Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Canadian Film Festival. The festival as a whole showcased 16 features and as many more shorts over the course of six days. I caught the final two days of the festival and enjoyed an impressive run of 12 films. Here’s a short round-up in chronological order:
Eel
A noir Nova Scotia fishing thriller starring/written/directed by theatre favourite Wayne Burns, Eel is a quick hit of hard genre in an unexpected setting. Immersive lighting deprives the viewer of too much information and gives the low budget short an expansive atmosphere.
A Breed Apart
A quiet rumination on fatherhood, community, and getting your footing as an immigrant, this understated feature runs a bit long but lives up to the sterling reputation of its co-directors (Adam Belanger & David Lafontaine)’s theatre work with a polished look and all round solid execution. Joshua Close is stellar in the tricky leading role bringing surprise humour to the character’s stoic intensity while Stuart Hughes and Michael Hough give standout performances in well written supporting roles.
A Tale of Ira Abbott
A very short short that doesn’t last an extra frame, writer/director Sasha Zvereva shows beautiful restraint in an intimate portrait of care and sacrifice.
Akashi
Shot mostly in rich high contrast black and white, this festival standout (and multi-award-winner) beautifully flips convention to show memory in vivid colour. Dreamy but clear-eyed, a must-see that deserves a big post-festival life.
Vital
Pitch dark and unshakeably sad, this short about the organ trade in Iran is unflinching in its complexity.
Ballistic
The rules of the Canadian Film Festival state that Canadian filmmakers make Canadian films, regardless of subject matter, setting, or style (Akashi is largely in Japanese, still counts), which is why there is room for the universal themes of Chad Faust’s very American drama about a mother who works in the factory that makes the bullets that likely killed her soldier son. Starring Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey, Ballistic feels a bit higher profile than some of its competitors and has the polish to match. Writer/director Faust gives everyone (most of them Canadian TV favourites) rich, complex material but saves the best scene for himself, delivering the performance of the festival as a tortured army recruiter.
Taco Boy
A quiet killer, this sweetly toned short about a little girl who wants to order a birthday cake for her dog is one of the most subtle considerations of grief I’ve ever seen.
A Farewell to Youth
A personal story unafraid to be ugly, this feature has some iffy production execution from questionable shaky cam usage to uneven sound editing but the complex (mostly true!) story stands out as one of the festival’s most enduring.
The Line She Carries
Lovely and interesting, this evocative short takes us inside the ever-smaller art of Inuit tattooing and its significance.
Los Rios
Well executed and complicated despite filming in difficult circumstances, the one feature documentary I saw at the festival took 8 years to complete after running into budget limitations. A small story about migrants evolved into something bigger when the filmmakers encountered the infamous caravan that figured into the 2018 US midterm elections. It’s a testament to Dale Bailey & Ryan Fyfe-Brown’s artistry how well they transitioned the work to meet the story they encountered without oversimplifying.
Leopard
My favourite short of the festival, writer/director Dan Abramovici’s tender and clever film brilliantly combines animation and live action as our teenage heroine Tish (a fabulous Emma Ho) takes on the ultimate nemesis- a pretentious big brother.
The Bearded Girl
Director Jody Wilson’s circus-set feature drags a bit and plays with a few too many obvious metaphors but the film looks beautiful (Teia Dumaresq’s makeup work is some of the best I’ve ever seen) and, unnecessary epilogue aside, it features a highlight last shot.