TORONTO \u2014 Movies from Western Canada and first-time filmmakers will take a chunk of the spotlight as the Canadian lineup unfolds at this year\u2019s Toronto International Film Festival.<\/p>\n
Programmers say those are two of the big trends for the homegrown slate of the festival, which runs Sept. 7 to 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have \u2026 I think six features and\/or feature-length documentaries from out West, which is a very high number,\u201d said Steve Gravestock, Canadian and international programmer for TIFF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a great nucleus of filmmaking talent out West but we don\u2019t always get to show that many films from there, for various reasons\u2026. A lot of them (are) first or second features from out West.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those debut features from Western Canada is \u201cNever Steady, Never Still\u201d by writer-director Kathleen Hepburn. Set on the shores of Stuart Lake, B.C., it stars Shirley Henderson as a mother with advanced Parkinson\u2019s disease, Theodore Pellerin as her son and Nicholas Campbell as her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cA really beautiful drama, very touching, very powerful,\u201d said Gravestock. \u201cOne of the strongest films we saw.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other debut features from Western Canada include \u201cLuk\u2019Luk\u2019I\u201d by Wayne Wapeemukwa, about five Vancouverites \u201cliving on the fringes of society during the 2010 Winter Olympics.\u201d Some of the cast members play themselves in the film, which blends fiction with harrowing documentary elements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe path that has led me here has been full of many challenges, especially an ethical exigency required in making a film like \u2018Luk\u2019Luk\u2019I\u2019 that stars non-actors talking about real problems,\u201d said Wapeemukwa.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last few years I\u2019ve been doing a lot of advocacy and work in the Downtown Eastside and I\u2019ve been getting to know a lot of real people that have actually been brave enough to share their stories with me, and that\u2019s been the impetus, is them and their truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the late-in-life empowerment comedy \u201cMeditation Park\u201d from writer-director Mina Shum, Cheng Pei Pei stars as a 60-year-old Chinese mother who finds another woman\u2019s thong in her husband\u2019s laundry in East Vancouver. Sandra Oh plays her daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always thought about the disparity between my mother\u2019s generation and mine,\u201d said Shum, who shot the film a block from her house.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also feel like there\u2019s a lot of talk these days, in the world, in the media, amongst my friends, folks at home about powerlessness, and so this is a response to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gravestock said this year\u2019s fest has a particularly strong crop of first-time feature directors, who make up over 30 per cent of the titles.<\/p>\n
They include \u201cTrailer Park Boys\u201d cast member Cory Bowles with \u201cBlack Cop,\u201d which examines police-community relations and racial profiling through the eyes of the title character, played by Ronnie Rowe Jr.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was affecting me quite a bit, profoundly, a lot of the things that have been happening in North America and throughout the world and the phenomenon of police culture and race relations,\u201d said Bowles, who also wrote the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed to be the only time we really talk about it is on social media, and of course, social media has a lot of that kickback and a lot of that real silencing. So I just decided to focus my energies into my own sort of exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other highlights of the Canadian lineup include the world premiere of Mary Harron\u2019s TV miniseries \u201cAlias Grace,\u201d which Sarah Polley wrote and produced based on Margaret Atwood\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n
And celebrated Indigenous documentary maker Alanis Obomsawin will mark a milestone at TIFF with the premiere her 50th film, \u201cOur People Will Be Healed,\u201d about an innovative school in the remote Cree community of Norway House in northern Manitoba.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I witnessed such a wonderful place for children,\u201d said Obomsawin. \u201cThe building itself is incredible, it\u2019s got a lot of light and children are kings there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made so many films where everybody\u2019s struggling and there\u2019s lots of sadness, but it\u2019s changing and this film is more than hope,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really feel we\u2019re going someplace we\u2019ve never been before and Canadians are getting more educated and they\u2019re really listening to our people, which is a very different time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"