Inside Vancouver

Cinematheque presents the premiere of acclaimed new Argentine film about European colonialism

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment on May 29, 2018

A scene from Zama, the latest film from Argentine provocateur Lucrecia Martel. The acclaimed 2017 movie screens at The Cinematheque as part of a career retrospective.

The Cinematheque is presenting the Vancouver premiere of the first film in nearly a decade from the Argentine auteur behind the acclaimed 2008 thriller The Headless Woman.

Zama is the acclaimed latest film from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel. To coincide with its Vancouver premiere of the 2017 movie, The Cinematheque presents I Feel You: The Films of Lucrecia Martel. The mid-career retrospective features four films from what cinematheque.ca calls “the Argentine auteur’s fiercely-original, highly-sensorial body of work.”

Screenings run June 1-10 at the downtown rep theatre, with opening night featuring a screening of Zama. UBC Film Studies lecturer Dr. Christine Evans will introduce the film. Find out more about the films below.

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Cinematheque presents the premiere of acclaimed new Argentine film about European colonialism

Vancouver, Russian, and Arctic Circle filmmakers featured at this year’s Women in Film festival

by Shawn Conner in Events on February 20, 2018

A scene from Porcupine Lake, one of the films at this year’s Vancouver International Women in Film Festival.

Adolescent growing pains, military conscription and small-town redemption are among the subjects in films at this year’s Vancouver International Women in Film Festival.

A co-presentation of Women in Film and Television and the VIFF Vancity Theatre, the 13th annual edition runs March 6 to 11. Celebrating the best of cinema created by women. the festival als features film panels, master classes, guest filmmakers, artist talks, pitch sessions, receptions, and an awards gala. All screenings take place at Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour St.).

See below for some of the highlights of the festival.

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Vancouver, Russian, and Arctic Circle filmmakers featured at this year’s Women in Film festival

Neurons to Nirvana filmmaker returns with two very unconventional works

by Shawn Conner in Insider on January 16, 2018

Amanda Feilding and her pet pigeon.

Oliver Hockenhull’s From Neurons to Nirvana received quite a bit of attention in underground film circles. Now the Vancouver filmmaker is back with two films, one of which is about a pioneering drug reformer who also happens to be descended from British aristocracy and who once drilled a hole in her own head.

I Am My Own Laboratory is an experimental documentary about Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss and March and amateur trepanner. The other film, Shot On Blood: Kozmikomic Electronica is even more experimental. Both expand upon the themes and ideas of From Neurons to Nirvana, and Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour St.) is screening them on Jan. 28. The screening will include a Q-and-A with Hockenhull. See below for more info on the two films.

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Neurons to Nirvana filmmaker returns with two very unconventional works

Historic tennis match, the first oil-painted animated feature, and the new one from the director of The Lobster—highlights of this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival

by Shawn Conner in Events on September 6, 2017

Isabelle Huppert (third from left) stars in Michael Haneke’s latest armrest-gripper, Happy End.

Vancouver audiences will get their first peek at the high-profile Borg Vs. McEnroe at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (Sept. 28-Oct 13). But there are plenty of other films to watch for in this year’s lineup, including new films from controversial director Michael Haneke (Funny Games, Cache), Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure, a favourite on the 2014 festival circuit), and Yorgos Lanthimos. You may recall Lanthimos from 2015’s rather unorthodox The Lobster, one of the most divisive movies in recent memory.

Scroll down for more on the above movies, as well as other highlights of the Special Presentation series.

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Historic tennis match, the first oil-painted animated feature, and the new one from the director of The Lobster—highlights of this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival

Mermaids, falcons and Link Wray – six picks at this year’s DOXA

by Shawn Conner in Uncategorized on April 20, 2017

Vancouver: No Fixed Address looks at Vancouver’s volatile housing market.

It’s DOXA time again, meaning that you can get your fill of nutritious and delicious documentaries in a ten-day feast. This year, the DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs May 4-14 and features 87 films, including two world premieres (For Dear Life and Butterfly).

Special programming includes a retrospective of seven rarely screened works by Chris Marker. Long considered the inventor of the film essay, Marker is a master of editing and narration. La Jetée/The Jetty, which is probably his most famous work, ranked third in Sight & Sound’s poll of the greatest documentaries ever made.

Here are six other docs we think might be worth checking out.

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Mermaids, falcons and Link Wray – six picks at this year’s DOXA

Never mind La La Land, Frankenstein Created Bikers is coming to Vancouver!

by Shawn Conner in Uncategorized on February 15, 2017

Vancouver actor Tristan Risk in Frankenstein Created Bikers.

Film fans are getting excited about February 26.

Sure, that’s the date we’ll find out by how much the musical La La Land cleans up at the 89th Academy Awards. But it’s also the day that Vancouver gets to see Frankenstein Created Bikers.

Described by screenanarchy.com as a “love letter to exploitation films carved into a bullet -and sent skyrocketing into the air after several beers on the Fourth of July at a biker rally,” the 2016 film is screening as part of the Third Annual Badass Film Festival at the Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway, near Commercial). In all, the one-day festival is screening three full-length movies as well as over 20 short films, and includes an awards ceremony, trailers and live performances.

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Never mind La La Land, Frankenstein Created Bikers is coming to Vancouver!

Catch up on your 2017 Oscar noms in two easy screenings!

by Shawn Conner in Uncategorized on February 7, 2017

Vancouver animator Robert Valley’s Pear Cider and Cigarettes screens as part of VIFF’s Oscar Shorts programme.

Feeling behind in your 2016 movie-viewing? Does the list of nominees for this year’s Best Picture read like a list of films you saw mentioned on posters on the way to Paul Blart Mall Cop 3?

Worry not; the Vancouver International Film Centre has an easy way to catch up on 2017’s nominees. In fact, you can see 10 nominated films in just two screenings.

Of course, there’s a catch – the films are nominated in the two short film categories, live action and animation. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have bragging rights come Oscars night, when you’re sitting around with your “Arrival was so much better than La La Land”-type friends and you casually drop, “Oh yeah, but have you seen Timo von Gunten’s La Femme et la TGV? It’s truly sublime.”

The screenings run Feb. 10 to March 4 for the Live Action programme, and Feb. 10 to Feb. 27 for Animation. For locals, the biggest news is in the latter category – it includes Pear Cider and Cigarettes, a film by Vancouverite Robert Valley.

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Catch up on your 2017 Oscar noms in two easy screenings!