Films & Schedules - CANADA

“Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at once,” Einstein once said. But how do we really get our heads wrapped around it? Swiss/Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler takes the challenge with a probing, playful meditation on the elusive nature of time. From the 27-mile-long particle accelerator in Switzerland where scientists seek to probe regions of time we cannot see to frozen-in-time lava flows in Hawaii, from the time-stands-still disintegration of downtown Detroit to a Hindu funeral rite near the place of Buddha’s enlightenment, Mettler explores our perceptions, dreams the future, and celebrates the wonder of the everyday in...

“Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at once,” Einstein once said. But how do we really get our heads wrapped around it? Swiss/Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler takes the challenge with a probing, playful meditation on the elusive nature of time. From the 27-mile-long particle accelerator in Switzerland where scientists seek to probe regions of time we cannot see to frozen-in-time lava flows in Hawaii, from the time-stands-still disintegration of downtown Detroit to a Hindu funeral rite near the place of Buddha’s enlightenment, Mettler explores our perceptions, dreams the future, and celebrates the wonder of the everyday in visually spectacular fashion. (109 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Picture of Light (94), Gambling, Gods, and LSD (02), Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands (09)

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Documentary.

Set in 1990s Montreal, Laurence Anyways narrates the story of Laurence, a handsome high school teacher and writer who is madly in love with his girlfriend, Fred, a film producer. Their joyful life is turned upside down when Laurence announces his transsexuality and his choice to live as a woman. Fred vows to support Laurence during his transition, but the couple’s new lifestyle clashes with friends, family, and society in general. Told with a visual flair and signature style that bespeaks 23-year-old Dolan’s astonishing talent, Laurence is, above all, an epic, 10-year love story that examines a couple’s inability to...

Set in 1990s Montreal, Laurence Anyways narrates the story of Laurence, a handsome high school teacher and writer who is madly in love with his girlfriend, Fred, a film producer. Their joyful life is turned upside down when Laurence announces his transsexuality and his choice to live as a woman. Fred vows to support Laurence during his transition, but the couple’s new lifestyle clashes with friends, family, and society in general. Told with a visual flair and signature style that bespeaks 23-year-old Dolan’s astonishing talent, Laurence is, above all, an epic, 10-year love story that examines a couple’s inability to exist without each other. “This big, dreamy, audacious picture has large questions about relationships and identity. Can anyone be true to his or her inner self in the context of romantic love?”—Tara Brady, Irish Times (168 mins.)

Filmography: I Killed My Mother (09), Heartbeats (10)

Sponsored by QDoc: Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Narrative Feature, Queer.

War Witch unfolds as a harrowing fairy-tale told by a 14-year-old African child soldier to her unborn son. Taken from her village, Komona is given a hallucinogenic milk that gifts her with a sorceress’s ability to see the ghosts of the fallen. Fighting alongside an albino boy named Magician, she soon comes to understand that her career as “witch” to the rebel leader will only last as long as their victories. The two set off together, putting their violent past behind them as they bond while searching for the white rooster she has demanded as proof of his love. Nguyen...

War Witch unfolds as a harrowing fairy-tale told by a 14-year-old African child soldier to her unborn son. Taken from her village, Komona is given a hallucinogenic milk that gifts her with a sorceress’s ability to see the ghosts of the fallen. Fighting alongside an albino boy named Magician, she soon comes to understand that her career as “witch” to the rebel leader will only last as long as their victories. The two set off together, putting their violent past behind them as they bond while searching for the white rooster she has demanded as proof of his love. Nguyen has interwoven true stories of child soldiers in Burma with footage captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo to fashion a story of touching beauty about the search for love and finding inner peace. (90 mins.)

Filmography: The Marsh (02), Truffe (08), City of Shadows (10)

This year’s Canadian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by MercyCorps.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature.