FNC 2017: Après coup

APRÈS COUP
FOCUS QUEBEC / CANADA

IN COMPETITION
WORLD PREMIER

CANADA | 94 MINUTES | 2017 | French with English Subtitles

The film is about a family in distress after a tragic accident that happened to their daughter's friend. Especially affected is the father who assumes a full personal responsibility for what had happened, though he did not cause the accident. In his mind, all is about the timing and him asking the girl to go home after the afternoon spent with his daughter playing. He becomes obsessed with his personal guilt to the extent he is not able to carry on with his regular daily responsibilities. This affects his professional and family life and his relationship with his wife and daughter. His wife forces him to see a psychiatrist. Yet the medication he is prescribed and that is supposed to help him has no effect on him and  after a while he refuses to take it. Threatened with by his wife that he will have to move out if he does not do anything about his condition that is destructive to her and their daughter, he finally unwillingly and reluctantly goes to see a psychologist.

This film introduces to the audience two techniques used by some psychologists to help their clients to overcome the post traumatic stress and guilt. This information might prove useful for some viewers as it reveals methods that could alleviate either their personal or their loved ones issues.

- The first technique is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy. This method has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma and many other mental and emotional problems.

- The second technique is IADC (Induced After-Death Communication) Therapy which helps to heal deep sadness and guild associated with the death of a family member, a friend, or a loved one.

The film could most likely be used by the qualified psychologists as an additional tool to help introduce their clients to these techniques. It is sensitively enacted by the cast and illustrates how a family's harmony could be re-established after conflicts, shocks or traumas that a family member or members had endured.

FNC OFFICIAL TRAILER

"When his daughter’s best friend is killed in an accident, a father undergoes psychotherapy to cope with the emotional fallout. Family man Marc grapples with the post-traumatic stress that ensues when he witnesses his daughter’s best friend being fatally struck by a car just after leaving his house. Haunted by the images, torturing himself with blame, he agrees to undergo psychotherapy — a treatment that proves harrowing. Backed as always by his favourite lead (Laurent Lucas), Mitrani dissects the insidiousness of guilt as well as the unsuspected possibilities of survival."

PRODUCTION TEAM

DIRECTOR: Noël Mitrani

SCREENWRITER: Noël Mitrani

^{ACTORS: Laurent Lucas, Laurence Dauphinais, Mohsen El Gharbi, Pascale Bussières, Natacha Mitrani}

PRODUCER: Gapian Films

FILM TRAILER

SCREENING

THURSDAY OCTOBER 12, 2017

Program #241, 13:00, Cineplex Odeon Quartier SALLE 17

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

FNC 2017: Indian Horse

INDIAN HORSE

FOCUS   QUEBEC / CANADA

CANADA | 100 MINUTES | 2017

The film is based on the novel by a Canadian author and journalist Richard Wagamese who was an Ojibwe from the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in northwestern Ontario.

The film deals with the dark past of the Canadian history for which in 2008 the Prime Minister of Canada Stephan Harper had apologized to the former students of the Indian residential school system. They were boarding schools for the Indigenous peoples' children, founded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. Its purpose was to remove children from the influence of their own culture to assimilate them into the dominant Canadian way of life. Over its more than hundred years of existence, about 150,000 (roughly 30%) of Indigenous children were placed in residential schools, and 6,000 of them (it is speculated more than that) have died while there.

The film portrays a story of an Ojibwee boy Saul Indian Horse who was removed from his community and his cultural roots at the age of eight and brought to a Residential school. It portrays the cold, strict and inhuman environment in those schools, and the hardships the native children had to endure. The only way Saul could bear his fate was to get involved with hockey. He had an uncanny skill to feel the spirit of the game inside himself, to become one with that spirit, to master the game to the highest level of proficiency with all its intricacies, strategies, moves and passes. It was hockey that helped him to endure the unbearable environment of the residential school that also brought him out of it earlier than required. He was destined for success, yet overwhelmed by the racist attitude he encountered even from his team mates, he began the painful journey to his own native roots and healing...  

