To kick off our 2012 Toronto International Film Festival coverage, we got an early look at an often over looked part of the festival: the Canadian short films programme called Short Cuts Canada. The programme is broken into six sections that screen like a single feature film, and each section runs roughly 90 minutes, screening 7-8 short films.
For years, short films have been the real strength of Canadian cinema, winning awards at festivals all around the world and receiving quite a few Oscar nominations. Canada has many wonderful funding programs such as the National Film Board which allows these kinds of films to be made, even though they are rarely commercially viable.
This year’s Short Cuts Canada is made up of 42 films that show the true breadth of Canadian culture both at home and abroad. This is truly a programme that has something for everyone.
Programme #4
This programme takes you around the world and is a perfect example of how Canadian short films show the cultural diversity of this country. In these seven shorts, you are transported to Egypt during the recent revolution, Israel during the first Gulf War, the Arctic in some sort of dystopian near-future, and finally on a coast-to-coast visit across Canada. These films are all very different, ranging from the comedic to the tragic, yet what they all have in common is that the films take place in a single day. And no one is having a good day.
This was my favourite programme of the three I saw, with the wonderfully funny film The Worst Day Ever by Sophie Jarvis the highlight. Jarvis tells the story of a young boy, a whimsical tale in which tragedy after escalating tragedy befalls him, all while he doggedly continues on.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/shortcutscanadaprog4
Tuesday September 11
TIFF Bell Lightbox 4
6:30 PM
Wednesday September 12
TIFF Bell Lightbox 4
4:45 PM
Programme #5
This is a very depressing loose collection of films that focus on the themes of death and family, often simultaneously. We go to the streets of Brazil where a young boy looks for his father in Genius from Quintino by Johnny Ma, a barren winter landscape in Quebec where a man looks for his missing brother in I’m beginning to miss you by Sakay Ottawa. Not all the shorts are as soul-crushing as these two; in The Tape by Matt Austin Sadowski we meet a man who digs up an old VHS tape and desperately wants to watch it, but is unable to find a VCR.
This programme features one of the most experimental films I have seen in Short Cuts, L’Aubade directed by Caral Susanto. It is a very short animated film based on engravings from a medieval text book narrated by a man in the last few days of his life. It is as haunting as it sounds. Also featured in this programme is my favourite film I have yet seen in the series. Let the Daylight into the Swamp from Jeffery St. Jules tells a very personal story that is part documentary and part docudrama, shown in 3D. St. Jules presents his family history made up of photos, re-enactments and interviews. As a child, his father was abandoned by his parents. Not only does he interview actors playing his grandparents, but he also find other men and women who abandoned children and interviews them, clearly on a quest to understand what his grandparents were thinking. A truly touching and innovate film that crosses many different styles and genres of cinema – a must see.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/shortcutscanadaprog5
Wednesday September 12
TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
6:00 PM
Thursday September 13
TIFF Bell Lightbox 4
2:00 PM
Programme #6
The comedy section of Short Cuts Canada, this programme sticks closer to home geographically but does a wonderful job encompassing the entirety of the Canadian comedic conventions. We get the broad East Coast comedy of How to be Deadly directed by Nik Sexton which brings YouTube sensation Donnie Dumphy to the big screen, very much in the style of Fubar. Donnie is an “all out hoser” who along with his friends and family is up to no good, but of course, it’s all in the name of having a good time. On the opposite end we get the dark comedy of Horrible Things directed by Vincent Biron, focusing on three individuals living in the same building, trying to make good on some bad turns they had afflicted on others.
The most Canadian of these comedic shorts is Canoejacked from Jonathan Williams (I think the name alone gives it away). The film tells the story of two escaped cons running through the great North who steal a canoe owned by a nature loving nudist, or as he is self described in the film – a “canoedist”.
This programme might be the best to get your toe wet with short film, as all the films are entertaining with nothing “weird” to put anyone off.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/shortcutscanadaprog6
Thursday September 13
TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
6:15 PM
Friday September 14
TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
9:30 AM
