15th Annual Kamloops Canadian and International Film Festival

15th Annual Kamloops Canadian and International Film Festival
G
af
f
er
03/03/11
Festival Guidebook
Thursday March 3 to
Thursday March 10, 2011
Paramount Theatre
(503 Victoria St.)
G
af
fe
r
Film Commission
Advance tickets at Moviemart,
downtown at 5th and Seymour, and
Bookland on the North Shore at
Fortune Shopping Centre
Ticket Information
Festival Events
Advance tickets will be on sale on the South Shore at
Moviemart (5th and Seymour) and on the North Shore at
Bookland (750 Fortune Drive) from Friday February 11th
until Thursday March 10th.
Opening Reception
During the festival, single tickets may also be purchased
at the Paramount Theatre. Tickets to the Festival Closing
Party will be available at Moviemart and Bookland
prior to the festival and in the theatre lobby during the
festival.
$8 per ticket:
Single admission
$7 per ticket:When you purchase 5 to 9 different
tickets at the same time
$6 per ticket:When you purchase 10 or more
different tickets at the same time
$10 per ticket:
Festival Party (Advance), $15 at the door
A $2 Kamloops Film Society membership is required (available at the
door). Under the Motion Pictures Act of British Columbia and Canada
Customs Regulations, only members of the Kamloops Film Society
are permitted to attend films. An annual membership fee of $2 allows
all members to purchase tickets for all films sponsored by the Society
and entitles members to all rights and privileges of the Society in
accordance with and subject to the Constitution and Bylaws.
Contests & Prizes
People’s Choice Award and Festival Draw
Enter our draw to win two free passes to next year’s
film festival and to vote for your favourite film of the
festival. The most popular film, and the annual draw
winner, will be announced at the Festival Closing Party.
Film Trivia Prizes
Win great prizes! A short trivia contest will be held at
the beginning of each film.
2
Celebrate the opening
of the festival on March
3rd, immediately
following the screening
of Incendies at The
Plaza Heritage Hotel, located just a few blocks west of
the theatre at 405 Victoria. Sponsored by the Kamloops
Central Business Improvement Association, the event
will shine a light on you, our absolutely fabulous
Kamloops Film Festival patrons and Film Society
members. Come sample a selection of hors d’oeuvres
prepared by the Rocksalt Restaurant, and served to you
by TRU School of Tourism hospitality students. There is
no charge for this event, so please come join our “Reel
Community” in celebrating all that is film, cinema and
the movies!
An Afternoon with Knowledge: Films,
Filmmakers & Filmmaking – Sunday March 6,
2-5 pm, TRU Clock Tower Theatre
Calling all aspiring filmmakes of all ages to come out
and rub shoulders with Rudy Buttignol (Knowledge
Network President & CEO) and special guest John
Bolton (Opus 59 Films) who will talk about the joys of
filmmaking. Admission and refreshments are free but
the experience will be priceless!
Festival Closing Party
Do not miss our soon-to-be
legendary closing event! Right after
the ‘feel-good’ closing film of the
festival on March 10th (yes, we do
consider these things), skip over
to the Blackwell Hall at The Plaza
Heritage Hotel (address above) for
a rocking after-party featuring a boogie-friendly band,
complimentary Rocksalt Restaurant appetizers and glass
of wine, and all sorts of appropriate fanfare. Tickets are
$10 in advance (Moviemart & Bookland) and $15 at the
door. We have printed more tickets this year, but they are
likely to sell out again, so don’t delay – buy early! This
event is generously sponsored by TRU Open Learning.
Woop woop!
Special Guests
We’re pleased to announce several special guests who
will join us throughout the festival:
Jennifer Jonas and Don McKellar
Jennifer Jonas and Don
McKellar will be in attendance
at the screening of the film
Trigger on Sunday, March 6th
at 7 pm.
Jennifer Jonas is the producer of Trigger and other films
including Last Night, The Life Before This, The Perfect
Son, Childstar, and Toronto Stories.
Actor, writer, director Don McKellar has stared in such
films as The Adjuster, Exotica, Cooking With Stella, and
our featured film Trigger. He also has directed the recent
hit Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and wrote such films as
Highway 61, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould,
Dance Me Outside, Childstar, and Blindness.
Jeff Chiba Stearns
Jeff Chiba Stearns, director of One Big
Hapa Family, will be in attendance at his
film on Tuesday, March 8th at 7 pm.
Jeff Chiba Stearns is a prolific animator,
writer and director who has made such
films as Yellow Sticky Notes, What Are You Anyway and
the upcoming Emerson: Pictures of an Exhibitionist.
Discounts During the Festival
Schedule and Contents
Plaza Heritage Hotel—Room Discount
Simply mention that you are in town for the festival
and receive a special room rate of $79 plus taxes
(single or double occupancy). Parking is free. Call toll
free 1-877-977-5292.
Film for a Cause
Our charity film this year will be the documentary
One Big Hapa Family, which features the Kamloops
Japanese Canadian Cultural Association. KCIFF will
contribute 100% of the net revenue from the showing
of the film to the Kamloops Japanese Canadian
Cultural Centre to help with its recovery from a
devestating fire in February, 2008. Please come out
and hear an introduction by the filmmaker Jeff Chiba
Stearns and a performance by the Raiden Taiko
drummers.