FNC  FILM SYNOPSES

"Inheritance, family bonds and identity are at the heart of this coming-of-age story based on the novel by Richard Wagamese. Spanning several decades, the film follows the difficult journey of Saul Indian Horse, a young Ojibwa boy who grew up in 1960s Ontario. Scarred by the spirit-destroying effects of residential school, he battles racism while developing his outstanding talent for hockey. Indian Horse takes an ambitious approach, peeling back the layers of “official” Canadian history as it paints a moving portrait of resilience."

Director: Stephen S. Camplianel

Writer: Dennis Foon

Starring: Sladen Peltier, Forrest Goodluck, Ajuawak Kapashesit 

SCREENING

 

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 11, 2017

Program #214, 19:00, Cineplex Odeon Quartier SALLE 17

FRIDAY OCTOBER 13, 2017

Program #273, 17:00, Cineplex Odeon Quartier SALLE 17

The film's director Stephen S. Camplianel will be present at both screenings to answer the audience's questions.

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

FNC 2017: Gabriel and the Mountain

Gabriel and the Mountain
International Panorama

BRAZIL , FRANCE | 127 MINUTES | 2017 

The film was awarded two prizes at the Critics' Week in Cannes :

• Gan Foundation Award for Distribution
• France 4 Visionary Award 

The film is based on a true story of Gabriel Buchmann, filmed and created by the Director Fellipe Barbosa, Gabriel's school friend.

The film begins with showing Gabriel Buchmann's last destination at the Mulanje mountain massive in Malawi after having descended from its highest Sapitwa Peak. The magnificent mountainous vistas set the tone to the subsequent portrayal of what type of a man Gabriel was, how concerned he was about poor strata of human societies around the world. It is a travel-log documenting the last African segment of Gabriel's year-long world wide journey, having already spent 10 months on the road. It alludes to some of his former destinations, but focuses squirrelly only on his final and very exotic African segment.

Fellipe Barbosa's work resurrects the memory of his friend. He used Gabriel's notes, photos taken by him and retrieved from his camera, and also the memories of his girlfriend, his friends, and the people he met in Africa and who befriended and helped him on his journey.  

Gabriel was accepted for Doctoral Studies in economics at the UCLA. Before entering this prestigious American university in California, and not satisfied with the standard socio-economic theories why poor people exist even in overall prosperous societies, he decided to do an in-field research and use this material for his dissertation. The conversations and arguments he has with his girlfriend who joins him on her short African stop-over elucidate some of his social concerns and his dissatisfactions of the accepted academic views.

His death on the Mulanje slope remains a mystery. Or was it just as what his last African guide warned him about?

FNC FILM SYNOPSES

"From Brazil to Africa, a coming-of-age tale about an idealistic traveller and his voyage of self-discovery triggered by culture shock. For his sophomore feature, Brazilian director Fellipe Barbosa (Casa Grande) re-examines a news item about a real-life former classmate. Gabriel and the Mountain recreates the economics student’s last 70 days after he sets off enthusiastically to discover Africa but mysteriously disappears while climbing Mount Mulanje in Malawi. Tragic and elegiac."

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Fellipe Barbosa

Screenwriters : Fellipe Barbosa, Lucas Paraizo, Kirill Mikhanovsky

Cinematographer : Pedro Sotero

Editor : Théo Lichtenberger

Sound : Pedro Sá Earp, Waldir Xavier

Sound Mixer : Bruno Tarrière

Art Director : Ana Paula Cardoso

Lead Actors : João Pedro Zappa and Caroline Abras

Casting : Amanda Gabriel

Music : Arthur B. Gillette

Producers : Rodrigo Letier, Roberto Berliner, Clara Linhart, Yohann Cornu

Co-Producers : Olivier Père, Rémi Burah, Vincho Nchogu

Executive Producer : Mauro Pizzo

Production : TV Zero, Damned Films
Coproduction : Arte France Cinéma, Canal Brasil

Distribution (Canada) : Chantale Pagé – MAISON 4:3  

Original version in English, Portuguese, Swahili, Chichewa, French – with English or French subtitles.

