Premium Tickets Still Available

As of 12:03 AM on Monday, August 25, there are still premium tickets available for showings at the Visa Screening Room and Roy Thomson Hall. Update: read commenter Nicole's note at the bottom of this post; some of the screenings that don't show as sold out may not let you purchase tickets anyway.

Tickets are $37.38 each, and you are limited to four per order. You can purchase:

• Online, at http://tiff08.ca/. Click the Buy Tickets link at the top right of any page on the site.
• By phone at (416) 968-FILM or toll-free at 1-877-968-FILM.
• As of August 23, at the Manulife Centre box office at Bloor and Bay Streets.
• As of August 26, also at the Toronto Life Square box office at Yonge and Dundas.
• As of September 3, also at the Roy Thomson Hall box office.

The following showings still have tickets available:

Un Barrage contre le Pacifique,Tuesday, September 9, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

Blindness, Monday, September 8, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

The Burning Plain, Wednesday, September 10, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

Che (Part 1), Tuesday, September 9, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room
Che (Part 1), Thursday, September 10, 2:30 PM, Visa Screening Room
Che (Part 2), Wednesday, September 10, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room
Che (Part 2), Friday, September 10, 2:30 PM, Visa Screening Room

Dean Spanley, Saturday, September 6, 1:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

The Duchess, Monday, September 8, 2:30 PM, Visa Screening Room

Easy Virtue, Monday, September 8, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room
Easy Virtue, Wednesday, September 10, 2:30 PM, Visa Screening Room

Empty Nest, Thursday, September 10, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

Faubourg 36, Saturday, September 6, 2:30 PM, Visa Screening Room

Fifty Dead Men Walking, Wednesday, September 10, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

La Fille de Monaco, Saturday, September 6, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Flash of Genius, Sunday, September 7, 2:30 PM, Visa Screening Room

Ghost Town, Friday, September 5, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Friday, September 10, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall
The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Saturday, September 10, 2:30 PM, Visa Screening Room

Heaven on Earth, Saturday, September 6, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

Inju, la bete dans l'ombre, Thursday, September 10, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room
Inju, la bete dans l'ombre, Friday, September 10, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

Kanchivaram, Friday, September 10, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Friday, September 10, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Saturday, September 10, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

The Lucky Ones, Thursday, September 10, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

Mesrine (formerly Public Enemy Number 1), Thursday, September 10, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Miracle at St. Anna, Sunday, September 7, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room
Miracle at St. Anna, Tuesday, September 9, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

Nothing But the Truth, Friday, September 10, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

One Week, Monday, September 8, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

The Other Man, Sunday, September 7, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Rachel Getting Married, Sunday, September 7, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

Singh Is Kinng, Sunday, September 7, 1:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Who Do You Love, Thursday, September 10, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

A Woman in Berlin, Wednesday, September 10, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

The Wrestler, Sunday, September 7, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

A Year Ago in Winter, Tuesday, September 9, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Tuesday, September 9, 3:00 PM, Visa Screening Room


The following showings are sold out. However, the festival recommends checking back regularly as more tickets may open up.

Adoration, Monday, September 8, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

Appaloosa, Friday, September 5, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

Blindness, Saturday, September 6, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

Burn After Reading, Friday, September 5, 9:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall
Burn After Reading, Saturday, September 6, 11:00 AM, Visa Screening Room

The Duchess, Sunday, September 7, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

The Lucky Ones, Wednesday, September 10, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Nothing But the Truth, Monday, September 8, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Passchendaele, Thursday, September 4, 6:30 PM, Visa Screening Room

Pride and Glory, Tuesday, September 9, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Rachel Getting Married, Saturday, September 6, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

RocknRolla, Thursday, September 4, 9:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

The Secret Life of Bees, Friday, September 5, 6:30 PM, Roy Thomson Hall

Stone of Destiny, Saturday, September 13, 6:00 PM, Visa Screening Room

Tags: 2008,tickets

Premium Tickets on Sale August 23, 2008

Just a reminder, if you want to get tickets for films showing at Roy Thomson Hall and/or the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre, they go on sale to the general public on August 23, 2008, starting at 10:00 AM.

Your options for purchasing tickets are:

• Online, at http://tiff08.ca. Click the Buy Tickets link at the top right of any page on the site.
• By phone at (416) 968-FILM or toll-free at 1-877-968-FILM.
• As of August 23, at the Manulife Centre box office at Bloor and Bay Streets.
• As of August 26, also at the Toronto Life Square box office at Yonge and Dundas.
• As of September 3, also at the Roy Thomson Hall box office.

Tickets are $37.38 each ($18.57 for same-day students and seniors), and you are limited to four tickets per film. They recommend you check back later if the film you want is sold out, as they may release more seats as the festival goes on.

The films at Roy Thomson Hall are the galas, which are generally the films with the biggest buzz or the biggest stars. For example, the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, is a gala. If you really, really want to see these types of films or these celebrities, the premium ticketing is probably your best bet; and this year, that holds true even for pass/package holders in the advanced lottery, as most passes/packages will NOT allow you to select films at RTH or the Elgin this year.

Tags: 2008,tickets

Advanced Lottery Coming

If you bought any of the packages or passes that entitle you to participate in the advanced ticket lottery (see the official festival website, or this post - http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/ticket-packages.html - for more information), then you should be getting ready for the process to begin next week.

1. You should have received a letter in the mail that includes an Envelope Voucher, a Drop-off Voucher, a Pick-up Voucher, and if you bought one, a 2008 Programme Book Pick-up Voucher, if you placed an order before August 1, 2008. If you ordered after that date, you need to pick up your vouchers at the Manulife Centre box office from August 1 to 25. After August 25, you must pick up vouchers at the Toronto Life Square box office.
2. Starting Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 9:00 AM, you turn in your Envelope Voucher to get the order book and envelope needed to make your selections. If you have a 2008 Programme Book Pick-up Voucher, then you turn that one in to get the thick, full-colour book with complete film descriptions. Remember to also pick up the official festival schedule, which lists the times and theatres for each film, as you will need this as well.
3. Ensure you have a green and a yellow highlighter, your order book, and the official film schedule. Start picking which films you want to see, when you want to see them, and an alternate selection for each film in case your first choice is sold out when they get around to processing your order. Full tips will be posted after next Tuesday, but you can check out last year's guidelines here: http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-heck-do-i-fill-out-order-form-2007.html
4. Note that you can make notes in the order book to help the festival volunteers interpret your order. But don't get too complicated, as it will just confuse people and increase the chance of mistakes. My friend found out that if you put your phone number on your order, the festival may call you if they have trouble figuring out what you want; but be forewarned - they process all day and all night, so you could end up getting a call at 4 in the morning!
5. Ensure you drop off your completed order book, with the Drop-off Voucher, before 1:00 PM on Friday, August 29. If you drop off after that time, you will miss the advanced draw, and your order will be processed after everyone else.
6. After 1:00 PM on the 29th, the festival will start processing orders. This year, they will start with orders from festival donors (those who donated $250 or more to festival before August 8, 2008). After that, they will randomly draw to determine which box of the remainder of the orders will be processed first. Check out this post (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/advanced-ticketing.html) for a description of how this part of the process works.
7. The festival processes all the orders over the weekend. If you provided your e-mail address on the order book, the festival will generally e-mail you to tell you which of your selections you got, and which ones you didn't.
8. Starting Monday, September 1, 2008, at 10:00 AM, you can pick up your completed orders at the Toronto Life Square box office, with your Pick-up Voucher. If you were notified that you received all your picks, then don't bother showing up first thing on the 1st, as you will be stuck in a huge line for no reason. If you didn't get all your picks, then you should line up, as you will usually have the opportunity to select alternate films that day; but you'll have to first line up to get your order form and used tickets first, then line up again to make alternate selections.
9. Sit back and wait for the festival to begin on the 4th!

Remember to go to the correct box office; check the festival site for exact info. If you go to the wrong location, they may not be able to help you, will not be able to take your order, or will not have your completed order on hand.

Now, if you didn't buy a package or pass that allows you to participate in the lottery, you can still see movies at the festival. Your options at this point are:

• Buy premium tickets for films at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room starting August 23 (or August 20 if you donated more than a $1,000).
• Buy regular tickets for all other theatres starting September 3, 2008. Note that even films that premiere at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room will re-screen in other festival theatres later in the week, for which you can buy regular tickets.
• If you can't buy advanced tickets, try the box office the day of the showing.
• If you can't buy same-day tickets, try the Rush Line at each theatre. The box office will sell any tickets where ticket holders don't show up 15 minutes before the screening or if extra tickets become available, to people in the Rush Line on a first-come, first-served basis. On occasion, ticket holders that don't want to see the film or that have extra tickets, may go down the line offering their extras; I've been on both ends of this before.

Check the official site for more info: http://tiff08.ca/boxofficeinfo/tickets/default.aspx

Some things to remember when selecting films, regardless of how you get tickets:

• Remember to account for the time it will take to get from one film to another. The films may be in completely different theatres; it can take a fair bit of time to get from the Scotiabank to the Varsity theatre no matter if you take a cab, subway, or walk. Check out my festival map here to get an idea of where all the theatres are in downtown Toronto: http://www.riwasa.com/2008filmfestmap.htm.
• Films may not start or end on time. On occasion, films may be delayed starting because they are waiting for the cast or director, or they may have the odd technical difficulty. Films may not end on time because they will have Q&A sessions after many of them, which then in turn may occasionally affect the start of the next film in that theatre.

