Filmmaker gleefully reaches for once-forbidden fruit
Sometimes we want what we can’t have. For Vancouver-based filmmaker Katrin Bowen, these words have rang true for sex and television.
“I was raised very religiously and raised without much technology,” the director says of her Mennonite upbringing in rural Alberta. “I didn’t see a TV until I was about 12.” On set of her latest film Random Acts of Romance, Bowen feels she’s come a long way to the sharp-tongued social media jockey she is today.
Local filmmaker takes run at Wall Street
Filmmaker Desiree Lim isn’t one to stay within the confines of traditional narrative cinema.
The Vancouverite’s body of work includes campy behind-thescenes critique of a male-dominated porn industry, the untold plight of Burmese migrants, and many boundary-pushing dramas in between.
At this year’s Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Lim is poised to defy a new set of genre norms with The House: a ghost story that blends personal drama with pointed anti-Wall Street sentiment.
Office Space actor makes compelling directorial debut
Known for comedic roles—most recently a spot on the HBO series Bored to Death—Ajay Naidu flexes his writing, directing and lead acting muscles in Ashes.
Audiences may recall his photocopier-smashing slapstick as Samir in Office Space, but Naidu’s latest indie film role is far from familiar.
Ashes is a dark and edgy portrait of two Indian-American brothers set in New York City’s underbelly. Tackling topics of organized crime and mental illness, Naidu says much of the story draws on his experience growing up “between cultures” in Chicago.
VIFF: Launching local eco-docs
Sitting on a patio across from Mountain Equipment Co-op on Broadway, filmmaker Frank Wolf tells me about how he got into making environmental documentaries.
“I had always done remote wilderness trips around the world,” he says. “I began seeing first-hand how the environment was being degraded.”
Enabled by his day-job at MEC, Wolf has hiked, biked and paddled much of Canada’s wilderness on a shoestring budget. Beginning in 2003, Wolf added lightweight camera gear to the equation, turning his excursions into feature-length films.
REVIEW: Andrea Arnold – Fish Tank
Katie Jarvis never intended to appear in movies.
The now 18-year-old highschool dropout was discovered on a scummy East London subway platform while embroiled in a venomous spat with her boyfriend. With that in mind, it is no surprise the unlikely star bursts with raw teenage malice in the role of Mia, a young and underprivileged outcast living in a disheartening British slum . . .
Local filmmaker addresses domestic violence
The personal experiences of a social worker in Canada’s poorest postal code have come to life on the big screen at the Vancouver International Film Festival this month.
