This year at TIFF, short documentaries take on the personal as political, looking to how big issues impact individuals. From optimism to pessimism, calls to arms and pointed critiques, these films offer perspectives which aim to change how we think, and make a difference. Corina Schwingruber Ilič’s All Inclusive (Programme 06) shows us a massive luxury
Ray & Liz (UK, 108 min.) Dir. Richard Billingham By Daniel Glassman Richard Billingham made his name as a photographer just over twenty years ago with Ray’s A Laugh, an exhibition and photobook of pictures of his working-class British family. It’s an epoch-defining work that has been hailed as magnificent and denounced as voyeuristic. Ray, Billingham’s
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (China/France, 140 min.) Dir. Bi Gan It’s over fifty years since Susan Sontag in Against Interpretation admonished critics to supplant hermeneutics with erotics—to attend to surfaces instead of deeper meanings, physical sensations instead of intellectual readings. But staying on the surface without ending up superficial is still a hard trick
Les Salopes or the Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin (Canada, 97 min.) Written and directed by Renée Beaulieu Starring: Brigitte Poupart, Nathalie Cavezzali, Vincent Leclerc, Pierre Kwenders, Romane Denis Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (World Premiere) News flash: your mom has a sex life! Renée Beaulieu gives praise to older women in the frank and sweaty
Graves Without A Name (France/Cambodia, 115 min.) Dir. Rithy Panh Programme: TIFF Docs (Canadian Premiere) Rithy Panh’s cinematic excavation of the Cambodian genocide is well into its third decade, and at least its fifth aesthetic approach. 2003’s S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine was the first of Panh’s films to reach a wide audience: its staging of
The Image Book (Switzerland/France, 84 min.) Dir. Jean-Luc Godard Programme: Masters (North American Premiere) Godard has never been in doubt of his own genius, but at some point he left the rest of us behind. There are differences of opinion as to when that happened: Was it after Weekend (1967)? Was it in his “return to narrative”
Sharkwater Extinction (Canada, 88 min.) Dir. Rob Stewart Programme: Special Events (World Premiere) There won’t be a dry eye in the house when the credits roll on Sharkwater Extinction. This final film by adventurous eco hero Rob Stewart is a fitting call to action. Stewart, who died in a diving accident in January 2017 while researching
Jawad Rhalib's powerful documentary When Arabs Danced is a joyous celebration of women and the impact of positive representation.
Maria by Callas (France, 113 min.) Dir. Tom Volf Programme: TIFF Docs (North American Premiere) Every good diva deserves a doc portrait. Maria Callas receives a meticulously curated and assembled appreciation in this archival tapestry by director, photographer, and actor Tom Volf. Maria by Callas is an impressively assembled first feature and an obvious labour of love from a
Diamantino (Portugal/France/Brazil, 97 min.) Dir. Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt Programme: Midnight Madness (North American Premiere) Abrantes and Schmidt are part of a New York avant-garde film scene comprised mostly of Cooper Union grads that includes sometime collaborators Alexander Carver, Benjamin Crotty and James N. Kienitz Wilkins. They’re all in their 30s now and their