t hurs day M a rch 3 PAG E
PAG E
7:00 pm Cole15
6:45 pm Opening remarks
t u es day ma r c h 8
7:00 pm Incendies5
9:00 pm Opening Reception
2
f ri day M a rch 4
7:00 pm Lovers in a Dangerous Time6
9:00 pm Lebanon7
www.facebook.com/KamloopsFilmFestival
s at urday M a rch 5
www.twitter.com/KamloopsFilm
1:00 pm The Secret of Kells8
For the most up-to-date information, contest give-aways and
interesting film trivia, join us on twitter and facebook or visit our
website: www.kamloopsfilmsociety.org/festival.htm
mo n day ma r c h 7 6:00 pm Doors open
3:00 pm Waste Land 9
7:00 pm The House of Branching Love10
7:00 pm One Big Hapa Family16
with special guest, director Jeff Chiba
Stearns in attendance
W ed n es day ma r c h 9
7:00 pm Small Town Murder Songs17
t h u r s day ma r c h 1 0
7:00 pm Made In Dagenham18
9:00 pm Festival Closing Party
2
2
Draw to win two passes for next year’s festival
9:00 pm Oliver Sherman11
front cover
from Oliver Sherman
s un day m a rch 6
page 3
1:00 pm How to Boil a Frog12
from The Illusionist
3:00 pm The illusionist13
page 4
from Trigger
back cover
from Incendies
7:00 pm Trigger14
with special guests, producer,
Jennifer Jonas and actor, Don McKellar
in attendance
3
From the Festival Committee
In working to select and secure the films for the fifteenth annual Kamloops
Canadian and International Film Festival, we came to realize that something exciting
was happening: opportunity to present not only our usual slate of exciting features
from Canada and around the World, but to showcase our own, homegrown talent
and community. We therefore made the effort to make this year “The Year of
the Local Filmmaker” in every way we could. In addition to the three local films
in our lineup (Lovers in a Dangerous Time, Cole, One Big Hapa Family) we’ve
partnered with Knowledge Network to host a salon on Sunday from 2-5 at the TRU
Clock Tower Theatre entitled An Afternoon with Knowledge: Films, Filmmakers &
Filmmaking, designed to showcase the art and passion of making movies.
Once again, we have organized the Opening Reception to give the festival the
launch that it deserves. We will be holding the Opening and Closing events at the
Plaza Hotel again this year. Be sure to purchase your tickets early for the closing
event as only a very limited quantity are available and we sold out last year.
We’re presenting 14 films this year, including three documentaries (two of which
are from BC!), two animated films, our usual top-notch international fare, and some
of the finest Canadian cinema we’ve ever had the opportunity to screen. We would
love to hear your feedback on this venture, so be sure to let us know what you think
by filling out this year’s questionnaire!
Sponsorship plays a major part in any event of this size. Throughout this guide, on
the tickets, on the screen prior to each film, and with verbal announcements, you
will see or hear the names of our many sponsors and supporters. We are extremely
grateful for the support that we receive from these businesses and encourage you
to, whenever possible, thank them for their participation.
The committee is very grateful to the Festival volunteers, whose many hours of
committed time have made the Festival possible. As well, we value the participation
and assistance of Jeff Harrison (Manager of the Paramount Theatre).
Sincerely,
The Kamloops Canadian and International Film Festival Committee:
Billy Collins
Chris Buchner
Kevin Martin
Randy Krichbaum
Val MacKay
Rheannon Green
Jennifer Poohachoff
Mark Wallin
Tom Friedman
Dušan Magdolen
Wayne Egers
Nathalie Wandler
Sharon Simpson
Thursday March 3rd, 7:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
ASSOCIATION
O
FRANCOPHONE
“Blessed with the
help of a strong cast,
the country’s best
cinematographer
(Andre Turpin) and
his own leaned-out
screenplay, Villeneuve
has crafted a work
of searing intensity,
terrible beauty and
great emotional
power. ”
–J
ason Anderson,
Eye Weekly
“It is impossible to
avoid being affected
by [Incendies] at least
on some level.”
– Katherine Brodsky,
INTRIGUED
DE KAMLOOPS
Incendies
Canada
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
In French & Arabic with English Subtitles
Drama
130 minutes
Rated PG: violence; coarse language
Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed play,
Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two
young adults’ voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred,
never-ending wars and enduring love. When notary
Lebel (Rémy Girard) sits down with Jeanne and Simon
Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette)
to read them their mother Nawal’s (Lubna Azabal) will,
the twins are stunned to receive a pair of envelopes –
one for the father they thought was dead and another
for a brother they didn’t know existed. In this enigmatic
inheritance, Jeanne sees the key to Nawal’s retreat into
unexplained silence during the final weeks of her life.
She immediately decides to go to the Middle East to
dig into a family history of which she knows next to
nothing. Simon is unmoved by the posthumous mind
games of a mother who was always distant and cold.
However, the love he has for his sister is strong, and he
soon joins her in combing their ancestral homeland in
search of a Nawal who is very different from the mother
they knew. It’s a brutal journey on many levels, filled
with confusion, barriers and road blocks on the search
for answers. However, with Lebel’s help, the twins piece
together the story of the woman who brought them
into the world, discovering a tragic fate forever marked
by war, hatred and ultimately… courage. Incendies is
a deeply moving coming-of-age story that brings the
horror of war to a starkly personal level, delivering a
powerful and poetic testament to the indelible scars of
the cycle of violence, and the uncanny power of the will
to survive.
awards
2010 winner Best Canadian Feature Film
Vancouver International Film Festival
2010 winner Best Canadian Feature Film
Toronto International Film Festival
2011 winner as Canada’s official selection for Best
Foreign Language Film
Academy Awards
2010 winner Best Actress in a Canadian Film, Best
Director of a Canadian Film & Best Canadian Film
Vancouver Film Critics Circle
2010 winner Rogers Best Canadian Film
Toronto Film Critics Association
2010 winner Best Film
Giornate Degli Autori Venice Days
2011 Nominee Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Awards
5
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“Finally a date night
movie EVERYONE on
the date can enjoy! It
has a rekindling love
affair for the ladies,
and enough hockey
references to make Don
Cherry blush... Love,
hockey, beer, houseboat
parties; need I say
more? When it comes to
Canadian cinema, this
one’s a gem”
– Erin F, Calgary
International Film
Festival
“A spare but poetic tale
of laconic emotions and
calm western Canadian
farmland, as childhood
friends try to make it as
lovers”
– Rosemary Ponnekante,
The News Tribune
6
Friday March 4th 7:00 pm
Jane & Russ Reid
Lovers in a
Dangerous Time
Canada
Directed by May Charters & Mark Hug
In English
Drama
96 minutes
Rated PG: coarse language
This film will be preceded by a short.