Tags: 2008,tickets

Contemporary World Cinema

The festival announced additional films for the Contemporary World Cinema programme. Complete details can be found here:

http://tiffg.ca/mediacentre/viewrelease.aspx?recordId=588

Some highlights:

• $5 a Day, starring Christopher Walken, Alessandro Nivola (Junebug), Amanda Peet (who I last saw at the festival in Griffin and Phoenix - http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2006/09/griffin-and-phoenix.html), and Sharon Stone.
• Middle of Nowhere, starring Anton Yelchin and Eva Amurri, who are also both in New York, I Love You. Also features Amurri's mother, Susan Sarandon.
• Skin, based on a true story, starring Sophie Okonedo, Alice Krige, and Sam Neill
• L’Heure d’été, from director Olivier Assayas (I saw his film Clean, back in 2004 at the festival: http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2004/09/clean.html), starring Juliette Binoche.

Tags: 2008,films

Festival Stats

The festival published some interesting statistics about this year's version:

http://tiffg.ca/mediacentre/viewrelease.aspx?recordId=591

Some highlights:

• 312 films and shorts (down from 352 last year) from a total of 4209 submissions.
• 116 world premiers, 32 international premiers, and 89 North American premieres. Not sure what the definition of "world" vs "international" is.
• 61 directors will be screening their first films.
• The longest film at this year's festival is 262 minutes, down from 540 last year (the 9-hour Death in the Land of Encantos).

Tags: 2008

Mavericks Programmes

The festival revealed the complete lineup of Mavericks presentations:

http://tiffg.ca/mediacentre/viewrelease.aspx?recordId=585

Mavericks consists of panel discussions about films and filmmaking. Previous ones I've attended included:

• Larry Charles and Bill Maher, talking about their film Religulous, that they were in the process of shooting. A bit of an irreverent look at religion, this film will be showing at this year's festival. http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/religulous.html
• Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit. At the time, he was talking about Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which was premiering that year at the festival: http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2005/09/mavericks-nick-park.html
• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, talking about Carter's presidency, and the charitable and political work he has done since leaving office. This was tied to the premiere of Jonathan Demme's documentary about Carter, Man From Plains. http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/everything-to-gain-conversation-with.html

This year at the festival, presentations include:

• In Conversation with Kathryn Bigelow: a discussion with the director of Near Dark, Point Break, Blue Steel, Strange Days, K-19: The Widowmaker, among others. Bigelow's latest film, The Hurt Locker, will be screening this year at the festival.
• The People Speak: a discussion with Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, with Matt Damon, Chris Moore (who worked with Damon and Ben Affleck on Project Greenlight), and Josh Brolin.
• Picasso & Braque Go to the Movies: a talk on Arne Glimcher's film about the influence of film on Cubism, with artist Chuck Close and Julian Schnabel (who was at the festival last year with his film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/le-scaphandre-et-le-papillon-diving.html)
• A Time to Stir: about the 1968 Columbia University strike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_protests_of_1968), with three of the particpants.

You should be able to purchase tickets for these presentations by selecting them in the advanced lottery (if you have one of the ticket packages that allows you to participate), or by buying tickets starting September 3.

Tags: 2008,films

Additional Gala and Special Presentation Films

The festival announced additional galas and films for the Special Presentation programme.

The first showing of Gala films takes place at Roy Thomson Hall. To see films there, you must buy individual tickets when they go on sale to the general public on August 23 (August 20 if you are a donor of $1,000 or more). Note that Gala films usually have a second showing that takes place at other theatres at the festival; for those showings, you can purchase tickets starting September 3, or you can select those (non-Roy Thomson Hall) showings if you bought a package that lets you participate in the advanced lottery.

Special Presentation films are part of the normal festival; tickets for those go on sale September 3, or you can select them if you are in the advanced lottery.

Some highlights of the galas include:

Dean Spanley, starring Peter O'Toole (who I last saw at the festival in Venus), Jeremy Northam, Bryan Brown and Sam Neill.

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond: based on a screenplay by Tennessee Williams, starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn, and Ann-Margret.

The Lucky Ones: starring Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins and Michael Peña.

Nothing But the Truth: from director Rod Lurie, and starring Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, Matt Dillon, Alan Alda, David Schwimmer, Noah Wyle and Angela Bassett. Sounds like the film was inspired by the Valerie Plame affair.

Pride and Glory: starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich and Jennifer Ehle. The plot of this film, following a family on both sides of the law, sounds quite similar to 2007's We Own the Night.

Burn After Reading: from the Coen brothers, starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins and Brad Pitt.

Public Enemy No. 1/Mesrine: starring Vincent Cassel, with Gérard Depardieu and Roy Dupuis.

Singh Is Kinng, starring Akshay Kumar, with Katrina Kaif and Om Puri.

Generally speaking, the stars usually show up for the first showing at Roy Thomson Hall, and occasionally show up for the second showing at the other theatres in the festival.

Highlights of the additional Special Presentations films:

New York, I Love You. This is apparently not yet the final cut of the film, and is a sequel of sorts to Paris, je t'aime, which I saw back in 2006 at the festival. The film consists of a number of shorts, filmed by well-known directors and actors, including: Allen Hughes, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner, Fatih Akin, Scarlett Johansson, Ivan Attal, Natalie Portman, Shunji Iwai, Jiang Wen, and Andrei Zvyagintsev, and starring such actors as Orlando Bloom, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Christina Ricci, Julie Christie, Robin Wright Penn, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Andy Garcia, Ethan Hawke, Maggie Q, Chris Cooper, Olivia Thirlby, Kevin Bacon, James Caan, Bradley Cooper, Drea de Matteo, John Hurt, Cloris Leachman, Carla Gugina, Goran Visnjic, Eva Amurri, Anton Yelchin, and Jacinda Barrett.

Additional details for all films can be found here:
http://tiffg.ca/mediacentre/viewrelease.aspx?recordId=584

Tags: 2008,films

Final Film List Released

The final list of films has been announced by the festival. The official list can be found here:

http://www.tiff08.ca/filmsandschedules/default.aspx

Other sites that provide ways of sorting through the list and provide additional info on films can be found here:

http://tofilmfest.com/2008/FilmsByTitle.htm

http://www.tiffreviews.com/2008/film-list

Note that only the film names have been announced. The actual schedule, listing which films are showing on which days and in which theatres, will not be released until Tuesday, August 26.

Tags: 2008,films

Actors, Directors, and Others Attending - 2008

The list of actors, directors, and others attending the festival this year was announced.

The complete list can be found at: http://www.tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=583

Some highlights below:

Adrien Brody
Alan Alda
Alec Baldwin
Alessandro Nivola
Alicia Keys
Amos Gitaï
Anne Hathaway
Anton Yelchin
Antonio Banderas
Antti-Jussi Annila
Arsinée Khanjian
Atom Egoyan
Ben Kingsley
Benicio Del Toro
Bill Maher
Brad Pitt
Bruce McDonald
Bryan Brown
Bryce Dallas Howard
Carly Pope
Caroline Dhavernas
Charlie Kaufman
Charlize Theron
Chi McBride
Chris Evans
Christopher Walken
Claire Danes
Claire Denis
Colin Farrell
Colin Firth
Cynthia Nixon
Dakota Fanning
Danny Boyle
Darren Aronofsky
David Schwimmer
Debra Winger
Deepa Mehta
Denis Villeneuve
Don McKellar
Ed Harris
Eddie Cahill
Edward Norton
Elizabeth Banks
Emmanuelle Beart
Emmanuelle Devos
Ethan Coen
Ethan Hawke
Eva Amurri
Evan Rachel Wood
Evangeline Lilly
Frances McDormand
Gael García Bernal
Geoffrey Rush
Gerard Butler
Gil Bellows
Greg Kinnear
Guy Ritchie
Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Ingrid Veninger
Isabelle Huppert
Jason Issacs
Jason Jones
Jay Baruchel
Jeff Goldblum
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Hudson
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Northam
Jeremy Piven
Jessica Biel
Jill Hennessy
Jimmy Page
Joel Coen
John Malkovich
Jonathan Demme
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joshua Jackson
Julia Ormond
Julianne Moore
Kat Dennings
Kate Beckinsale
Kathryn Bigelow
Keira Knightley
Kevin Smith
Kieran Culkin
Kristin Scott Thomas
Larry Charles
Laura Linney
Lauren Graham
LeBron James
Liam Neeson
Liane Balaban
Marisa Tomei
Mark Ruffalo
Martha Burns
Matt Damon
Matt Dillon
Michael Cera
Michael Winterbottom
Mickey Rourke
Mike Leigh
Olivier Assayas
Paul Bettany
Paul Gross
Peter O'Toole
Queen Latifah
Rachal Blanchard
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Weisz
Ralph Fiennes
Randy Quaid
Renee Zellweger
Richard Linklater
Ricky Gervais
Rinko Kikuchi
Robert Carlyle
Rory Culkin
Sam Neill
Samantha Bee
Scott Speedman
Shohreh Aghdashloo
Sir Michael Caine
Sook-Yin Lee
Sophia Bush
Sophie Okonedo
Spike Lee
Stephen McHattie
Steve Zahn
Steven Soderbergh
Sudz Sutherland
Susan Coyne
Susan Sarandon
Tantoo Cardinal
Tea Leoni
Thandie Newton
The Edge
Tilda Swinton
Tim Robbins
Tim Roth
Timothy Hutton
Tom Wilkinson
Vera Farmiga
Viggo Mortensen
Vincent Cassel
Vincent D'Onofrio
Wong Kar Wai
Zac Efron
Zooey Deschanel.

