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THE VANCOUVER COURIER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2012
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2012 THE VANCOUVER COURIER
FILM LINEUP & SCHEDULE AVAILABLE AT WHISTLERFILMFESTIVAL.COM OPENING GALA
STILL
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 102 minutes
Michael McGowan returns to Whistler with his latest slice of Canadiana and opens the festival for his second time (One Week). A true story follows an 88-year-old man who took on local government authorities when they objected to him building his own home as a gift to his aging wife. James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold give career best performances in this moving tale. Wed Nov. 28 | 8pm | WCC
CLOSING GALA
PROGRAMMER’S SUPRISE
B3
JOIN OUR PATRONS CIRCLE OR BECOME A MEMBER & RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS
Friday Nov. 30 | 9:30pm Millennium Place
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
AMERICAN INDIES
English Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 147 minutes
Canadian Premiere 2011 | China | 188 minutes
BC Premiere 2012 | Canada | 90 minutes
BETWEEN US
Canadian Premiere 2012 | USA | 90 minutes
IT’S A DISASTER
BC Premiere 2012 | USA | 88 minutes
ALTER EGOS
KNIFE FIGHT
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | USA | 92 minutes
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | UK | 130 minutes
MARS AND AVRIL
World Premiere 2012 | Canada | 85 minutes
CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER
The Sheepdogs were the first band in the world to ever grace the cover of Rolling Stone without being signed to a major record label. This movie follows that heady experience for the Saskatoon-based rockers, and the pressure to live up to the hype with their first major label album release. Sun Dec. 2 | 8pm | WCC
Celeste and Jesse are happily divorced and remain best of pals, which drives their friends insane. A rom-com original, with a truly indie sensitivity, and a great, fresh script. Thur Nov. 29 | 7pm | WCC Fri Nov. 30 | 3pm | WCC
Keira Knightley gives a career-best performance as the famed Russian mother and wife who scandalizes Russian aristocrats by carrying on a passionate affair with a young officer. Director Joe Wright brings a wildly inventive and artificial design to the film that will remind audiences of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. Thur Nov. 29 | 9:30pm | WCC
The second highest grossing Canadian film of the year. A thrilling undercover sting on a mob plot to smuggle fake gold bullion into central banks, the film stars two of Quebec’s biggest stars Patrick Huard and Michel Cote, with Rachelle Lefevre as a former secret agent assigned to infiltrate the mob (Subtitled). Sat Dec. 1 | 9.30pm | WCC
This beautifully shot Chinese epic depicts 26 years in the life of a small village at the beginning of the 20th century, as various political regimes keep rolling in to exploit the wheat farmers. The story focuses on the broken romance between two young people who are forced to separate due to politics (Subtitled). Thur Nov. 29 | 9.30pm | MP
A feast for the eyes and ears, a sci-fi take on musicality in the universe, directed by Cirque du Soleil alumnus Martin Villeneuve. Caroline Dhavernas stars as a muse who inspires both a musical instrument maker and an aging composer in this completely unique and unforgettable sci-fi opus. (Subtitled) Sat Dec 1. 29 | 7pm | WCC
Julia Stiles heads an ensemble cast, as two couples meet after years of estrangement and resentments based on status and success bubble up to the surface. Based on an offBroadway play, this film crackles with explosive tension, reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s Carnage.
Another Julia Stiles ensemble piece about couples meeting for brunch for the umpteenth time, only on this particular Sunday, terrorists have detonated a smart bomb in the downtown core, and our argumentative couples must seal themselves in their house while awaiting what may be imminent death. A dark satirical comedy. Fri Nov. 30 | 6.15pm | MP Sun Dec. 2 | 2:45pm | RT
A nerdy guy gets upset when his girlfriend starts secretly dating his superhero alter-ego, without realizing that they are the same guy. With the government having lost confidence in the superheroes’ ability to fight crime and protect the public, it’s enough to make any man of special powers feel insecure. Fri Nov. 30 | 6.30pm | RT
Written by an ex-advisor to the White House, this is a searing expose of the behind the scenes dirty dealings that go into winning an election campaign. Rob Lowe plays the cynical spin-doctor, taken aback when a bonafide altruist confronts him, a doctor who wants to become a gubernatorial candidate in order to make the world a better place.
