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VIFF 2020 Interview: Curtis Woloschuk, VIFF Associate Director of Programming, on the changes and challenges of hosting a festival during a pandemic | Awesome Friday!
There’s no denying that 2020 has been an abnormal year for film, and film festivals are by no means exempt from that. I sat down with Curtis Woloschuk, associate director if programming for the Vancouver International Film Festival, to talk about this years festival moving online and other challenges of hosting a festival during a pandemic. Full Interview at Awesome Friday: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/10/viff-interview-curtis-woloschuk-viff-associate-director-of-programming-on-the-changes-and-challenges-of-hosting-a-festival-in-a-pandemic/
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VIFF 2020 Interview: Cheryl Foggo on her film ‘John Ware Reclaimed’ | Awesome Friday!
ohn Ware Reclaimed is a look at one of the least told types of stories in Canada, that of black history. John Ware himself is a locally famous figure and telling his story has been a lifelong interest of Canadian historian and writer Cheryl Foggo, who wrote and directed the film. I have already watched and reviewed it, and spoiler alert: it’s good. I was able to sit down with her over Zoom this week to speak about the film, Black Canadian history, and the stories that get told. Full Interview at Awesome Friday: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/09/viff-interview-cheryl-foggo-on-her-film-john-ware-reclaimed/
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VIFF 2020: ‘John Ware Reclaimed’ looks to change the conversation about the famous black cowboy | Awesome Friday!
For Foggo, John Ware has been a lifelong concern. She started a research file in the early days of her career as a writer and, in 2012, wrote a play titled John Ware Reimagined –songs from which are staged throughout this film– about his life and times. She admits that she knows she is no longer objective. She feels genuine love for the man and his family, a natural result of spending a lifetime learning about someone. I can’t say that there is a ton of new information here that I haven’t been able to find elsewhere, but I must…
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VIFF 2020: ‘Jumbo’ is a sweet film about love and acceptance | Awesome Friday!
On its face, Jumbo is about a young woman who falls in love with a carnival ride. No, not “oh hey, I love that ride.” She develops a deep emotional and sexual attachment to the ride. Yes, that’s a bit weird, but that is just the surface of the story. At its heart, Jumbo is about the fact that love is love, that love is not always what we expect, and that sometimes, even if we don’t understand something, acceptance is the best way forward. https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/09/viff-review-jumbo-is-a-sweet-film-about-love-and-acceptance/
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VIFF 2020: ‘The Magnitude of All Things’ looks at climate change through the lens of personal loss | Awesome Friday!
Of all the stories presented, one common thread is money. Unfortunately, those who do the damage are more concerned with money than with the people affected. Again, this is not new information. Living through late-stage capitalism has made none of this surprising, only disappointing. Many stories in The Magnitude of All Things are as much about industries moving into an area and colonizing it as they are of changing weather patterns wreaking havoc. What, then, is the answer? The film profiles those both inspired by hope and hopelessness, and the common answer is that we need to see a profound shift in…
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VIFF 2020: ‘Inconvenient Indian’ Is a Powerful Look at the Past, and Present, of Indigenous Life in Canada | Awesome Friday!
What makes Inconvenient Indian powerful is that it doesn’t let us get away with this. After a long section of various indigenous efforts to reclaim culture and foster some hope, the film also draws a straight line from our collective past to our present ignorance. It directly shows the police violently arresting Wetʼsuwetʼen people in BC as they protesta pipeline to be built across their land without their consent. We know now what we know now, and we’re doing now what we did then. We have come far, but we have so much further to go. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/09/viff-review-inconvenient-indian-is-a-powerful-look-at-the-past-and-present-of-indigenous-life-in-canada/
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VIFF 2020 Interview: Clark Backo on her starring role in “Happy Place” | Awesome Friday!
Clark Backo is a star on the rise. Known for her roles in Letterkennyand Supernatural, she makes the jump to lead actor in Happy Place, the new adaption of Pamela Sinha’s play. I spoke with Clark on Zoom about her experiences making Happy Place. Full Interview at Awesome Friday: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/09/viff-interview-clark-backo-on-starring-role-in-happy-place/
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VIFF 2020 Interview: Director Helen Shaver on her film “Happy Place” | Awesome Friday!
Helen Shaver is kind of a big deal. This year alone, she has directed episodes of Westworld, Snowpiercer, and Lovecraft Country. She is a veteran of prestige TV and directed a made-for-TV movie in 1999 that won an Emmy. Her new film Happy Place, streaming as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival, is her first feature film. I was able to sit down with her on Zoom to speak about Happy Place, what it’s like working with Canadian legends, and the universality of the experience of trauma and mental health issues. Spoiler alert: she was a delight to talk to. Full Interview at Awesome Friday:…
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VIFF 2020: ‘Happy Place’ Is a Powerful Story About Living With Trauma | Awesome Friday!
