VIFF2012: Starlet director Sean Baker in a Q&A, Sunday morning, following film screening
Sean Baker, who brought his new film, Starlet — the provocative May-December friendship drama  — to VIFF2012, at the Q&A following an early morning screening of the film (above) told the audience that the film had found a North American distributor in Music Box Films — who have acquired a number of films screening at our VIFF, for distribution in Canada and the United States, including Ira Sachs’ well-reviewed, Keep the Lights On, and VIFF favourite Any Day Now. VanRamblings reader Joan Skosnik was kind enough to write to us with the information that the Alan Cumming / Garret Dillahunt period drama had been acquired for distribution.
Music Box Films acquired Canadian Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee Monsieur Lazhar last year, and took it right through the Oscar process, where the film emerged as an even odds prospect for a win. Will the same thing happen for Starlet, Any Day Now or Keep the Lights On? VanRamblings thinks not, and believes that these three films are unlikely to return to Vancouver, unless VIFF Vancity programmer Tom Charity picks them up for a one-week run. Distribution is a costly process, and when you’re talking about distributing films that cost only $250,000 to make in the first place, although those films might find release to theatres there’ll be next to no money for marketing and advertising the films, so who’ll even know that they’ve found a home at a cinema in our town, post-Festival?
Maybe the three films referred to above will return to Vancouver, maybe they won’t. Clearly, they’re all worthy films. VanRamblings’ advice? Why risk possible disappointment? See them as part of your VIFF2012 film schedule!
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Film Festival buzz, and some kvetchin’
Buzz: We mentioned yesterday that In Another Country had garnered considerable buzz. VanRamblings has been approached by a number of diehard Festival-goers — whose insight and judgement we’ve come to trust over the years — and following their many huzzahs for the film, added the film to our schedule. Had we read anywhere, or been told prior to Festival commencement, that In Another Country is a Rashomon-type picture, we would have scheduled it initially. Now we know, so we’ll be taking in a screening today: 9:15pm at the Granville 4. There’s another buzz film previously not on our radar, a new Festival favourite according to discussion in line this past 48 hours: Violeta Went to Heaven, which we’ve now made our 6pm show (Vogue Theatre), on Wednesday, October 3rd.
Award winners: VIFF Dragons & Tigers publicist Andrew Poon was kind enough to pass along that The Charm of Others (Oct 1, 3:30pm, PCP) won the runner-up award, and The Kumamoto Dormitory (Oct 2, 11am, VCT; Oct 3, 9:15pm, VCT) won the Special Jury Prize at the just completed, Tokyo-based Pia Film Festival, suggesting that you consider taking in one or both films. Andrew also passes along this reminder: this Thursday, October 4th at 6:30pm at Granville 7, the Vancouver International Film Festival will announce the winner(s) of the 2012 Dragons & Tigers award, preceding the screening of prominent, China-based director Lou Ye’s new film, Mystery.
Finally, to the kvetchin’ (well, sorta) portion of this section of today’s post, words of advice, points to ponder and some praise for VIFF organizers …
- Diana Haynes, with whom we are attending the Festival this year, has been bugging VanRamblings for days to point out an innovation in Festival procedure this year that has made life so much easier for Festival-goers. Here goes: VIFF, for the first time in 2012, has implemented a re-entry ticket programme, so that after you’re seated for a screening and should you wish to go out for a coffee (or to the washroom) re-entering the theatre has been made a seamless process thanks to the new ticket re-entry system. Congratulations are in order, Ms. Haynes believes, to Festival staff for implementing this salutary, innovative and entirely helpful change at VIFF2012, a change that has proved much to the benefit of avid Festival-goers.
- Yesterday afternoon, prior to taking in a screening at Pacific Cinémathèque, VanRamblings witnessed a meltdown by a VIFF patron, directed at Stephanie, the theatre’s manager. The Festival patron was absolutely livid that the Festival Pull-Out Guide did not have the page number in the programme after the schedule’s title listing, meaning that rather than turn directly to the Festival programme page to look up film information, patrons must go through the extra step of looking through the index at the back of the programme.
Following the contretemps (during which VanRamblings intervened to rescue the beleaguered Stephanie), unsolicited, several patrons in line-ups at the Granville 7 expressed the same concern to us, as indentified above. VanRamblings spoke with the incredibly fabulous (and we’re sure we’re driving her to distraction) Festival Media Director, the ever-wonderful and incredibly calm, cheerful, welcoming and professional, Ellie O’Day about the matter, who said she’d contact the appropriate person (Publications Editor, Jack Vermee, one would think) to resolve the dilemma, by re-publishing a PDF of the Pull-Out Guide online, and making a re-printed and corrected Pull-Out Guide available at Festival venues. As of this writing, the online PDF of the Festival Pull-Out Guide has not been corrected. Here’s hoping, tho.
