Take a moment to kick back and check out this week’s trailers to find out what’s playing at VIFF Vancity Theatre.
Film Studies: A Star Is Born (1954, Restored Director’s Cut)
April 2, 1:00 PM
Our Film Studies series continues with film history teacher and classic movie host Michael van den Bos introducing director George Cukor’s 1954 musical-drama, A Star Is Born, starring Judy Garland and James Mason, followed by a post-screening audience discussion. With the recent success of the Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga remake, Michael will examine the Cukor-Garland film, which he argues is the most poignant and artistic of all its four versions since the 1937 original.
April 1 – 4
There are 8,000 miles of roads and paths in New York City and for the past six years Matt Green has been walking them all – every street, park, cemetery, beach, and bridge. It’s a five-borough journey that stretches from the barbershops of the Bronx to the forests of Staten Island, from the Statue of Liberty to Times Square, with Matt amassing a detailed knowledge of New York’s history and people along the way… A portrait emerges not only of a curious and restless soul, but of the city itself.
April 1 – 4
Evoking Atom Egoyan’s classic The Sweet Hereafter, the latest from Quebecois auteur Denis Côté is a beguiling, eerie, peculiarly funny portrait of a proudly independent/stubbornly insular small town engulfed in grief and shame after the death of 21-year-old Simon in an auto accident (or was it a suicide?). The mayor refuses to accept this tragedy will tear apart the community, but her confidence appears misplaced, the town is slowly dying, and maybe not so slowly at that…
April 5 – 10
Iranian filmmaker-in-disgrace Jafar Panahi (This Is Not a Film; Taxi; The White Balloon) and actress Behnaz Jafari receive a disturbing video of a teenage girl, an aspiring actress, who appears to take her own life. They travel to the girl’s remote village to investigate, and as they do so, a plan for a film begins to take shape…. “Panahi has made what feels like his freest film since the ban was imposed…” Variety
April 5 – 10
This idiosyncratic Brazilian indie is a keeper: film as folk song. On the surface it’s a self-effacing piece about Cristiano, a blue collar itinerant worker who drifts from job to job… except that this story is relayed in an idiosyncratic fashion, as he lies seriously injured in hospital, and a young man comes across his scribbled memoir. Cristiano’s life is not so remarkable, yet as the film lights on several episodes of note it builds up a picture that is truly engaging, resonant and moving.
Providence Health Care presents: End Game
April 8, 7:00 PM
Many of us will be called on to be caregivers at some point in our lives, and many of us will be patients. As advances in medicine develop, people are living longer with serious and chronic illness. And yet creating the space to talk about death and our values around end-of-life care is, more often than not, stressful and emotionally difficult. This screening will be introduced by Dr Shoshana Ungerleider, whose organization End Well is dedicated to improving palliative care. Academy Award nominee.
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