TIFF 2010—VANGUARD

Edgy and juiced up with genre, this year's Vanguard Program at TIFF strikes me as especially strong over years past. "I'm calling it now," Twitch teammate Todd Brown asserts. "Vanguard is the best program of the Toronto International Film festival 2010" and "the program to beat."At Ellen's Age / Im Alter von Ellen (Pia Marais, Germany)—A German flight attendant falls into increasingly bizarre adventures when she leaves her husband, quits her job and joins a radical group of animal activists. Official site. IMDb. Facebook. TOFilmFest. North American Premiere.Facebook synopsis: "This is the tra

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N+1—CHRIS FUJIWARA ON CONTEMPORARY CINEMA

My thanks to Girish Shambu and David Hudson for pointing me to Chris Fujiwara's N+1 essay "To Have Done With the Contemporary Cinema", which I found to be a fascinating if flawed brownstudy on—as David phrases it at MUBI—"the slippery notion of 'contemporary cinema' "; an essay which appears to have emboldened Girish to dismiss the "contemporary" cinema programmed at this year's Toronto International Film Festival or—if I'm understanding Professor Shambu's argument—any international film festival as fodder for "capitalist imperatives." I find Girish's entry as fascinating and as flawed as Fuj

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TIFF 2010—DISCOVERY

It's hard not to love a program that features 15 World Premieres, 3 International Premieres and 9 North American Premieres! Once again, TIFF showcases innovative talent from around the world, refining Chris Fujiwara's recent definition of "contemporary" cinema in his N+1 brownstudy. Perhaps what is contemporary is simply what is waiting to be discovered?As If I Am Not There (Juanita Wilson, Ireland / Macedonia / Sweden)—As If I Am Not There explores one woman's experience of the horrors that took place at the beginning of the Bosnian War. Disturbing and powerful, the film is an important test

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NOT NECESSARILY NOIR—The Evening Class Interview With Elliot Lavine

"Of the darkness in men's minds; what can you say?"—Joni Mitchell, "The Wolf in Lindsay"Not to counter Joni's world-weary query; but, in fact, when it comes to the darkness in men's minds, film writers have a lot to say and often quite poetically. As Wallace Stevens reminded us, death (and darkness) are the mother of all beauty. With darkness serving as inspiration, it's enjoyable to read write-ups on Elliot Lavine's noirish programs for the Roxie Film Center written by local colleagues. This go-round—with his "Not Necessarily Noir" (NNN) program currently screening at the Roxie through Septe

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