The 2014 Whistler Film Festival packs a ton of cinema into five days: 41 features and 46 shorts, including 22 world premieres, eight Canadian premieres, 33 Western Canadian premieres, and 11 BC premieres.
Festival-goers can screen films on the fast track to the Oscars, like The Imitation Game and Still Alice, or check out obscure pieces they’re unlikely to see anywhere else, like a trio of newly discovered shorts featuring Peter Sellers, two of which were written by Mordecai Richler before he penned The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
Me? Well, you know me. I’m a champion for BC film, and so naturally my top three picks for WFF were all produced right here in the 604. They’re also all comedies, which might say something about where we are as a city and an industry (or maybe it just says something about me).
BAD CITY: In the opening moments of Bad City, a senior cinephile tells viewers all about canuxploitation: Canadian b-movies that were created during the late '70s and early '80s to take advantage of tax credits. In this TCM-esque prologue, the expert explains that, in these films, Canadian filmmakers emulated the blaxploitation films of the same era, despite the fact there weren’t many black actors in Canada at the time. Thus Bad City – written by Aaron Brooks and Dustin Milligan, who also star – is presented as an authentic example of this faux genre, and director Carl Bessai (who took on the detective genre with last year’s No Clue) has cleverly employed all of the tropes we’ve come to associate with blaxploitation films. It’s fun times in the bad city.
WHAT AN IDIOT: What an Idiot stars Peter Benson as Nick, an affable but unlucky-in-love single dude who fakes being gay to in order to get close to his new boss, Jackie (portrayed by Julia Benson). He does this because, 1) Jackie’s social circle is comprised entirely of gay men, and 2) he’s an idiot. The Bensons (married in real-life) developed the story together, and Peter directed. It’s full of deliciously awkward moments, and features scene-stealing comedic performances by some of BC’s best actors, including Aleks Paunovic, Emilie Ullerup, Nicholas Carella, Michael Ecklund, Jill Morrison, Lochlyn Munro, and Benjamin Ayres.
AFTER FILM SCHOOL: A documentary crew follows recent film school graduates as they make a tasteless feature entitled High School Shooting: The Musical. Anyone familiar with film school will recognize the character types in Joel McCarthy’s mockumentary: Earnest, narcissistic, and fearless early 20-something storytellers before they've been humbled by the system. It’s rough around the edges, but charming and hilarious. Bonus: if you can’t make it to Whistler, you’ll be able to catch After Film School immediately after its premiere; thanks to the forward-thinking folks at First Weekend Club, After Film School will be available for streaming for two weeks as part of a VOD pilot project.
The Whistler Film Festival runs Dec. 3-7. Schedule and tickets at WhistlerFilmFestival.com.
