Cinema can be an extraordinary way to see the world. That’s what the Global Visions Film Festival is all about: get a view of the entire planet right from the comfort of a seat in the theatre.
Canada’s longest-running documentary film festival is all set for 11 days of the best short and feature length films that explore interesting people, extraordinary events and fascinating places across the five continents.
Of the numerous films set to screen during this year’s Global Visions, festival program director Guy Lavallee is probably most excited about Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the long-awaited look into the troubled Nirvana superstar’s private life. It’s set to be the opening night film tomorrow.
“Kurt Cobain was one of the most influential artists of the 20th cCentury. His art, his talent, his raw emotion influenced and inspired a generation of artists, and that influence is still felt today,” he explained.
“When we look at where this festival has been, where it’s going, and what we want it to be, one of our core beliefs is in the power of film, music, and art to effect change and to have an effect on peoples’ lives.”
The film comes from director Brett Morgen who previously garnered accolades for his other works The Kid Stays in the Picture and Chicago 10. Montage ofof H heck eck is the only fully authorized documentary on Cobain, and Morgen was able to obtain unparalleled access to the singer’s personal diaries, recordings and videos. He even got to speak with Cobain’s family and friends.
“This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, and wildly ambitious film – a reminder of the power of Kurt Cobain’s art, and a reminder of just how much was lost when we lost him.”
That’s only the tip of the iceberg, as it were. There are dozens of titles set for more than 40 separate screening events from tomorrow through to Victoria Day, although the official closing night is Saturday., May 16. Here’s a look at a few of them.
This Friday will see the world premiere of Dead Venues, a fond and nostalgic at several of Edmonton’s major music hotspots, all now gone but far from forgotten. These are places like the Sidetrack CafĂ©, the Power Plant at the U of A, New City, and The Bronx.
“They just can’t kill the scene,” the poster confirms, and co-producer Mike Siek noted that the music in Edmonton has had to become a bit hardier in order to survive.
“The idea is that no matter what happened to the venues, the music lives on,” he began.
The project features short films on each of these six lost sites of the scene, with prominent local musicians offering their stories, their reminiscences, and their thanks for how those venues helped to establish their performing careers.
Siek said that he and co-producer Eden Munro had to go straight back to those musicians as there wasn’t much that made it into the official history books.
“Part of what happened was that during the mid-2000s, we were talking about some of the venues as they were disappearing and we looked at what was available to see the history of those places. There wasn’t much online about them. There wasn’t much stuff at the archives.”
“We were just thinking about how we could gather stuff up some way and give people a chance to see that history that disappeared into the basements and crawl spaces of the people that were around at the time. You could feel it in the air that people wanted to see this stuff.”
This is Siek and Munro’s second film after Burn This Town Down. There will be a special performance by Jr. Gone Wild after Friday’s screening.
GTFO had its world premiere at this year’s SXSW Festival in Texas. The doc takes an in-depth and scary look at how poorly female gamers are treated by their male counterparts.
If you thought that the imaginary violence in the games themselves was horrible, just wait till you hear of the real threats, the intimidations and the abuses that they face daily, all because they like to play video games.
If you play games, or if you have kids (regardless of gender) who play, there should be a long and serious talk about the importance of peaceful coexistence and human rights, so that everybody can be treated with respect right before they get back to killing a bunch of rampaging zombies in the middle of an undead apocalypse.
GTFO gets screened on Saturday afternoon.
While much of the fest is dedicated to interesting documentaries from around the world, there are still filmmakers in the metro Edmonton area who have their own works that deserve some attention too.
Local Visions is the name given to a triple bill of short films on Saturday evening featuring Markowsky Draws in a Fighter Plane, The Little Deputy, and Finding Edge Road.
The first is a look at artist Michael Markowsky who spent six years trying to get access to the passenger seat of a RCAF CF-18 Hornet fighter jet, an experience that he dedicated to making drawings to fuel his art on the ground. He eventually made giant paintings and sculptures from the unique vantage point of the world.
The Little Deputy is acclaimed Edmonton filmmaker Trevor Anderson’s part documentary, part Western western about his attempts to have his photo taken with his father. The tender tale also received a screening at this year’s SXSW to much acclaim.
The last film is director Brandy Yanchyk’s look at the lives of native Somalis, Iraqis and Afghani people who have emigrated from their home countries to seek asylum from the turmoil and start new lives in eastern Finland.
This is set to screen on Saturday evening.
Many people have heard of Scientology but few actually know what goes on in the secretive church, until now with Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, screening on May 11.
Director Alex Gibney dives into the shadows and whispers of the organization started by L. Ron Hubbard that claims such famous names as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and many others. It also has a growing list of people who have escaped the church and have been vocal against its cult-like control over people.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is the story of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, two cousins who loved movies so much that they just had to make their own. They ended up creating a production empire whose films featured such acting talents as Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Charles Bronson. This film screens on May 15.
This year’s closing night feature is Made in Japan, Josh Bishop’s poignant and exciting story of Japanese country music star Tomi Fujiyama. He recorded seven albums for Columbia Records and even performed onstage at the Grand Ole Opry in 1964, getting the only standing ovation of the evening, much to the chagrin of headliner Johnny Cash.
This film is sure to please the crowds, as it wraps up this year’s Global Visions on May 16.
