09 Film Festival
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Updated: October 28, 2009 1:10 AM
Shuswap Film Society reels out their annual Here and Away Film Festival from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4.
The festival opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Salmar Classic Theatre with 45 RPM, a film that takes viewers back to teenaged life in northern Canada – a time when hearing the latest music was nearly an impossibility. The film also runs at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Salmar Grand Theatre.
O’Horten, a bittersweet comedy by the Norwegian director Bent Hamer runs Saturday, Oct. 31, at 10:30 a.m. and again on Sunday, Nov. 1, 10:35 a.m. at the Salmar Grand.
The main character is Odd O’Horten (Baard Owe), a quiet man who lives alone and sets his life by the railroad timetable. With retirement impending, O’Horten discovers that life can be an unusual and satisfying journey.
Anvil! is a funny documentary about the Canadian heavy metal band from the 1980s who had but one modestly successful album: Metal on Metal. The film runs Saturday, Oct. 31, 10:35 a.m. and Sunday, Nov. 1, 1:10 p.m., at the Salmar Grand.
The film follows original band members, who have been together since the 1980s, on a disastrous European tour.
Act of God is the latest documentary by Canadian film maker Jennifer Baichwal. In this film, which shows Saturday, Oct. 31, 10:40 a.m. and Sunday, Nov. 1 at 3:40 p.m. at the Salmar Grand, Baichwal turns her gaze to lightning, that mysterious phenomenon which has a scientific basis but lends itself so easily to metaphysical questions. Act of God examines questions that ultimately revolve around a deep-seated desire to understand the world as either a machination of fate or a product of change.
Winner of multiple César Awards, Seraphine, a French-Belgian film showing Sat., Oct. 31 at 1 p.m. at the Salmar Grand and 7:30 p.m. at the Salmar Classic, is about the obscure yet fascinating artist known as Seraphine de Senlis, a simple housekeeper whose brilliantly colourful canvases adorn some of the most famous galleries in the world. Seraphine is a testament to creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit.
With its deceptively straightforward narrative, Tulpan, the first feature film from writer-director Sergey Dvortsevoy, shows Saturday, Oct. 31 and Sun. Nov. 1 at 1:05 p.m., at the Salmar Grand. The film presents a fresh perspective on a simple love story, complemented by a striking landscape and an endless menagerie of exotic animals. The result is an amusing and heartwarming tale of hope, conflict and the dreams that make life bearable.
The Cove, which runs Saturday, Oct. 31, at 1:10 and 3:40 p.m. at the Salmar Grand, both a thriller and a harsh indictment of our reckless harvesting of ocean life. The film exposes not only the tragedy of dolphin slaughtering in Japan, but also the dangerously high levels of mercury in dolphin meat and seafood, as well as the depletion of the ocean’s fisheries by worldwide seafood consumption.
Little Ashes, with showings on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 1. 1 p.m., at the Salmar Grand, is a historical fantasy about Salvador Dali and Spain’s surrealistic movement, in which church, state, ideology, landowners, parents and laws are all mocked by deliberately outlandish behavior.
Rudo Y Cursi, which shows Saturday, Oct. 31 at 3:35 p.m. and Nov. 2 at 3:30 p.m., at the Salmar Grand, depicts soccer as an entire universe around which love, kinship, loyalties and betrayals revolve.
A tender friendship between a girl and a boy in the snowy environment of northern Ontario anchors the sparse but tender Canadian film Only, which runs Sunday, Nov. 1, at 10:40 a.m. at the Salmar Grand and Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m. at the Salmar Classic. An official selection of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, Is Anybody There, which shows Sunday, Nov. 1 at 3:35 at the Salmar Grand and Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m. at the Salmar Classic is a tender portrait of friendship between an inquisitive 10-year-old boy and a retired magician.
Tokyo Sonata, the latest invention of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s artistic mind, strays from the trendy Japanese-horror genre, into family drama, territory that carries a different dark suspense. The film will be shown only once on Sunday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m., at the Salmar Grand.
Known for his offbeat documentaries, film maker Chris Smith gives us The Pool, a film that quietly evokes life on the margins, Monday, Nov. 02, 7:30 p.m., at the Salmar Classic.
Funny, warm and unaffected, The Pool a simple and honest story about young people who discover that the world is a larger place than they could ever have imagined.
SAGA Public Art Gallery serves a Reel Lunch of soup, bun, coffee and cookie from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30 and Sunday Nov. 1.
Festival tickets are available at Wearabouts or reserve them at Shuswap Film Society’s 24-hour info/message line at 250-832-2294.
Single admission is $8, five-film festival pass is $25 and all-film gold pass is $50.
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