I have been atttending the Vancouver Film Festival for the past15 years. For the last 7 years I have bought a pass instead of individual tickets because I wanted to see so many films. I have seen up to 75 films in a festival and this year I will probably see around 50. The previews start in early september for media and certain passholders, and the festival opens to the general public in late september.  This year I was only able to see 10 films during the preview time due to the fact I was traveling in europe.

The Vancouver Film Festival is known for its large selection of documentary’s. This year I understand it is almost 50 %. It also has a good selection of films from asia and there is also always a spotlight on france. I have seen movies at the vancouver festivals since the early 1990’s and am always enlighted, entertained, sometimes shocked and inspired!

This year is no exception, as the film festival is into the third day of 15. I have been seeing about 3 a day and they have been a great mix.  Yesterday for example I saw a film from Hong Kong, then Italian and the last one was from Norway. A feature film, called “Divo” from italy, based on the  true political story around 7 time Prime Minster Giulio Andreotti , a Norwegan tragic comedy feature film called O Horten, centering around a locomotive engineer(great shots from the train) who is about to be forced into retirement. The third film of the day was a gentle action romance asian film called “Sparrow”.

I remember my first couple of art house films. I was living in Saskatoon, Sask. at the time and wanted desperately to leave and experience a foreign place. I was in my early 20’s when  I stumbled upon an art house theatre. I saw a film called “Vagabond” and another film called “A woman on a verge of a nervous breakdown” by Pedro Almodovor. Both these films had a interesting influence on my life. I began to witness through storytelling both the intellectual and intensely personal side of life from different places in the world. 

You can check out the Vancouver International Film Festival at

www. viff.org