Fierce Light – World Premiere at VIFF

 

The Vancouver International Film Festival is hosting the world premiere of Velcrow Ripper’s latest opus Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action. It’s the 2nd in the trilogy of spiritually motivated, earth worshipping, cinematographically rich documentaries which started with Scared Sacred. While Scared Sacred took us to the “Ground Zeroes” of the world to find if there is still hope in the places of the world’s darkest disasters, Fierce Light unites us with those engaged in compassionate activism around the planet. I always ask Canadian Images programmer Terry McEvoy: “which film in this year’s VIFF will change my life?” This year it’s Fierce Light.

Fierce Light – Wednesday October 1, 7 pm, Empire Granville 7.

or catch it soon on Super Channel.

An Open Letter to Don McKellar

Dear Don McKellar - 

When I saw you last night at the Vancouver International Film Festival Opening Gala you gave me the hairy eyeball as you walked by. I realized then that I owe you an apology. I may never get to deliver it in person, so I’m posting it here for everyone to read.

Don, I really admire your work. I first saw you in Roadkill, and I still have the Elvis postcard that Bruce sent me to say thanks to the Ontario Arts Council. I followed you through 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould, Last Night and, now, Blindness. I saw every episode of Twitch City.

Don, we have friends in common through film work and from the old activist network in Toronto. I used to live in Kathedral A and you had a connection with Kathedral B, right?

Don, let me say that I don’t really know why it all happened that way. You were giving a speech at UBC, where I went to film school. My old classmate was organizing it and, because she didn’t have a car, asked me to do her a favour. At the time, I had a really crappy car. My friend knew this. So why she asked me to pick you up at your hotel didn’t make sense to me; why didn’t she just rent a car? It was a really rainy day in November. My car had recently developed a leak in the windshield and when you sat in the passenger seat, on the way to the event, some rain leaked in and dripped on you. And for that, I’m truly sorry.

Don, let me finish by saying that I have a really nice car now. Best of luck with your future endeavours. 

Sincerely, Clare.

Ottawa International Animation Festival – Blog #3

 

 

Wallace, special guest at OIAF

 

The week of the OIAF wrapped with award-winners and fascinating presentations. I loved hearing about the goings on at Aardman Animations from Helen Brunsdon, Development and Broadcast Manager. She brought along some old friends including Wallace, Grommit, and Morph and introduced us to some new friends like Purple and Brown, Pib and Pog, and Angry Kid. Aardman, best known for its claymation marvels, is branching out to other forms of animation. They produced the lyrical and disturbing “The Pearce Sisters” as a festival piece to highlight their CGI animation: it has won a BAFTA and received prizes at Clermont-Ferrand and Anima.

Aardman has been ground-breaking in mobile content. Angry Kid is on multiple carriers and even Morph, one of their oldest characters filmed on 16mm, works well on mobile. Aardman is also producing more adult or “rude” content, as Brunsdon called it, so check out Jeffrey the Aussie with no Cozzy (cartoon nudity!) and JellyBeats (strong language from jellyfish) for a taste.

Meet The Filmmakers – Guest Blog

I thought I (“I” being Jenny, a proud alumni of the Super U camp) would drop by and share some interesting news that sort of jumped into my lap when I was enjoying some barbecued tofu at Main Street’s finest veggie eatery, Foundation. Well maybe “jumped into my lap” is a little dramatic but the “news” – which happened to be printed across a red and grey postcard – certainly did fluttered down through the air and land at my unsuspecting feet as I waited in line for the bathroom.

MEET THE FILMMAKERS is an event being put on by Cineworks September 29th – October 10, 2008.

“In its 14th year at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Meet The Filmmakers is about the realization of ideas and the revelation of process. These informal and insightful panel discussions with filmmakers attending the festival provide a rare opportunity for the festival audience to engage in meaningful dialogue with the creative visionaries of modern cinema.
Meet the Filmmakers will feature directors, producers, writer and actors whose work is featured at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. Expect seminars on low-budget filmmaking, shorts and documentaries, women in film, screenwriting, political activism, film artistry, new technologies and much more. No reservations are required and everyone is welcome–just bring your love of film and prepare to be inspired!”

This looks like a really great series. I’d highly recommend checking out some of the events which are listed right HERE.