Backo is captivating here, and she works through Samira’s pain by gradually connecting with her fellow patients at the clinic. Her performance runs the gamut of human emotion and requires her to go to some very vulnerable places, and she does so with aplomb. The rest of the ensemble is good, with Canadian icons Mary Walsh, Sheila McCarthy, and Pamela Sinha (who also wrote the screenplay) on board in supporting roles. Each of them brings something extra to the role, with Walsh as the acerbic Mildred, McCarthy as a hyper-competitive Joyce, and Sinha as Rosemary, a woman so terrified of…
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VIFF 2020: ‘Events Transpiring Before, During, and After a High School Basketball Game’ is a slice of nostalgia | Awesome Friday!
True to the film’s name, we never actually see the basketball game. It instead focuses on the rest of the late 1990s night in the school. It follows a theatre group grappling with their staging of King Lear being shut down, as well as the players on the team struggling to explain the existentialism of The Matrix to one another and the assistant coach of the team trying way too hard to sell his idea of running legendary NBA Coach Phil Jackson’s triangle offence. Each of these stories is both mundane and completely absurd. You may wonder how, but if you…
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VIFF 2020: ‘Monkey Beach’ offers gorgeous looks at both scenery and culture | Awesome Friday!
[…] the film struggles because the performances and pacing are uneven in the first two acts. I can’t speak to why exactly, but it feels rushed. Then, in the third act, in which the main character, Lisa, finally accepts who she is and what she needs to do, the film really picks up, but the journey to get there is a little rough around the edges. That’s not to say there aren’t bright spots. Adam Beach shines as Lisa’s uncle, a survivor of the residential schools and staunch advocate for First Nations rights. The film itself is also an unabashedly…
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VIFF 2020: Most Anticipated Movies | ForReel
At last, we have once again arrived at VIFF. This will be my third year covering the Vancouver International Film Festival, and even though attending this year will be very different from how I’ve experienced VIFF before, there is still a lot I’m excited share about the festival. Because of the state of the global pandemic, VIFF 2020 is being conducted as an online-primary festival. While some movies and events will take place in select theaters with all of safety precautions necessary in place, the majority of the festival’s lineup will be available to stream online for BC residents via…
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Fantasia 2020: ‘You Cannot Kill David Arquette’ is a sweet, silly, and entertaining documentary | Awesome Friday!
Each step in his journey is eye-opening and engaging, from the backyard wrestling show he takes part in (and gets decimated) to the Mexican street wrestling he takes part in to prove he has what it takes to earn his own Lucha libre mask to his final redemption has he joins the independent wrestling circuit via a spectacularly choreographed match against his in-character nemesis, RJ City. Seriously, watching Arquette fun into traffic –actual, literal, Tijuana traffic– to get his ass kicked is one of the film’s most ridiculous and balletic sequences. For all his presentation as a goofball, it’s incredibly…
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Interview: Amelia Moses on her film “Bleed With Me” | Awesome Friday!
Bleed With Me is the first feature from Canadian director Amelia Moses. This slow-burn psychological horror film is rife with tension and atmosphere. As I said in my review earlier this week, this film is the type that should land Moses firmly on your radar for whatever she does next. I had the opportunity to sit down with Moses via Zoom to speak about her movie, the process of getting it made, and about making a movie looking at a darker type of female relationship. Full Interview at Awesome Friday: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/09/fantasia-interview-amelia-moses-on-her-film-bleed-with-me/
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Fantasia 2020: ‘Patrick’ is a sweet story of coming into one’s own | Awesome Friday!
Patrick is a simple story about a man coming to grips with his new normal and whether he even wants it to be his new normal. It is sweet and poignant, with a fantastic central performance and a hilarious fight scene. Naked, of course. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2020/09/fantasia-review-patrick-is-a-sweet-story-of-coming-into-ones-own/
I am a Rotten Tomatoes-approved, freelance film & television critic and podcast host from Vancouver, Canada! I am a co-founder of the Cascadia Film & Television Critics Association and a voting member of the International Film Society Critics, Pandora International Critics, and the Online Film & Television Association.
I maintain bylines at Exclaim!, Awesome Friday!, That Shelf, ForReel, Movies We Texted About, KeithLovesMovies, and I can be heard regularly on the Contra Zoom Podcast and The LAMBCast.