Tags: 2008,celebrities

Updated Festival Map

I've updated my festival map for 2008: check the Map of Festival Theatres link in the Links section on the right-side of the page. It has been updated to include the new box office at Toronto Life Square, and the AMC theatres there as well. I've also updated the list of Tim Hortons and Starbucks (with wireless hotspots).

Tags: 2008

TIFF Blogs and Resources

Some other blogs covering the festival that are well worth reading are below. Some of the bloggers are in the industry, others are just fans, but they've all been covering the festival for a while now. I always look forward to reading them to see what other people like and don't like at the festival, see what's got good buzz, and find out what else is going on, since it's impossible to catch everything. These blogs are great because they provide a more personal view of the festival, which is a nice contrast to the professional media outlets.

• Hana Dreaming: http://hanadreaming.blogspot.com/ (thanks for the nice words! I really enjoy your blog every year too)
• Crunchy Squirrel Goes to Toronto: http://crunchytiff.blogspot.com/
• Movie Moxie: http://moviemoxie.blogspot.com/
• 1st thursday: http://1stthursday.blogspot.com/
• Movie Martyr.com: http://moviemartyr.blogspot.com/
• Countdown to YYZ: http://glenlake8.blogspot.com/

Interestingly, everyone of them (and me) is using blogger.com.

Some additional resources you can use to help plan your festival include:

• TOfilmfest.ca: http://www.tofilmfest.com/. Very good way to search through the list of films by country, language, director, programme.
• TIFF Reviews: http://www.tiffreviews.com/2008/. Aggregates news from a variety of different sources, including both conventional media and blogs. Also has a good listing of all the films, and discussion forums.

Tags: 2008

Discovery Films Announced

The festival announced the lineup for the Discovery programme, which focuses on new directors. Films include:

• $9.99, from Tatia Rosenthal, a stop-motion animated film with voices by Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia.
• Gigantic, from Matt Aselton, starring Paul Dano, John Goodman, and Zooey Deschanel (who has been here before with Winter Passing - http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2005/09/winter-passing.html)
• Lovely, Still from Nik Fackler, with Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn, and Elizabeth Banks (who is also in the festival this year with Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno).
• Lymelife, from Derick Martini, starring Rory Culkin, Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Emma Roberts, Cynthia Nixon, and Kieran Culkin (but, apparently, no Macaulay or any additional Culkin siblings).
• The Stoning of Soraya M, from Cyrus Nowrasteh, starring Shohreh Aghdashloo (24, House of Sand and Fog).
• What Doesn't Kill You, from Brian Goodman, starring Ethan Hawke, Mark Ruffalo, Donnie Wahlberg, and Amanda Peet (who I last saw at the festival in Griffin and Phoenix - http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2006/09/griffin-and-phoenix.html)

Full press release is here:

http://www.tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=578

Tags: 2008,films

Visions and Vanguard Films

The festival released the names of additional films for the Visions and the Vanguard programmes, including:

• Afterwards, starring Romain Duris, John Malkovich, and Evangeline Lilly.
• Sauna, from director Antti-Jussi Annila, who was previously at the festival with Jade Warrior (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2006/09/jade-warrior-jade-soturi.html)
• Uncertainty, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Olivia Thirlby, and Lynn Collins, in which the two outcomes are shown after a young couple flips a coin to decide what to do about the girl's pregnancy. This reminds me of another festival film I watched back in 2005, Spiele Leben (You Bet Your Life), in which six different outcomes of the same story play out.
• Vinyan, with Emmanuelle Beart and Rufus Sewell.

Full press release is here:

http://www.tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=579

Tags: 2008,films

Special Presentation Films

The festival released the names of 20 additional films that will be in the Special Presentations section:

http://www.tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=577

Some big names in these films, including:

• The Brothers Bloom, starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel Weisz, with Maximillian Schell and Robbie Coltrane.
• Easy Virtue, with Colin Firth, Jessica Biel, and Kristin Scott Thomas, based on the Noel Coward play.
• Genova, from director Michael Winterbottom (Code 46, The Road to Guantanamo), with Colin Firth (again!), Catherine Keener, and Hope Davis.
• Is There Anybody There? with Michael Caine.
• Management, with Steve Zahn, Jennifer Aniston, and Woody Harrelson.
• Me and Orson Wells with Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Ben Chaplin, and Christian McKay.
• Slumdog Millionaire from director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later).
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno, from director Kevin Smith, starring Seth Rogan and Elizabeth Banks.
• The Burning Plain, with Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger.
• Che, a two part-movie about Ernesto Guevara, from Stephen Soderbergh.
• Synecdoche, New York, from director Charlie Kaufman, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Dianne Wiest, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Emily Watson, and Hope Davis.
• The Wrestler, from Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream), starring Mickey Rourke.
• Flash of Genius, starring Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, and Alan Alda.

Tags: 2008,films

Closing Night Gala Announced

The festival announced the film for the closing night gala: Stone of Destiny, from writer/directory Charles Martin Smith, and starring Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty), Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings), and Brenda Fricker. Based on a true story, the film follows four Scottish university students who decide to steal an ancient Scot artifact that had been taken by the English in 1296, and return it to Scotland. The film had its world premiere back in June at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; this will be the North American premiere.

http://www.tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=576

One way to see this film in style is with the Closing Night Gala package ($175), that includes a pre-movie cocktail party plus a ticket to the film.

Tags: 2008,films

Purchasing Tickets and Advanced Ticketing

If you want to attend this year's festival, but haven't gotten around to looking at buying anything yet, here are your current options:

1. Buy a package so that you can participate in the advanced ticketing lottery that starts on August 26th. This is the best alternative for people that want to make their own decisions about what to see, and want to see a variety of films. Descriptions of the packages can be found here (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/ticket-packages.html).
2. Buy a package that has pre-selected films; in this case you don't participate in the lottery, as the festival selects films for you. This is a good choice if you don't want to choose films or aren't sure what to see.
3. Buy premium tickets for films at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin theatre, starting August 20th if you are a festival donor, or August 23rd at 10:00 AM for all others. This is for anyone who wants to be guaranteed to see the big films with big-name stars, or films that have or will get a lot of buzz (critical or otherwise).
4. Buy general tickets to all films starting September 3rd at 7:00 AM. This is good for anyone who just wants to see a film or two (although there's no guarantee there will be a lot of tickets available for what you want to see), or is going for the first time to the festival.

For those who choose option 1, all the packages that allow you to particpate in the lottery are still available. Some new wrinkles this year for those people:

• You can't select films at the Visa Screening Room or Roy Thomson Hall (previously, it was only galas at Roy Thomson Hall that were restricted)
• People who have donated money to the festival get preferential treatment at various stages of the process; it looks like you have to donate at least $250 for this to happen.
• Pickups and dropoffs occur at the box office at Toronto Life Square, the building at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas, that houses the new AMC theatre and Future Shop.

For option 1, some important dates to keep in mind:

• Tuesday, August 26: can pick up advanced order books, programme books, and official festival schedules from the Festival Box Office at Toronto Life Square, at 10 Dundas Street E, third floor. Note that this is a new location from previous years. DO NOT go to the old College Park location, as that is not being used this year. You should also bring the envelope voucher that you will receive in the mail after purchasing a package online.
• All order books must be deposited at the Toronto Life Square location before 1:00 PM on Friday, August 29th to participate in the lottery. Any books dropped off after that time will be processed after all other orders.
• Monday, September 1 starting at 10:00 AM you can pick up your filled orders. If you receive an e-mail from the festival saying you got all your choices, then I would recommend that you do NOT show up first thing in the morning, as there will be long wait. If you didn't receive all your picks, then you should line up in the morning, as you will receive ticket vouchers in place of your missed picks. You can then move to another line to immediately use those vouchers to pick other films that are still available; alternatively, you can wait to use those vouchers during the festival, but there's no advantage to doing that.

A description of last year's process for filling out order books can be found here: http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-heck-do-i-fill-out-order-form-2007.html. I'll post an updated entry once I see what this year's forms look like. Don't forget, you must go to the Toronto Life Square box office this year, NOT College Park.

Tags: 2008,tickets

Follow me on Twitter!

I decided to try something new this year, and post to Twitter during the festival for quick updates, in addition to the longer blog postings with film reviews. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/tifftalk.

Tags: 2008

Spanish and Asian Films

Yesterday, the festival revealed some of the Asisn and Spanish films that will be at TIFF this year.

Press release for Spanish-language movies: (http://tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=575)
Press release for Asian movies: (http://tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=574)

Some of the ones that caught my eye include:

The Window (Spain/Argentina), a meditation on an old man's last day of life.