THE SHEEPDOGS HAVE AT IT
ANNA KARENINA
OMERTÄ
WHITE DEER PLAIN
BORSOS COMPETITION FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE
Canadian Premiere 2012 | USA | 99 minutes
Fri Nov. 30 | 9.30pm | RT Sat Dec. 1 | 1pm | WCC
MOUNTAIN CULTURE
MY AWKWARD SEXUAL ADVENTURE
North American Premiere 2012 | Canada | 94 minutes
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 91 minutes
World Premiere 2012 | Canada | 93 minutes
English Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 88 minutes
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 101 minutes
Western Canadian Picture 2012 | Canada | 93 minutes
PICTURE DAY
THE MOUNTAIN RUNNERS READY TO FLY Whistler Premiere 2012 | USA | 90 minutes
BC Premiere 2012 | Canada | 96 minutes
FEW WORDS
Canadian Premiere 2012 | France | 58 min
World Premiere 2012 | Canada | 90 minutes
The funniest Canadian sex comedy ever made, director Sean Garrity chronicles the hapless adventures of one of the world’s worst lovers, taken in by a stripper with a heart of gold, charmingly played by Emily Hampshire. More laughs per minute than anything ever made on the subject of lovemaking. Thur Nov. 29 | 8pm | WCC Sun Dec. 2 | 5.30pm | RT
And now for something completely different, the director/writer team from My Awkward Sexual Adventure returns with a noirish thriller with more twists and turns than a mountain road. An unhappy married woman starts getting anonymous letters that set her off on a voyeuristic adventure involving a mysterious stranger. Fri Nov. 30 | 7pm | WCC Sat Dec. 1 | 12.30pm | WCC
Director Bernard Emond, in this latest acclaimed film, focuses on an alienated academic whose detachment from social interaction is challenged when he encounters a daughter he rejected years earlier and learns that his millionaire father is about to die and wants him to inherit the family construction business. (Subtitled) Thur Nov. 29 | 9.15pm | RT Fri Nov. 30 | 11.45am | WCC
This poetic envisioning follows the truelife story of a Scandinavian immigrant who built a large boat in the middle of the depression-era prairie dustbowl, hundreds of miles away from any major body of water. A moving Sisyphean tale from firsttime feature filmmaker David Mortin shot in Manitoba. Fri Nov. 30 | 9pm | WCC Sat Dec. 1 | 3.15pm | WCC
A faux doc that starts off as an innocuous diary of a summer job spent with traveling carnies, then becomes something far more substantial when dark secrets from the past are revealed, leading to a lengthy and searingly honest lovemaking scene between a man in his 50s and an African-Quebecoise half his age. Not soon forgotten. (Subtitled) Sat Dec. 1 | 7.30pm | RT Sun Dec. 2 | 7:30pm | RT
This trio of tales follows Jamaicans who have been deported back to Jamaica after committing crimes in Canada, the US and the UK. Many of these landed immigrants left Jamaica when they were very young, and they arrive ill equipped to cope with the local attitudes towards deportees. A moving expose of stories that need to be told. Sat Dec. 1 | 6pm | WCC Sun Dec. 2 | 1pm | WCC
Tatiana Maslany shines as a young girl, held back in high school, torn between a 33-year-old lover in a rock band and the young autistic admirer she used to babysit. This coming of age story is a first feature from director Kate Melville. Thur Nov. 29 | 5pm | WCC Fri Nov. 30 | 12.30pm | WCC
A documentary about the first major mountain race, which occurred in Bellingham Washington in 1911. Using a steam engine and a model T Ford, this was a major 30mile competition, performed not by athletes, but by local lumberjacks and labourers. A surprise outcome makes the whole amazing story all the harder to believe. Sat Dec. 1 | 2pm | SLCC
The doc tells the story of ski jumper Lindsey Van and her fight as reluctant spokesperson for gender equality in Olympic sports. To keep her dream alive she and fellow ski jumpers took VANOC to court in an attempt to compete on the international stage at the 2010 Winter Olympics, in the only discipline that doesn’t allow women. Sun Dec. 2 | 2.30pm | WCC
The Canadian premiere of world-renowned pro skier Candide Thovex’s first feature length film submerges us into Candide’s life; competing for world titles and potentially suffering life-threatening injuries for the sport he loves. Its awesome imagery and pure action will leave you wanting more. Candide will be in attendance. Sun Dec. 2 | 5pm | WCC