It’s a comedy about youthful regrets, a love story
without consummation, a return to a home that was
never forgotten. A story where boy meets girl, only
they have known each other since they were two. It’s a
romance, Canadian style.
The film follows a pair of childhood friends reunited at
their high school reunion. Todd Timmins (Mark Hug)
and Allison Adamson (May Charters) shared a rather
fond childhood as neighbors across an apple orchard
from each other. They last saw each other on the final
day of high school. Now ten years later, Todd remains
a local could-have-been, while Allison returns from
the city and wonders what might have been. Fueled
by hope, longing, and nostalgia they embark on a
romantic, if illusory, adventure to recapture lost love
and happiness. Asking if it’s possible to go home again,
the film explores the poignant moment between youth
and adulthood that can overwhelm those unwilling to
let go, yet unsure how to move ahead.
Todd and Allison begin a childish romance fueled by the
elusive desire to feel like a kid again. However, while
the apple orchard they grew up on has hardly changed
they soon discover they have. Life is a little messy
and love and relationships are difficult and awkward.
Beautiful moments are created in such times, things to
be cherished and wistfully recalled. This film is built on
those moments.
Just as they think it might be possible to keep their little
world to themselves, Todd’s younger brother Bobby
returns home for a break from his high profile life as
a hockey star. The tension between the three of them
boils over and as things begin to crumble around them,
adulthood rears its unsympathetic head and they are
forced to realize the painful reality of a disappearing
youth. Ultimately, the fragile childhood friendship they
have both found refuge in, becomes a testament of
hope and a portrait of what it means to be a kid at heart.
awards
2009 winner Best Lead Actor
The Maverick Movie Awards
2009 winner Best Narrative Feature Film
Lakedance Film Festival
2009 winner People’s Choice Award
Calgary International Film Festival
2009 winner Best Feature Film
Port Townsend Film Festival
2009 winner Best Canadian Feature Film
Okanagan International Film Festival
2009 winner Maverick Film Award
Method Film Festival
Friday March 4th 9:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“[Samuel Maoz] has
the ability to fuse
the immediacy and
authenticity of his
wartime experience
with images bold
enough to bear
the weight of their
metaphors.”
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times
“I knew I had
experienced something
outstandingly
discerning. This is
certainly one of the
very best war films I’ve
ever witnessed”
– Blake Griffin,
Bitchin’ Film Reviews
Lebanon
Israel/ France/ Lebanon/ Germany
Directed by Samuel Maoz
In English, and in Hebrew, Arabic & French with English Subtitles
Drama/ War
94 minutes
Rated 14A: disturbing bloody war violence; language,
including sexual references; some nudity
This film will be preceded by a short.
The First Lebanon War – June, 1982. A lone tank is
dispatched to search a hostile town that has already
been bombarded by the Israeli Air Force. What seems
to be a simple mission gradually spins out of control.
Shmulik (Yoav Donat) the gunner, Assi (Itay Tiran) the
commander, Herzel (Oshri Cohen) the loader and Yigal
(Michael Moshonov) the driver are the tank’s crew– four
20-something boys who have never fought in a war and
are now operating a killing machine. Motivated by fear
and the survival instinct, they try to follow orders, even
when they don’t understand them. Though trying to
remain brave, the boys are pushed to their mental limits
as they struggle to survive in a situation they cannot
contain, and try not to lose their humanity in the chaos
of war. As their vulnerability becomes clear, the vehicle
comes to seem more like a prison than a weapon of war.
The writer-director permits us no distance or breathing
room, essentially making the viewer into the fifth crew
member.
Samuel Maoz’s raw and visceral film is based on his
own experiences as a twenty year old novice soldier
serving in the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon
war. Using his own vivid recollections to bring us inside
an Israeli tank during the first 24 hours of the invasion,
Maoz restricts the film’s action entirely to the tank’s
interior and shows us the outside world only—as the
four young soldiers themselves see it—through the
lens of a periscopic gun sight. The cathartic process of
writing and directing Lebanon allowed Maoz to finally
free himself of the events that he had experienced
twenty-five years earlier.
awards
2010 winner Best Cinematographer
European Film Awards
2009 winner Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography,
Best Sound & Best Supporting Actor; nominee Best
Actor, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Screenplay, Best
Supporting Actress & Best Film
Awards of the Israeli Film Academy
2009 winner Best Cinematography
Camerimage
2009 winner Human Values Award
Thessaloniki Film Festival
2009 winner Golden Lion, Nazareno Taddei Award &
SIGNIS Award
Venice Film Festival
7
Saturday March 5th 1:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“Pure Delight! The
exquisite art and fairy
tale ambience will win
over animation fans
and children alike.”
– Box Office Magazine
The Secret of Kells
France/ Belgium/ Ireland
Directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey
In English
Animation/ Adventure/ Fantasy
75 Minutes
Not Rated
“Critic’s Pick!
Extraordinary!
The Secret of Kells
discloses strange
new vistas that
nonetheless seem to
have existed since
ancient times.”
– A.O. Scott,
New York Times
“Fanciful and
captivating! Gorgeous
and uplifting!”
- Claudia Puig,
USA Today
8
This film will be preceded by a short.
Do not miss the highly anticipated new animated
masterpiece from the producers of Kirikou and the
Sorceress and Triplets of Belleville! Magic, fantasy and
Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and
detail that dazzle the eyes in this sweeping story about
the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity
through dark times.
