Toronto auf der Berlinale: Then we take Berlin
Ort: Toronto
Ereignis: Torontoer Filmemacher auf der Berlinale 2007
Clement Virgo joins a host of Canadian filmmakers ready to make their mark at next week's Berlinale film festival
BERLIN, Germany–Around this time last year, Clement Virgo wasn't just hanging out at the Berlin International Film Festival, watching as the foreign buyers snapped up rights to his 2005 film “Lie With Me.”
He was also busy prepping his next film, “Poor Boy's Game,” a boxing drama that digs into themes of race and tribalism in Canadian communities, which he shot in Halifax in June. Next week he returns to Berlin for the movie's world premiere.
At 40, Virgo is hitting his stride as a director internationally – and he appears to be doing it on his own terms, asking hard questions "in an honest way, hoping to engage people as well as entertain them.
"We don't do well in this country when we try to imitate what others are doing, like creating American-style genre films," Virgo said in the run-up to the festival.
"We do well when we do very specific, idiosyncratic Canadian films. That means making films about things we know – and when we do that, I think those films translate well and resonate around the world."
Virgo is part of a stellar lineup of Canadian directors set to show their works at the prestigious Berlinale, which runs Feb. 8 to 18.
Among the nine features and two short films to be presented, three are world premieres. Another eight films, including Ian Iqbal Rashid's recent Sundance sensation “How She Moves,” will be screened separately through Telefilm's Perspective Canada-Berlin initiative in the hopes of finding international distributors.
After an impressive showing here last year (with Marc Evans's Snow Cake opening the competition and Claude Gagnon's Kamataki widely praised), Canadian filmmakers are waiting to see if their works create another stir in Berlin this time around – possibly even from some of the newcomers in the field.
"I didn't do this film as a way of making a political statement," said 36-year-old Gariné Torossian, whose family immigrated to Canada from Lebanon in 1979.
Torossian's first feature film, “Stone Time Touch,” starring Arsinée Khanjian (“Sabah, Ararat”), explores issues of Armenian identity and the meaning of homeland.
A resident of Toronto, Torossian has shown 19 short films internationally, including “Girl From Moush” (1994), which won Best Experimental Film at the Melbourne Film Festival. (…)
"The theme of identity and imagination has concerned me from the beginning of my work. I feel Canadian and the more I connect with other places the more Canadian I feel. (But) Armenia was always the destination," Torossian said. (…)
As for Canada's more recognizable names on the Berlin circuit, Bruce McDonald is here with his world premiere, coming-of-age story “The Tracey Fragments” starring Ellen Page, which opens the Panorama program of the festival.
Driven by a rockin' and rollin' musical score, “Fragments” is based on the novel by Vancouver author Maureen Medved and represents a virtual comeback for McDonald, who has struggled through filmmaking mishaps over the last six years.
Not to be forgotten: it was in Berlin where the Kingston-born McDonald saw his first feature, “Roadkill,” premiere in 1989.
Another headliner is Sarah Polley, who turns from acting to directing with her first feature, “Away From Her. “
Julie Christie stars in this film adapted from a story by Alice Munro about a couple coming to grips with Alzheimer's disease. Having made an unexpected splash last month at Sundance, the film's European premiere may be what launches the 28-year-old Canadian star's career internationally.
Creating a different sort of stir is Guy Maddin with an experimental silent film about his remembered childhood, “Brand Upon the Brain! “
For its European premiere on Feb. 15, the film will be performed at the historic Deutsche Oper Berlin featuring a live orchestra and narration by Isabella Rossellini.
Other Canadian flicks to watch for include Catherine Martin's meandering journeys of In the Cities and The Spirit of Places; Salif Traore's Faro, about a man's return to his African village; John Price's short View of the Falls from the Canadian Side; Andrew Currie's Fido (Bill Connolly) about a zombie-infested town; Reg Harkema's Monkey Warfare; Robert Favreau's A Sunday in Kigali; and Jennifer Baichwal's Manufactured Landscapes, about photographer Edward Burtynsky's pursuit to document China's vast industrial revolution.
If Telefilm's executive director Wayne Clarkson is right – that Canadian cinema with its "sense of wide-eyed adventure and whimsy ... has what it takes to light up the world's screens" – then it's safe to expect not only the German public's approval, but a jump in global sales when Canadian films hit Berlin next week.
"We're seeing a new generation," Virgo said, citing the boost that innovative filmmakers like Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg and Denys Arcand gave to Canadian cinema in the early 1990s. (…)
"We are on the verge of a renaissance. And I'm hoping to be part of that movement."
