AGH BMO World Film Festival
An epic 50 films across five venues over 10 days
Directors Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier manage to inject a sense of triumph against all odds into “Long Time Running.” Film continues // G6
IT’S PRETTY MUCH IMPOSSIBLE to encapsulate in one article what the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s ninth annual World Film Festival has to offer. AGH film curator Ryan Ferguson is presenting us with a mind-boggling array of more than 50 films in five venues — serious documentaries, art-house explorations, surreal wonderments, slapstick comedies, period epics, kitschy cult films and a couple of Cannes prize winners.
Pretty much impossible, but we’ll give it a try anyway.
FESTIVAL GOERS will be able to go backstage with the Tragically Hip; watch Cate Blanchett juggle 13 different roles; drool through a hilarious culinary trip to Spain; unearth hundreds of silent films frozen in time; rage with the Act Up protesters of Paris; enjoy tea with Lord Mountbatten; fight developers with Jane Jacobs; experience Syria under siege; shed a tear for Harry Dean Stanton; explore the native roots of rock and roll; judge whether Kirsten Dunst can make style triumph over substance; marvel at a hand-painted film about Vincent van Gogh; and dress up as their favourite characters from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
It’s true. Hamilton film lovers no longer have to travel to Toronto to see a movie that doesn’t involve a super hero, a serial killer, a sci-fi saga or … Adam Sandler.
Based at the Lincoln Alexander Centre (LAC) in downtown Hamilton, the festival is bigger than ever, featuring 15 more films than last year when attendance reached 7,000.
Unfortunately, all these cinematic delights are crammed into just 10 exhausting days. Based at the mildly posh LAC in downtown Hamilton, the AGH World Film Fest opens Friday, Oct. 13 and closes Oct. 22.
You can’t see them all. You have to pick and choose. So let’s accentuate some of this year’s highlights.
Opening Night
THE TRAGICALLY HIP and Vincent van Gogh deliver a one-two punch opening night, on Friday the 13th. “Loving Vincent” (7 p.m.) is an extraordinary undertaking — the world’s first fully-painted feature film, 65,000 frames hand-painted by 115 professional oil-painters, including local artist Valerie Fulford. The effect is dazzling. “Loving Vincent” took the Audience Award at this year’s Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and best animation honours at the Shanghai Film Festival.
The festival’s biggest draw is sure to be “Long Time Running,” (9:30 p.m.), the documentary of The Tragically Hip’s emotional 2016 tour, which premièred last month to rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’ll be hard for Hip fans to hold back the tears, but directors Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier manage to inject a sense of triumph against all odds into the project. If you don’t have tickets, get them fast. This will surely sell out.
Opening night also marks the start of the 24 Hour Film Challenge, in which local artists, filmmakers compete to see who can make the best movie in just one day. The final products will be screened Oct. 21, 8 p.m., at Collective Arts Brewing.
“Rumble: The Indians who Rocked the World” documents the huge contribution native artists have made to the history of popular music.
Harry Dean Stanton and other big names
THERE’S PLENTY of star power beneath the art house feel of the festival. Among the must-sees this year is “Lucky,” (Wednesday, Oct. 18, 9:45 p.m., LAC) Harry Dean Stanton’s final starring role. The grizzle-faced character actor, who died last month at the age of 91, plays a “fiercely independent 90-year-old atheist on a journey of self-exploration.” Sound familiar?
Cate Blanchett pushes her talents to the limit in “Manifesto,” (Tuesday, Oct. 17, 9 p.m., LAC) a multi-screen video installation by Julian Rosefeldt in which the Oscar-winning actress plays 13 different characters portraying a dozen different artist manifestos. Spider-Man star Kirsten Dunst stars in “Woodshock,” (Saturday, Oct. 21, 8 p.m., LAC), the debut thriller by fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the founders of the Rodarte line. “Woodshock” was released in late September to mostly negative reviews for being more concerned with style than plot. Other big name pictures include “Viceroy’s
House” (Thursday, Oct. 19, 1 p.m., Cineplex Cinemas Ancaster), a 2017 British-Indian period piece portraying the last days of imperial rule in India, starring Gillian Anderson and Hugh Bonneville.
