Every week, Establishing Shots offers some further enlightenment on the films that will be screening in-cinema at the VIFF Centre and online through VIFF Connect.
That said, our theatres are temporarily closed until at least December 7 in accordance with the latest provincial health orders. Given this, we’re grateful to be able to continue bringing you programming through our VIFF Connect streaming platform.
New this week is Eddy’s Kingdom, Greg Crompton’s stranger-than-fiction documentary about Eddy Haymour, a Lebanese immigrant who dreamt of building an amusement park in the Okanagan and ended up storming the Canadian Embassy in Beirut. We’ll refrain from spoiling any more revelations and likewise recommend that you wait until after you’ve seen the documentary to listen to this Eddy-centric episode of The Dollop (recorded in Vancouver this February and featuring Bobcat Goldthwait) or diving into Omar Mouallem’s sprawling 2013 article about Haymour’s travails.
Having screened Wayne Wang’s films for decades, we’re excited to share Coming Home Again, the latest from the director of The Joy Luck Club. Speaking to Screen Daily, Wang explains how he adopted a new writing approach for this effort. He also boldly compares his restrained new film with his most celebrated work: “If I had to put Coming Home Again against Joy Luck Club, I appreciate Coming Home Again because it’s more honest, more direct, and less talky.”
Finally, those with an appetite for darker fare will find themselves drawn to Johannes Nyholm’s deranged Koko-Di Koko-Da. Writing for The New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis surmises, “The story is oddly affecting, the very strangeness of Nyholm’s folkloric vision and its unnerving execution pulling you in.”
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