Tag: Victoria Film Festival

Dead Pigs is Not Your Typical Chinese New Year Movie

Dead PigsBy 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 Essence’ which defines The Little Prince

To bring Invisible Essence: The Little Prince to a different world requires effort, especially in breathing life to the snake.

Image result for invisible Essence: The Little Prince netflixAlso 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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Changing Faces with Asako I & II

Image result for asako i & iiBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Remaining shows at the Victoria Film Festival
February 5 | 9:15 PM | Capital 6
Victoria, BC

Presented by The Japan Foundation.
Tickets available online or at the door.

Idealized romances are a figment of the Hollywood imagination. To find that one true love is a subject for plenty of films, and in Asako I & II, this strange title suggests the title character (played with naïve innocence by Erika Karata) will see plenty of change in her life. She’s a doting figure who falls for Baku (Masahiro Higashide) like the best romantic tale from the golden age of cinema, complete with fireworks, and this drifter gives this film a plot.

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Critically Acclaimed Dogman Lands at Victoria Film Festival 2019!

Description: Mac Share:Dogman:Poster:dogman_Poster_2764x4096.jpgPlaying locally at
Cineplex Silvercity
(3130 Tillicum Rd)

February 8 | 6:15 PM 

Click here to buy tickets in advance.

The 2019 Victoria Film Festival will be screening Dogman ahead of its theatrical release (on April 12. 2019) by Magnolia Pictures. Instead of waiting long, the rush is to see why this film earned many awards, including Best Actor at Cannes. Marcello Fonte is a tour-de-force.

Billed as a crime drama, this work is all about survival of the fittest. In canine society, it’s about who is the alpha? Juxtapositions will no doubt be in place for the lead. Marcello is a mild-mannered man who divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bully Simoncino, an ex-boxer who terrorizes the neighbourhood. When Simoncino’s abuse finally brings Marcello to a breaking point, he decides to stand up for his own dignity through an act of vengeance, with unintended consequences.

For upcoming showtime locations, please visit www.facebook.com/DogmanMovie

Trailer

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewh0lBcEb2U%5D

The Victoria Film Festival Celebrates 25 Years! Picks of the 2019 Season

Victoria Film Festival 2016 LogoThe Victoria Film Festival is celebrating 25 years! While I could swear this local event has gone on longer, but oh how time flies. I covered this event in some form (limited or otherwise) ever since I saw Edison and Leo back in 2008 (for a college paper) and Chef of the South Polar tickled my taste buds in 2011. This movie taught me a thing or two about how to make do with limited supplies for good food and in what defines the taste in ramen. I was a starving student back then and now I’m a starving artist. This year offers a film about the said noodle dish as my number one must see. As my eclectic tastes are as diverse as the selection, Mirai of the Future (未来のミライ) flies high. This anime is getting screenings! Curiously, no hardcore sci-fi, horror or fantasy is listed this year. The diversity is more on creative and inspirational films than always be genre-specific.

This year sees the Victoria Conference Center offer a larger space for their Opening Gala film, Sink or Swim (Le Grain Bain) on Feb 1st at 6:30pm. This French comedy technically debuted last year at Cannes and is making waves cross borders. It’s about how a group of men well past their prime in the quest to achieve self-esteem. They become a synchronized swimming team, and the teamwork involved to beat to the drum is tough, but are we here to laugh at them and perhaps reflect upon our own lives. We have all been there at some point–stuck in some quagmire until that one moment helps us realize we’re alright. This film encourages the latter and that’s entertaining enough!

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[VFF2018] The Wild West Tale is Redefined with Undertaker’s Son, A Short Film

poster

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Making an effective Western that stands out can be a challenge. All the tropes have been done to death and how can any filmmaker offer a tale that’s new? Foreshadow Film‘s (formerly known as Affolter Entertainment) The Undertaker’s Son is a very impressive work which I believe deserves number one place if I was to say which one of the 2018 Victoria Film Festival‘s BC Shorts Program (which played Weds night) I enjoyed the most.

This piece began as a challenge under the auspices of Vancouver’s Crazy 8’s challenge — to make a film in eight days. Since finishing this project a year ago, this nugget of gold has been making the film festival rounds.

With this tale, young Christopher’s (Darien Provost, The Whispers) anxiety shows when he knows that one day he is to train and be the next in line to continue the family business. In the days of the Wild West, death can be anywhere. Whether that’s a matter of surviving in untamed frontier or the lawlessness that’s around, we hardly learn about those on the sidelines or has the thankless job of burying the dead at Boot Hill. This short film looks at the life of a young lad — who clearly has interest in a girl he meets along the way to the morgue — and also his relationship with his father, Jonathan (Louis Ferreira, Breaking Bad & Stargate Universe).

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