Beyond the One (Al di là dell’uno) (Italy/France/Germany Dir. Anna Marziano Programme: Wavelengths (World Premiere) Wavelength regular Anna Marziano’s latest film is 53 minutes long, placing it in the somewhat neglected, ill-defined category between short and feature. There are many good reasons not to make a work of this length—it creates obstacles even for
Mrs. Fang (France/China/Germany, 86 min.) Dir. Wang Bing Programme: Wavelengths (North American Premiere) I don’t know if it’s Chinese master documentarian Wang Bing’s rare skills—pairing the professional’s easy way with subjects with the artist’s formal assuredness—or the unprecedented crudeness of this late capitalist epoch that makes _Mrs. Fang_ such a vital variation on the old-relative-dies/younger-generation-is-callous
Good Luck (France/Germany, 143 min.) Dir. Ben Russell Programme: Wavelengths (North American Premiere) The epigraph to Ben Russell’s Good Luck — an account of a mescaline-induced hallucination of a rock repeatedly splitting in two and recombining courtesy of poet and painter Henri Michaux — promises parallelism, and the film delivers. Belying the vaunted immediacy
3/4 (Bulgaria/Germany, 82 min.) Dir. Ilian Metev Featuring: Mila Mihova, Nikolay Programme: Discovery (North American Premiere) What are some of the traits that come to mind when one imagines a “festival film”? Long takes? Hand held camerawork? Non-professional actors? Kitchen sink realism? Natural light? Silence? Director Ilian Metev’s first narrative work, 3/4, has every
Of Sheep and Men (Switzerland/France/Qatar, 78 min.) Dir. Karim Sayad Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) We all know that humans and sheep are different beasts but Sayad’s doc suggests that there are similarities. When expected to follow the shepherd and keep in line with the herd, sheep might stomp their feet, huff, puff, and
Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle (Muchos Hijos, un Mono y un Castillo) (Spain, 88 min.) Dir. Gustavo Salmerón Programme: TIFF Docs (North American Premiere) Julita Salmerón insists more than once in Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle that nobody outside of her friends and family will have any interest
TIFF Docs 2017 class includes new films by Fred Wiseman, Brett Morgen, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, Chris Smith, Sophie Fiennes, and more!
There is a House Here (Canada, 105 min) Dir. Alan Zweig Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) What are the roles and responsibilities of artists who want to explore stories of communities outside their own? This question is a hot topic in the cultural milieu, as debates wage concerning who can or should tell such
In many ways, Obomsawin’s previous films have all been leading her to Norway House, the site of this caring and empathetic doc, Our People Will Be Healed.
Thom Powers is the veteran curator of TIFF Docs. At TIFF, he has programmed premieres for such filmmakers as Morgan Spurlock, Jonathan Demme, Werner Herzog and Kevin Rafferty. He runs the annual Doc Conference at TIFF, which features talks about key issues in the industry, on-stage interviews with filmmakers and presentations on new developments in the documentary world.