About the Filmmaker Fellipe Barbosa

Born in Rio de Janeiro, he directed the short films La Muerte es pequeña and Salt Kiss, selected at NYFF, Clermont-Ferrand, Guadalajara and Sundance. In 2008, he developed the screenplay of Casa Grande at the Sundance labs; the film premiered at Rotterdam's competition in 2014. Gabriel and the Mountain is his second fiction feature. 

FILM TRAILER  

SCREENING

FRIDAY OCTOBER 6, 2017

Program #35 / 18:30 / Cinéma du Parc 2
TUESDAY OCTOBER 10, 2017
Program #160 /14:40 /Cinéma du Parc 1

N.B. Both screenings will be hosted by the film's director Fellipe Barbosa.

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

Gabriel and the Mountain will open in theatres on October 6. 

The film will screen in its original version with English subtitles at Cineplex Forum (Montreal), and in its original version with French subtitles at Cinéma Beaubien (Montreal), Cinéma Le Clap (Quebec), La Maison du Cinéma (Sherbrooke), Cinéma Le Tapis Rouge (Trois-Rivières) and Cinema Pine (Ste-Adèle).

FNC 2017

Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal

46th Edition

October 4 - 15, 2017

This year's program presents over 400 films and other cinematographic events that will be distributed over 11 days of the festival's activities. The festival will present 383 films - 167 feature films and 181 short films from 68 countries. There will be 43 world premieres, 15 international premieres, 45 North American premieresm including 50 Canadian premieres.

Festival's Opening Event

The festival will kick of on October 4, 2017, at the Place des Art's Maisonneuve Theatre with the film Blade Runner 2049 by a Quebec director Denis Villeneuve. It is his fourth Hollywood feature film with a cast led by Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 - Official Trailer

Festival's Awards Night

The festival's awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, October 14, 2017, followed by the screening of the film Loving Vincent directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman. This is an animated masterpiece that chronicles the final days of legendary painter Vincent Van Gogh through 120 of his works that required 65,000 frames hand-painted by some 120 artists.

LOVING VINCENT - Official Trailer

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

Renzo Carbonera: Stop and Listen

Stop and Listen
Documentary film by Renzo Carbonera 

Italy / 54 min. / 2010 / English subtitles

Polyphonic Choir of Ruda is one of hundreds of all-male choirs in Italy. Regardless of the fierce competition, it gained musical international hights of recognition and appreciation.

Polyphonic (polyphony) in vocal musical tradition implies singing simultaneously more than two parts, each with a melody of it's own. Choral tradition has deep roots especially in Northern Italy where local choirs are a pride of their communities. A small town of Ruda, with a population of less than 3,000 people, is located in Italy's north-est corner, about 10 km from the border with Slovenia. Their choir underwent a major decline at the turn of the millennia and a solution was sought in finding a new choir director. Unusual and maybe even controversial, the choice fell on Fabiana Nato, a female, who became the choir's director in 2004. This broke with the well established tradition of all-male-choirs being directed by a man.

The film little by little introduces a spectator to the Italian tradition of vocal choir music and to the history of Ruda's choir. It shows the type of men who let their lives to be intertwined with the life of the choir, and their reasons why they join on a purely voluntary bases without any pay. It reveals their true passion for the music they sing, their deep need to express their worldly existence through this artistic activity, and their respect and appreciation for their choir director.

The true focus of the film is Fabiana Noro, the lovely and enigmatic choir's director, the only salaried person, who resurrected the choir from their slumps and brought them to the world's recognition. This slim and elegant lady, who at first appears to be too fragile to manage a 40 men choir, became a driving force in their lives, with her iron will reinforcing their motivation and commitment to achieve perfection. Amazingly, none of the singers can even read a musical score. Their mastery is all based only on their auditory and vocal skills that they continuously train and perfect.

