Winter 2008

Lights, Spirit, Action

by Nancy Lanthier

Filmmakers who can't land a traditional deal are quickly learning that online distribution is bcoming a viable outlet.

Radheyan Simonpillai

"[Making Leningradsksaya] was a matter of slowly revealing the story with a lot of silence and landscape to punctuate and contain the horror of this great human suffering."

John Walker

"There in nothing "generous" about denying $1.76m to a film that qualified for it or diminishing the amount promised."

Mark Achbar

"A gritty, no-budget pot boiler, Curtis's Charm is a stylish tragedy, a film rife with tension..."

Matthew Hays

"Rather than seeking one specific memory of a place, Agnès Varda's Les Plages 'Agnès uses the symbol of th ebeach as connective tissue between a hudnred different scenes from her life."

Jessica Duffin Wolfe

"The goal of any filmmaker at a festival should be to garner as much attention for his or her film while spending as little money as possible."

Morgan Spulock (Super Size Me)

"I've kind of looked at Cirque du Soleil as being a little like the NFB [National Film Board]...They were kind of like my second or third film school because they let me do what I wanted to do each time."

Adrian Willis

"Lepage's "language" is that of improvisation, and his mother tongue in music is experimental jazz."

Heidi McKenzie

"We live in a media world... a world where wars are not fought on the battleground. Wars are fought in the media. Change can also happen in the media."

Velcrow Ripper

In his new documentary film, Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action, Velcrow Ripper sets out to document non-violent protests around the world. The Toronto-based filmmaker is searching for examples of peaceful activism—what Gandhi called “soul force.” Compared to Ripper’s Genie-winning ScaredSacred, which sought hope in the world’s most dangerous places, including Cambodia, Afghanistan, Israel, where he was shot at, and New York City, where he happened to be on September 11, Fierce Light’s mission would seem a relatively less dangerous pursuit.

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