Well 5 films, 4 hours of sleep, 24 hours later and I'm finally blogging about TIFF this year. What a way to start this year's festival with a mini marathon. The TIFF organizations (or lack there of) is mostly to blame. I doubt they have fully planned for the larger numbers arriving each September. Last year 50 boxes of tickets were processed in advanced sales. This year, nearly 75 boxes were done. All this even before the regular tickets come on sale.
The mini-marathon started with Wayne Wang's double bill of Thousand years of Good Prayers and the Princess of Nebraska. Famous for directing the Joy Luck Club, this director has chosen another film to illustrate the communication (or miscommunication) between the old and new generations. In this story of East meets West, Henry O is particularly well casted in his role as the elderly father coming to America to visit his estranged divorced daughter. The second film was quite forgettable.
The next film was by far the best I have seen this year at TIFF: Vexille. Anime comes to Midnight Madness. High octane chase sequences, sweeping paranoramic scenes of a post apocalyptic Tokyo, and intriguing mysteries in the plot orchestrated to a bone shaking heavy metal soundtrack. The movie audience here was very different from the usual TIFF crowd. Comic book fans and college geeks shrieked with delight at the visual fest before them and long after the closing credits were done.
Then came the most surprising event of TIFF, a conversation with Jimmy Carter and his wife. I came to Canada after his presidency had ended or he likes to say, "his forced retirement". I must confess that I did not know much about his term in office nor his policies. He is often characterized as the gentleman peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia.
However, after seeing Johnathan Demme's documentary, Man from Plains and after listening to the hour long interview at Ryerson's theatre, a new picture has emerged from of this (oldest) ex-president. He and his wife both profess to having lots of unfinished business after the end of his presidency. In the years since, he has worked for Habitat for Humanity, founded the Carter Centre (which serves to address treating neglected diseases, working for peace and building hope) and won the Nobel Prize. His passion for this activism was inspiring.
The documentary was not as thrilling as the interview. Covering the days of his book tour for the controversially named Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, it chronicles his mounting disappointment and bewilderment at being labelled a liar, bigot and an anti-semite. In an age where politicians are all about image and media spin, President Carter's strength has always been that he had no such fascade. And in this film, his decency, courage and honesty all shine through inspite of all the efforts to discredit him. The man from Plains remains one of the true and real people.
