[Victoria Film Festival 2017] Beware the Girl With All The Gifts & What That Brings …

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Cineplex Silvercity Tillicum
Victoria, BC

Please check local film festival listings for a screening near you.

* Spoiler Alert

In the movie The Girl With All The Gifts (GWatG), Professor Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton) and Doctor Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close) represents opposite sides of a belief in how to deal with a fungal outbreak turning humanity into mindless creatures. They are the walking dead and they are not the traditional kind of zombie Voodoo practitioners would expect. When they are born as children, they seem normal, but as they age, their behaviour and cognitive ability changes. These two academics have to interact with them in order to find a solution to save the world.

Instead, they are at odds with one another. It’s a battle of philosophies between the educator taking on one approach and the doctor who simply wants to cut them up. This film is a nail-biting look which looks at the inevitable. The big question is whether or not these children are indeed children.

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Putting Together “The Hollow Child” — An Interview with Jeremy Lutter and Ben Rollo

When the supernatural is involved, anything can be found in the wilds of British Columbia, where The Hollow Child was filmed. Just what terror is involved, well….

Jeremy Lutter and Ben Rollo behind the scenes of The Hollow Child
(left) Jeremy Lutter (right) Ben Rollo

Plays
Feb 9, 9:00pm and Feb 11, 4:00pm

Silvercity
3130 Tillicum Rd.
Victoria, BC

The supernatural world of malevolent entities is never far in “The Hollow Child.” It’s in the woods and the neighbourhood — a concept director Jeremy Lutter and writer Ben Rollo effectively convey in their debut feature film premiering at the 2017 Victoria Film Festival, which starts today.

One of the telling visuals is how Lutter wanted the woods to appear outside of every window of the abode. Living by the forest can sometimes create a certain air of unease, especially if it’s everywhere. You never know what can thunder out. This danger is effervescent in “The Witch” (2016) and it may have inspired these two when making this work. Instead, in conversation, Lutter mused about the possibility of Rollo having his own dealings with those spirits since he lived by the woods. Part of the experiences seen in this film might be considered autobiographical.

“When living in the West Coast of Canada, it made sense to make the woods scary and have the story focus on the wild vs civilization,” said Lutter.

When the supernatural is involved, anything can be found in the wilds of British Columbia and this movie was filmed here. This province is well-known for its Bigfoot legends than fears over the ‘wee folks, namely gnomes or fairies from European tradition — to which this film takes inspiration from. With this movie, there’s a certain type of ‘tree-folk’ known to cause problems and, according to these filmmakers, the sleepy township is sort of aware of but does not talk about, which adds to this film’s ominous tone.

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Vic Film Fest Offers Sneak Peek at Presents Wrapped for 2017

vff2017logoBy James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Christmas has come early to film lovers care of the Victoria Film Festival (VFF). The annual event, established 1994, has released a snippet of what entries are being offered in the new year long after the presents have been unwrapped and the bottle of Sheri has been thoroughly emptied.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNy2q6hyeLo&w=560&h=315%5D
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The 2016 Victoria Film Festival Closing Weekend Thoughts & Award Announcements

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The 2016 Victoria Film Festival Valentine’s Day Closing Festivities was bittersweet. I enjoyed the treats offered on the last three days of this show and will have to wait for next year to taste what will be new in the world of independent cinema. From getting early previews of The Smalls: Forever is a Long Time, The Girl in the Photographs, Sergio Herman and Foodies, so I wouldn’t be faced with running around to see other films in conflicting times or in alternating theaters, I managed to add two more movies Project Itoh’s The Empire of Corpses (屍者の帝国, Shisha no Teikoku) and Our Last Tango (Un Tango Más) on top. I could have seen a film on Friday, but a certain mainstream movie was heavy on my list of must see during opening weekend.

The End of Festival Bash wrap up party at Lucky Bar was well attended. Although the space was tight and it was meant as a thank you event to all the volunteers, staff and guests who were in attendance, I did have to find out which films won audience favourites and the like. The big question everyone asks is what were your favourites from this year?

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[VFF ’16] How to Meet “The Steps,” A Movie Review and Afterwards

by Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The 70’s comedy, The Brady Bunch has always represented the ideal family, but in a modern world, to see two families embrace is never easy. That’s what Sherry (Christine Lahti), the new wife to Ed (James Brolin) wanted. Despite her best intentions, including a well placed image of the extended family in the home showing them as a happy bunch, the weekend jaunt is not about to go according to plan. Jeff (Jason Ritter) and Marla (Emmanuelle Chriqui) get an invitation by their father, Ed (James Brolin) to meet her at their cottage in rural Ontario, but little did they know her side of the family is going to be there too.

Sherry has a past she’s not proud of and she’s not the only individual with secrets. As this film reveals, she always does what’s best for her kids. Everyone in the newly formed family is odd. They are all grown up but they still have a few problems to deal with. Keith (Steven McCarthy) is a failed musician, Samir (Vinay Virmani) is a full-time stoner and David (Benjamin Arthur) is a Canadian redneck. This outing is kind of like Cheaper by the Dozen 2 where going back to nature to reconnect is required to get back to basics. In this film’s case, it’s to discover they do not care for each other. Try as they might in family bonding games, the situations they end up in make for some great chuckles. Viewers can learn from their mistakes.

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[VFF ’16] The Grubstake Gets Revisited for Shakespeare!

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By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempet)

The Grub Stake is a 1923 action-adventure silent film produced by Nell Shipman and directed by Bert Van Tuyle which never saw distribution when it finished production. The distributor went bankrupt and its fate even now is uncertain. Technically, it’s now in the public domain, and perhaps this early Canadian pioneer of the Hollywood scene cannot be any more happier to know from Heaven that it’s been reimagined and titled The Grubstake Remix.

A new musical score accompanies this product and instead of inter titles, performers recant the dialogue with Shakespearean splendour as the film plays in the background! The film takes on an entirely new dimension with dialogue from nearly every one of this bard’s plays — The Tempest, King Lear, Richard III and MacBeth being the most familiar — and no knowledge of each of this playwright’s material is really required to understand what’s going on.

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