The film shows the problems with finding funds and the appropriate repertoire that would attract audiences. Fabiana is searching for new songs for their program, new musical challenges. Not all her venues are fruitful. Luckily, she avoids disasters that brake many creators when they try to catch the "in" styles and forms, or try to appear advanced and innovative, which could lead to their art becoming quite banal, regardless of the public's initial interest.

It is only after a conversion with a choir member that Fabiana realizes what her choir is all about, how it has to be based on what comes deep from the choir members themselves, from inside their beings, what resonates with their hearts and souls, since they are the ones who are the true instruments of their art. With that insight, Fabiana is finally able to navigate her choir to their highest successes and achievements.  

This is an inspiring film to see. It raises questions of what is true artistic authenticity, what makes true art, how to gain audiences' attention and appreciation by simply honouring and being your true self.

This documentary served as an inspiration for Renzo Carbonera to create his first full length feature film RESINA (2017), which was shown at the Montreal World Film Festival 2017 in the category FIRST FEATURE FILM. You can read more about it here.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Renzo Carbonera

Story Line: Gino Pennacchi, Dino Gentili, Renzo Carbonera

Participants: Fabiana Noro, Adriano Bon, Pierpaolo Gratton, Anedi Sdrigotti, Gianni Casatto

Photography: Luca Coassin

Editing: Alessandro Sabbioni ed Ennio Guerrat

Sound: Francesco Morosini

Music: Coro Polifonico di Ruda

Production: Tico Film (Sarah Pennacchi, Gino Pennacchi)

International sales: Poorhouse International ltd (Dr Moritz Reiner)

Stop and Listen FILM TRAILER   

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2017: Resina

RESINA

FIRST FILM WORLD COMPETITION
Italy

Inspired by a true story.

At the end of its last screening at the Montreal World Film Festival 2017, during the Q & A session with the director Renzo Carbonera, a woman from the audience called the film "a pearl". Indeed, this film is a real gem. The cinematography is great, the sceneries from the Northern Italy where the film action is set inspire a desire to be in that countryside, to walk on its mountainous paths, and to see those magnificent vistas in person. Yet not only visual senses grab viewer's attention, the auditory elements are foremost as they introduce the audience to the unique sound of an all male choir and to their superb singing (watch the film trailer at the end of the article). 

The film has two themes that are intertwined. One deals with the reinvention of a male choir that has come to its total decline, far from its former glory when it was winning prizes and choir competitions not only in Italy but internationally. And the second themes deals with an edgy and at first distant personage Maria, the main heroin, who returns to her native village after the disappointments in the big world, and unwittingly, and even at first unwillingly becomes the saviour, motivator, and a kind of an inspiring "guardian angel" that resurrects the choir, giving it a new sound and artistic face. In the process, she also reinvents herself and her life, overcoming her former personal and artistic rejections, and establishing her own musical career as an accomplished director of an all male choir.

The film's title RESINA in Italian means a tree resin. Resin is a liquid stored in the outer cells of trees that is highly viscous in the beginning but gets hardened when treated. It is used to manufacture lacquer, varnish, jewellery, and perfumes, and is also used to seal and hold together wooden sculptures and boats. It is an appropriate name for the film as it symbolizes the pine-wooded region where it is set, and the hardening and solidifying of both Maria's character and the choir's artistic existence from their previous amorphous states. Ending in letter "a", the word Resina sounds feminine, as if it were Maria's artistic name, representing her strength that has glued the choir and made it hold together.