Young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under
siege from barbarian raids. But a new life of adventure
beckons when a celebrated master illuminator arrives
from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished
book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help
complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome
his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him
into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide.
It is here that he meets the fairy Aisling, a mysterious
young wolf-girl, who helps him along the way. But with
the barbarians closing in, will Brendan’s determination
and artistic vision illuminate the darkness and show that
enlightenment is the best fortification against evil?
Although the characters, fantasy elements, and plot
specifics of this movie are fictional, there is a real ‘Book
of Kells’, an illuminated, heavily illustrated rendering of
the Four Gospels of the Christian bible that dates from
the Early Medieval period (probably the early Eighth
Century) in Ireland. The best historical and archaeological
evidence suggests that, starting shortly after it was
finished, the book was moved several times (including,
as depicted in the movie, during an Viking invasion) and
lost for various periods. It has been housed at the library
of Trinity College, Dublin, since the Seventeenth Century,
and is considered perhaps the single most valuable
cultural artifact of Irish History that has ever been
discovered. Some of the design concepts for the movie
even echo aspects of the original ‘Book of Kells’.
awards
2010 nominee Best Animated Feature Film
Academy Awards
2010 nominee Best Animated Feature
Annie Awards
2010 winner Best Animated Film
Boulder International Film Festival
2010 winner Best Animation; nominee Best Film
Irish Film and Television Awards
2009 winner Audience Award Best Film; nominee Grand
Prix Best Film
Annecy International Animated Film Festival
2009 winner Audience Award Best Irish Film
Dublin International Film Festival
2009 winner Audience Award
Edinburgh International Film Festival
2009 nominee Best Animated Film
European Film Awards
2009 winner Special Recognition
Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films
2008 winner Cartoon d’Or Producer of the Year
Cartoon Forum, Europe
2008 winner Directors Finders Award
Directors Finders Series, Ireland
Saturday March 5th 3:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“Though the film is
modest in manner and
production values, it is
nothing short of heroic
in its presentation
of the full grace of
humanity, something
that is made even
more profound for the
unlikely surroundings
in which it is
witnessed.”
– Alex Roberts,
filmsoundoff
“Walker strikes the right
balance of empathy and
Waste Land
Brazil/ UK
Directed by Lucy Walker
In English and Portuguese with English Subtitles
Documentary
98 minutes
Rated G: coarse language
This film will be preceded by a short.
Waste Land is truly uplifting feature documentary
highlighting the transformative power of art and the
beauty of the human spirit. Filmed over nearly three
years, it follows top-selling contemporary artist Vik
Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn
to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage
dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of
Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band
of “catadores” - self-designated pickers of recyclable
materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the
catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with
these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic
images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the
dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to
re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (Devil’s
Playground, Blindsight, Countdown to Zero) has great
access to the entire process and, in the end, offers
stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and
the alchemy of the human spirit.
scrutiny in her portrayal
awards
of the complex dynamic
2010 winner Audience Award World Cinema – Doc.;
nominee Grand Jury Prize World Cinema - Doc.
Sundance Film Festival
that exists between any
artist and the people
who come to serve his
or her vision.”
– Jason Anderson,
Eye Weekly
2010 winner Amnesty International Film Prize &
Panorama Audience Award
Berlin International Film Festival
2010 nominee Best Documentary
British Independent Film Awards
2010 winner Roger’s People’s Choice Award
Vancouver International Film Festival
2010 winner Best Documentary
Seattle International Film Festival
2010 winner Audience Award
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
2010 winner Audience Award World Cinema Best
Documentary
Maui Film Festival
2010 winner HBO Audience Award Best Documentary
Provincetown Film Festival
2010 winner Target Best Documentary Award
Dallas Film Festival 2010
2010 winner Best Film
Paulinia Film Festival 2010
2010 winner Best Doc., Audience Choice Best Film &
Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award
Durban International Film Festival
2010 winner Human Spirit Award & Audience Award for
Best Feature Film
EcoFocus Film Festival
2010 winner Best Documentary
Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival
2010 winner Jury Award
Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival
2010 winner Best Documentary Feature
São Paulo International Film Festival
2010 winner Special Jury Prize for Best Feature
Amazonas Film Festival
2010 winner Silver Audience Award
Stockholm International Film Festival
2011 Nominee - Documentary
Academy Awards
9
Saturday March 5th 7:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
that gets better and
The House of
Branching Love
better.”
(Haarautuvan Rakkauden Talo)
“Pleasant enough
comedy of errors
– The Hollywood
Reporter
“Wicked comedy”
– The Cinequest
Program
Finland
Directed by Mika Kaurismaki
In Finnish with English Subtitles
Comedy/ Drama
102 minutes
Not Rated
A sort of “Divorce Finnish Style,” Mika Kaurismäki’s
rambunctious new comedy, The House of Branching
Love, recounts the breakup of a thirty-something
professional couple. Juhani is a family therapist, and
his wife, Tuula, a successful business trainer. They’re
determined to keep things amicable until they sell
their house, but when Juhani brings home a girl he
picks up in a club, Tuula flips. The very next day, she
brings home her own conquest in retaliation. Emotions
long thought dead reappear, and the war escalates
precipitously when Juhani begins searching for
someone to make Tuula equally jealous. Juhani calls
up his half-brother, Wolffi, a pimp who wants to hide
one of his prostitutes, Nina, from his employers and
his wife. (A rather substantial sum of money has gone
missing.) Over the course of the film, they all wind up
at Juhani and Tuula’s house, along with the couple’s
best friends, the permanently embittered Marjut and the
womanizing imp Pekka (who’s fond of floridly quoting
Shakespearean comedies, an obvious influence on
the film); two cops who are having their own marital
problems; and, eventually, assorted gangsters.