A buddy comedy set again the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. The reunion of three lifetime friends leads to an adventure of mountainous proportions complete with a cameo by Whistler actor, Angie Nolan. Fri Nov. 30 | 8pm | WCC
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 98 minutes
BLOOD PRESSURE
Thur Nov. 29 | 6.30pm | MP Fri Nov. 30 | 2pm | WCC
BC Premiere 2012 | USA | 80 minutes
ALL THAT YOU POSSESS
MAD SHIP
FAIR SEX
HOME AGAIN
DOCUMENTRAY
WORLD NOW
DRIVING TO THE EDGE MEET THE FOKKENS
STATUS QUO?
BEAUTY AND THE BREAST
English Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 94 minutes
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Netherlands | 80 minutes
World Premiere 2012 | Canada | 87 minutes
English Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 86 minutes
Highest grossing Canadian documentary of the year takes a very slick and frightening look at the issue of young people’s bad driving habits and addiction to speeding: from drinking to adrenaline-rush seeking, to emulating bad parental role models, this is an eye-opening shocker. (Subtitled) Thur Nov. 29 | 7pm | SLCC Fri Nov. 30 | 4.45pm | SLCC
A cinema verite study of two aging twin sisters, who have plied their trade in the world’s oldest profession in Amsterdam’s Red Light district for over 40 years. One of them still plies her trade, and the film features a few brief and very businesslike sequences of sex acts with clients. A fairly amusing and light-hearted story. (Subtitled) Thur Nov. 29 | 9.30pm | SLCC Fri Nov. 30 | 3pm | SLCC
In 1971, the government published the first ever Royal Commission on the Status of Women, and this film by Karen Cho updates the file to the present day, measuring the advances and setbacks in such areas as reproductive freedoms, childcare, spousal and workplace abuse, etc. Another provocative NFB social issue doc. Fri Nov. 30 | 9.45pm | SLCC
Polish-Canadian actress/writer Liliana Komorowska spent four years researching this moving study of a number of women diagnosed with breast cancer. Selected from a variety of backgrounds, and at various stages of the disease, their personal stories are moving and all too real. Fri Nov. 30 | 7.15pm | SLCC Sat Dec. 1 | 12pm | MP
DISCOVERIES
HIT ‘N STRUM
THE MOVIE OUT HERE
BRUCE COCKBURN PACING THE CAGE
World Premiere of the Director’s Cut 2012 | Canada | 65 minutes
This is the full-length director’s cut of a documentary commissioned by Vision TV on the iconic singer-songwriter famous for If I Had a Rocket-Launcher, amongst many other classic songs. The film focuses on political activism and spirituality, and Bruce Cockburn himself will be in attendance. Sat Dec. 1 | 7pm | SLCC
Canadian Premiere 2012 | UK | 141 minutes
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | USA | 105 minutes
Canadian Premiere 2012 | UK/Iran | 88 minutes
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | France | 105 minutes
IN THE HOUSE
KARAKARA
English Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada/Japan | 100 min
World Premiere 2012 | Canada/India | 90 minutes
Michael Apted directs this eighth entry in the series that follows a group of British school children throughout their lives, revisiting them every seven years to see how they turned out. Do the personalities and behaviours of children serve as accurate predictors of the types of adults they will become? Thur Nov. 29 | 3.30pm | SLCC
A recently discovered cache of personal letters and diary entries are read on camera by a large variety of actors (from Glenn Close to Lindsay Lohan), intercut with new archival footage of the icon who continues to haunt our collective consciousness years after her untimely death. Sat Dec. 1 | 9.30pm | SLCC
Shot underground in Tehran, the first part of this film almost landed the filmmaker in jail, as it depicts a cop raping a young woman for traveling on a motorcycle at night without a husband. She and her brother seek asylum in the English countryside, and adjust to a brand new culture. Fri Nov. 30 | 4.30pm | MP
Francois Ozon’s latest is a brilliantly structured tale of obsession and the creative impulse, as a literature professor becomes increasingly intrigued by the stories written by a student, purportedly true, about insinuating himself into a classmate’s family home. Winner of the Critics Award at TIFF. (Subtitled) Thur Nov. 29 | 6.30pm | RT
