New Documentary | Vancouver Premieres “One of the most influential movies that you have likely never seen ... What is astonishing about the movie, even today, is the joie de vivre, cinematic and otherwise, with which it levels its critique.” J. HOBERMAN, ARTINFO
“Marvellous ... What distinguishes the film most is its wit, both verbal and visual ... It is simultaneously illuminating and funny.”
“Ed is definitely ‘special’ ... A documentary that is equally, and oddly, sad, funny, and inspiring.” SCOTT GRAY, EXCLAIM!
“An offbeat and often hilarious story about a modern day composite of Don Quixote, Peter Pan, Chaplin’s Tramp, Job, and Sisyphus.” HOT DOCS FESTIVAL, TORONTO
“One of Wiseman’s best, a summation of sorts of a career’s worth of principled filmmaking.” LESLIE FELPERIN, VARIETY
“A multifaceted drama of people and ideas ... Wiseman has established himself as one of America’s greatest chroniclers in any medium.” NICOLAS RAPOLD, NEW YORK TIMES
GEOFF ANDREW, TIME OUT
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ANNIVERSARY RESTORATION
SPECIAL
(The Lovely Month of May) France 1963. Directors: Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme
A retrospective of the singular cinema of the late, great French filmmaker Chris Marker (La Jetée, Sans Soleil) was presented at The Cinematheque earlier this year. This gorgeous new restoration of the long-unavailable La Joli Mai, one of Marker’s signature works, “The greatest was showcased at the 2013 Cannes and documentary Toronto film festivals. We’re pleased about Paris.” to present its Vancouver premiere. TROIS COULEURS, PARIS “Meticulously restored by the film’s cinematographer and co-director, Pierre Lhomme, according to Marker’s instructions, and featuring a lovely English voiceover (Marker’s preference for Anglophone audiences) by Marker’s comrade and friend Simone Signoret, Le Joli Mai emerges as one of the director’s most poignant and important works. Characteristically witty and generous, Marker’s epic ‘direct cinema’ inquiry into the possibility of happiness during France’s first springtime of peace in many years (following the recently-signed ceasefire that ended the Algerian War) is structured in two parts. ‘A Prayer from the Eiffel Tower’ orchestrates a heady polyphony of Parisians offering acerbic and sometimes hilarious observations on the state of the nation. ‘The Return of Fantômas’ broadens the film’s scope to examine the social and political history of Paris, including recent street demonstrations, racial tensions, and — the future always contiguous with the past in Marker’s cinema — technological revolution. ‘Is this the most beautiful city in the world?’ Marker muses. ‘One would like to see it for the first time.’ In its philosophical and poetic profusion, Le Joli Mai allows us that virginal vantage” (James Quandt, Toronto I.F.F.). B&W, HDCAM, in English and French with English subtitles. 145 mins. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – 4:00 PM & 7:00 PM SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10 – 6:30 PM MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11 – 6:30 PM WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13 – 8:30 PM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 – 8:30 PM
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Canada 2013. Director: John Paskievich With: Ed Ackerman
Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times alarming, this Crumb-like portrait of an eccentric Canadian artist comes from John Paskievich (Ted Baryluk’s Grocery, The Gypsies of Svinia), one of Canada’s premiere documentary filmmakers. Paskievich, who is also a noted photographer, was the subject of a career retrospective at The Cinematheque in 2002. In Special Ed, which received its world premiere at this year’s Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, he turns his lens upon another filmmaker: animator, shit-disturber, and own-worst-enemy Ed Ackerman. Ackerman’s groundbreaking animation work with text and typescript — Primiti Too Taa is the best known — once earned him a Genie nomination and screenings around the world. Now, Ackerman lives in a rundown, crime-ridden Winnipeg neighbourhood, where he attempts to resuscitate his stalled career and save his three derelict houses from the wrecking ball, all the while waging quixotic fights against city hall — and the hydro company, phone company, tax department, and police. Ackerman’s impractical dreams seem to keep coming up hard against his apparent history of failed relationships, losing battles, and doomed projects. His hopeless runs for public office – city council, parliament – garner mere dozens of votes. Paskievich’s special documentary captures its wayward subject with great poignancy. Colour, HDCAM. 100 mins.
USA 2013. Director: Frederick Wiseman With: Robert J. Birgeneau, George W. Breslauer, Robert Reich
The latest from American documentary master Frederick Wiseman (Titicut Follies, High School, Crazy Horse) is a monumental, immersive, indepth study of the inner workings of the University of California at Berkeley, during a time when the legendarily radical campus was facing radical new fiscal challenges. “Wiseman has dedicated the past four decades to documenting how people function inside of institutions. Now he turns to one of the most sprawling and complex organizations of his career: Wiseman and cameraman John Davey embedded themselves at the school during the fall of 2010 while a vigorous debate was taking place over tuition hikes and budget cuts. The resulting four-hour film gives us unrestrained access inside classrooms, student protests, and administrative meetings, as newcomers and old-timers alike hash out the future of higher education in the United States. Berkeley has a storied reputation as a battleground for free speech. Today, the school attracts high-profile professors such as Robert Reich (former US Secretary of Labor), and pursues cutting-edge research that earns vital revenue. But cutbacks are felt throughout the school ... Wiseman practices his craft with great subtlety. As viewers, we’re dropped into situations and left to figure out what’s going on and how we feel about it” (Thom Powers, Toronto I.F.F.) Wiseman’s next film, National Gallery, will be about the National Gallery in London. Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 244 mins.
PRECEDED BY
Primiti ToO TaA Canada 1986. Directors: Ed Ackerman, Colin Morton
Concrete poetry in motion, with nonsense phrases and primitive sounds meeting their typed representation. A witty tribute to the absurdist tradition of Dada and to Canada’s master of abstract animation Norman McLaren, the film was nominated for a Genie. B&W, 3 mins. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 – 6:30 PM
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At Berkeley
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8 – 1:30 PM & 6:30 PM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11 – 6:30 PM