Running underneath all the commotion is our tendency
to pay lip service to social changes and our inability to
truly internalize them. Liberal and understanding when
he’s counselling his clients, Juhani can’t cope with
his wife’s success. (He blames his doughy physique
on Tuula’s “mannishness.”) Tuula considers Juhani
sexually inadequate and remote, and isn’t afraid to tell
him and everyone else so. Then there are the characters’
10
increasingly complicated and absurd pasts, hanging
over their current relationships. When night falls, all
hell breaks loose: the couples exchange partners at a
frantic pace and the gangsters finally arrive looking for
Nina. Kaurismäki smartly uses this underworld subplot
as a metaphor not only for how our past haunts us, but
for what happens when people are suddenly presented
with unaccustomed autonomy. Ultimately, Tuula and
Juhani find out that freedom is much more dangerous
than they thought.
awards
2010 nominee Best Actor, Best Actress & Best Editing
Jussi Awards
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“ This is independent
filmmaking that
punches way above
its weight, and it
earns every ounce of
its very considerable
suspense.”
– Andrew Long, Twitch
Oliver Sherman
Canada
Directed by Ryan Redford
In English
Drama/ Thriller/ War
82 minutes
Rated PG: course language
This film will be preceded by a short.
“[Oliver Sherman] shows
a new talent in the
Canadian filmmaking
scene, being one of the
more assured debuts
to come from Englishspeaking Canada in
quite some time.”
– Robert Bell,
Exclaim! Magazine
Saturday March 5th 9:00 pm
David J. Marr, Q.C. Barrister and Solicitor
A first feature for award-winning writer/director Ryan
Redford, Oliver Sherman assembles an impressive cast
including Garret Dillahunt (Winter’s Bone, No Country
For Old Men, Deadwood), Molly Parker (Deadwood, The
Center of the World, Kissed) and Donal Logue (The Tao
of Steve, Blade, Zodiac).
acceptable solution to everyday problems. And, perhaps
above all else, it is the story of two former battalion
mates who, for all their apparent differences, are bound
inextricably by a single act – a single, shared experience
that, even these many years later, cannot be shaken.
Based on the short story ‘Veterans’ by Rachel Ingalls,
Oliver Sherman tells the story of Sherman Oliver
(Dillahunt), a lost and disconnected veteran with no
family of his own, who sets out to the countryside in
search of the soldier who saved him back in the war.
That man, Franklin Page (Logue), has long since moved
on - to a wife (Parker), two children, and a reliable job
in a reliably safe and quiet rural town. Upon arriving,
Sherman seems at first a harmless if awkward shell
of a man. But as he inserts himself further into the
Pages’ life, he reveals himself to be an angry, unstable
individual prone to great jealousy and deep resentment.
The stability Franklin worked so hard to establish is
soon threatened, and the violence he believed he’d left
behind in the war begins to re-emerge and cloud over
both the household and the town itself.
A contained, quietly powerful ensemble drama, Oliver
Sherman is, at its simplest, the story of two men who’ve
taken utterly different paths after the war. It’s the story
of a man who’s managed to integrate himself back into
society, and a man who has refused to relinquish the
past and is baffled by societal norms. It’s the story of
a man who believes violence only has its place on the
battlefield, and a man who believes it to be a perfectly
11
Sunday March 6th 1:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“This Documentary
is a MUST SEE for
everyone interested
in saving the Human
Race! ”
– imdb.com
“The film is quirky,
cheeky, and well
narrated.”
– Robert Aitken,
moviecentral.ca
“[A] feisty little film.”
– Barbara Yaffe,
The Vancouver Sun
12
How to Boil a Frog
Canada
Directed by Jon Cooksey
In English
Documentary
88 minutes
Rated PG: course language
This film will be preceded by a short.
How to Boil a Frog is an eco-comedy promoting
activism via video that is in itself a sophisticated
example of the medium. It chronicles Jon Cooksey’s
personal, three-year adventure as a filmmaker, activist
and, above all, a father driven to make sure his twelveyear-old daughter would have a future beyond living on
a raft with the last polar bear. It is a rapid fire account
of five problems that are bringing the human race to
the brink of disaster due to ecological deterioration
of the planet. Using available low budget props high
in visual humor, Cooksey outlines the impacts of
population overshoot, habitat destruction of the natural
world, increasing human wealth causing disastrous
consumption and further destruction, peak oil and
global warming. How to Boil a Frog mixes humor, facts
and a sprinkling of experts (in tiny doses) to show how
climate change is just one symptom of an even messier
problem: overshoot. “Overshoot means too many
people using up too little planet,” says Cooksey, “so
in the end, we either need fewer people, more planets,
or we’re going to have to use less stuff. Or all three. I
dib Mars.” With its Everyman approach in the style of
Supersize Me, interviews with scientists, journalists
and energy experts across North America, How to Boil
a Frog takes the kind of material that makes people
jump off bridges, puts it in a blender, and churns out a
Smoothie o’ Fun that gives you the Big Picture of what
the hell is going on with our so-called civilization, and
tells you what you can do about it that will not only
make a difference, but also make your life better right
now! Convinced of this David and Goliath approach
using nothing more than a digital camera, Cooksey
delivers his main message “make friends, make fun,
make trouble”. And he is infectious in this energy.
awards
2010 winner Best Environmental Film
Filmshift Festival
2010 winner Best Green Film
Mammoth Film Festival
2010 winner Best Documentary Feature, Best Concept,
Best Director & Best Visual Effects
Los Angeles Movie Awards
Sunday March 6th 3:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“For
“a
remarkable
those willing
movie
to
enter int has never
Edinburgh
The Illusionist
looked more fairy-tale
gorgeous”
–A
my Biancolli,
San Francisco
Chronicle
“surely one of the
finest films of the
year. The Illusionist
is both a beautiful
tale of realisation
and acceptance, and
a quietly affecting
eulogy to the
era of music hall
entertainment.”
