Going global

>> The World Film Fest follies continue into the controversial event’s final stretch

by MATTHEW HAYS

The 31st annual World Film Festival (WFF), which wraps up this long weekend, appears to have marked a reversal of fortunes for Montreal’s largest film event. SODEC, the provincial film-funding body, announced they were back on board with a couple of hundred thousand in subsidy after a two-year absence. Serge Losique, the fest’s resilient founder and leader, tells me that much of the acrimony that the World has been mired in is now behind him.

And Losique explains all this in typically eccentric fashion. “The Quebec film milieu are just like gypsies,” he argues. “One minute they kiss you, the next, they kill you. Right now, everyone is kissing us.”

Well, apparently not everyone. At their opening ceremonies last Thursday night, WFF VP Daniele Cauchard decided to stir things up a bit by inviting Prime Minister Stephen Harper to “kick the behind” of Telefilm honcho Wayne Clarkson. This was WFF brass diplomacy at its finest, with the statement made to a large crowd who savoured every second of it. Cauchard stood by her remarks, later complaining to me that Clarkson has been “dragging his feet” in their negotiations to get more money from Telefilm to run the WFF. But as Losique has always purported to contend, the stars of the film festival are really the films themselves, right? Here’s a rundown of some of the things to look for in the final days of WFF 31.

Thursday, Aug. 30

New York theatre whiz Mark Brokaw is premiering his film directorial debut, Spinning into Butter, at the fest. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as a dean of students at an elite college when a series of race-based hate crimes turn the school on its head. Advance buzz is big on this feature, with a strong cast rounded out by Mykelti Williamson (in town for the festival), Beau Bridges and Miranda Richardson. And just when you thought there were no more rockumentaries to be made, director Bruce David Klein brings us Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise. This film follows its namesake on his ambitious 18-month North American 2007 tour, when he promoted the final album in the “Bat Out of Hell” trilogy. To me, anyone who would come up with the stage name “Meat Loaf” epitomizes cool. Montreal-based documentarian Helene Klodawsky (Motherland, Undying Love) will screen her first fiction feature, Family Motel. This moving NFB co-production shows us the harsh lives of a clan of Somali immigrants and what happens when bad luck means they’re unable to make rent. Klodawsky uses her documentary skills to great affect in this emotionally-wrenching entry.

RACE CASE: Spinning Into Butter

Friday, Aug. 31

From the Czech Republic comes a cautionary tale about falling for the wrong man. In Irena Pavlaskova’s Bitch’s Diary, our young heroine Karolina finds herself madly in love with a fellow who turns out to be a manipulative jerk. She decides to turn the tables on the opposite sex, dating various men while being a total bitch to each and every one of them. Nick Wilson’s Prince of Pot: The U.S. vs. Marc Emery tells the brutal story of Emery, the man who has fought to have anti-marijuana laws done away with, and is now facing extradition to the U.S. to face their dubious judicial system.

Saturday, Sept. 1

David Birnbaum’s Found Objects is a strange but oddly humorous short film about a cast of characters intent upon putting on a musical recital, despite the bombing campaign that is raining down on their heads. A sublimely loony film. Saturday will also see one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the festival screen: Persian Carpet is an Iranian anthology movie in which 15 filmmakers were asked to make short films with the simple connecting motif of the Persian rug. The results are incredibly diverse, including documentary, animation, music and art video.

Sunday, Sept. 2

From Belgium comes Rolando Colla’s The Other Half, about a man involved with a terrorist network who returns to Switzerland to see his long-estranged brother, all the while convinced that he is being trapped by police. The two brothers’ mutual mistrust comes to the surface as they reunite after 35 years. Another NFB co-pro is The Dogwalker, a cinema verité portrait of Michael Borowski, a man who survived a traumatic childhood head injury and who now manages his problems by working as the neighbourhood dog walker.

Monday, Sept. 3

On this day, the festival screens films that have been voted most favourably by the public. Not to be missed on this day too is one of my favourites, No Bikini, a delightful short by Claudia Morgado Escanilla, which is a charming, quirky film about innocence, bathing suits and gender. A true gem.

The World Film Festival
runs through Monday,
Sept. 3; for more info see
www.ffm-montreal.org

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