88:88, an emphatic statement on poverty, debuts an exciting, radical new voice in cinema: Winnipeg-based Isiah Medina. The numbers ‘88:88’ flash across alarm clocks when electricity goes out: The accurate time is replaced by these place holders and time essentially stands still. The central philosophical meaning of 88:88 in the film is one of stasis, and how that stasis caused by poverty subjects people to a minimized life.
Fire Song presents an authentic, First Nations queer narrative
Adam Garnet Jones’ Fire Song is a frank portrait of indigenous LGBT people and how depression and isolation intersect within a First Nation community.
NFB short Rock The Box **1/2: unclear intentions in promising feminist short
Rhiannon Rozier has a degree in political science and Latin American history, but her true passion is connecting to people through music. She is a DJ and creates electronic dance music (EDM), but she’s also a woman, working in a male-dominated genre. Katherine Monk’s National Film Board of Canada documentary short Rock the Box begins with […]
TIFF 15: Minotauro has interesting ideas but overstays its welcome
Nicolás Pereda’s Minotauro sees its North American debut in the Wavelengths section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This nigh impenetrable avant-garde picture is a narcoleptic journey into the interior lives of three young adults (played by Pereda regulars Gabino Rodríguez, Luisa Pardo and Francisco Barreiro) as they sleep, dream, read, and interact with occasional […]