The film was shot in Luserna, Maria's native village situated in the area that was annexed to Italy after the World War I, prior to that being close to the Italian border but inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The inhabitants still speak an ancient Germanic language called Cimbric which is rapidly becoming extinct. Only about 100 people in Luserna (or Lusérn in Cimbric) use this language in their everyday life. Another 100 understand it and either don't speak it or speak it badly. The population is ageing, and the new terminologies and concepts of the contemporary world cannot be expressed in this ancient Cimbric language, so it is rapidly being replaced by the modern Italian.

Make a point to see this gem of a film, it is intriguing and inspiring. You will also hear the sounds of the language as spoken by its natives speakers, the language which most likely will no longer exist within another decade or two. And you will hear their two beautiful and haunting traditional folk songs as arranged by the film's music director Luca Ciut.

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

Male choir and female director. A family and a small community need binding together in order to face challenges of the future.

Production Team

Director : Renzo Carbonera
Screenwriter : Renzo Carbonera, Alessandro Bandinelli

Cinematographer : Harald Erschbaumer

Country : Italy

Length : 90 min.

Editor : Elena Cabria

Cast : Maria Roveran, Thierry Toscan, Alessandro Averone, Jasmin Mairhofer, Mirko Artuso, Vasco Mirandola, Andrea Pennacchi, Diego Pagotto.

Music : Luca Ciut

RESINA was inspired by a story featured in Renzo Carbonero' previous documentary film Stop and Listen (2010). You can read about this documentary film here.

FILM TRAILER on VIMEO

This is not an official trailer which will be published later this fall when the film is released in Italy. At this point, it is only a teaser.

https://vimeo.com/226657653

Director Renzo Carbonera presented his film at MWFF 2017 before the projection and answered the audiences' questions after the film ended. See the before and after photos of his on stage presentations just below.

Click on images to enlarge them. 

For more information about the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2017: Chinese Delegation Photo Highlights

Montreal World Film Festival

Montreal World Film Festival has great ties with the Chinese film industry. Serge Losique, the festival's president, in his youth worked on his first film in China. This year, a special Chinese section was instituted at MWFF entitled Chinese Film Festival with three best film prizes. Here are the winners in this category:

CHINESE FILM FESTIVAL

1st Prize:  THE AMBER by Chen Peng'ao (China)

2nd Prize:  THE BLOOD HOUND by Jianhua Liu (China)

3rd Prize:  ACROSS THE RIVER by Zhang Yueling (China)

On December 2, 2017, the festival also held a special press conference with all the Chinese film directors in attendance at MWFF 2017. The Chinese films artistic aspirations but mainly the promotional strategies especially in the western world were discussed. The group photo of the Chinese directors together with two key discussion and ideas animators is at the top of this article.

THE HIDDEN SWORD

The crew of the Chinese film The Hidden Sword that won the Best Artistic Contribution Prize at the festival's Closing Awards Ceremony, held two well attended special events at the MWFF 2017, both of them open to the general public:

On August 28, 2017, at Astral, they presented a Master Class with the director and screenwriter Xu Haofeng that lasted over 2 hours.

A day later, on August 29, 2017, at the Hotel Intercontinental, the film's team held a press conference where once again they talked about The Hidden Sward film, the history of the traditional sword fighting, the techniques of the masters, the necessity of the sword arts being preserved and passed onto the future generations, and also about how the film was conceived, made and promoted.

The members of the The Hidden Sward production team also attended the festival's closing ceremony on September 4, 2017 where Xu Haofeng received the prize on the Cinema Imperial stage.

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FOOTSTEPS

The team of the Chinese film Footsteps often attended screenings of other films at the festival which provided several picture taking opportunities.

Here are photos of the Footsteps director Wong Wai with his leading actors and crew members.

Footsteps consists of 4 stories dealing with the same theme of a woman's position in the society, how she behaves within a family and in a relationship to a man. The two main characters play the principal roles in all four stories which are spread from each other in 20 years periods, each story representing a one generation gap. It becomes very obvious how interestingly confident and liberated a woman progressively becomes, how much more personal freedom, power and confidence she gains.

Click on images to enlarge them. 

For more information about the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.