskiy (and Andrei Tarkovsky), Based on the novel by Arkadiy and Boris Strugatskiy

Stalker Poster

At the risk of bringing down on my head the wrath of the FILM ELITE~! Let me just say that I have tremendously mixed feelings about this film. It is a like an incredibly beautiful woman who is a total cock-tease, because this film keeps promising and promising and then nothing happens and then it gets you all worked up again and again nothing happens. It's like a roller-coaster that keeps climbing the hill but never drops you back down again.

Visually it is stunning. Especially because the film is shot on a limited canvas, but no one who has ever shot in these dimensions has ever filled the screen the way that Tarkovsky does. He adds to his difficulty level even more by shooting many of the scenes through doorways and archways and tunnels, artificially shortening his already smaller canvas, but he shoots with the eye of a painter filling the oddest spaces with stunning content. The artificially constrained screen also creates a sense of claustrophobia and menace that pervades the entire film.

The film is about a place called the Zone which may have been created by a meteor strike or by UFOs or by the Soviet government. The Stalker of the title guides people into the Zone past the Soviet military and through the death-traps that supposedly litter the Zone. At the middle of the Zone is a room which according to rumour grants the secret desire of those who enter it.

The Stalker in Sepia

The film opens in a weird sort of sepia colouring, suspended almost perfectly between black and white and colour. The story goes that when Tarkovsky was set to film Stalker his European distributor sent him the newest, best Kodak film available. Various stories have circulated about what happened next. Some say that the Soviet film technicians treated the fragile film the way that they treated all film and ruined the film, some say that the film sat too long untreated, Tarkovsky's theory was that the technicians did their jobs properly, but that his film was ruined because a jealous competitor stole the new film and swapped in the old regular film, so when the technicians used the new methods on the old film, it ruined the film.

In the Zone

I am guessing that the sepia coloured film is the "ruined" film. (Tarkovsky had to go back and reshoot the film almost entirely.) This gives the opening sequence an ethereal almost dream-like state, heightened in my case by the fact that I was so tired going into the film that I was nodding off through most of the opening sequence as the Stalker guides the writer named the Writer and the professor named the Professor into the Zone. When they arrive in the Zone the transition is marked by an explosion of colour mostly of green. It is as though everything outside the Zone is unreal and it is only in the Zone that things are not a dream.

Trapped in the Zone

This sense is heightened by the fact that the sepia film returns twice more: once when the three men take an odd nap inside the Zone in a scene which plays out as if one of the Zone's death-traps is finally going off, and then at the end. Oddly at the end the old footage is mixed in with the new, and in a strange way. The new coloured footage is used whenever the Stalker's crippled daughter Monkey is awake and in the picture. We are told that Monkey was crippled by her exposure to the Zone at an early age. The film seems to imply with the use of the footage that Monkey may be crippled, but she seems to carry around a piece of the Zone with her as partial compensation.

Heart of the Zone (1979)

The sleep/dream sequence is the crux of my whole issue with the film. All through the trip through the Zone, we are teased by the Zone's deadly nature, and the odd glimpses of corpses, old, old skeletons becoming part of the landscape, confirms that there is real danger, but just when it seems like they have set off one of the traps, the film grinds to a halt and quite literally nothing happens because the three men go to sleep. It's like Tarkovsky is playing with the viewer, giving them what they want and then taunting them because having got it, they no longer want it anymore.

Heart of the Irradiated Zone: Pripyat Ukraine after Chernobyl

French Stalker Poster

It is visually stunning and incredibly influential (Every post-apocalyptic film afterwards borrows its visual cues from this film or from a film that swiped it from here first.) the acting is great, the dialogue is good enough that it makes you want to learn some Russian to understand it better, and I can appreciate that the man was working in a system where it was better to make films that were symbolic and obscure, because what your masters could not understand they could not punish you for. (Sure are a lot of religious allusions and talk for a Soviet film though.) And I can appreciate the way that the film predicts Chernobyl in a very eerie way.

All of that said, this film to me is like medicine. It is good for you, but I could do with some straight forward narrative with my allegory, please.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: Au Coeur de la Forêt (In the Heart of the Forest)

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
Au Coeur de la Forêt (In the Heart of the Forest)

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Katty Yew Ngan Lun's animated film Au Coeur de la Forêt (In the Heart of the Forest) as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Animated Film.

Au Coeur de la Forêt Poster

*****

Au Coeur de la Forêt (In the Heart of the Forest)

Katty Yew Ngan Lun

Directed and Written by Katty Yew Ngan Lun

The Cégep du Vieux Montréal invited the YoungCuts Film Festival this year to come talk to the students about best practices when submitting short films to film festivals and to watch the films by the graduating class. As we have written before, inviting a YoungCuts representative to your year-end screening is always a good idea.

Like many of the great animated films that we have seen this year, Au Coeur de la Forêt is about a trip into the woods where the hero (or frequently as in this film heroine) collides with creatures from nature in unexpected ways. In style, it somehow magically blends Hayao Miyazaki with old episode of Scooby-Doo.

Like all CVM films, it has a French title but no dialogue, so the story must be told purely visually. (This is a very good idea by the way, it gives all of the films that come out of CVM universal appeal.)

Missing: One Puppy!

*****

Runtime: 1 min: 14 sec
Completion: 2011
Country of Origin: Canada (Quebec)

Synopsis: Une petite fille prénommée Sun-mi colle des affiches de son chien perdu afin de le retrouver. Elle le cherche désespérément dans la forêt où elle a perdu sa trace. Sun-mi aperçoit alors deux yeux bien cachés dans un buisson. En espérant que ce soit son chien, elle s'en approche. Elle se retrouve soudainement dans une situation plutôt inatendue.

Synopsis: A little girl named Sun-mi is putting up posters of her lost puppy. She desperately searches the forest where she originally lost him. Seeing two eyes peeking out from a bush, Sun-Mi approaches. She suddenly finds herself in a very unexpected situation!

Sun-mi searches for her puppy.

*****

Bio Cinéaste: J'ai toujours eu un interêt particulier pour toute forme de production artisque. En réalisant que les films d'animations me fascinent, je décide d'étudier en animation 2D au Cégep du Vieux-Montréal en 2008. À la fin de mon DEC, je réalise fièrement le court-métrage d'animation 2D Au Coeur de la Forêt. Ce projet m'as permit d'explorer toute les phases de la production d'un film d'animation. Je réalise egalement que l'effort et le plaisir qu'on met dans un projet reflête sur le résutat final. Je plannifie poursuivre mes études en animation 3D afin d'élargir mes connaissances artistiques.

Filmmaker Bio: I have always been particularly interested all forms of artistic expression. Realizing that I was fascinated by animated films, I decided to study traditional animation at the Cégep du Vieux-Montréal in 2008. Having finished my DEC, I proudly completed my 2D animated short film Au Coeur de la Forêt (In the Heart of the Forest). This project allowed me to explore all the phases of producing an animated film. I also realized that the more effort and joy that we invest into a project, the better the final product. I plan to continue my studies at the Cégep du Vieux-Montréal in 3D animation to expand my artistic horizons.

Filmmaker Age: 21

Sun-mi in the Forest

*****