September 28, 2005

Shortlisted

Apparently, 'On A Sunday' has been shortlisted for competition in the Vancouver International Film Festival. Our director and producer are flying into town from Winnipeg for the screenings on Friday and Sunday. Should be a great weekend, and the two week's worth of outstanding national and international films to follow shouldn't be too hard to take either.

The VIFF kicks off this Thursday with 'Water,' the final installment of Deepa Mehta's elemental trilogy that began with 'Fire' and 'Earth.' I'm embarrassed to say that I've not seen either of the two previous films, but I am looking forward to 'Water' which is set in an ashram in Colonial India where Hindu widows are forced to live in penitence. Filming in Varanasi in 2000 was abandoned after a fundamentalist protest mob became violent and destroyed the set, threw it into the Ganges, and burned Mehta in effigy. They claimed that she was pandering to The West's negative image of India and threatening core Hindu values. Esther and I first heard about the film while we were in India during which time 'Water' was being completed in secret in nearby Sri Lanka.

The 24th annual VIFF also marks the unofficial opening of the new Vancouver International Film Centre, "...an exciting new centre of excellence for Vancouver's film lovers, both for filmmakers and for cinephiles." Seems like a good thing, and hopefully will help to fill the programming void left by the multiplexes.

September 14, 2005

Coming to a Theatre Near You

I'm thrilled to report that 'On A Sunday' has been chosen to screen at the Vancouver International Film Festival! The VIFF is one of the largest film festivals in the world with as many as 150 000 people attending 500 screenings of over 300 films from 50 countries and is one of the world's great champions of Canadian film. 'On A Sunday' screens twice, Friday Sept. 30th at 12:30 pm and Sunday Oct. 2nd at 7:00 pm. Having screened at the Winnipeg International Film Festival earlier this year its inclusion at Vancouver has a nice synergy in that it has screened in both my home town and my adopted city.

For screening details (and/or to purchase tickets) go to Search Program Guide and enter 'On A Sunday.' It screens alongside eight other Canadian shorts in a program called 'Toeing the Line.' I'll be attending both screenings, so look for me if you decide to come out.