Radio Love (Spain), about a fashion show host coming to terms with aging.

Still Walking Hirokazu (Japan), about a family coming together to honour the memory of their dead son/brother. From director Kore-eda, who was previously at TIFF with Hana (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2006/09/hana-hana-yori-mo-naho.html) and After Life.

Achilles and the Tortoise (Japan), from Takeshi Kitano, who also stars as a man trying to become a painter late in life. Kitano has been at the festival before with Takeshis' (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2005/09/takeshis.html) and Glory to the Filmmaker (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/glory-to-filmmaker.html) and Zatoichi.

The Sky Crawlers (Japan), from director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor), about a world in which teen fighter pilots dogfight for the entertainment of TV viewers.

All Around Us (Japan), about a courtroom sketch artist trying to support his wife after the death of their first child.

Machan (UK/Italy/Sri Lanka/Germany), about a group of Sri Lankan friends trying to assemble a national handball team.

Tags: 2008,films

Midnight Madness

The festival also announced the Midnight Madness lineup. These films are usually more off-beat or cult in nature. While the premiers take place at midnight, there are usually subsequent showings during the day later in the festival. The films can be found here:

http://www.tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=569

Some of the ones that caught my eye are:

JCVD, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, taking a William-Shatneresque turn to his career and parodying himself.

Detroit Metal City, about a teenage boy in Japan who wants to be a pop star, but ends up fronting a death metal band; with Gene Simmons!

Chocolate, a martial arts film from the director and fight choreographer who did Ong-Bak.

Tags: 2008,films

Documentaries

I'm a bit behind on postings so far for this year, but the festival has released descriptions of the 26 documentaries that will be screened. The list can be found here:

http://www.tiff08.ca/press/pressreleases/default.aspx?newsId=572

Sports, politics, music, the environment, and fashion are all represented in the selected films. Some of the ones that piqued my interest include:

The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World, from China, about a 5000-seat restaurant that provides a look at the face of modern China. Probably a good follow up after watching the Olympics this year.

Food, Inc, from the US, about how big business has affected what we eat.

It Might Get Loud, from the US, about the electric guitar, featuring Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White.

The Real Shaolin, a Chinese/US co-production, about students studying martial arts at the Shaolin temple in China.

Yes Madam, Sir, an Australian/Indian co-production, about the first woman police office in India.

Larry Charles' and Bill Maher's new film, Religulous, will also be shown at the festival. Both were at last year's festival discussing the film and showing clips. True to Maher's irreverant style, the film will likely be a challenging look at organized religion. Details from that panel can be found here:

http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/religulous.html

Tags: 2008,films

Ticket Packages

As mentioned in the previous post, you can now buy packages for the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival online at http://www.tiff08.ca/, by phone at (416) 968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM, or at the Festival Box Office at the Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor St W, Toronto, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Monday - Saturday. Until July 14, you can only pay by Visa, regardless of how you order. From July 14 on, you can pay by Visa, cash, or debit card.

You don't have to buy a package now to attend the festival. You can also buy individual tickets at a premium starting August 23, or for regular prices starting September 3. Packages allow you access to multiple films pre-selected by the festival, or they allow you to participate in the advanced lottery process whereby you can select films before they go on sale to the general public.

A summary of the packages is below. See the festival site for complete details. Fees below are in Canadian dollars and do not include tax, building fund fee, or service charges.

Some things to note:

• The 1o-ticket Package is back!
• But unfortunately, you now have to buy a separate Premium ticket package to see Visa Screening Room films. Note that both Visa Screening Room packages sold out the first day, so possibly the only way to see these films now is to buy individual tickets when they go on sale to the general public.
• A new student day pass is available.
• If you do not live in Toronto and want to buy a regular package and participate in the advanced ticket lottery, you should purchase the out-of-town service along with a regular package. But this is only available until August 21.

Regular Packages

Festival Package
$509 ($431 for students and seniors)
See up to 50 films (one ticket per film).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Can participate in the advanced lottery.

Festival Lite Package
$375 (no discount for students and seniors)
See up to 30 films (one ticket per film).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Can participate in the advanced lottery.

Daytime Package
$196 ($157.50 for students and seniors)
See up to 25 films (one ticket per film, each must start before 5:01 PM).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Can participate in the advanced lottery.

Daytime Lite Package
$135 (no discount for students and seniors)
See up to 15 films (one ticket per film, each must start before 5:01 PM).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Can participate in the advanced lottery.
This package is currently sold out.

10-Ticket Package
$154.50 (no discount for students and seniors)
See up to 10 films (four tickets per film).
Cannot see Roy Thomson Hall galas or Visa Screening Room films.
Can participate in the advanced lottery.

Family Package
$76.72
2 adult and 2 children's tickets to 2 out of the 4 films in the Sprockets programme.
Can participate in the advanced lottery.

Programme Book
$32 (no discount for students or seniors)
This book lists all the films at the festival with descriptions and colour photos.
Makes a nice souvenir.
Not required for the advanced lottery, but may make it easier to select your films.

Out-of-Town Ticket Selection Services
$150 (no discount for students or seniors)
Must be selected in conjunction with the Festival, Festival Lite, Daytime, Daytime Lite, or 10-ticket Packages.
For those patrons who do not live in Toronto but want to participate in the advanced lottery.
Includes a Programme Book.
Only available until Thursday, August 21, 2008.

Programme Book Courier Service
$100 (no discount for students or seniors)
Includes a Programme Book.
Does not allow you to participate in the advanced lottery unless you buy another package, but then you would likely purchase the Out-of-Town Ticket Selection Services instead.


Specialty Packages

Festival Experience Package
$63.42 daytime, $68.54 weekends/evenings (no discount for students and seniors)
3 films are pre-selected for you.
For the daytime package, films are guaranteed to start between 8:30 AM and 5:01 PM.
For the weekend/evening package, films are guaranteed to start after 5:30 PM on weekdays or anytime on the weekend.
No substitutions or exchanges of films allowed.
Cannot participate in the advanced lottery.

Globetrotter Package
$99.23 daytime, $112.53 weekends/evenings (no discounts for students and seniors)
6 films are pre-selected for you.
For the daytime package, films are guaranteed to start between 8:30 AM and 5:01 PM.
For the weekend/evening package, films are guaranteed to start after 5:30 PM on weekdays or anytime on the weekend.
No substitutions or exchanges of films allowed.
Cannot participate in the advanced lottery.

Wavelengths Package
$66.49 (no discounts for students and seniors)
1 ticket to each of the 6 Wavelengths screenings.
Cannot participate in the advanced lottery.

Midnight Madness Package
$156.51 ($100 for students and seniors)
1 ticket to each Midnight Madness screening.
Cannot participate in the advanced lottery.

TIFF Student Card
$19.29 for one day
Can see multiple films on a given day from the first screening to 11:59 PM.
When purchasing, must select the date for the student card.
Must have valid student ID.
Films are selected the morning of the day selected.
Cannot participate in the advanced lottery.


Premium Packages

Visa Screening Room Package
$350 (no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to each of the Visa Screening room films from September 5 to 12.
Available for either 6:00 PM or 9:00 PM showings.
Cannot participate in the advanced lottery.
Both the 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM packages are sold out.

Closing Night Gala
$175 (no discount for students and seniors)
1 ticket to the closing night gala at Roy Thomson Hall.
Invitation to an exclusive pre-screening cocktail party.
Cannot participate in the advanced lottery.

Tags: 2008,tickets

TIFF 08 Packages On Sale Now

Packages for the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival went on sale this morning, for Visa card holders. You can buy packages if you want to participate in the advanced ordering process, where you pick films before the festival starts. If you just want to buy individual tickets to films, you have to wait until September to do so. If you want to buy packages by cash or debit, you can do so starting July 14. Note that the fesitval doesn't accept any other credit cards except Visa.

To purchase tickets online with a Visa card, go to the festival site at http://www.tiff08.ca/ and click the Buy Tickets link at the top-right of the page.

Subsequent postings will describe the packages in more detail, but some interesting things to note for this year:

• The 10-pack of tickets is back this year.


• The 30-pack has been renamed to the Festival Lite Package.


• There are a number of student packages that allow you to see multiple films during a single day, all for the price of $19.95, with valid student ID.


• Many of the packages, including the 10-pack and the Festival Lite package will not allow you to select films at the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin as well as the galas at Roy Thomson Hall.

This last point is new and I imagine it will generate a lot of negative feedback. Previously, package holders could select films at the Visa Screening Room. Last year I saw about two films there, including The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The big change last year was that they put individual tickets for the Visa screening room on sale early, but package holders could still buy Visa tickets. But this year they've cut that out.

There are separate passes for the Visa Screening Room, but they are currently sold out.

Tags: 2008,tickets

2008 Opening Night Gala

The festival announced Tuesday that Paul Gross' film Passchendaele, about the World War I battle in which Canadians participated, will be the opening night gala for the 2008 festival. Gross (Due South, Slings and Arrows) has been at the festival before, starring in Wilby Wonderful. This is Gross' second directorial effort, after 2002's Men With Brooms.

Press release can be found here:
http://www.tiffg.ca/mediacentre/viewrelease.aspx?recordId=545

Tags: 2008,films

2007 Festival Wrap-up

Well, another festival done for the year. I was down a bit from last year; I saw 26 films or discussions, totalling 43 hours, 26 minutes.

