TheNFB’s Animal Behaviour Online for a Limited Time!

9 Feb

Image result for animal behaviour thenfb

From February 11 to 24, all Canadians can join in the Oscar celebration as the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) offers two weeks of free streaming of Alison Snowden and David Fine’s new animated short Animal Behaviour on NFB.ca, Facebook and YouTube.

It’s the fourth Academy Award nomination for this Vancouver-based husband-and-wife animation duo. They took home the Oscar 24 years ago for their previous NFB collaboration: the NFB/Snowden Fine Animation/Channel 4 co-production Bob’s Birthday, which would go on to inspire their series Bob and Margaret. They were also nominated for their 1987 NFB short George and Rosemary, with Snowden nominated before that for her 1984 student film Second Class Mail.

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Seder-Masochism, An Animated Magnum Opus

7 Feb

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Seder-Masochism is an animated film that’s not easy to classify. In one level, it’s a very loose retelling of Passover Seder, and in another, it’s an animated Broadway musical! One part developed to entertain and another part attacking the patriarchy within organised religion, I’m not certain if I should worry. I have my own opinion about following the light and never patronise how others follow God.

With this work, the events from the Book of Exodus are retold by Moses, Aharon, the Angel of Death, Jesus, and the director’s own father. The Goddesses, humanity’s earliest deities, are well represented. Presented are effigies of Lilith, Catal Huyuk, the Venus of Hohle Fels and the Venus of Willendorf. Great Isis is just as important, and a lot of time is spent interpreting what this ancient Egyptian culture’s spiritual path is like. Much of it is accurate, including the roles she played in Greco-Roman times. With these character designs, the way these Egyptian figures look suggests a sense of worry because of what’s looming.

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Dead Pigs is Not Your Typical Chinese New Year Movie

7 Feb

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Dead Pigs may sound like an unusual title for a movie to kick off Chinese New Year on its Victoria Film Festival screening Feb 4th, but it’s a well-meaning work which looks at the idiosyncrasies behind a dysfunctional family trying to survive in a modern China. In Shanghai, Candy Wang (Vivian Wu) and her elder “Old Man Wang” brother (Yang Haoyu) do not see eye to eye over their old family home. It is destined to be torn down because everything else in the old neighbourhood is gone. The Golden Happiness Project claim to improve the lives of everyone, including the impoverished, for the better is falling on a lot of deaf ears–but at what cost? Money cannot buy everything, especially when concerning preserving memories.

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All those ‘Invisible Essences’ which defines The Little Prince

5 Feb

Image result for invisible Essence: The Little Prince netflixBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Also available on Netflix and Discovery Channel Canada

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry‘s most recognized work is a timeless tale and to learn about the man and meaning of this tale is nicely explored in the documentary simply titled Invisible Essence: The Little Prince. This work can be found to view online, but for me, I had to see it during the 2019 Victoria Film Festival, to enjoy seeing the artwork come to life on the big screen. With the dream-like watercolour images splashed on that canvas and ink dots denoting a lost innocence, I was captivated by the details of not only the illustrations but also in how this author would come to write this seminal tale.

Not only does this film explores new reactions to this story but also it gets anecdotal by those who knew this creator’s life. The balancing of these two narratives made for a lengthy examination and the payoff, in the end, is simply in understanding both the author and his story more.

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