01 Sep Coming Attractions and Highlights! September 2016
This Is High School
Premieres on CBC, October 2
A six-part series that gives audiences unprecedented access into the world of today’s teenagers. Producers put 50 remote-controlled cameras in a typical secondary school—and let them run for eight weeks. This fly-on-the-wall series captures the challenges facing both educators and students alike in a 21st-century public high school. It delves deep into an institution that has a formative influence on all of us, and captures a moment of transition.
Window Horses
Screens at VIFF, September 30 & October 3
Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a poetry festival in Iran. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians who tell her stories that force her to confront her past, the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her, and the nature of poetry itself. The film is about building bridges between cultural and generational divides. It’s about being curious, staying open, and finding your own voice through the magic of poetry.
The Romeo Section
Airs on CBC, October 5
The second season of The Romeo Section finds Wolfgang McGee tasked with a covert investigation into an alleged terrorist incident, leading him into the dark side of intelligence. With the help of a blacklisted acquaintance, they sift through inconsistencies that seem too convenient to be coincidence.
Koneline: Our Land Beautiful
Screens at VIFF, October 3 & 9
In Nettie Wild’s stunning magnum opus, a mining company helicopter hovers above the pristine land of the Tahltan First Nation in northern BC, carrying a huge electric transmission tower, casting patterned shadows. This conflict between man-made geometries and nature’s vortices is at the film’s heart. Marking a tonal departure from her earlier documentaries, Wild creates a balanced profile that’s free of polemics and a feast for the eyes. “Subtle, beautiful and remarkably even-handed.”
Spirit Unforgettable
Screens at VIFF, October 8 & 12
Director Pete McCormack (Facing Ali, VIFF ’09) brings us the story of John Mann, lead singer of the iconic Vancouver band Spirit of the West, and his struggle with early onset Alzheimer’s. McCormack has built a compelling and emotionally powerful narrative around archival clips and intimate interviews that reveal Mann, his wife, Jill, and his bandmates to be endlessly engaging and surprisingly candid. This affecting documentary builds to the sort of riveting performance that’s made the band local legends.
Travelers
Premieres on Showcase, October 17
Hundreds of years from now, the last surviving humans discover the means of sending consciousness back through time, directly into people in the 21st century. These “travelers” assume the lives of seemingly random people, while secretly working as teams to perform missions in order to save humanity from a terrible future.
Political Animals
Multiple screenings across the USA
Follow the first four openly gay California State legislators, all women, whose personal sacrifices and professional accomplishments, including the first domestic partnership registration in the nation, laid the groundwork for perhaps the most important civil rights struggle of our time: marriage equality.
VIFF
September 29 – October 14
There are lots of great Canadian and international film choices at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Make it your mission to see some great cinema! Turn off your computer for just one night and go out and explore the wonderful world of film festivals. Rain or shine!
