If this year is anything like last year, 150,000 patrons will watch 640 screenings of 360 films from 80 countries. Founded in 1982, the Vancouver Festival continues to honour its original mandates: Understanding through cinema; Fostering the art of cinema with cinema professionals from around the globe; Stimulating the motion picture business in B. C. and Canada.

The 360 films have been categorized under 8 main sections reflecting the Festival’s commitment to these mandates.

Canadian Images section is heralded as ‘the biggest showcase of Canadian Film in the world.’ The Way of Nature section is about the environmental mess the world is in and what we all can do about it. The VIFF, not afraid of mess, offers a new series called Follow the Money. These productions, we are told, will be ‘fascinating and perversely entertaining’ trying to explain the financial mess the globe is in.

The festival’s global perspective has the Dragons and Tigers category claiming to be the largest exhibition of East Asian films outside of East Asia. Cinema of Our Time is a showcase for innovative, cinematic developments from around the world.

All of the productions continue to blur the old geo-political boundaries while seeking the recognition offered from this festival’s extensive series of awards and prizes.

Atom Egoyan’s film Chloe is a Canada/France co-production with international stars Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson. Dilip Meetha has co-written his directorial debut, Cooking with Stella, with sister Deepa, of Earth, Fire, Water fame. In Cooking, a Canadian diplomat and her husband learn about the culture and people of New Delhi through their wily cook Stella.

The Canadian Documentaries are its own citizens of the world like so many of this year’s features. Broke, an Alberta production, directed by German producer, writer, and director, Rosie Dransfeld, looks at the universal problem of street life, society’s marginalized. She documents the life of an Edmonton pawnbroker, David Woolfson, who for 16 years has run his own bank of last resort for Edmonton’s street people. Dransfeld’s company, ID productions, is all about ‘contemporary stories about ordinary people in the lunacy of every day life.’ Woolfson takes his own action against the lunacy of affluent nations who ignore or contribute to this marginalization. A number of us see this everyday and wonder what to do.

One final film in a grave, global context and meaning is called Puck Hog. It is a Canadian mockumentary about pick up hockey, somewhere between Slap Shot and Spinal Tap. All we pick-up players skate with a secret belief: We were, maybe still are, just a few strides away from the ‘Show’. I will watch this film making sure all our devotion and commitment to the Canadian boy’s dream is not lost to satire.


Glen Russell is Northernstars' West Coast Contributing Editor.