So that’s it for my “news” folks – well at least for tonight. Unless of course you want an in depth review of my vegetarian dinner for that check out Super U’s upcoming Food Blog. Heh, just kidding.  

- Jenny Charlesworth

Announcing the launch of Super U’s Animation Contests

I’m writing from the Ottawa International Animation Festival. I’ve met lots of animators here from schools across Canada, like Emily Carr University, and through the United States. They’re here for inspiration that can only come from meeting people of like-mind and with the same interests.

It was a spark of inspiration that led Michel Beaudet to create Tetes a claques (now TAC.tv, too). He was playing around with different animation techniques in the basement of his house and came up with the unique style of the TAC.tv characters – the dim pilots, the Halloween kids, the farting frogs.

We at Super U are so excited to be partnering with Michel and TAC.tv to launch our first animation contests. I’ve been telling the animators here at the festival about the contests. Michel has said that the “Internet is sucha  great tool to give a voice to emergent artists.” This is exactly what Super U is dedicated to.

The animation contest opens for entry on Thursday, September 25 and we’ll be running 4 contests a year and a best of contest in August 2009 – the top prize is $7,500.

Today was the Billings’ Estate picnic sponsored by Cartoon Network with food by Lone Star (thanks!). They had a cool pumpkin carving competition. I hope the animators entering our film contest are as inventive as these artistic geniuses:

Ottawa International Animation Festival – Blog #2

Matt Senreich, unidentified blonde, Seth Green

I had the pleasure of seeing the Co-Creators of Robot Chicken (Cartoon Network, Adult Swim), who were the keynote speakers on Thursday at the OIAF. Seth Green (you know him as Scott Evil from Austin Powers) and Matt Senreich produce this stop-motion sketch comedy series and are real fans of animation, actors and pop culture. They came up with the idea in 2000 – before broadband – and told some entertaining storiesabout the early years of fedexing huge tapes coast to coast, working full-time at day jobs and getting by on 3 hours of sleep a night for 9 months. They had some great advice: Make a demo or a pilot (to compensate for the utter lack of imagination of the people you’re pitching to – Green’s words).

Green also said that the immediacy of the internet makes it a great place to use as a launching pad. I really agree with that – lots of animators at the conference are talking about the ability to make something and have it seen by people almost instantaneously. We really hope that they’ll take advantage of the new animation contests here at Super U. Watch this space tomorrow for special details about the contest announcement on www.superu.ca

Ottawa International Animation Festival – Blog #1

Parliament Buildings from the National Gallery

Welcome to a special series of posts from the Ottawa International Animation Festival. This morning, the Television Animation Conference started off with a bang – the Government of Brazil announced that they have co-production funding available for animation. (Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll track down the contact info.) The keynote speaker was Brown Johnson, President of Animation for Nickelodeon which sounds like a fun place to work: they have fun houses at Halloween, funny car competitions and tie day on Friday. I wonder if Super U will beat them to the first annual “underwear on the outside day”?

Animators - and future animators - in the Book Lounge

The Pitch This! session pitted enthusiastic animators against experienced commissioners from CBC Kids, Teletoon, PBS Kids and Jetix. At breakfast, I sat with the guys who were pitching The Mulligans – a series set around a kids’ golf school – and they were sweating bullets. I admire their chutzpah. Here’s some great feedback I gleaned: Complex character descriptions can be used to fuel the storyline. And: defining the age-range is crucial when pitching. If you’re an animation creator, here’s the scoop on what the Canadian ‘casters are looking for: Teletoon wants boy comedy and teen/tween dramedy, CBC is taking pitches for shows for 4-6 year olds, and a 7:30 am before school show with a broad appeal for young families and they’re looking for shorts.

Stay tuned for some exciting news about animation contests on Superu.ca.

Gotta run to Happy Hour! Here’s a shot of me by the National Gallery of Canada.

Clare at the National Gallery of Canada (Louise Boureois sculpture "Maman")

Getting LGBT Content Out There

It wasn’t that long ago that gay and lesbian content was no where to be found in mainstream media. There might have been the odd illusion or whispered comment, but you certainly wouldn’t have seen a movie like Brokeback Mountain in the theatres a few decades ago. Despite the fact that there are many LGBT filmmakers, its been a long, hard struggle to get  stories about the community to the masses.

