The joy of film festivals is that you get to see a whole bunch of movies that you might not otherwise see. Some of that is okay because theres always one film that makes you question the sanity of the organizers or, more importantly, make you think “I can do that”. On the other hand, there are your art house movies, small and indie releases and finally your more ordinary mainstream films. Wherever the truth lies and whatever you think of your abilities to make movies, a world film festival offers a plethora of options and, if you have the time, you could literally sit in a theatre all day, every day, for the duration of the festival.
As timing would have it, I would be in Montreal during their World Film Festival. The festival ran from August 21st to September 1st, 2014 inclusive and was based in downtown Montreal, though most of the screenings occurred at the Cinéma Cineplex Odeon on Rue Emery (right across from the 3 Brasseurs pub). There were a few free movies screened on Sainte-Catherine W. Street on the Place des Arts, usually starting at 8pm or so while the Cinéma Impérial on de Bleury Street was also dressed up for the occasion. The festival program was available both in print and online which was very helpful. General admission was about $10, but I bought a festival pass for $70 that included 10 tickets. Well worth the price, in my opinion.
Although the movies I saw tended to be from Europe, Asia and the Middle East, the festival included contributions from all over. I ended up seeing about 15 or so films during the 10-day festival. The standouts were often the films in competition while the ones that were less than stellar were often part of the more experimental category.
It goes hand in hand with wanting to see anything local that I go to world film festivals such as the FFM/MFF. I often search out local films when I travel but region encoding and weight often prevent me from seeing many. This was most apparent with a movie such as Tears of the Black Tiger which, based on my experience, would qualify as a great movie to watch in Thailand while imbibing Chaang Beer and having a group of international backpackers around you. Paying for it at a film festival seems a little excessive. On the other hand, a film such a Talyn Naadan “Steppe Games” from the Buryati region of the Russian Federation or Bing Du “Ice Poison” from Myanmar that may otherwise not receive wide distribution, are notable admissions to the world film festival circuit.
Others, however, may receive wider distribution after they run the festival circuit. War Wen Kay’s The Grandmaster (in Mandarin with English subtitle) is about the guy who taught the famous Ip Man. (Update Feb 1, 2015: I have seen posters for this movie only now in Beijing, China.) Next, Wladyslaw Pasikowski’s Jack Strong should receive wider distribution as it’s a classic spy thriller and based on a true story. Overall, it’s hard to pick out the “must see” films because the line up, as far as I could tell, was pretty solid.
I picked up a little bit of apprehension about the Montreal film festival as one attendee expressed her dismay that there were multiple screenings and that attendance was down. On the other hand, the Wikipedia entry for the festival suggests that the festival is one of the few festivals that hands out awards. Sadly, a few folks compared that festival to its Toronto counterpart, TIFF, a festival that doesn’t give out awards but does generate “Oscar buzz”.
Most of the films I saw were pretty good but a few were either awful or simply not very clear on what they were trying to do. With the Montreal FFM, however, the tickets were cheap enough that you could afford a few errors. With the 10-ticket movie pass I found myself scheduling my off-days around the Festival starting very early in the morning and going into the night.
Here is the complete list of movies I saw at the Festival:
The Mafia Only Kills in Summer – Pierfrancesco Diliberto aka “Pif”, Colour, 90 minutes, Italy, 2013
Njinga – Rainha de Angola / Queen of Angola – Sergio Graciano, Colour, 99 minutes, Angola, 2013
Sanbun No Ichi / One Third – Hiroshi Shinagawa, Colour, 120 minutes, Japan, 2013
Jack Strong – Wladyslaw Pasikowski, Colour, 127 minutes, Poland, 2014
Syn / The Son – Arseny Gonchukov, B/W, 93 minutes, Russia, 2014
Bing Du / Ice Poison – Midi Z, Colour, 95 minutes, Myanmar, 2014
Talyn Naadan / Steppe Games – Bair Dyshenov, Colour, 90 minutes, Russia, 2014
Travelator – Dusan Milic, Colour, 99 minutes, Serbia, 2014
Barf / Snow – Mehdi Rahmani, Colour, 90 minutes, Iran, 2014
Psie Pole / Field of dogs – Lech Majewski, Colour, 102 minutes, Poland, 2014
Were Dengê Min / Come to My Voice – Hüseyin Karabey, Colour, 105 minutes, Germany, France, Turkey, 2013
Yi Dai Zong Shi / The Grandmaster – Wong Kar Wai, Colour, 122 minutes, 2013
Fah Talai Jone / Tears of The Black Tiger – Wisit Sasanatieng, Colour, 110 minutes, Thailand, 2000
Rastres De Sàndal / Traces of Sandalwood – Maria Ripoll, Colour, 95 minutes, Spain, India, 2014
Ella / She – Libia Stella Gomez, Colour & B/W, 105 minutes, Colombia, 2014