Things that worked well:

• The festival trailers were all short and to the point again this year, which was much appreciated, although I can't that Feist tune out of my head that they used for the Bell Lightbox spot (not that that is a bad thing - I'm actually going to miss it the next time I see a movie). The Cadillac People's Choice Awards were funny, although there probably weren't enough of them to not seem repetitious by the end of the 10 days (can anyone say 'Death Shark', 'dance fight', or 'two men, one horse'?).
• The volunteers did a great job yet again, despite at least one industry or press wag not appreciating their efforts: http://www.blogto.com/film/2007/09/tiff_today_september_15_2007/. Believe me, the regular film-going public certainly appreciates the work the volunteers put in every year.
• The VISA Screening Room lounge was nice again this year, especially with the addition of the freshly-made Lindt chocolates.
• I thought the online box office worked slightly better than last year, in that I didn't get any cryptic error messages or timeouts (at least most of the time).

Things that could be improved:

• There were times, especially at the start of the festival, when the main festival website and the box office site were extremely slow to respond.
• There seemed to be a major shipping problem with the out-of-town packages, more so than normal. If they don't already, the festival should get someone from FedEx to help them ensure their shipping goes smoothly, because it sounds like part of the problem this year may have been bad data entry.
• VISA Screening Room tickets went on sale early this year with the Gala tickets. According to the festival, there are supposed to be separate sets of seats for these individual sales vs. those for the advanced ticketing. Nevertheless, I wonder if there was still an impact on the amount of tickets available for pass and ticket book holders compared to previous years.
• While the early VISA Screening Room ticket sales have opened up those films to more people, a lot of the die hard festival goers seem to view this more as a money grab for the festival by letting them charge higher rates for the tickets. I did find out that if you bought a VISA Screening Room pass (but not for individual tickets), you actually got preferred seating in the balcony (except for one night at least, when Bell took up a lot of the seats in the middle of the balcony for their people and clients).
• A lot of regulars expressed disappointment at the elimination of the 30-film ticket book.
• The festival moved some of the Wavelengths programs to the Varsity 7, which only has 138 seats. More than a few people reported not being able to get tickets this year, which was a big disappointment to them.
• Those industry people and others who insist on using their Blackberries during a film. There's one volunteer who is quite aggressive about getting people to turn off their phones and PDAs when she catches them being using during a film; maybe they should do that more.

Other notes:

• Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Funny at first, overdone in the middle, and funny again by the end of the festival. If you don't know what I'm talking about, everyone was making noises like a pirate by the end of the week, every time the warning about not taping the screen came up or the festival personnel mentioned night-vision goggles in the intro. Director Garth Jennings (Son of Rambow) thought that was extremely funny.
• Interestingly, a lot of people mentioned they specifically avoided seeing The Stone Angel because they had to study it in English class for school. I'd have to add myself to that crowd.

Overall, I had a pretty smooth festival experience this year. Of the 26 films or discussions I attended this year, below are my favourites. Note these are only from the things I actually saw; there were a lot of other really good films at the festival this year judging by some of the conversations I had in line with others:

• Favourite film: Jason Reitman's Juno. The writing was great, funny, and witty, and the cast was uniformly good, especially Ellen Page who wowed in a number of festival films this year.
• Funniest film: Tie between Juno and Garth Jenning's Son of Rambow, with Rolf de Heer's Dr. Plonk not far behind. My friend recommends Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl.
• Best dramatic film: probably a toss-up between Julian Schnabel's Le Scaphandre et le papillon and Ken Loach's It's a Free World.
• Best documentary: Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World. My friend recommends Amir Bar-Lev's My Kid Could Paint That.
• Best Canadian film: Martin Gero's Young People Fucking.
• Best action film: Wilson Yip's Flash Point.
• "WTF?!" Award: Christian Frosch's Silent Resident, although the last half of Takeshi Kitano's Glory to the Filmmaker! isn't far behind (although I really enjoyed the film).
• Green Award for the film that saved the most trees by having the least amount of dialogue: Dans la ville de Sylvia (José Luis Guerín), with honourable mention to Dr. Plonk (Rolf de Heer) and Le Voyage du ballon rouge (Hou Hsiao-hsien).
• Best film involving an older man seducing a much younger woman: Andrew Wagner's Starting Out in the Evening.
• Screening with the most celebrity wattage: probably a slight nod to Juno (Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, and bonus points for Ben Affleck in the audience) over Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann's Bill (Aaron Eckhart, Timothy Olyphant, Kristen Wiig, Elizabeth Banks, and most of all Jessica Alba).
• Films that I want to see when they are released: Shake Hands with the Devil, Eastern Promises, Atonement, and Lars and the Real Girl.

I have a lot more reviews and Q&A notes to post up in the next few days before I close off this year's festival coverage, including: Dr. Plonk, Reclaim Your Brain, Jar City, A Gentle Breeze in the Village, Flash Point, Chacun son cinema, Chrysalis, La Fille coupee en deux, Son of Rambow, and Sukiyaki Western Django. Hopefully people found the blog useful this year, and I hope to be back again next year with more ticketing tips, reviews, and Q&A's. Thanks for reading!

Tags: 2007,wrapup

TIFF Awards

While the festival does not have films in a juried competition like Cannes, awards are given out in a few different areas:

• Best Canadian Short Film: Chris Chong Chan Fui's Pool.
• Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film: Stéphane Lafleur's Continental, un film sans fusil.
• Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg.
• DIESEL Discovery Award, voted on by the festival press corps: Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán's Cochochi.
• Artistic Innovation Award, for a film in the Visions program: Anahí Berneri's Encarnacion.
• Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize): Rodrigo Plá's La Zona.
• Cadillac People's Choice Award, voted on by festival goers: David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (which is now out in theatres). The first runner-up is Jason Reitman's Juno (an excellent film that I saw this year) and the second runner up is Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War.

Full details can be found in this press release:

http://www.tiffg.ca/content/mediacentre/viewrelease.asp?recordId=504

Tags: 2007,wrapup

Déficit

The directorial debut of Gael García Bernal, Déficit is centered around a party being held at the country home of Bernal's character Cristobal. Cristobal is outwardly happy, but struggles with the weight of parental expectations and relationships, and now has to deal with his sister (Camila Sodi) and her friends, who have showed up at the house on the same day. When Cristobal's friends arrive, they have in tow Dolores (Luz Cipriota), an Argentinian who captivates Cristobal, despite the fact that his girlfriend Mafer is on her way to the house. Cristobal also has a rival for Dolores' attention in the form of the gardener Adán, who grew up with Cristobal. As the party runs into the night, fuelled by alcohol and more, Cristobal will eventually reach a breaking point.

This was a good freshman directing effort, but wonder if it might have been a bit more effective if Bernal wasn't also in the starring role. Still, it probably worked better than many other self-directing efforts.

The story could have been a bit stronger. Perhaps because of the short length, there wasn't much opportunity to develop more of the characters, or to develop the main characters a bit more deeply. I did like Luz Cipriota; she came across as very natural and relaxed. The film did do a good job with its undercurrents of class and racial divisions (very Upstairs, Downstairs).

Director/star Gael García Bernal, screenwriter Kyzza Terrazas, and actors Camila Sodi, Luz Cipriota, and Tenoch Huerta Mejía were in attendance for a Q&A:

• It took 5-and-a-half weeks to shoot the film.
• Déficit was originally just a working title that Terrazas came up with, but as they went they found meanings for the title. Among other things, it is a word his generation has grown up with (like deficit, crisis, devaluation, democracy, impunity).
• And every character in the film lacks something; they are all orphans in a way. They want to find closeness in some way - it's a new beginning for everyone. They all lack a sense of being comfortable with the place they live in. They don't know their place in the world yet. As well, deficit is a word the rest of the world understands.
• There is an Ontario license plate on Tenoch Huerta Mejía's truck in the film because Canada has an immigrant working program which is different than what the US has.
• The town in the film is south of Mexico City. There is a wall of mountains surrounding the town, so whatever you do (clap or fart) there's a lot of resonance.
• The sound of fireworks going off in the background just happened, they are not part of the film. It's reality, and sometimes reality draws beautiful metaphors.
• On Bernal's character's relationships with women in the film, Terrazas talked about an age at which women are just something guys play around with. He didn't feel in the film like it was a macho or gender thing. This character thinks that on one level he controls the world and everything around him, not just women, but the servants, the country, the economy.
• Bernal said that the script offered a strong base to play around with. Since the events in the film occur over one day, a lot of things happen simultaneously, and you get a lot of things happening in the background you have to invent a story around.
• One of the actresses (I think Camila Sodi) said that the film was pretty much based on the script (i.e. not widely improvised); Bernal as a director gave them a lot of freedom, so they did improvise a bit around what was written, which might have helped with the natural feel.
• Bernal talked about the huge challenges working on the film, finding himself working against himself. You have to act like you know what you're doing; you know what you want to reach but not how, but you have to act like you do.
• It was quite frustrating sometimes because he couldn't get upset or anxious because he had to go act himself. He had to be chilled out. It's the month he's slept the least.
• Mejía said that when an actor who is a director is directing another actor, there's a special relationship built because they understand each other and it makes the actor feel more comfortable because he knows the director understands what he's going through. He guides you but gives you room to explore.
• On if more directing is in his future, Bernal said that practically, directing will take time away from plays and films but he thinks it is the start of a sweet revenge.
• They did the movie in a simple and organic way; in economic terms, it would be like organic produce. They did it from the beginning to the end with their resources and a lot of passion and effort and the result is what they wanted, and they learned a lot. They want to challenge themselves with this learning. As some one once said, you first film only helps your second. But he doesn't want a career as a director, he still wants to be an actor.
• The story was a bit accidental. At the beginning, they wanted to make a TV series that would serve as a platform to make stories set in different states in Mexico with cinematic rigor. But the only way to do Déficit was to convert it into a film. There were practical reasons, but the ball was already rolling. They found the story to tell, and there comes a point where you know where to go on whatever path they encountered.
• The film was shot on video.