Claude Gagnon lived in Japan for ten years, so he brings an outsider’s inside knowledge of the cultural clash between East and West. A retired man in his 60s, played by Gabriel Arcand, finds a love that he was not expecting, when he meets a runaway wife in her 40s while on a holiday in Okinawa. Sat Dec. 1 | 6.30pm | MP
A first film from graduates of the Whistler short film programme, this is a very funny story of two Vancouver based entrepreneurs who travel to India to find investors and launch a new advertising company, based on the innovative but controversial idea of using birds to carry advertising messages. Sat Dec. 1 | 4pm | SLCC
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL
Western Canadian Premiere 2011 | France | 78 minutes
ZARAFA
THE PAINTING
A charming film that takes us from the Sudan to Paris via the Alps, this is the story of 10-year-old boy who befriends an orphaned giraffe named Zarafa. When he learns the giraffe is supposed to be a gift to the King of France, our young hero embarks on a wild adventure to save the giraffe from his fate. (Subtitled) Thur Nov. 29 | 4pm | RT
Wildly imaginative tale introduces an artist’s three-cast system: the Alldunns who live in a rich castle; the Halfies, drawings that aren’t quite completed; and the Sketchies, charcoal line drawings who live in the forest. When a Halfie runs to the forest past the beautiful Death Flowers, they all fall off the canvas into the studio, looking for clues to their own existence. (Subtitled) Sat Dec. 1 | 4pm | WCC
56UP
LOVE, MARILYN
LATE NIGHT TERRORFEST
DEAR MR. GACY
LOVE ORCHARD
AMERICAN MARY
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 96 minutes
Festival Premiere 2010 | Canada | 103 minutes
Canadian Premiere 2012 | USA | 104 minutes
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 103 minutes
Vancouver based Kirk Caouette wrote, directed, stars in and performs his own songs in this charming story of a street musician who refuses the help of a beautiful rich woman who hits him with her car in Vancouver’s east end. Reminiscent of the Irish hit Once, this one pursues its own story arc to an unexpected conclusion. Sat Dec. 1 | 10pm | RT
A young man starts a correspondence with the famed convicted serial killer on death row. When the latter sends him a free ticket to come for a visit, the student does not realize that he has lost the upper hand. William Forsythe is mesmerizing as Gacy. Sat Dec. 1 | 4.45pm | RT
Karen is a hotshot attorney at a prestigious conservative Washington DC law firm. She is drawn into the plight of a Mexican family when ICE raids her family’s fruit farm. Forced to choose between her ascendant career and the immigrants, she opts to represent them versus the U.S. government; while doing so, she morally resurrects herself and regains the love of her estranged father. Sat Dec. 1 | 9pm | WCC
Vancouver’s Soska sisters’ second feature is a stylish and deeply disturbing tale of a medical student who drops out of school after being raped by one of her professors, and starts performing underground surgeries on body modification enthusiasts. Her newly honed skills will soon be applied to the prof who abused her. Wed Nov. 28 | 11pm | WCC
IN CONVERSATION & TRAILBLAZER AWARD
SPOTLIGHT ON
I AM NASRINE
BIRD CO. MEDIA
GKIDS ANIMATION SHOWCASE
BATTLE ROYALE
EL TOPO
This is the movie they say was the inspiration for The Hunger Games. Unlike its American studio counterpart, this one pulls no punches as it follows a group of students ordered by the Japanese government to go to an island and kill off each other until only one is left standing. Violent social satire. (Subtitled) Thur Nov. 29 | 11pm | WCC
Alejandro Jodorowski’s blood-soaked Mexican spaghetti western serves as a metaphorical allegory, and was discovered by John Lennon during a six-month midnight only run in New York in 1970. He convinced the Beatles’ then manager Allen B. Klein to buy the rights, and the midnight movie phenomenon was born. (Subtitled) Fri Nov. 30 | 11pm | WCC
2000 | Japan | 114 minutes
TRAILBLAZER IN ANIMATION AWARD
RASHIDA JONES
DANIEL RADCLIFFE
ERIC BECKMAN
Thursday, November 29 Doors 6:30PM | Event 7:00PM I WCC Join us for an informal conversation followed by Whistler premiere of Celeste & Jesse Forever. Co-writer/actor Will McCormack in attendance.
