Your handy one-stop-shop for cinephile news, articles, and videos from the week that was.
News Roundup
• Earlier today, we released our plans for VIFF 2020. “The 39th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival, running September 24 – October 7, will be presented as an ‘online primary’ festival available to all British Columbians…VIFF 2020 will showcase a robust program of 100 feature films including the vibrant blend of international selections from every corner of the globe, boundary-pushing Canadian work, adventurous East Asian cinema, provocative and inspiring documentaries, elevated genre cinema and festival favourites that see audiences flock to VIFF every year.”
• The Toronto International Film Festival has announced plans for their 2020 edition, which will combine in-person and virtual screenings, virtual red carpets, and industry talks.The program will be composed of 50 feature films, some of which have already been unveiled, including Francis Lee’s Ammonite and Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round.
• The Rio Theatre and The Cinematheque have announced that they will reopen in early July. The Rio’s statement can be found here and The Cinematheque’s here. The Vancity Theatre will remain closed as we complete our renovation project.
Reading Roundup
• “Welcome to a land where the tax credits are juicy and the computer generated graphics are crisp.” For The Baffler, Josh Gabert-Doyon discusses how provincial labour laws and tax credits have contributed to the widespread exploitation of overworked and underpaid animators. A must-read.
• On his Substack, Nick Pinkerton shares an essay he was commissioned to write for Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release of David Lynch’s Lost Highway. As Pinkerton explains, “my essay and a commentary track by Tim Lucas were eventually dropped from the release at Lynch’s request: the maître has some persnickety provisos when it comes to special features which are too strange to be taken personally, and was generally (unduly, in my opinion) hostile towards even the final, stripped-down Kino release. Given the pleasure that exploring Lynch’s body of work has given me through the years, he could have specifically called me a worthless cunt in public forums and I would have taken it with a grin, so whatever, no hard feelings, rock on.”
• We recently published two Features related to the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, which ends today. Nathan Douglas interviewed Vancouver-born filmmaker Kurt Walker about s01e03, which chronicles the last day before the shutdown of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. And Jana Rankov penned a dispatch talking about some of her favorites in this year’s program.
Viewing/Listening Roundup
• Earlier this month, Roger and James Deakins spoke to Lee Kline of Criterion about the procedures and methodologies of film restoration.
• The latest narrative feature by Werner Herzog, Family Romance, LLC, will be released by MUBI sometime in July. The film now has a trailer.
• The ever prolific Kiyoshi Kurosawa has a new espionage thriller, Wife of a Spy, that was co-written with Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Asako I & II)!
Miscellaneous
VIFF Blog 