Tags: 2007,films

Dans la ville de Sylvia (En la ciudad de Sylvia)

José Luis Guerín’s Dans la ville de Sylvia finds Xavier Lafitte's unnamed artist returning to Strasbourg and searching for a girl he met six years ago. He sits in a cafe, observing and sketching the women around him until he spies one that looks like the girl he knew (Pilar López de Ayala), and then we're off on a walking tour of the beautiful city as he follows her around.

This is a very quiet, observation film, spare with its dialogue (there's perhaps one scene in the film with any amount of talking). You feel very much like you are people-watching on the street, watching the protagonist watch others. The main scene in the cafe is especially captivating, playing with perspective and reflections. The soundtrack is provided by the natural sounds of the city; buskers playing in the background, shoes clapping against the street, car radios fading in and out as they pass by, and the trolley rolling on its tracks. And the camera continues to linger on a scene long after the characters have passed through the shot, giving you a feel of a living, vibrant city.

The film reminds me a lot of Ana and the Others (Ana y los otros) or Café Lumière in its feel and style.

Actor Xavier Lafitte was present and did a Q&A after the film:

• At the end of the audition, José Luis Guerín asked Lafitte if there was anything else he wanted to add so they could get to know each other better. Lafitte has drawn since he was young, so he told Guerín that. Guerín gave him a pen and a page from his notebook, and asked Lafitte to sketch the casting director. She sat close to Lafitte and Guerín filmed them. Four days later he had to the part, and ten days later they started shooting.
• The screenplay was about 60 pages. After each sequence there was a time written on the bottom of the page; e.g. this sequence must be two minutes.
• Guerín liked to give the actors a frame with some tension in it. He knows what he wants, but also wants to let the actors be free. If the light was wrong or there was too much noise in the background, Guerín would yell cut and have them do it again.
• The frame was precise like in the screenplay, and then the actors can go into the frame or the written pages, and then the film is brought to life.
• The film was shot in Strasbourg in the eastern part of France. They shot mostly in the central part of the city, which is very old.
• Lafitte said it wasn't hard not having to speak in most of the movie. He's French, and in French film they talk a lot. They rehearsed one week before shooting, and he practiced with Pilar López de Ayala the one scene with dialogue, and by the end of the week they were completely bored with the scene.
• The first two days of shooting was for the train sequence.
• For the rest of the film, Lafitte just had to focus on his character, which he envisioned to be a writer, a poet, and an artist.
• Lafitte doesn't know if Guerín would agree with him, but in Lafitte's mind the plot is about getting inside the creative process of an artist. For example, in the first shot of the film, he is very focused on what he wants to write, and that is why he takes a long time to find the right words.
• It's like a documentary about an artist whose main work is to study people in the street; in the world we are all alive, and the artist must show it in his way.
• The sketches in the notebook in the film are not Lafitte's; he has a more precise style. A Spanish artist did the sketches, but they can't find the notebook now.
• Guerín loves France and spent a lot of time in Strasbourg, so it was important for him to set the story there. He built the story with writers like Dostoevsky and Goethe in mind; Goethe wrote a lot in Strasbourg.
• For most sequences, the people in the background are extras; there are very few scenes where they did a wide shot. Some actresses return in later scenese, and that is intentional.
• Lafitte just did a short film in July for Channel 4 in England.

Tags: 2007,films

Bell Lightbox Trailer

In case you've been wondering what music they've been using in the Bell Lightbox trailers before the films, it hit me today in Indigo when I was listening to the music they were playing over the intercom; it's I Feel It All by Feist, off her album The Reminder.

http://www.amazon.com/Reminder-Feist/dp/B000NPE7YC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9080102-9540667?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1189662611&sr=8-1

Tags: 2007,festival

Encounters at the End of the World

His first documentary since 2005's Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World finds the filmmaker at McMurdo Station at the South Pole. Part nature film (but in Herzog's own words, not just another film about fluffy penguins), part character study, Herzog talks to the workers and scientists who have made their way to the pole, in between stunning shots of both land and sea.

Herzog captures on film the beauty and diversity of this isolated land, especially in the footage shot under the ice by his friend Henry Kaiser (who also did work on Herzog's Wild Blue Yonder). Then Herzog goes beyond the natural and looks at what type of person moves to the ends of the earth. There's the former Colorado banker who now drives the base's bus. There's the mechanic, who freed from years behind the Iron Curtain, always keeps a bag packed, ready to travel to the next adventure on a moment's notice. There are many more stories of these people, who in the words of one of them, have drifted to the bottom of the world because they've lacked and ties to hold them in place elsewhere.

Entertaining, educational, and visually stunning, Encounters at the End of the World is a different look at one of the last frontiers on earth.

Herzog had left the festival by this showing, but executive producer Julian Hobbs of Discovery Films answered questions:

• Some of the footage used in Wild Blue Yonder is the same imagery that he used in this film. The link between the two films is Henry Kaiser, who is an underwater photographer. Kaiser is also a musician and worked on the Grizzly Man soundtrack. While they were working on that, Kaiser showed him some underwater footage, and shortly thereafter they made Wild Blue Yonder.
• Herzog wasn't allowed to go underwater; Kaiser did all the filming.
• Herzog was invited down to Antarctica as a poet artist-in-residence by the US National Science Foundation. He spent about a week of training, and then six weeks filming. The crew consisted of just Herzog doing his own sound, plus his longtime cinematographer (Peter Zeitlinger).
• On the music in the film, Hobbs mentioned that Herzog has pretty wide-ranging tastes. Some of the music is original, others are Russian Orthodox chants, and his wife is Russian, so that might be an answer, although Hobbs said really that is a question Herzog would have to answer.
• There was no set itinerary; Herzog had full access to all the facilities connected to the US scientific community down there.
• On working with Herzog, Hobbs said that Herzog is the most unassuming, charming, fascinating, polite, easy-to-work-with person, despite his reputation to the contrary. Discovery Films gives him a lot of free range on his projects with them, because they are not there to push a Hollywood agenda on him.
• It took about 6 months to prep and do pre-production, and editing took about 10 weeks.
• This is the first movie Herzog has shot on video. Hobbs figures the ratio of footage he used was around 8:1. Most of the scientists he interviewed made it onto film, but Hobbs speculated that Herzog picked those who fit the editorial that he wanted.

Tags: 2007,films

It's a Free World

Director Ken Loach, who was at the festival last year with The Wind That Shakes the Barley, has returned with It's a Free World, a look at the underground market for immigrant and illegal workers in Britain. At the centre of this story is Angie (played by Kierston Wareing), a single mother who, fed up with working for others and sacked from her latest job, sets out to establish her own employment agency with her friend Rose.

Angie, whose constantly grandiose dreams often fall by the wayside, including to some extent her own son, struggles to establish herself. Along the way, her challenges start forcing her to make compromises between her sympathy for the workers and her own problems and ambitions. The film gives a rather bleak look at the hardships faced by those searching for a new and better life in another country, only to find a system more than ready to take advantage of them at every turn.

Wareing, in her first feature film (her previous credits include an episode of the UK mystery series Wire in the Blood), gives a strong, natural performance as Angie. The film is pretty much hers to carry as it is mainly Angie's story on offer. You can see Angie's descent as she becomes more and more willing to skirt and bend the rules, making little concessions until she finds herself miles away from where she started. It's kind of a heartbreaking film to watch, and may make you think about the price you pay (and not in a monetary sense) for cheap products.

Kierston Wareing did a Q&A after the film:

• Wareing was about to give up acting after a 10-year struggle. She was studying to be a legal secretary and had two months left in her course when she got a call from her agent saying Ken Loach wanted to meet her. She auditioned between May and August and finally got the part.
• The film was shot in east London, Poland, and Ukraine. They shot in Poland and Ukraine even though it was not necessary (you can't tell from the shots), which kept it as real as possible.
• Wareing said that it was incredible to work with Loach because he's such a genius, and is a nice man, very down-to-earth. He can related to virtually anyone, from young to old. He directs very easily; everything is black and white. He has a fantastic sense of humour, so they had a ball on the set.
• She didn't have much of a chance to interact with anyone outside of the context of the film, since she was so busy, being in virtually every shot of the movie.
• Wareing definitely doesn't agree with Angie's actions in the film; she hopes that people in this business take a second thought about what they are doing.
• Despite the natural tone of the movie and dialogue, very little was ad-libbed. It was about 90% scripted.
• Wareing got portions of the script every day; she didn't know what was going to happy to Angie at the end of the movie. She received her first cut of the script when she was flying to Poland on the first day of the film; Loach handed her the pages and told her to read them for tomorrow. On the first shooting day, she was in an assembly hall for supporting artists, and she felt overwhelmed. But she's glad Loach threw her into the deep end as it made everything else easier.
• When she got the part, Loach just told her to get her motorcycle license (and she hates motor bikes). Then, he told her she was going to set up her own business, and that she had a son (she doesn't have any children in real life). She asked for the script, but he said no and told her not to worry about it.
• Wareing said that apparently Loach works this way on all his films.
• On an average scene, Loach likes to get two good takes. A lot of the scenes are cut into short parts.

