Friday, September 25, 1998 — North Shore News ~ 15

NORTH SHORE NEWS ENTERTAINMENT & STYLE GUIDE

Ranjit Chowdhry stars
in Sturla Gunnarsson's
Such a Long Journey
(1998) based on the
_. Governor-General
ining novel by
Rohiiton Mistry. The .
flim'Wés the opening
-night gata presentation
: for this year's'17th .
Vancouver international _

S that. time of year again when an
‘summer lingers, kids'are ~

sch L and | the Vancouver

ig novel. :
storyof.a man.caught.up in a scandal
ili ere siplioned from the
. ank:of-Indig.to finance the Bangles
liberation m movement in 1971 (whom : some -

This year’s festival isan eclectic mix with over

works alone from across Canada, the largest
contribution ‘ever, at least 40 of which are direct-
_éd orc directed | by women. Many of the films

prising the “Canadian Images” series are
comedies inchiding, Robert Lepage’s No (which

in -awards at the recent Montreal and Toronto
film festivals), Jonathan Tammuz’s Rupert’s
‘Land, written by Vancouver’s Graeme Manson
and starring Ian Tracey, and Denise Filiatrault’s
Ie’s Your Turn based.on the novel by Michel
Ti remblay. -

- Documentaries also have a large showing, many taking an activist stance
including films by First Nations directors, Loretta Todd, Carol Geddes, Pau!
M. Rickard, and Gary Farmer.

. Leon Gast, who won the Academy award for When We Were Kings, the
story of Muhammed Ali, will be a member of the j jury for best documentary.
: The Archival series will take a look at American crime fiims of the 1970s.
- Sarrounded by the reality of Vietnam, Watergate, Charles Manson and the
~ “assassinations of King, Kennedy, and jimmy Hoffa ete. it's no wonder that
crime became the central theme in what is considered to be some of the best
films of American cinema — of any time.

“As well, we'll sec a salute to Josephine Baker including Zou-Zon (1934),

“with Baker preforming the infamous “Hitari,” clad only in a few strategically

placed feathers.
Another special presentation, “The Best of Times, The Worst of Times —

South Africa in the Fifties” will show films in commemoration of the 50th

Anniversary of Apartheid.
For the ‘finale, on October 10th, the annual Award’s Gala presents The Last

Long story
short: this
year’s films
John Goodman

This Week Editor

DON’T blink or you'll
miss this year’s
Vancouver International

Film Festival.

Seventeen days might seem _
like a long stretch bat there's
hundreds of films and too litde ©
time. The annual cinema feast
is often the only chance you'll

- get to view many of the works .

on the program.

Here’s a short list of one
man’s must-see options from
this year's festival. Most films
get two screenings —
out the $2 festival

~ times and places (McNems

Lonsdale and Global, Ne

- duced ter enphisl :

treatment of Nort

: Julianina my Ghee starring in

Night. Written, directed, and starring Canada’s Den McKellar, this end-of-
the-world drama won the Cannes Prix de Jeunesse, 1998. Sandra Oh, and
Callum Keith Rennie also star.

I asked Ian Caddell, the festival’s media coordinator, to fill me in on this
year’s VIFF.

MV: What can we expect at this year’s Film festival?

fan Caddell: This year we have themes for the first rime in a long time. It
just happens that che films that are available around the world fit into the
music category or exile and immigration category.

Some of these films also fit into both themes and what makes that particu-
larly intriguing is that in order to facilitate that and make that work we have
gone to Africa and Asia more than ever. We have European films that are set
in other countries, co- productions and more internationa' “ns that overlap.
There’s one film, for instance that’s from Greenland/* ‘Denmark and
Norway because ‘that’s the w ay filmmakers have to fine now, they have

‘ve More page 24

co's Helena

Willem ‘Dafoe, Christopher
Walken, Jobn Lurie ands ~
Gretchen Mol

> Japanese
Miike ‘Takashi will be at the
festival to discuss his recent *

work as part of the Dragons. 2

and Tigers series. The annu-’
al Asian cinema segment,
programmed by Tony
Rayns, is justifiabiy famous
world-wide and always
draws a lor of attention. This
vear the majority of Asian -
films are trom Japan, South
Korea and Taiwan.

> A spotlight on France
includes two films from sen-

sational new director

Francois Ozon, Sec the Sea
and Sitcom, plus the latest
work from Claude Chabrol,

See French pane 8

BOOKS:18 CINEMAS:20 TRAVEL:21 DINING:22 THEATRE:23 MUSIC:30