The Last Weekend is coming: WEEKEND 4 - February 27/28 |
Missed the previous weeks? Scroll down the bottom.
"The footage of the downhill run itself must have been terribly difficult to photograph. Miura, starting just below 27,000 feet, hoped to descend several thousand feet and stop short of a deep crevice that would have killed him. Three cameramen were positioned to record the descent, but with their huge 1600mm telephoto lenses at distances of up to 10,000 feet, they had almost no margin for error. Only one of the cameramen was able to keep Miura in frame for the full descent, and the resulting footage - grainy because of the distances involved - is positively eerie."
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times To appreciate this movie fully, you cannot think of it as a skiing film or even a sports film. The haunting narration by Douglas Rain (voice of HAL the computer in 2001) as he reads English translation from Muira's diary is what makes it. Muira's words are steeped with Japanese philosophy and set the mood. A must watch for any film fan.
Budge Crawley (1911 - 1987), the pioneer of Canadian Film, lived in Chelsea.
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THE MAN WHO SKIED DOWN EVEREST (CAN)
Feb. 27 @ 4pm / Feb. 28 @ 7:30pm A Special 40th Anniversary Presentation of the film that won Canada its first Oscar™ for Feature Length Documentary
Come to the Oscar™ party Feb. 27 and have your picture taken with the famous statuette!! Directors: Lawrence Schiller, Bruce Nyznik
Producer: F. R. (Budge) Crawley 1975, 90 mins Language: English English translation of Yuichiro Miura's journal read by Douglas Rain 
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On the afternoon of May 6, 1970, Yuichiro Miura – now widely acknowledged as the Grandfather of Extreme Skiing – stood on Mount Everest’s South Col, at an altitude of more than 26,000 feet. On his lips he wore white sun block, and on his head a fighter pilot’s helmet, complete with a transceiver. He also had oxygen tanks, and a parachute was strapped to his back, though no one knew if the parachute would work at that altitude. On his feet he wore skis.
Breathing quickly and deeply, Miura reached a state of Mu, a Zen-like feeling of nothingness. Then he took off.
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Truth To Power Documentary Award, Reel Asian International Film Festival, 2015
“…“A powerful story and one of the most inspirational films. At the core of the story is an issue that is all-too prevalent in countries around the world, and that’s gender-based violence.…ultimately Selvi’s story is about hope and resilience...”."
- John Beed, U.S. Mission Director for India, USAID |
DRIVING WITH SELVI (CAN)
Feb. 27 @ 7:30pm – Feb. 28 @ 4pm Director Elisa Paloshi, together with a special guest will attend the Feb. 28 screening for a Q & A Director: Elisa Paloshi 2015, 74 mins Language: English, plus Kannada, Tamil, Hindi with English subtitles www.drivingwithselvi.com Selvi, like so many girls in India, is forced to marry at a young age, only to find herself in a violent and abusive marriage. One day in deep despair, she chooses to escape, going to a highway with the intention of throwing herself under the wheels of a bus. Instead she gets on the bus, choosing to live… and goes on to become South India’s first female taxi driver. We first meet 18-year-old Selvi at a girls’ shelter in 2004 – timid, soft-spoken, a fresh runaway from a difficult life. Over a ten-year journey, we see a remarkable transformation as Selvi finds her voice and defies all expectations – learning to drive, starting her own taxi company, leading seminars to educate other women, and much more. Through Selvi’s eyes, the audience is taken on an intimate journey of healing, overcoming obstacles, and fulfilling dreams. And throughout this journey, Selvi’s unwavering spirit shines through. Wildly charming (without even realizing it), remarkably strong, and utterly courageous, by the end of the film Selvi speaks almost as a sage or our wisest teacher, sharing important, hard-won secrets about happiness and life. |
"Director/producer Paloschi – whose Jane Bunnett study, Embracing Voices, established her as a sensitive and clear-eyed filmmaker – met Selvi in 2004, and the decade-long friendship between them is apparent in Selvi’s comfort in front of the camera and her frankness discussing the ugly past she’s left behind. The result is an engaging portrait of a now confident young woman, set against the backdrop of a changing India."