Friday, November 30 Doors 8:30PM I Event 9:00PM I MP Join us for an intimate evening conversation with one of the industry’s brightest stars.
Saturday, December 1 4:00PM I WCC Join us to the award presentation at GKIDS Animation Showcase screening of The Painting.
1970 | Mexico | 125 minutes
IN CONVERSATION
Saturday, December 1 | 4:00PM | MP Join this year’s honored screenwriters in an entertaining and informative discussion.
THEATRES: Whistler Conference Centre (WCC), Rainbow Theatre (RT), Millennium Place (MP), Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) FILM TICKETS: Regular $12 I Matinee $10 I Seniors & Students: $10 (Must be 65+ or students 18+. ID required)
THE LAST WILL & TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH Canadian Premiere 2012 | Canada | 82 minutes
A spooky mix of haunted house and creature feature, this first film from the co-founder of Rue Morgue magazine tells the story of a young man who inherits his aunt’s antique shop, only to discover that she, along with her neighbours, was a worshipper of’ ‘angels’. Sat Dec. 1 | 11pm | WCC
THE RABBI’S CAT
Western Canadian Premiere 2011 | France | 100 minutes
Based on Joann Sfar’s comic book series of the same name and named Best Animated Film at the Césars, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, The Rabbi’s Cat tells the story of a cat in 1920’s Algeria, who after swallowing the family parrot gains the ability to speak. His first request? To convert to Judaism. (Subtitled) Fri Nov. 30 | 4pm | RT
Western Canadian Premiere 2012 | Japan | 91 minutes
The latest production from award-winning Ghibli Studios, this colorful tale features an infectious 60s soundtrack, as it tells the tale of a group of Japanese teens who try to save their school’s clubhouse, slated to be demolished to make room for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Sun Dec. 2 | 4pm | WCC
EXCLUSIVE EVENTS > FILM LOVERS UNITE FOR CHARITY
Join APJ Canada Board Member, George Stroumboulopoulos and special guests for 3 exclusive events with net proceeds to benefit the Whistler Film Festival Society & Artists for Peace and Justice. Individual tickets available.
TWEET TO WIN @whisfilmfest #WFF12
Western Canadian Premiere 2011| France | 76 minutes
SHORTWORK
VIP COCKTAIL RECEPTION
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012
Private residence | 6:00pm - 8:30pm
CELEBRITY CHALLENGE
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2012
Whistler Blackcomb | 8:30am - 3:30pm
BENEFIT DINNER
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2012
Bearfoot Bistro | 7:00pm
BUY Passes & Tickets Now
SHORTWORK 1
Thur Nov. 29 | 1pm | SLCC
SHORTWORK 2
Fri Nov. 30 | 1pm | SLCC
SHORTWORK 3
Sat Dec. 1 | 2pm | MP
SHORTWORK SHOWCASE
Sat Dec. 1 | 7pm | MAXX FISH
STUDENT SHORTWORK
Sun Dec. 2 | 12:15pm | RT
whistlerfilmfestival.com