– Gavin Midgley,
The Digital Fix
UK/ France
Directed by Sylvain Chomet
In English, French & Gaelic
Animation
80 minutes
Rated G: thematic elements; smoking
This film will be preceded by a short.
The Illusionist is one of a dying breed of stage
entertainers. With emerging rock stars stealing his
thunder in the late 1950s, he is forced to accept
increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theatres,
at garden parties and in bars and cafés. Then, while
performing in a village pub off the west coast of
Scotland, he encounters an innocent young girl, who
will change his life forever.
Alice is a teenage girl with all her capacity for
childish wonder still intact. Watching The Illusionist’s
performance for the excited villagers who are
celebrating the arrival of electricity on their remote
island, she is awestruck by his show and believes his
tricks are real magic. Though they don’t speak the
same language, the two lonely strangers quickly bond
through small kindnesses. Alice stows away on his
departing ship and follows him to Edinburgh. There,
they quickly fall into a father – daughter relationship,
with Alice keeping their home at a boarding house for
vaudevillians, while he goes to work in a small local
theatre.
as a love letter from a father to his daughter, but never
produced. Sylvain Chomet, the Oscar-nominated and
critically acclaimed creator of The Triplets of Belleville,
adapted the script and brought it to life in his distinctive
hand-drawn animated style.
awards
2011 Nominee Best Animated Film
Golden Globes
2010 nominee Best Technical Achievement
British Independent Film Awards
2010 winner Best Animated Film
European Film Awards
2010 winner Spotlight Award
National Board of Review
2010 nominee Best Motion Picture,
Animated or Mixed Media
Satellite Awards
Enchanted by her enthusiasm for his act, The Illusionist
rewards Alice with increasingly lavish gifts he has
‘conjured’ into existence. Desperate not to disappoint
her, he cannot bring himself to reveal that magic does
not exist and that he’s driving himself to ruin working
all night jobs to buy her gifts. Their destinies collide, but
nothing – not even magic or the power of illusion – can
stop the voyage of discovery.
2010 winner Best Animated Film
New York Film Critics Circle
A script for The Illusionist was originally written by
French comedy genius and cinema legend Jacques Tati
2010 Nominee Best Animated Film
Academy Awards
2010 nominee Best Animated Feature
Critics’ Choice Awards
2010 nominee Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Writing,
Best Music & Best Character Design
Annie Awards
13
Sunday March 6th 7:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“Trigger is decidedly
not some solemn
rumination on the
past, but a party
built upon making
lemonade out of
lemons. Make that
hard lemonade.”
–S
tephen Saito,
IFC.com
“Trigger’s success
comes overwhelmingly
from the chemistry
between Parker and
Wright — the latter
of whom deserves
every ovation her
performance is bound
to receive”
– Chris Bilton,
Eye Weekly
“a love letter to the
Toronto music scene
– Ken Eisner,
Georgia Straight
14
Trigger
Canada
Directed by Bruce McDonald
In English
Drama
78 minutes
Rated PG: coarse language; drug use
This film will be preceded by a short.
Don McKellar and Jennifer Jonas will introduce their
film Trigger on Sunday, March 6th at 7 pm and be
availabe for a Q & A following the film.
at The Mod Club, break into Allan Gardens and later go
to an after-party in the suburbs; finally finishing back
downtown again as the sun comes up.
Trigger is the story of a friendship between two female
rockers who almost “made it”. We follow them over
the course of one night as they reunite, reignite and
walk down memory lane together against a backdrop of
Toronto. Victoria “Vic” Sawchyn (the late Tracy Wright)
and Kathryn “Kat” Lake (Molly Parker) are friends from
childhood who started a neighbourhood band together
— sort of like the Go-Go’s meet Patti Smith with a little
Siouxsie and the Banshees thrown in. Sticking to their
rock ‘n’ roll dream, they continued to trade up bands
until they formed the titular Trigger and began to have
real success with a hit single and a European tour. On
the tour, things went to hell and, due to egos, drugs,
alcohol, sex, and self-loathing, the band imploded.
Having survived alcohol and drug addiction and
financial ruin, the two girls come together in an evening
that deals with mortality and resentment; rage and
blame; apology and remorse; and finally examines,
tears apart, and confirms the thing that has in many
ways kept them alive… their friendship.
Now it’s ten years later and a local record label is
having a benefit concert to honor women in rock; Vic
and Kat are expected to attend. One is ready to play,
the other is not so sure and, over the course of the
evening, age-old conflicts come to life again. They meet
for dinner at Canoe, high atop the TD Centre, a great
metaphor for starting on top of the world, and it is
clear that, although there is a desire to make amends,
it’s unclear to each of the women who really needs to
apologize. They then go back to the streets on which
they used to be hipsters — the Queen Street stroll
down the boulevard of broken dreams. They perform
Co-star Tracy Wright, a truly bright light of Canadian
theatre, television, and film died this summer of cancer.
She was only 50. Trigger rushed into production as her
health declined and is really a love letter to her from
many of the people who held her dear. Her performance
is her letter back: to her husband (our special guest and
co-star in the film Don McKellar); to her friends; to her
professional community; perhaps most of all to her art.
It’s a letter delivered personally, so to speak.
Monday March 7th 7:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“Bessai’s own camera
work makes Lytton,
B.C., look like a place
you’d never want to
leave.”
– Ken Eisner,
Georgia Straight
“Bessai manages to add
his personal touch to
the story bringing an
intimacy to the film
few directors manage
to successfully
achieve.”
– Marina Antunes,
Row Three
“Veteran helmer Bessai
has a good eye for the
day-to-day detail of
low-rent Canadian life.”
– John Anderson,
Variety.com
Cole
Ambition and forbidden love collide with the
expectations of a small town in this coming of age story.
