PASSION PROJECTS
Festival des films du monde to begin Thursday
The continually fraught Festival des films du monde (FFM) is set to run from Thursday to Sept. 3. While locations, ticket info and most other pertinent details remain to be announced — as has been the case for the past few calamitous editions — a handful of lists did appear on the festival’s website with a couple of weeks to spare.
At the very least, the 42nd edition of the FFM has films. And while they ’re currently just names on various lists without screening times or venues attached, each film represents a passion project coming from some corner of the world, likely created on a shoestring budget to little fanfare.
It’s easy to poke fun at draconian festival founder Serge Losique’s unpaid taxes and hubris, but for many filmmakers, getting a call that their creation will be screened at the FFM — or any film festival — remains a thrill, even if this particular shindig mostly makes waves these days for its problems behind the scenes. And while Losique may be reticent to talk to the media (he didn’t return queries for this article), the filmmakers involved have a lot to say about their works, which will live on regardless of how things go down in the next few weeks.
For one thing, the FFM remains an opportunity for local artists to find an audience. One such participant is Liz Singh, a first-time writer and director whose film The Lower Plateau will be premièred.
“We’re so excited to be showing the movie in our hometown,” Singh said. “We weren’t even finished when we got the call, so we’re really racing to get everything done in time.”
She says the original plan was to have the film done in September, but its inclusion at the fest hastened their deadline. Singh says
the FFM has been “supportive and flexible” throughout the process.
“It’s my first experience with the festival,” she said. “We’re just so happy to be involved in a Montreal festival, even though I know it’s a little chaotic and they’ve had an unstable history. It’s a little nerve-racking, because they’ve cancelled screenings in the past, which is terrifying. But they’ve been around forever and I’ve gone to their screenings in the past, so I hope it all works out.”
It’s fitting that The Lower Plateau would be unveiled here, as it’s a quintessential Montreal story: it’s about an artist/drug dealer in the Plateau neighbourhood suffering from writer’s block, plugging away at various bars performing Alanis Morissette covers. Singh says they shot scenes at famed Montreal locales such as Barfly, the Word bookstore and the Main deli, and the soundtrack features songs by local independent artists. Even the crew consists largely of friends in the community, making it a thoroughly local production.
As with presumably most of the entrants, Singh submitted the film using Withoutabox, a website that allows independent filmmakers to self-distribute and enter their films into a number of festivals, including FFM and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Over on the other side of town, Sylvain Brosset has brought his neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges to life in his first full-length feature, Space on the Corner. It’s about an empty commercial space and how two owners go about filling it, with the help of their neighbours.
“It’s a community-driven film,” said Brosset. “It’s about how people’s goals intertwine to make something greater than themselves.”
It’s also a love letter to Côte-desNeiges, where Brosset moved to after coming from France.
“I’ve been living in Côte-desNeiges for years, since I arrived in Canada as an immigrant,” he said. “This part of the city has always struck me as very active — I’ve met so many people here. It’s an immigrant-based community and I really like that feeling. That’s what I wanted to capture here.”
It’s Brosset’s first experience with the festival, and as nervous as he is about how Space on the Corner may be received, he’s also looking forward to sharing it with the people who worked on it.
“Many of the actors in the film had never acted before, so it was a new experience for them. I’m really excited to see their reaction to it,” he said.
It’s not all first-timers at FFM. Toronto-based Lenin M. Sivam will be returning for the world première of his latest work, Roobha. His last project, A Gun and a Ring, made its North American debut at the fest in 2013.
Sivam recalls having a great time in Montreal and is looking forward to returning. He also has a long history with the city: he premièred his film 1999 at McGill.
“The première for A Gun and a Ring went really well,” Sivam said. “I remember it had a very sophisticated audience with a lot of good questions.”
Like his previous films, Roobha tells a story set within the Canadian Tamil community.
Written by and starring Antonythasan Jesuthasan, who recently starred in Dheepan, the 2015 Palme d’or winner at Cannes, Roobha is about a relationship between a transgender teen and a father of two.
“Jesuthasan’s story was so well written, I couldn’t get it out of my head,” Sivam said. “It’s a love story. I thought it would help start a dialogue about LGBTQ issues in the Tamil community.”
The filmmakers themselves are anxiously awaiting further instructions about when and where their movies will be screened. They know about as much as everyone else does, which isn’t much. Even for locals, it can be difficult to round up colleagues, friends and family to attend last-minute without a fixed date — which is unfortunate, since these films took years to be completed.
There’s also the possibility that these films won’t find homes after all. It’s happened in the past at the FFM, with filmmakers, including many who travelled from other countries, left stranded and living a nightmare scenario.
Other organizations around town had to step in to find screens for their films.
“We’re telling people to keep themselves available for that entire time. That’s the boat we’re in right now,” said Singh. She used to work at Cinéma du Parc and previously volunteered at Festival du nouveau cinéma, and she has her hopes as to where her film might end up.
“I always had a dream of showing a movie I’ve made at Cinéma du Parc, so fingers crossed,” she said.
Sivam was at least informed his première will happen on Aug. 25. He says much of the cast, crew and their families will be making the trip, as well as members of the Tamil community in Ottawa and Montreal.
“I’ve been pushing the festival for information, because there’s a lot of hype within the Tamil community,” Sivam said. “I want to announce as fast as I can so people can make plans.”
Jesuthasan’s story was so well written, I couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s a love story. I thought it would help start a dialogue about LGBTQ issues in the Tamil community.