Norman Wilner, NOW Magazine
Norman Wilner, NOW Magazine
What you saw or could have seen of WIFF 2016:
WEEKEND 1 - February 6 / 7
Official Selection, RIDM, Montreal International Documentary Festival 2015 |
IN PURSUIT OF PEACE (CAN)
Feb. 6 @ 4pm / Feb. 7 @ 7:30pm Director Garry Beitel and producer Barry Lazar will attend opening night, Feb. 6, for a Q & A after the screening Director: Garry Beitel 2015, 85 min ENGLISH LANGUAGE PREMIERE Languages: English, plus French with English subtitles www.reframe-films.com 
Show Sponsor
In Pursuit of Peace examines the impact of war and peace on the lives of some of the millions of people uprooted by the ravages of armed conflict while telling the little known stories of unarmed Canadians peacemakers on the front lines of international peace initiatives.
We travel with the peacemakers to some of the world’s most active conflicts – South Sudan, Turkey, Congo (DRC) and Northern Iraq. We step behind the battle lines and experience the challenges of their peace building work, exploring how their hopes, their commitments and their strategies are challenged by deeply entrenched conflicts. The film explores the impact that violence has had on the lives of those directly affected by armed conflict - as we immerse ourselves in a new 21st century paradigm of conflict resolution. |
"Breath of Life is thoroughly fascinating and offers a visual feast for the big screen. Cinematic mind food is rarely this tasty." Maui Times review "Breath of Life is a strikingly beautiful film, a masterpiece!" Michael Bailey, original member of Greenpeace Official Selection, Transitions Film Festival, 2016
Official Selection, World Leaders Forum Dubai, 2015 Audience Award - Best Hawaiian Made Feature, Maui Film Festival, 2014 |
BREATH OF LIFE (USA)
Feb. 6 @ 7:30pm – Feb. 7 @ 4pm A panel discussion will follow the Feb. 7 screening Director: Susan Kucera 2014 , 82 mins CANADIAN PREMIERE Languages: English www.breathoflifefilm.com 
Show Sponsor
Spectacularly photographed in Europe, Scandinavia, North America and Hawaii, Breath of Life travels the globe in search of the truth behind what appears to be a looming environmental catastrophe. Everyone is telling us how we are destroying our world. Breath of Life is a film that shows us why. This stunning documentary transcends the usual experts and captures the mind-bending insight of the world’s greatest evolutionary scientists, down to earth farmers and Hawaiian wisdom keepers. It will change forever the way you view the world and provide a roadmap to the future you can actually use.
"Here's an experience that should be required viewing—by international law—before the start of every inauguration or legislative session, at the installment of new county councils and prior to the launch of every UN General Assembly. It should have been screening nonstop at Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution. As a single species we have to stop bickering and grabbing, and start looking together at the growing environmental catastrophe that we have caused. As this vivid documentary proves, 'We are cutting ourselves
off from reality.'" Paul Wood, review for Maui Film Festival |
WEEKEND 2 - February 13/14
Best Canadian Feature, Hot Docs 2015 Most Popular Canadian Documentary, Vancouver Film Festival 2015 Best Feature, One World Festival 2015 Best Canadian Documentary, Best BC Director AND Best BC Film, Vancouver Film Critics Circle, 2016 Official Selection, Margaret Mead Film Festival 2015 “Revels in supernatural-B.C. beauty… it’s also
remarkably astute” POV Magazine “a wonderful film about the environment that doesn’t just talk about solutions, but shows people actually putting those ideas to good use.” Toronto Film Scene |
HAIDA GWAII: ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (CAN)
Feb. 13 @ 4pm / Feb. 14 @ 7:30pm A panel discussion will follow the Feb. 13 screening Director: Charles Wilkinson 2015, 74 mins Languages: English www.charleswilkinson.com/ 
Show Sponsor
“Maybe we’re not totally screwed” reads the cutline on the poster – referring to the widespread pessimism many thinking people feel about the plight of the natural world. Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World, set on the pristine Haida Gwaii archipelago, shows how the distinct world view of an over 14,000 year old society is co-mingling with the values of an influx of progressive, modern urbanites to create an amazing example of how the world could be.