Possible minor spoliers below:

• Wareing likes to think that if the movie continued on past the end, Angie would stay on the same course and just get more ruthless.
• For the scene where she's attacked in her house, when she first read the script, her only line was 'Jamie, where are you?' She asked if that was really her only line, and thought it might be an easy day of shooting. She said her line, and then got jumped on by the men. They had been rehearsing with the stunt coordinator all day, but she didn't know that. She apparently collapsed in the first shot of the scene, which Loach loved, but Wareing said she didn't even remember doing that.

Tags: 2007,films

Le Scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Le Scaphandre et le papillon is based on the real life of Jean-Dominique Bauby, an editor of Elle, who became the victim of a condition known as 'locked-in syndrome' after suffering a massive stroke. Bauby, played by Mathieu Amalric (probably most familiar in the west as Louis the arms dealer in Munich), is trapped within his body (much like within the titular Diving Bell), his mind active but unable to move anything but his left eye and eyelid. With the help of one of his therapists, Henriette (played by Canadian Marie-Josée Croze), Bauby learns to communicate through blinking. At first dismayed, even suicidal, over his predicament, Bauby soon comes to accept his fate, and through a translator, Claude (Anne Consigny), dictates out his life and experiences.

Warmly received at Cannes, where director Julian Schnabel won the best director prize, the movie was very powerful, and Amalric showed Bauby's frustration and eventual acceptance despite being restricted to moving a single eye. Initially, the film takes place from the perspective of Bauby, communicating his disorientation and isolation. As he opens up and accepts his fate, the camera is free to move in the third-person perspective and even flashback as Bauby recalls parts of the past.

Director Julian Schnabel, Emmanuelle Seigner (who plays the mother of Bauby's children), Marie-Josée Croze, and Olatz Lopez Garmendia (who plays Bauby's physiotherapist) were in attendance. Schnabel started with a few words to introduce the film, but there was no Q&A, as it typical of films shown in the Elgin.

Tags: 2007,films

Vexille

It is the late 21st century, and no foreigner has set foot in Japan in a decade. Shielded from the eyes of the outside world by an electromagnetic shield, no one has any idea what has happened in the country since it withdrew from the UN because of international condemnation of Japan's melding of robotics and bio-technology. Japan's only remaining link to the global community is through the robots it exports from mega-corporation Daiwa Heavy Industries.

Tipped off to a mysterious meeting organized by Daiwa, a special forces unit named SWORD soon discovers a plot that may threaten the rest of humanity. Now, SWORD must penetrate the veil of secrecy surrounding Japan, and figure out what the country has done and planned in those missing years.

From director Sori, who was visual effects director for the 2004 version of Appleseed, with a soundtrack by Paul Oakenfold, Vexille is a stylish, visually appealing blend of anime and CGI. With some elements of Philip K. Dick, an intriguing near-future universe is created for the story, which provides a foundation for this look at what it means to be human.

The film isn't perfect, though: parts of the ending would seem to belong more to a James Bond movie, there could be a bit more depth to the story and characters, and the animation could be a bit more convincing in some of the emotive scenes. Still, Vexille is an exciting ride that at least takes some time to ask bigger questions.

Tags: 2007,films

Additional Photos

I added pictures to the entries for the Bill Q&A (Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Wiig, and Jessica Alba) and the Religulous Mavericks discussion (Bill Maher and Larry Charles).

Tags: 2007,films

Lars and the Real Girl

I didn't attend the screening of Lars and the Real Girl, but my friend did, and he took some shots of the Q&A:

Patricia Clarkson, Kelli Carner, Paul Schneider, Emily Mortimer, and Ryan Gosling:


Patricia Clarkson, Kelli Carner, Paul Schneider, Emily Mortimer, and Ryan Gosling:

Tags: 2007,films

TIFF Photos

If you want to see some great photos from TIFF, check out this photo blog from local photographer Sam Javanrouh:

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/

His shots of the madness of the crowd waiting for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to show up for the screening of The Assassination of Jesse James are interesting:

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/07/09/10/

Tags: 2007

Trumbo

Trumbo is a documentary about the life of Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter and novelist who was part of the Hollywood Ten. The Ten were a group of screenwriters, directors, producers, and composers who were brought before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the late 1940's to testify about their ties to the Communist party. When they refused to testify, claiming their rights under the First Amendment (freedom of speech), they were cited for contempt of Congress and sent to jail. As a result, the Ten and many others were blacklisted by the entertainment industry.

Trumbo the film is based on play written by Trumbo's son Christopher. It talks about Trumbo's life during the blacklisting (which lasted well into the 60's), and is punctuated by a number of actors giving readings from Trumbo's voluminous and witty correspondence. David Strathairn, Liam Neeson, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Brian Dennehy, Nathan Lane, Joan Allen, Josh Lucas, and Donald Sutherland all powerfully bring to life Trumbo's own words.

The film looks at the politics of the time but also looks at the impact on Trumbo's family. The financial hardships they faced, and the persecution his children encountered at school because of their father's stance. Interviews with people who worked with Trumbo also shed light on the man; Donald Sutherland worked with Trumbo on the film adaptation of Trumbo's novel Johnny Got His Gun (1971); Dustin Hoffman worked with Trumbo on Papillon (1973); and Kirk Douglas talked about how one of the things he is most proud of in his life was putting Trumbo's name on screen as the writer of Spartacus, which, with his on-screen credit for Exodus in that same year, effectively ended the blacklist for Trumbo (but it would continue for others).

Trumbo is a very interesting and captivating documentary, with relevance today to those who would have their debate silenced in the name of patriotism.

Director Peter Askin, Trumbo's son Christopher, and one of Trumbo's daughters, Mitzi, along with Donald Sutherland did a Q&A after the film:

• Sutherland talked on how he loved working with Trumbo, if only for a couple of days on Johnny Got His Gun. He actually read the last four pages of the book to troops in the US and south-east Asia (although not in Vietnam), in between working on the film and when the film was finished. Sutherland went back and told Trumbo that he really needed to put those last pages in the film. Ron Kovic apparently said that those last 5 pages were responsible for his writing Born on the Fourth of July.
• Sutherland also mentioned how he had hired Mark Lane and Donald Freed to do a script for the movie Executive Action, about the Kennedy assassination, and Trumbo came on board to finalize the script.
• One older gentleman made a comment implying that the US government of the time was justified in its actions persecuting its own citizens in the entertainment industry because of the actions and atrocities of the Soviet Union at the time, and that the government was justified to be worried about these screenwriters spreading communist propaganda, with which Sutherland vehemently disagreed.
• On the actors who did the readings in the film; Askin talked about how Sutherland was well aware of Trumbo and his works, Michael Douglas knew Trumbo as a young man, and some had acted in the play on which the film is based (Nathan Lane, Brian Dennehy).
• When asked if there were ever any apologies, Christopher Trumbo talked about how all of the guilds made a response (screenwriter, directors, actors, and extras), apologizing for not standing stronger in 1947 and 1951 and 1953, because they might have been able to stop the blacklist in its tracks had they had the courage to do something.
• Someone asked about the family's reaction to Elia Kazan's honorary Oscar in 1999. Askin talked about the divided reaction that night to the award, acknowledge that Kazan was a great artists, but that he did what he did; he's not sure if he would've stood or not had he been there that night.
• Christopher Trumbo talked about how it is a complicated question. He mentioned how the board of governors of the Academy voted to give Kazan the award (even though he already had 2 Oscars), but that only a day or two later some of the board members began to have second thoughts. Later on, there was a lot of commentary across the country as to whether the award was appropriate. They were protests outside the ceremony, but Christopher Trumbo did not attend. He is actually friends with Nick Kazan, Elia's son, and Trumbo did not want to be put in the position of his children seeing a friend of theirs protesting in this way - his own experiences are what led him to take that action.
• He wrote an article for the LA Free Press expressing what he thought was the difficulty with the whole process. In his mind, it came down to the people who would applaud this award would be the members of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, that it was their victory. Sutherland added that people should listen to one of Dalton Trumbo's comments, about those who inform upon their friends, and do you want to be associated with those type of people at the end of the day.
• Someone asked if the Trumbo children have a lot of painful memories of that time. Christopher Trumbo talked about how he never was afraid because his parents never communicated fear to him. He never felt that his parents hid anything from him. He felt he had a normal childhood that was just different than others.
• Sutherland further added an anecdote about being at the University of Toronto in 1953, as a freshman at South House at Victoria College, and on Halloween night burning Joseph McCarthy in effigy. They were all disguised under sheets, and they were photographed by Time magazine, which had inflated their numbers from 15 to 1500 raging students. Sutherland's mother in Nova Scotia phoned him and said she recognized his ears in the photo.
• Someone asked about Trumbo's wife Cleo and the other Trumbo daughter, neither of whom appeared in the film. Christopher said both are fine, his mother is 91, and his older sister is a psychotherapist in Seattle. She decided she didn't want to participate; Christopher had originally told Askin that he thought his older sister would want to participate but that his younger sister wouldn't, and it turned out the reverse was true. His mother had appeared in one documentary before, but she regretted it to such an extent she refused to do anything like that since.

