Twenty Nine Canadian Films were selected for the 35th Toronto International Film Festival. Two previous guest filmmakers to the Gimli Film Festival are included.
Jody Shapiro attended the festival this year as our guest and participated in two panels. His film “How To Start Your Own Country” will have its’ World Premiere at TIFF. www.howtostartyourowncountry.com/Country/Enter.html
Sturla Gunnarsson, an Icelander, who has made his home in BC for many years is screening his film, ” Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Film, as a World Premiere and Special Presentation.www.nfb.ca/playlist/force-nature-david-suzuki-movie/
Sturla is an advisor to the GFF and visited our festival in 2001. His film, Beowulf and Grendal, was screened on te beach in Gimli in 2007.
Short Cuts Canada programme will present three Manitoban short film projects:
Negativipeg (directed by Matthew Rankin and produced Walter Forsberg)
A short film collaboration long in the making, Negativipeg tells the story of Rory Lepine, who went from obscurity to fame in 1985 when he attacked The Guess Who’s legendary lead singer Burton Cummings with a beer bottle at a Winnipeg 7-Eleven. Rankin has previously had two other short films in the festival, 2006’sOù est Maurice?, co-directed with Alek Rzeszowski and 2008’s Cattle Call, co-directed with Mike Maryniuk.
Warchild (directed by Caroline Monnet and produced by Kevin Lee Burton)
Part of a trilogy of experimental documentary focusing on students from Northern Manitoba who come to live at a boarding school in Winnipeg for Aboriginal youth, Warchild follows a young man on a solitary portage juxtaposed between the barren wilderness and a desolate city as he reflects on his past and future. Monnet premiered her short experimental film, IKWÉ, at the festival in 2009.
Open Window (directed and produced by Cam Woykin, co-produced by Boaz Beeri)
This short film intimately depicts the portrait of a family and the rising tension of the unspoken during a backyard birthday party in a single continuous shot. Cam Woykin, originally from Calgary and later Winnipeg, is currently completing his MFA in film production at York University in Toronto. For more information on Woykin and his films please visit www.woykin.com.
For festival information and screening times please visit www.tiff.net.
Congratulations to both and to all Canadian filmmakers with films in TIFF