Documentaries
WHAT WOULD a film festival be without some enlightening documentaries? “Citizen Jane: Battle for
the City” (Saturday, Oct. 14, 4 p.m., LAC) chronicles urban activist Jane Jacobs’ fight during the ’60s to save New York City neighbourhoods from the development plans of city power broker Robert Moses. “Dawson City:
Frozen Time” (Sunday, Oct. 22, 7 p.m., AGH Annex) offers a glimpse into the 553 otherwise lost silent films from the early 1900s that were found in a Yukon landfill. Space buffs will enjoy “The Last Man on the Moon” (Thursday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m., LAC), the story of astronaut Eugene Cernan’s second trip to the moon in 1972, and the final Apollo mission. “Whose
Streets?” (Saturday, Oct. 21, 4 p.m., AGH Annex) is a timely analysis of the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the uprising that followed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri.
Indigenous
THANKS TO community partner Hamilton Aboriginal Health Centre, this year’s festival contains a treasure trove of Indigenous work, starting with “Rumble: The Indians
who Rocked the World” (Saturday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m., LAC), which documents the huge contribution native artists have made to the history of popular music. “Rumble,” a hit wherever it has played, recounts the stories of Link Wray, Robbie Robertson, Buffy Sainte Marie, Charley Patton, Jesse Ed Davis and Jimi Hendrix. “Colonization Road” (Monday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m., LAC) follows Anishinaabe comedian and commentator Ryan McMahon as he returns to his hometown of Fort Francis, Ont., to confront issues of reconciliation and decolonization. “The
Road Forward” (Monday, Oct. 16, 5 p.m., LAC) is a history of First Nations’ activism, from the 1930s to today. Six Nations’ artist Shelley Niro directed “Kissed by Lightning” (Thursday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m., Art Gallery of Hamilton), a drama exploring the loss of native traditions and the role of women in keeping them alive.
Comedy
EVEN HIGHBROW festival goers need to laugh and this year’s lineup gives them plenty of opportunities, starting with the slapstick French bit of madness called “Lost in Paris” (Monday, Oct. 16 at 1 p.m., Cineplex Cinemas Ancaster). Foodies will love “The Trip to Spain” (Tuesday, Oct. 17, 7 p.m., LAC, and Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 1 p.m., Cineplex Cinemas Ancaster), starring British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon who maintain a stream of witty repartee while eating and drinking their way through the dining rooms of Spain. Penelope Cruz stars in “The Queen of Spain” (Saturday, Oct. 14, 1:30 p.m., LAC), about a Hollywood star who returns home to film an historical drama about Isabella I. Old friends and the Franco dictatorship intervene.
Cult Night
BEER AND CULT films blend together Friday, Oct. 20, at Collective Arts Brewing with screenings of “The
Rocky Horror Picture Show” (10 p.m.) and “Mean Girls” (8 p.m.). Feel free to throw toilet rolls at Dr. Scott during “Rocky Horror” and boo/hiss at uber-Plastic mean girl Rachel McAdams. You may also want to cheer for Lindsay Lohan … or not.
Award Winners
CURATOR FERGUSON is particularly proud of having two prize winners from this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the lineup. “BPM (120 Bat
tements par Minute)” took home the Grand Prix, while “The Square” won the coveted Palme d’Or. “BPM” (Sunday, Oct. 15, 5 p.m., LAC) is a French dramatization of the Paris Act Up protests of the 1990s. “The Square” (Sunday, Oct. 15, 8 p.m., LAC) is an outrageous Swedish satire of postmodern art and the lengths art gallery curators will go to promote it. The film features actors Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West.
There are more, like “Insyriated,” an Arabic language drama demonstrating life for a family trapped in their home in war-torn Damascus; “Novitiate,” about the life of aspiring nuns at an isolated Catholic school in 1964; and “Redoubtable,” a comedy/drama focusing on director Jean-Luc Godard’s political awakening during the Paris student protests of 1968.
But we don’t have room to list them all, so visit the website artgalleryofhamilton.com for a complete schedule.