Ereignis: Torontoer Filmemacher auf der Berlinale 2007
Clement Virgo joins a host of Canadian filmmakers ready to make their mark at next week's Berlinale film festival
BERLIN, Germany–Around this time last year, Clement Virgo wasn't just hanging out at the Berlin International Film Festival, watching as the foreign buyers snapped up rights to his 2005 film “Lie With Me.”
He was also busy prepping his next film, “Poor Boy's Game,” a boxing drama that digs into themes of race and tribalism in Canadian communities, which he shot in Halifax in June. Next week he returns to Berlin for the movie's world premiere.
At 40, Virgo is hitting his stride as a director internationally – and he appears to be doing it on his own terms, asking hard questions "in an honest way, hoping to engage people as well as entertain them.
"We don't do well in this country when we try to imitate what others are doing, like creating American-style genre films," Virgo said in the run-up to the festival.
"We do well when we do very specific, idiosyncratic Canadian films. That means making films about things we know – and when we do that, I think those films translate well and resonate around the world."
Virgo is part of a stellar lineup of Canadian directors set to show their works at the prestigious Berlinale, which runs Feb. 8 to 18.
Among the nine features and two short films to be presented, three are world premieres. Another eight films, including Ian Iqbal Rashid's recent Sundance sensation “How She Moves,” will be screened separately through Telefilm's Perspective Canada-Berlin initiative in the hopes of finding international distributors.
After an impressive showing here last year (with Marc Evans's Snow Cake opening the competition and Claude Gagnon's Kamataki widely praised), Canadian filmmakers are waiting to see if their works create another stir in Berlin this time around – possibly even from some of the newcomers in the field.
"I didn't do this film as a way of making a political statement," said 36-year-old Gariné Torossian, whose family immigrated to Canada from Lebanon in 1979.
Torossian's first feature film, “Stone Time Touch,” starring Arsinée Khanjian (“Sabah, Ararat”), explores issues of Armenian identity and the meaning of homeland.
A resident of Toronto, Torossian has shown 19 short films internationally, including “Girl From Moush” (1994), which won Best Experimental Film at the Melbourne Film Festival. (…)
"The theme of identity and imagination has concerned me from the beginning of my work. I feel Canadian and the more I connect with other places the more Canadian I feel. (But) Armenia was always the destination," Torossian said. (…)
As for Canada's more recognizable names on the Berlin circuit, Bruce McDonald is here with his world premiere, coming-of-age story “The Tracey Fragments” starring Ellen Page, which opens the Panorama program of the festival.
Driven by a rockin' and rollin' musical score, “Fragments” is based on the novel by Vancouver author Maureen Medved and represents a virtual comeback for McDonald, who has struggled through filmmaking mishaps over the last six years.
Not to be forgotten: it was in Berlin where the Kingston-born McDonald saw his first feature, “Roadkill,” premiere in 1989.
Another headliner is Sarah Polley, who turns from acting to directing with her first feature, “Away From Her. “
Julie Christie stars in this film adapted from a story by Alice Munro about a couple coming to grips with Alzheimer's disease. Having made an unexpected splash last month at Sundance, the film's European premiere may be what launches the 28-year-old Canadian star's career internationally.
Creating a different sort of stir is Guy Maddin with an experimental silent film about his remembered childhood, “Brand Upon the Brain! “
For its European premiere on Feb. 15, the film will be performed at the historic Deutsche Oper Berlin featuring a live orchestra and narration by Isabella Rossellini.
Other Canadian flicks to watch for include Catherine Martin's meandering journeys of In the Cities and The Spirit of Places; Salif Traore's Faro, about a man's return to his African village; John Price's short View of the Falls from the Canadian Side; Andrew Currie's Fido (Bill Connolly) about a zombie-infested town; Reg Harkema's Monkey Warfare; Robert Favreau's A Sunday in Kigali; and Jennifer Baichwal's Manufactured Landscapes, about photographer Edward Burtynsky's pursuit to document China's vast industrial revolution.
If Telefilm's executive director Wayne Clarkson is right – that Canadian cinema with its "sense of wide-eyed adventure and whimsy ... has what it takes to light up the world's screens" – then it's safe to expect not only the German public's approval, but a jump in global sales when Canadian films hit Berlin next week.
"We're seeing a new generation," Virgo said, citing the boost that innovative filmmakers like Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg and Denys Arcand gave to Canadian cinema in the early 1990s. (…)
"We are on the verge of a renaissance. And I'm hoping to be part of that movement."
von Michael Levitin, Toronto Star, 2. Februar 2007
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