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Festival Coverage

TIFF 2017: ‘Meditation Park’

By: Jessica Goddard Mina Shum’s Meditation Park is an engaging, quirky, and empowering film about the overdue self-actualization of a Vancouver woman (Cheng Pei-pei) in light of the discovery of her husband’s affair.  This thoroughly modern film also expertly highlights the immigrant experience in multicultural Canada, while making clear that the narrative is culturally universal.  There is an exquisite balance of humour and poignancy in the writing, strengthened by an excellent cast.

Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes @ TIFF ’17 – Canadian Slate

Despite all the less-than-stellar changes made to TIFF this year, the festival continues to excel in giving a voice to Canadian filmmakers and video artists.  Representatives of TIFF, once again, gathered in the Fairmont Royal York hotel to announce Canadian films which will play at the festival this year and then – presumably – disappear into Canadian cinemas, where a few of them will compete with the latest Oscar bait and Hollywood slop.

Reviews

First Round Down

My introduction to filmmaking duo Brett Butler and Jason Butler was imperfect.  Prior to the release of their indie Mourning Has Broken, I interviewed Brett.  He was an all-around standup guy who was grateful for when he and his brother won Ingrid Veninger’s “1K Challenge”, granting them access to make their dark comedy starring character actor Robert Nolan.

Reviews

Menorca

Movies can be delicious, such as this year’s rom-com Bakery in Brooklyn.  Despite the fresh food, the charming chemistry between the two leading women is what made the film buoyant.  On the other end of the scale, you have Menorca, which is deliciously bad.  This film feeds us so much camp, we’re begging for more when the movie begins to clam up.

Reviews

Hello Destroyer

Kevan Funk’s Hello Destroyer, a complicated and clinical disclosure of the underlying traumas associated with hockey, was well-received at TIFF last year for a good reason: there aren’t many films brave enough to de-mythologize Canada’s national sport.

Reviews

The Red Maple Leaf

In Frank D’Angelo’s The Red Maple Leaf, special agent Alfonso Palermo (D’Angelo) asks potential suspects to “indulge him” during interrogations.  I’ve heard some describe D’Angelo’s filmmaking as indulgent, which is why I smirked whenever Palermo asked this.  Whether this was a cheeky wink toward critics is a mystery, and will probably remain unanswered.

Festival Coverage

Blood in the Snow 2016: ‘Inspiration’

Inspiration may be Jason Armstrong’s first feature-length movie in seven years, but he’s been a consistent storyteller.  Just this Summer, Armstrong (along with frequent collaborator Mike Klassen) made 9 Days with Cambria, a moderately successful web series confronting abuse through short stories performed by different actresses portraying the same character.