More and more we’re watching the walls come down, though. Gay and lesbian characters are emerging not only in film, but on many great TV shows – like Out There judge Adamo Ruggiero’s characrer, Marco, on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Let’s hope this insurgence of great LGBT film and TV continue. I can’t wait to see what emerges from the Out There contest on superu.ca.

More Tommy Chong sightings

I just heard that Tommy Chong was on the CBC quiz show “Test the Nation”. He was answering questions for the Reach for the Toppers team. We used to watch Reach for the Top during Sunday night dinner, just after The Beachcombers. We had a family friend, Donald Wilmer, who was on the show, so he became kind of a celebrity for a while. Anyone know how Tommy did? I know he was a great juror for SuperU.ca’s It’s Hilarious contest.

TIFF Special Report

TIFF Special Report from Marguerite Pigott:

Hi all, and welcome to Super U’s first blog from TIFF.  The festival has been going for a few days now, and I honestly don’t know when other folks find the time to blog!  TIFF has been fast and furious, and Canadian films are front and centre. 

I particularly loved Atom Egoyan’s latest, Adoration, and Philippe Falardeau’s film, It’s Not Me, I Swear!  Adoration is, I think, the most emotional film Egoyan has made.  It is vintage Egoyan – cerebral, inquisitive, philosophical and highly original.  But where previous films had an emotional restraint that some find cold, Adoration does not.  The ending was genuinely moving.  Okay, I’ll admit it; Atom Egoyan made me cry.  Whodathunk? 

And Philippe Falardeau’s latest is a wonderful extension of his previous films.  I was a big fan to start with.  I loved Le Moitie Gauche du Frigo and Congorama, so my expectations were pretty high.  As always, he exceeded them.  The story is beautifully balanced between sorrow and comedy, and the performance of the boy at the centre of the film is absolutely remarkable.  When the young actor came on stage after the screening, he got a long, loud standing ovation from the 900 strong crowd. 

Bruce McDonald’s film Pontypool is also getting a lot of attention.  Last year he set the Festival on fire with The Tracey Fragments – an innovative and totally compelling film  – so I couldn’t wait to see Pontypool.  Clearly, a lot of other people felt the same way.  The industry screening was this afternoon, and for the first time, I was turned away from a TIFF screening because the theatre was filled to over capacity.  And there was already a long line of industry types outside the theatre, hoping that people inside might leave, so they could grab their seats.  Brian DePalma got turned away too, so I was in pretty good company.  I’m going to try again on Friday, but if you’re not at TIFF, or if you are at TIFF but you’re averse to line ups, you’ll be able to see it on Super Channel, so keep an eye out for it.

Of course a huge part of TIFF is the parties.  One of the parties I look forward to every year is the Canadian Film Centre barbecue.  In twenty years of CFC barbecues it has never rained, but the CFC’s luck ran out today.  It rained and rained, but the party was still great.  Everyone crowded into a few big, white marquees, and those used to ‘working the room’ learned to ‘work the tent’.  The grounds got very muddy very fast – women wearing high heels gave up and went barefoot. The ankle deep mud in the field-turned-parking lot was evocative of the fields of Passchendaele, so I suppose it was kind of appropriate.  In any case, the party was as great as it has ever been.  The food was good, the company was even better, and maybe the fact that we all defied the weather made the party even a bit more special than usual. 

One of the things I love about the festival, and about the parties in particular, is that they remind me why I work in Canadian film – not always an easy gig, as you know.  Everywhere I turn at the festival, I see people I genuinely care for; people I’ve worked with, people I know from ‘around’ or people whose work I’ve admired for years.  We’ve all made an investment in this industry and in each other, and even when it rains like hell, we all keep showing up. If I have to be soaked with rain and crowded into a tent, I can’t think of a bunch of people I’d rather be with.

I’m going to keep blogging from the festival, so please keep an eye out.  I’ll be posting a ‘market update’ with insight from international sales agent Mark Horowitz of H2O, and at the Strategic Partners conference at the Atlantic Film Festival, I’ll be interviewing Niv Fichman  and Don McKellar (Producer and Screenwriter of Blindness, respectively) at a luncheon sponsored by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.  If you have a question you’d like me to ask Niv or Don, please let me know.  I’ll be posting here after the interview, and I’ll let you know all about it.

Thanks for reading, Marguerite