Canada
Directed by Carl Bessai
In English
Drama
95 minutes
Rated PG: coarse language; violence; drug use
Shot on location in Lytton, BC and directed by award
winning Canadian filmmaker Carl Bessai (Mothers
& Daughters, Fathers & Sons), Cole tells the story
of 22 year old Cole Chambers (Richard de Klerk) as
he attempts to transcend his dead-end existence by
enrolling in a university class.
This film will be preceded by a short.
Cole is a handsome, magnetic, talented young writer
with dreams too big for his small town. Frustrated
and trapped, Cole has spent his entire life picking up
the pieces of his shattered family and using them as
the basis for his writing. He lives with his Alzheimer’sstricken mother (Rebecca Jenkins), runs the family gas
station with his sister (Sonja Bennett) and her useless,
temperamental, redneck husband Bobby (Chad Willett),
and surrounds himself with friends who are drinkers
and slackers. Making an initiative to break out into the
bigger world, he signs up for a short story class at UBC.
family forces him to re-evaluate his choice and leaves
him to make some difficult decisions. Does he abandon
his family in pursuit of his dreams or does he forget life
in the outside world for a lifetime of pumping gas and
small town living?
awards
2010 winner Best Supporting Performance by a Male in
a Feature Length Drama
Leo Awards
This opportunity allows him to see his potential for the
first time. He impresses his teacher and falls in love with
fellow student Serafina (Kandyse McClure), a beautiful
black girl from a privileged background with secrets
of her own. While Cole spends increasing amounts of
time away from home, his sister finds herself trapped
within an increasingly perilous situation as her husband
becomes more and more abusive.
Though this may be Cole’s only opportunity to make
an escape from small town life, his allegiance to his
15
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“The Hapa generation
have been thirsting for
something like this for
a long time!”
– Joy Kogawa
“...a unique film that
captures both serious
issues of racism and
integration, while
at the same time
providing a lot of
laughs through the
wonderful family
stories that are shared.
While the main focus
may be on JapaneseCanadian identity, it
is through the mirror
of the Koga family
that viewers will see
the complexity of
their own family and
national histories in a
new light.”
– Nishikata Film
16
Tuesday March 8th 7:00 pm
Dr. S. Carl Enns, Dentist
One Big Hapa Family
Canada
Directed by Jeff Chiba Stearns
In English
Documentary/ Animation/ Family
85 minutes
Not Rated
This film will be preceded by a short.
Jeff Chiba Stearns will introduce his film One Big Hapa
Family on Tuesday, March 8th at 7 pm and be availabe
for a Q & A following the film.
After a realization at a family reunion, half JapaneseCanadian filmmaker, Jeff Chiba Stearns, embarks on a
journey of self-discovery to find out why everyone in his
Japanese-Canadian family married interracially after his
grandparents’ generation.
This feature live action and animated documentary
explores why almost 100% of all Japanese-Canadians
are marrying interracially, the highest out of any other
ethnicity in Canada, and how their mixed children
perceive their unique multiracial identities. The stories
from four generations of a Japanese-Canadian family
come to life through the use of innovative animation
techniques created by some of Canada’s brightest
independent animators.
One Big Hapa Family is an important story because
it looks at the changing landscape of Canadian
multiculturalism and its fastest growing demographic,
people of mixed decent. Now a minority in Canada,
it is predicted that racially mixed Canadians will
become the majority in the next three generations.
With intermarriage on the rise and also becoming
more widely accepted amongst cultural groups, One
Big Hapa Family is a ground-breaking look at how
Japanese-Canadians have had to adapt with becoming
a culture where over 50% of their community is mixed.
It sets out to discover if Japanese-Canadian culture
and heritage is fading away or actually getting stronger
with the 95% intermarriage rate. Considering only 17%
of Chinese-Canadians and 13% of South Asians are
intermarried, One Big Hapa Family demonstrates what
other ethnic minority groups can learn by embracing
mixed relationships in their own communities.
“Hapa” has become the buzzword used to describe
people of mixed racial heritage with roots in Asian or
Pacific Islander ancestry. Derived from the derogatory
Hawaiian term “Hapa Haole”, meaning half white
foreigner, Asians of mixed-race have started using
“Hapa” as a pride word to describe their blended
backgrounds. The mixed-race population is growing
at impressive rates. With the rate of interracial
marriages on the rise, Vancouver could soon find
itself with a multiracial majority. Hapas are the future
faces of multiculturalism in Canada and according
to Times Asia; they are the poster children for 21st
century globalization. This documentary explores the
challenges faced by the multiracial children to forge
a sense of identity in a time when the perceptions of
race and purity are changing as fast as the definition of
multiculturalism in Canada.
awards
2010 winner Best Canadian Film or Video Award
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
2010 nominee Best Documentary
Calgary International Film Festival
Producer Sponsor
for this film
“sweeps you off your
feet from the opening
credits. a great
achievement”
– Marina Antunes,
Quiet Earth
“in a category
all on its own”
– Brian McKechnie,
City-TV News.ca
“most admirable”
– Robert Bell
Exclaim! Magazine
Wednesday March 9th 7:00 pm
Ken B. MacKinlay
Notary Corp.
Small Town
Murder Songs
Canada
Directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly
In English
Crime/ Thriller
75 minutes
Rated PG: violence; coarse language; nudity; sexually
suggestive scene
This film will be preceded by a short.
What evolved from Gass-Donnelly’s original concept
was a minimalist crime drama in the thematic vein
of No Country for Old Men or In Cold Blood. While
reminiscent of films by the Coen Brothers or even
Terrence Malick, Small Town Murder Songs strikes
its own ground by subverting the expectations of the
crime drama by focusing on the subtle transformation
of its hero instead of on the mechanics of the crime and
subsequent investigation.