The story of Haida Gwaii is one of a place and a people who have experienced unsustainable exploitation. They’ve fought back, reclaimed control of their lands, and have begun the process of rebuilding both their natural world and a sustainable modern community, a community with no shopping malls. But now there is a new threat of oil-laden supertankers wanting to pass through their pristine but treacherous waters. Featuring insights from former Haida Nation president Guujaaw, activist Severn Suzuki, Haida carver Jaalen Edenshaw, International Rediscovery founder Thom ‘Huck’ Henley, Haida Chief Allan Wilson, ex-loggers, business and cultural leaders, curmudgeons, scientists, and alternative energy experts. The Haida majority and their non-native neighbours are winning key battles against the dire global threats facing us all. They may just be creating a path forward that the rest of us can follow. “… needs to be seen by all Canadians”
The Extra Mile “…spectacular, unforgettable” Globe & Mail |
Official Selection at:
SXSW Film Festival 2015 AFI DOCS 2015 IDFA 2015 Sheffield Doc Fest 2015 Hot Docs 2015 Nantucket Film Festival 2015 Montclair Film Festival 2015 full frame documentary film festival 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival 2015 |
MAVIS! (UK)
Feb. 13 @ 7:30pm – Feb. 14 @ 4pm Director: Jessica Edwards 2015, 80 mins Language: English www.mavisfilm.com/ The joyous documentary Mavis! is the first film to cover the story of the gospel/soul music legend and civil rights icon Mavis Staples and her family group, The Staple Singers. From the freedom songs of the ’60s and hits like I’ll Take You There in the ’70s, to funked-up collaborations with Prince and her recent albums with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mavis has stayed true to her roots, kept her family close, and inspired millions along the way. Featuring powerful live performances, rare archival footage, and conversations with friends and contemporaries including Bob Dylan, Prince, Bonnie Raitt, Levon Helm, Jeff Tweedy, Chuck D, and more, Mavis! reveals the struggles, successes, and intimate stories of her journey. At 75, she's making the most vital music of her career, winning Grammy awards, and reaching a new generation of fans. Her message of love and equality is needed now more than ever. “A spirited and captivating bio-doc that richly deserves the exclamation point in its title."
- VARIETY “Among a collection of stand-out biographies that premiered at South by Southwest, Mavis! was the feel-good star, a story of survival, family, change and adapting to it” - BILLBOARD |
WEEKEND 3 - February 20/21
“Without a doubt, The Messenger is the most outstanding film I’ve seen on birds. The fact that it is so strongly science-based, so emotive in its pitch, so beautiful in its design captivates me and everyone who has a chance to see it.”
Steven Price, President, Bird Studies Canada “The Messenger hums with the kind of restless energy that’s all too rare for an eco-doc. That’s a testament to Rynard’s success at finding so many dynamic human subjects all striving to save songbirds… It also benefits from an unconventional structure that more closely resembles the migratory patterns of songbirds (or even the music they make) than the more explicit through-lines of so many other message-minded docs.” - Jason Anderson POV Magazine |
THE MESSENGER (CAN/FR)
Feb. 20 @ 4pm / Feb. 21 @ 7:30pm Producer Joanne Jackson will attend the screening on Feb. 20 for a panel discussion Director: Su Rynard 2015, 90 mins Language: English, plus French, German, Dutch with English subtitles www.songbirdsos.com
Su Rynard’s wide-ranging and contemplative documentary The Messenger explores our deep-seated connection to birds and warns that the uncertain fate of songbirds might mirror our own. Moving from the northern reaches of the Boreal Forest to the base of Mount Ararat in Turkey to the streets of New York, The Messenger brings us face-to-face with a remarkable variety of human-made perils that have devastated thrushes, warblers, orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks and many other airborne music-makers.
