‘A Colt is my Passport’ is one of the highlights of TIFF’s free weekend
Playing March 16 2013 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of the Spotlight Japan series is the Nikkatsu noir classic, “A Colt is my Passport”. The tale of a betrayed hit man from 1967 is also part of the TIFF Bell Lightbox Family Free weekend, so the 10 pm screening is actually free for those who show up one hour before show time to collect a ticket. With a free showing on the big screen of this Nikkatsu gem how could you go wrong?
A Colt is my Passport
Starring: Jo Shishido, Chitose Kobayashi, Jerry Fujio and Akiyoshi Fukae
Written by ShuichiNagahara and Nobou Yamada
Directed by Takashi Nomura
Kamimura (Shishido) is a hard-boiled hired killer commissioned by a local gang to take down a rival boss. He pulls the job off with his customary efficiency, but everything goes to hell anyway. The rival gang lord who hires Kamimura and his driver Shun (Fujio) (more…)
Human Rights Watch Film Fest takes us to ‘No Place on Earth’
Screening Sunday Mar 3 2013 as part of theHuman Rights Watch Film Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox is the new documentary from producer/director Janet Tobias “No Place on Earth”. The History Channel produced documentary outlines the courageous struggle to survive by five Jewish families in Nazi Occupied Poland. The lengths and extraordinary struggle they went through is explored here along with a full reproduction with actors re-enacting the described events of living members of the family.
No Place on Earth
Starring: Saul Stermer, Sam Stermer, Sonia Dodyk, Sima Dodyk, Chris Nicola
Directed by Janet Tobias
In 1993 Chris Nicola, an American cave enthusiast, was exploring the (more…)
Seijun Suzuki’s ‘Tokyo Drifter’ drifts into the TIFF Bell Lightbox
Playing Mar 22013 at 10pm, as part of theTIFF Bell Lightbox’s Spotlight Japan celebration from the ‘Tokyo Drifters: 100 years of Nikkatsu’ series, come the classic 1966 gangster film from Seijun Suzuki, “Tokyo Drifter”. The film is a smorgasbord of camera and film styles as Suzuki was clearly influenced by the changing cinema from the west from the 1950’s to the 1960’s.
Tokyo Drifter
Starring: Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Ryuji Kita and Hideaki Esumi
Written by Kôhan Kawauchi
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Tetsu (Watari) has joined his yakuza boss in going straight, and is determined to stay straight, after his boss has disbanded his gang. But when a rival gang threatens to bring them back into the gang wars (more…)
Human Rights Watch Film Fest explores ‘Camp 14: Total Control Zone’
Playing Feb 27 as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, a week and a half long (Feb 26 – Mar 7, 2013) program of films that empower through tales of oppression, struggle and resilience, comes the documentary based on the best-selling book ‘Escape from Camp 14’, “Camp 14: Total Control Zone”. The festival, making its home in the TIFF Bell Lightbox, features both documentaries and scripted films that highlight atrocities and struggles worldwide for equality. The films of the festival come from around the world and encompass many different elements of the human condition and people’s will to survive and impact change.
Camp 14: Total Control Zone
Directed by Marc Wiese
Camp 14: Total Control Zone is a fascinating portrait of a young man who grew up (more…)
TIFF’s ‘Packaged Goods’ series highlights animation for it’s winter program
Feb 20, 2013 brings the newest in the “Packaged Goods” series to the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The ongoing series surveys the world of commercial, music video and web content film-making. Exploring these by themes and highlighting the best that each theme has to offer, the series’ latest installment explores the ever changing worldanimation in the corporate sense in its “Artful Animation” presentation.
TIFF’s Packaged Goods: Artful Animation Program
Today’s animation has come a long way from Saturday morning cartoons: whether photo-real or illustrative, stop-motion or CG (more…)
TIFF’s Spotlight Japan series gets gritty with ‘Rusty Knife’
Screening Feb 9 2013 as part of TIFF’s Spotlight Japan celebration and part of the 100 Years of Nikkatsu series is the 1958 noir classic “Rusty Knife”. The setting of Udaka, a post-war city in the heart of the rebuilding phase and corporate development after the war, is a place that corruption has already taken hold. This setting provides a unique look into Japan during the rebuilding phase after the war while providing the necessary background for director Masuda to deliver a noir piece to rival the French and North American noir pieces dominating the box office at the time.
TIFF Spotlight Japan: Rusty Knife
Starring: Yûjirô Ishihara, Mie Kitahara, Akira Kobayashi, Naoki Sugiura, Shôji Yasui and Masao Shimizu
Written by Shintarô Ishihara
Directed by Toshio Masuda
A persistent district attorney desperately attempts to arrest and convict Katsumata (more…)
‘Tatsumi’ animates the TIFF Bell Lightbox starting Jan 25 (review)
Starting on Jan 25, the TIFF Bell Lightbox will host an exclusive run of the animated tribute/biography of Yoshihiro Tastsumi that was a giant hit at this year’s Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival simply titled Tatsumi. The gloriously hand rendered 2D animated film tells the story of the master animator’s early life up to his founding and establishing of the ‘Gekiga Manifesto’ launching the Gekiga movement in Manga writing which adapted a more realistic and adult style of writing and animating. Along the way it adapts 5 of Tatsumi’s works into animated tales, showing the progression of his stories and the reason why creating a place for a more realistic style was needed.
Tatsumi
Directed by Eric Khoo
Tatsumi adapts five of the artist’s short stories (Hell, Beloved Monkey, Just a Man, Occupied and Good-Bye) and intersperses them throughout the adaptation of his manga memoir (more…)
Silver Bear award winner ‘Barbara’ arrives at the TIFF Bell Lightbox
The winner of the Silver Bear for best direction at the 2102 Venice Film Festival and Germany’s entrant for the best foreign language film Oscar this year, Christian Petzold’s Barbara starts an exclusive run at the Tiff Bell Lightbox in Toronto and select theaters across Canada on Friday Dec 28. The story of a disgraced nurse in early 1980’s East Germany features another very strong performance from the emerging powerhouse that is Nina Hoss. A relative unknown to the majority of North American audiences, Petzold’s muse (she has starred in 5 of his productions) may finally breakthrough with this strong and intimate portrayal of a woman forced to make a life altering decision and decide between following her head or her heart.
Barbara
Starring: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Mark Waschke and Rainer Bock
Written and Directed by Christian Petzold
After being removed from a prestigious medical post in East Berlin and reassigned to an underfunded (more…)
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