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Peter Utsey Emerald
Festival has world views from Palestine to Lilith Fair
■This year marks the 20th
anniversary of the Vancouver
International Film Festival, with
screenings of over 300 films
By Jennifer Hezel
for the Emerald
VANCOUVER, B.C. — From
footage of Sir Ernest Shackleton's
1914 Antarctica expedition to
Spike Lee's latest flick, “A Huey P.
Newton Story,” the 20th annual
Vancouver International Film Fes
tival gave participants the chance
to go around the world through
movies.
The festival, set in the beautiful
and enchanting Canadian Rockies,
offered a total of 217 feature films
and 78 shorts, organized into 28
different themes and genres for the
i-——
viewing pleasure of film lovers.
The theme of the festival, which
started Sept. 27 and ends Oct. 12, is
“Same Planet, Different Worlds.”
While this event might not rank
as high as Cannes, Sundance or the
Toronto Film Festival, it offers film
buffs and filmmakers an array of
opportunities to see and display a
variety of movies. The films are
shown at eight participating the
aters in downtown Vancouver, and
festival organizers expected more
than 135,000 people to attend over
the course of the event.
As it has been since the festival’s
inaugural year, a special showcase
is given to Canadian filmmakers
from around the country. First-time
feature film director Robin
Schlaht’s movie “Solitude,” which
was filmed in the province of
Saskatchewan, premiered Oct. 7.
In this film, which flashed me
back to the 1990s David Lynch film
“Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,”
three people meet at a monastery
one summer and have experiences
that change their lives. “Solitude”
mainly focuses on questions of faith
and identity in the abstract, leaving
its viewers with the feeling that life
is truly about the ground beneath
our feet and the air that we breathe.
Special emphasis was also
placed upon 13 filmmakers from
the Middle East, whose work was
grouped with that of filmmakers
from approximately 60 other na
tions in the Cinema From Around
the World category.
I made it a special point to catch
“Promises,” a documentary that ad
dresses the complexities of the
Middle Eastern conflict between Is
rael and Palestine through the eyes
of seven children.
These children's stories are
honest, open and touching
because the children are less
influenced by the social and
political environment.
As a 7-year-old Palestinian said in
the movie, "What would the value
be if the Arab and the Jewish chil
dren met, and not the politicians?"
A special treat came with the
hour-and-a-half screening of the
documentary film, “Lilith on
Top,” made by Lynne
Stopkewich, a Canadian film
maker who took the last two
month-long journey on the Lilith
Fair tour.
According to the VIFF Web
site, in 1997, musician Sarah
McLachlan “set out to prove that
an all-woman line-up could be a
hit,” and Lilith Fair “became one
of the most successful multi
artist tours of the last decade.”
“Lilith on Top” is scheduled to be
in video stores and small theaters in
the United States this spring.
Passes for the festival range from
$125 to $575 in Canadian dollars. An
alternative to paying full price is to
volunteer at the festival. The Greater
Vancouver International Film Soci
ety counts on its volunteers to help
and host this event and rewards
them with tickets to individual
screenings and multiple-day passes.
For more information on this or next
year's festival, visit www.viff.org.
Jennifer Hezel is a freelance reporter for the
Oregon Daily Emerald.
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