Tags: 2007,films

Everything to Gain: A Conversation with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

Everything to Gain: A Conversation with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter was a discussion to help support the Jonathan Demme documentary Man From Plains, and to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Carter Center. Allan Gregg, host of Allan Gregg in Conversation With… on TVOntario interviewed on stage former president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter. The discussion will appear on Gregg's show at a later date.

This discussion was an interesting contrast to the previous day's Mavericks session with Bill Maher and Larry Charles. While Maher and Carter are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to faith and religion, they seem to end up in the same place on many issues (political and spiritual).

Below is a summary of what was discussed in the session. Note that these are not all exact quotes, and that in some cases I've paraphrased and summarized what was said:

• The impetus for doing the film Man From Plains was Jeff Skoll, former president eBay and now CEO of Participant Productions (the company behind An Inconvenient Truth, Syriana, and Good Night and Good Luck). Skoll had always wanted to do a film on Carter, and Carter said he would do it if Skoll could get the best director in the world; Skoll came up with Jonathan Demme.
• Rosalynn Carter said she wasn't crazy about all the cameras following their every move. Demme was using very small cameras so he was able to get very close up, and Rosalynn Carter said partially in jest that she dreaded seeing the film because of that. The Carters have seen an early version of the film, and thought it was great, although they had hoped to get more of the Carter Center in it. They had mentioned that to Demme, so they were hopeful the final cut would have more of the Center.
• Jimmy Carter said that he hoped people would get an insight into the things they've done since leaving the White House, and he considered it to be a bit of a bio of his adult life.
• On the topic of his most recent book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, he hopes it will help to precipitate more peace. He considers it to be one of the most important political issues in the world, and is frustrated over the lack of peace talks in the last seven years. He hopes discussion can encourage countries in the region, the UN, the EU, and the US to more aggressively pursue peace.
• The Carters first travelled to Palestine in 1972, and have been back to the region 3 times since to help monitor elections (when Arafat was elected, then Abbas, and more recent parliamentary elections). This is one of the things the Carter Centre does a lot of, and one of its conditions is unfettered access. He said he was dismayed over Israeli incursion on Palestinian rights, but also said he recognizes and supports need for Israeli security and peace. He thinks the way Palestinians are treated is counter-productive to those goals, and would like to see good-faith talks between the two sides.
• On the issue of the current Israeli security fence, Carter talked about how a wall was first proposed by Yitzhak Rabin to be built along 1967 borders. After Rabin's assassination, his successors ended up building the wall within Palestine. The International Court of Justice, as does Carter, agreed with the boundaries of the first proposed wall, but not the current one.
• On the Camp David Accords that led to the peace between Egypt and Israel, Carter talked on the 13 days of intense negotiations to get an agreement. Rosalynn Carter talked about how she was in a room next to the negotiations and could hear people shouting at one another after the first day; after that ,President Carter had to shuttle back and forth between the parties as they wouldn't meet face-to-face. In the end, President Carter gave Begin signed photos for each of Begin's grandchildren, which Rosalynn carter thought was one of the factors that drove him to sign an agreement - he wanted peace for his grandchildren.
• On the lack of any progress in recent years, Jimmy Carter talked about the current administration not trying, and the Clinton administration putting forward proposals in its last months, but nothing that would be acceptable to either side. With the current International Quartet, Carter feels that with the US dominance in that group, the country needs to take a leading role. Palestinians are now in a more desperate situation.
• When asked about what would be the key to breaking this deadlock, Jimmy Carter talked about getting an agreement based on the formulas laid out in the 2003 Geneva Accord. He also talked about how most Arab nations would explicitly recognize Israel's right to exist if it returned to its 1967 borders.
• He does not consider the Palestinian situation to be directly linked to the war in Iraq, but the current animosity towards the US and the recruitment of extremists are linked to the inability to deal with the Palestinian issue. Carter feels that there could be an end to the war in Iraq if the US had the support of other Arab nations, which it has lost.
• When asked if people should be worried about the potential for the US to next target Iran, Jimmy Carter said that people should be concerned, and that he believes that there is a need to open communication. He talked about how he opened up a dialog with the revolutionary government in Iran after the overthrow of the Shah. He feels that the current administration's position is that if a country doesn't agree 100% with the US in advance, then the US won't deal with that country.
• He feels that there is danger in alienating Iran; the country is currently a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but that a threat of invasion only encourages them to pursue nuclear weapons.
• Rosalynn Carter talked about one advantage of being a former First Lady is that she can call on nearly an expert in the world for help with their causes. Her own passion is mental health, since her husband's time as governor of Georgia.
• Jimmy Carter talked about how instead of just speaking on the lecture circuit, he wanted to help others have a better life, and to deal with the most neglected and intransigent problems, and not to duplicate effort on problems already being addressed by other governments and organizations.
• On the founding of the Carter Center, Rosalynn Carter described how they didn't get the chance to do everything they wanted before leaving the White House, through, as Jimmy Carter described it, his "involuntary retirement". Rosalynn Carter was angry that incoming President Ronald Reagan had abandoned mental health legislation that she had worked to get through Congress shortly before the end of her husband's term.
• Jimmy Carter talked about how the Carter Center was envisioned to be a mini Camp David, where parties could come to get assistance in resolving their conflicts. Its mandate expanded to address health care. He talked on the Center's work with dracunculiasis, or guinea worm, a parasite that can grow up to 2 to 3 feet long in the body and is absorbed by drinking contaminated water. A program funded by the Carter Center (and other groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) has succeeded in reducing guinea worm from 3.5 million reported cases in 1986 down to about 16,000 cases worldwide in 2004.
• The Carter Center is also active with agricultural programs, teaching farmers how to increase their crop yields. Since the Center is active in many countries, people there often ask them to tackle other issues, rather than going to the US or the UN for help. One task upcoming for the Center is to help Nepal draft its constitution.
• Rosalynn Carter talked about how over the last 23 years she has become quite the carpenter through their work with Habitat for Humanity. The Carters reserve out a week a year in their busy schedule to devote to helping build houses around the world with the group.
• She talked about how working with the people who will live in the house allows them to get to know and love them, and how owning a home changes people immensely.
• Jimmy Carter talked about how the organization desperately needs help to build homes, especially in areas like New Orleans.
• Last year, they worked with Habitat for Humanity in Mumbai. It was supposed to take 5 days to build the homes they wanted, but it only took 4 when Brad Pitt showed up, generating a lot more interest and volunteers.
• Jimmy Carter said his faith informs what he does. He talked on how everyone bases their life on faith, be it faith in family, parents, or nations. He believes in Jesus Christ as a foundation for his life, but he's never found a conflict between his faith and his political life.
  Carter said that he'd like to think that even without religion he would still pattern his life on the same principles of peace and love.
• He is opposed to fundamentalism in religion; he talked about how fundamentalism always involves a dominant man considering himself superior, and generally the first group that man considers himself to be superior to is women. That man believes he has a direct relationship to god, and therefore those who disagree are wrong, even subhuman. Carter talked on how fundamentalism has intruded into US politics as well as into terrorism around the world.
• Carter said he doesn't believe that the left has abandoned religious moral stances to the conservative right in the US. He does believe that moderates, including himself, believe in a separation between church and state, and that the trend is being reversed with people being more concerned about the intrusion of religion into politics.
• Rosalynn Carter talked about the difficulty in writing their book Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life. Jimmy Carter has written 20+ books, and can write a chapter in an afternoon. Rosalynn Carter takes much longer, and that discrepancy was very stressful to their marriage. She said that her husband would write a chapter so quickly that she would consider it a draft, but because she would spend so much time and effort on writing hers, that she didn't want a single word changed.
• Jimmy Carter talked about how the US is so politically, economically, militarily, and culturally dominant in the world. When the US loses its influence, the world loses an inspiration to turn to for higher ideals, like human rights. With such things as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, other nations searching for guidance no longer look to the US, and Carter thinks that's a loss for both sides.
• Jimmy Carter talked about how the Carter Center's relationship with Canada is one of the most helpful. When asked if he had any advice for Canada, Carter did encourage people to be more outspoken, aggressive, and independent about promoting Canadian values, and to not be afraid of expressing disagreement with US policies.
• When prompted for a prediction on the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Rosalynn Carter diplomatically deferred, as she has a policy of not endorsing anyone in the primaries. She thinks the Democrats will win the presidential election, but that she'll support whichever of the candidates takes the Democratic nomination.
• When asked about their family, especially daughter Amy who was so prominent during their time in the White House, the Carters said their 4 children, 11 grandchildren, and now 1 great-grandchild were all doing great.

Tags: 2007,films