Celebs may get the lion's share of paparazzi shots at the Sundance Film Festival. But as Park City's prestigious event kicks off today, bringing another battalion of stars, distributors and indie directors to the small Utah town, Canadian filmmakers will be among that chaotic mix.
"Every year we have a huge showing from Canada. It's one of the countries we showcase the most in terms of international films," says Caroline Libresco, Senior Programmer at the Sundance Film Festival.
Telefilm Canada announced that 12 Canadian films will join the 2008 Sundance Film Festival line-up.
"I think it's a stellar year for Canadian documentaries," says Libresco. Three top runners in the World Cinema Documentary Competition include "Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma," in which director Patrick Reed follows the former head of Doctors Without Borders on his return to Africa.
"Up the Yangtze," a visual gem from director Yung Chang, takes audiences through a moving journey into a radically changing China.
Also in the running is "The Women of Brukman," director Isaac Isitan's impassioned look at some indomitable Argentine women who take over a clothing factory amidst economic chaos.
Canadian docs explore world issues
"Sundance is a small festival. We show 120 feature films, which is about a third of the size of the Toronto film festival," says Libresco. But these Canadian films made the cut because their diverse viewpoints were so compelling.
""Up the Yangtze" has this artful, visually stunning quality to it. "The Women of Brukman" has an activist quality. "Triage" has that ethical exploration to it that will awaken peoples' hearts. Each one is very different and each takes place in three different continents," says Libresco. "But they all show a range of film styles coming out of Canadian documentary filmmaking and an openness to what is happening in the world."
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Sundance bound
Films featuring Winona Ryder, Nick Nolte, Anjelica Huston and Paul Giamatti will be among those competing for top honours at Sundance. But three docs and one fanciful short from Canada will also entertain.
Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma
Patrick Reed, director
When Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. James Orbinski agreed to let his return to Rwanda, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo be filmed, he made one thing clear to director Patrick Reed. "He didn't want to be the hero. He wanted this film to be about the people and bigger issues."
Reed first met the former head of Doctors Without Borders in 2004, when he and director Peter Raymont were filming "Shake Hands With The Devil."
"It's hard to make films about Africa when you're main character is a white guy from Toronto," says Reed. But in Orbinski he found the perfect conduit between the African people and this doctor's experiences 15 years ago.
"This film resonates on a visceral level in people wanting to make a difference in this world," Libresco says of this co-production between the National Film Board of Canada and White Pine Pictures. "It addresses human suffering and humanitarianism and what that means in a world filled with so much chaos, corruption and suffering."
"As for Sundance, Reed says, "Once you get through the people and parties the response to the film is what really counts. It doesn't matter who is in the crowd if it's a good film that's touched people."
Up the Yangtze
Yung Chang, director
"The irony of Sundance is that a documentary filmmaker like me might be rubbing shoulders with Tom Cruise. It's surreal," says Canadian director Yung Chang.
Chang's lush documentary, "Up the Yangtze," could earn him some star-powered attention. In it, Chang follows the Yu family as they lose their home and livelihood to the flooding of the Three Gorges Dam. Forced to send their daughter off to work, the girl is hired by the Farewell Cruises, the boat tours that offer foreigners a final glimpse of the Yangtze River before it disappears forever.
"The cruises are like "Gosford Park" somehow," says Chang. "Older tourists are up top. The Chinese kids from the farms are below trying to make their living."
Taking his first tour in 2002 Chang says, "I walked down the embankment and coolies were carrying baggage. The river was lit and the band played "Yankee Doodle Dandy." I knew then I had a film here. It was a fish bowl, a microcosm on exploring modern China."
"This very visual film connects Chang back to his roots," Libresco says of this co-production between EyeSteelFilm and the NFB. "It also says so much about how lives are changed when humans impose themselves on the environment."
The Women of Brukman
Isaac Isitan, director
"I consider every film I make a seed that will grow around the world," says Turkish-born Isaac Isitan. A Canadian since the early '80s, it was the plight of downtrodden Argentinian women that compelled this immigrant to make "The Women of Brukman." In it Isitan tells the inspirational story of female workers who took over a Buenos Aires men's clothing factory during Argentina's financial collapse.
"This is a wonderful story about persevering and triumphing over the system," says Libresco. "We were so charmed by the women. Isitan's commitment to their story is that of a great documentarian."
"These women are legendary subjects," says Isitan. "I hope Sundance's audiences will see how they fought so passionately to get the middle and working classes on their side. How they stood up for their rights when the government couldn't."
Madame Tutli-Putli
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, directors
Winning two awards at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Canadian filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski are hoping to charm Sundance's audiences with this fanciful animated gem.
"Getting our film played at Cannes was more than we could ever hope. Going to Sundance is like eating more cake, except now it'll be Mormon cake from Aspen," laughs Szczerbowski.
In this stunning, stop-motion short produced by Canada's National Film Board, a delicate puppet named Madame Tutli-Putli takes a strange train ride, one Szczerbowski and Lavis envisioned as a kind of funeral of the 20th century. "We compressed a lot of 20th century psychoses into one little vignette," says Szczerbowski.
"It's a silent film, so I can't tell you why it's resonated with so many people," he says. Yet after four years making it the Sundance-bound duo still relish the power in this little lady's punch.