Small Town Murder Songs is a modern gothic tale of
crime and redemption about Walter (Peter Stormare),
an aging police officer from a small Ontario Mennonite
town who hides a violent past until a local murder
upsets the calm of his newly reformed life. When a
young, unidentified woman is found dead by the lake
– the victim of a brutal and violent crime – Walter and
his partner Jim (Aaron Poole) are called to the scene
of the town’s first murder investigation in decades. A
senior OPP officer is called in to lead the investigation,
relegating Walter and Jim to menial field work.
begins to unravel. As Walter tries to find the evidence
to make an arrest before Rita is implicated, he struggles
to maintain some measure of professional detachment,
and the new life and new girlfriend (Martha Plimpton)
he has worked so hard to preserve.
The film takes the simple notion of the unsettling
impact of a murder in a tiny, rural community as its
starting point, and evolves into a nuanced examination
of the insidious nature of violence, the unreliability of
perception, and the battles that rage within every man.
“The film is ultimately about a man who’s struggling
against his own nature and is trying to convince his
community that he is a changed man. However, his
critical failure stems from the fact that he thinks he
can become a different man by changing the external
circumstances of his life without acknowledging that a
beast still dwells within.” -- Ed Gass-Donnelly, Director
As the story unfolds, we learn that Walter’s violent
history has created mistrust in the pacifist community
in which he lives. And as he proceeds with investigating
the details of the murder – consistently coming up
against the ambivalent feelings the community has
for him - we come to know a man of high morality,
who believes so strongly in justice that its imperfect
execution fills him with rage. Convinced that Rita (Jill
Hennessey) his ex-lover may be lying to the OPP to
protect her new boyfriend, Walter’s newly-reformed life
17
Thursday March 10th 7:00 pm
Producer Sponsor
for this film
250-374-0350
“a spirited look - well
written, beautifully
acted, full of uplift
- at lovably cheeky
heroines on the march
for a little respect. This
is a modest, heartfelt
film about a modest,
heartfelt woman who
found her voice - and
helped make history.”
– Amy Biancolli, San
Francisco Chronicle
“joyful and uplifting”
– Mark Kermode,
BBC Kermode Uncut
18
Made In Dagenham
UK
Directed by Nigel Cole
In English
Comedy/ Drama/ History
113 minutes
Rated PG: sexually suggestive scene; coarse language
Based on a true story, Made in Dagenham portrays a
decisive moment in history, when the fight for equal
rights and pay was led – unexpectedly – by ordinary
working-class women with one foot in the kitchen
and one foot on the factory floor. It’s a vintage “girl
power” tale.
Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins of Happy-Go-Lucky) is one
of 187 women who work for the Ford Motor Company.
Unlike their male counterparts in the automaker’s
gleaming new main facility, the women toil in a decrepit
old 1920s plant with a leaky roof, pigeons flying
overhead, and stifling sweatshop conditions in summer.
Despite their highly specialized work sewing car seat
upholstery, the women are classified as “unskilled”
labor and paid a fraction of the men’s pay.
women after her own heart in the strikers – but she
must balance their demands with Ford’s threats to take
production out of the UK altogether.
Throughout the campaign, the women of Dagenham
rely on their humor, common sense and bravado
to stand together, take on their bosses and face an
increasingly belligerent local community. Daring to
stand up and push boundaries, they changed the rules
of the game not only for factory workers but also for the
rights and expectations of women everywhere.
Real Life: The strike by the Dagenham sewing
machinists and Ford’s subsequent settlement led to the
introduction of an Equal Pay Act. It became law in 1970.
awards
When sympathetic union representative Albert
(Bob Hoskins) encourages the women to bring their
grievances to Ford management, Rita is coaxed into
attending a meeting. What she expects to be simply
a day out of work turns into much more; outraged by
the lack of respect, Rita surprises the room and herself
by speaking out sharply, saying the women refuse to
be ignored, and will plan a job action if they are not reassigned “skilled” and given pay parity with the male
workers.
2011 nominee Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding
British Film of the Year, Best Costume Design, Best
Make Up/Hair & Best Supporting Actress
BAFTA Awards
As the women’s campaign for equal pay makes it all the
way to Westminster, they secure the most influential
ally of all: Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson),
Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity.
Blunt, forceful, smart and progressive, Mrs. Castle sees
2010 nominee Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy
or Musical & Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Satellite Awards
2010 nominee Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best
Supporting Actor & Best Supporting Actress
British Independent Film Awards
2011 nominee Award British Supporting Actress
of the Year
London Critics Circle Film Awards
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
Red Carpet Sponsors have provided $2,500 or
more in cash.
Starring Role Sponsors have provided $600 to
$1,100 in cash.
R e d C arp e t S p o n s o rs
starri n g r o l e S p o n s o rs
film commission
pr o d u c e r S p o n s o rs
250-374-0350
Producer Sponsors have provided $175 to $250
in cash to sponsor a film.
ASSOCIATION
O
FRANCOPHONE
DE KAMLOOPS
In-kind Media Supporters have donated $4,000
or more in advertising.
David J. Marr, Q.C. Barrister and Solicitor
In-kind Supporters have donated $500 or more
in goods and/or services.
Jane & Russ Reid
Ken B. MacKinlay
Notary Corp.
Dr. S. Carl Enns, Dentist
i n - ki n d m e d ia S u pp o rt e rs
i n - ki n d S u pp o rt e rs
19
Film Circuit gratefully
acknowledges the following
supporters for their commitment
to celebrating excellence in
film: Bell, Telefilm Canada,
Ontario Media Development
Corporation, Ontario Arts Council,
and Cineplex Entertainment.
Special thanks to: The AudioVisual PreservationTrust of
Canada, The Department of
Canadian Heritage, The McLean
Foundation and the Walter &
Duncan Gordon Foundation.
The Kamloops Film Festival
thanks Landmark Cinemas,
Jeff Harrison and the Paramount
Theatre staff for their extra
effort on behalf of the Kamloops
Film Society for both regular
screenings and special events.