Earlier in the Festival, Ian Merkel, past Jewish Film Festival Executive Director, asked us to pass along to readers that, at Mr. Merkel’s request, Jack Vermee had made the Festival Pull-Out Guide available online as a PDF. He wanted to publically thank Jack for the work he put into making the guide available as a PDF (if there’s one thing you can count on Festival staff and administration, each and every time, it’s a quick, positive, professional and implemented response to request to changes for Festival procedures — indicating a high level of competence, and respect for Festival patrons by VIFF administration.- A VanRamblings complaint (shared by many others, as well as VIFF staff): 1. iPhones and other smartphones lighting up during a film, with texting and posting of e-mails. At the Sunday night screening of Rebelle — which we also loved, by the way — a young woman sitting in the row in front of us had her iPhone on, texting and surfing, for the first third of the film, before VanRamblings asked her to stow her phone away. 2. The crinkling and rattling of polyurethane bags as patrons dig out there goodies while watching the film, creating an unwelcome and distracting noise pollution for patrons; one can see a bit of crinkling, but throughout the entire film? 3. Patrons arriving up to half an hour late for a screening, and then taking up to 10 minutes to find a seat, all the while standing in the aisles acting — as our mother was wont to say — more like a door than a window, obscuring the screen and preventing patrons from reading subtitles. 4. Perfume. Patrons have actually asked VanRamblings to sit by them because, “You’re not wearing cologne or perfume, so I can watch the movie without choking.” If we might: VIFF is a scent-free zone. If you’re intending on ‘wearing a scent’, please apply that scent sparingly.
Keep in mind, folks: for most diehard Festival patrons, VIFF represents the ‘church of cinema’. Attending VIFF is a near religious experience for us, and every diehard movie catholic wishes with all of our heart and our mind to have wash over us fine and moving cinema from every corner of our planet. Please, please be respectful.
And, finally: The VIFF app has not been updated, as had earlier been requested by VanRamblings (and a significant number of VIFF patrons), to indicate film length. Film length in the VIFF app film description is absolutely critical to patrons to aid in our planning of what to attend, e.g. if a patron at the last minute, with iPhone in hand, wishes to attend a 4 p.m. and a 6 p.m. screening, that is possible if the earlier movie is 90 minutes or less in length; one turns to the VIFF app for that info, and sad to say that it (still) ain’t there. A pity that. - A VanRamblings complaint (shared by many others, as well as VIFF staff): 1. iPhones and other smartphones lighting up during a film, with texting and posting of e-mails. At the Sunday night screening of Rebelle — which we also loved, by the way — a young woman sitting in the row in front of us had her iPhone on, texting and surfing, for the first third of the film, before VanRamblings asked her to stow her phone away. 2. The crinkling and rattling of polyurethane bags as patrons dig out there goodies while watching the film, creating an unwelcome and distracting noise pollution for patrons; one can see a bit of crinkling, but throughout the entire film? 3. Patrons arriving up to half an hour late for a screening, and then taking up to 10 minutes to find a seat, all the while standing in the aisles acting — as our mother was wont to say — more like a door than a window, obscuring the screen and preventing patrons from reading subtitles. 4. Perfume. Patrons have actually asked VanRamblings to sit by them because, “You’re not wearing cologne or perfume, so I can watch the movie without choking.” If we might: VIFF is a scent-free zone. If you’re intending on ‘wearing a scent’, please apply that scent sparingly.
Still and all, most of the kinks with the ticket barcode readers had been worked out at Festival venues, on Sunday (mostly, but not completely), so that’s a salutary development. And Festival staff continue to allow passholders early entry (before ticket buyers), in keeping with past practice — although there are some glitches in that system which we won’t go into in this post, but wait to see how the situation develops.
We had intended, in this post, on reviewing Neighbouring Sounds, apologizing for recommending Berberian Sound Studio (dreadful film, unworthy of your time), and otherwise rhapsodizing about half a dozen films worthy of your attention. But the hour is late as VanRamblings composes this posting, we’ve been getting by on three hours sleep each night (home after midnight, write til 4:30 a.m., up at 7:30 a.m. and back at the Festival at 9 a.m.). so we’ll hold off until tomorrow.
But we do love: When the Night (which we’ll be seeing for a second time, on Wednesday, October 3rd, at 11:30 a.m., at the Granville 3), the films we wrote about yesterday, and very much recommend La Demora (last time today, at 11:40am, Gr3), Starlet (sad to say, gone, but it may come back as a Fest best in VIFF’s final week), Love in the Medina (showtimes available in the title link), The Hunt (one of our very favourite VIFF films), Teddy Bear (today, Oct 1, 11:40am, Gr3), and The Flat (Tues, Oct 2, 3:15pm, Gr1), not to mention, Bay of All Saints (our favourite doc, so far), among other films we’ve seen and recommend.