On one level, the film is an engaging, visually stunning, emotional journey, one that mixes its elegiac message with hopeful notes and unique glances into the influence of songbirds on our own expressions of the soul. On another level, it is the artful story about the mass depletion of songbirds on multiple continents, and about those who are working to turn the tide. In ancient times humans looked to the flight and songs of birds to protect the future. Today once again, birds have something to tell us. Audience Top Ten, Hot Docs 2015 Best Feature Documentary Pitch 2015, Sunny Side of the Doc |
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PAINTED LAND: IN SEARCH OF THE GROUP OF SEVEN (CAN)
Feb. 20 @ 7:30pm – Feb. 21 @ 4pm Director: Phyllis Ellis 2015, 70 mins Language: English www.whitepinepictures.com Featuring vocal performances by:
Colm Feore as Lawren Harris Eric Peterson as A.Y. Jackson, R.H. Thomson as J.E.H. MacDonald Paul Gross as Arthur Lismer & A.J. Casson The most important thing a painter can do
is find a good place to sit.” – J.E.H. MacDonald |
One would think The Group of Seven needs no introduction.
One hundred years since the creation of some of Canada’s most iconic paintings, the works of these artists have been seen by millions of admirers. Still, little is known about these influential painters.
One hundred years since the creation of some of Canada’s most iconic paintings, the works of these artists have been seen by millions of admirers. Still, little is known about these influential painters.
Why did they choose locations in the remote, rugged wilderness of northern Ontario to ‘brush’ our landscape?
Does anyone know precisely where they went?
Does anyone know precisely where they went?
Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven is film that is evocative in approach, energized by breathtaking cinematography, digital animation and sound design, which offers a new and articulate voice to the artists who made up the Group of Seven. It weaves seamlessly the history and experiences of Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael and A.J. Casson, with the adventures of three modern day sleuths - historian Michael Burtch, and the writer/ photographer team of Gary and Joanie McGuffin, who are determined to track down the precise locations of these famous paintings.
Painted Land from WhitePinePictures on Vimeo.
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BONUS SCREENING BY ONE OF WAKEFIELD'S OWN !
One Screening Only!
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The Man Who Built Cambodia is a narrative documentary exploring the life of Vann Molyvann, an architect whose work came to represent a new identity for a country emerging from independence, and whose incredible story encompasses Cambodia’s turbulent journey as a modern nation.
In Cambodia’s post-independence period, Molyvann had been at the centre of a renaissance, developing a distinctive architectural style, New Khmer Architecture, that completely changed the face of Cambodia. Then in 1970, at his creative peak, Cambodia’s political landscape disintegrates, forcing him to flee as the Khmer Rouge plunges the country into genocide and civil war.
Finally returning in the 1990s, Molyvann finds a different country than the one he had left. He’s marginalized from public life and many of his works are destroyed or neglected. Today, like many countries in Asia, Cambodia is developing rapidly and unevenly. Vann Molyvann, now nearly 90, reflects on the country into which he has put so much of himself.
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At the heart of The Man Who Built Cambodia is Vann Molyvann’s lifelong engagement with the identity of the Khmer people, and his attempt to create a unique architectural style that gives modern expression to that identity.
In Cambodia’s post-independence period, Molyvann had been at the centre of a renaissance, developing a distinctive architectural style, New Khmer Architecture, that completely changed the face of Cambodia. Then in 1970, at his creative peak, Cambodia’s political landscape disintegrates, forcing him to flee as the Khmer Rouge plunges the country into genocide and civil war.
Finally returning in the 1990s, Molyvann finds a different country than the one he had left. He’s marginalized from public life and many of his works are destroyed or neglected. Today, like many countries in Asia, Cambodia is developing rapidly and unevenly. Vann Molyvann, now nearly 90, reflects on the country into which he has put so much of himself.
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At the heart of The Man Who Built Cambodia is Vann Molyvann’s lifelong engagement with the identity of the Khmer people, and his attempt to create a unique architectural style that gives modern expression to that identity.
