I love Film Festivals.

My only critique of them is that they have tendency to offer too much subjective input on plot summaries in their brochures. So, after you read it, you still have no clue what the movie is about.
I will give you a fake example, somewhat exaggerated:

Just One Person -Directed by Andrew Zeller.
“Altenately lyrical, playful, and melancholic, this blackly humorous tale is an outstanding, hard-hitting drama and a nearly perfect little film. With energetic long takes, dark undercurrents of urban anxiety, and glimmers of a ruthlessly poetic soul, this award-winning director weaves together fragments of the imagination in a fully realized portrait of the transitionary state of humankind, in an elegant docu-essay-noir. A story brimming with intrigue, emotions, justice, and redemption; it heralds a new cinematic voice with a boldness of spirit and a visual flair to boot…”

You get the idea. Also, if you want it to actually tell a bit about the plot (not common, and to match the common points of most film festivals films today, then you have to add one or more of the following: sex, sexuality, self-harm, spousal abuse, murders, infidelity, voyerism, nudity, ex-nazi millionaires, the words: “the human condition”, pro-environment themes, unstoppable passion, modern womanhood, revenge, gambling, gender, drugs, suicide, prostitution, and at least one scene which no one can understand, but everyone will pretend that they can.

This may all sound disheartening, but it’s not for every film and a few of these things, if approached right, can be very beneficial for us to see, like the “pro-environment themes”. Also, film festivals usually have great audiences: thoughtful, polite, and enthusiastic. They treat films they way they should be treated. Anyway, I’m now going to go into dangerous territory, and attempt to tell you about the first film I saw this year at the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival:

Up the Yangtze -Directed by Yung Chang
A Chinese-canadian documentary filmmaker travels to China to take a “Farewell Cruise”
on the Yangtze River, which is now changing rapidly with the production of the 3 Gorges Dam,
one of the biggest construction undertakings in China since the Great Wall.
He adds a personal touch by bringing up stories and songs his grandfather shared with him
about the Yangtze river, a river which is slowly changing into something completely different.
Will the songs and stories drown in rising water levels? Yung Chang’s camera follows 2 Chinese teenagers who get a job working on one particular cruise ship. One is a girl from a poor family who wants to go to High School, and dreams of going to University, but her family cannot afford it. She must work to help support them and herself. The other is a boy who dreams of more money, but faces the challenge of his own ego.
Beautiful music. Thought-provoking images. And most of all, a wake-up-call for those who take what they have for granted (myself included). Looking forward to seeing more of this director’s work in the future. He puts in a great deal of thought into his work, is intelligent, and for his all of his skill, is actually quite humble.
See it if you have the chance; I would recommend it to anyone.

1 movie down, 6 more to go for me at the VIFF!

PS: Who Killed the Electric Car? is an eye-opening documentary too that I recently watched.

“Heaven is long lasting;
Earth endures.
Heaven is able to be long lasting and Earth is able to endure,
because they do not live for themselves.
And so, they are able to be long lasting and to endure.
This is why sages put themselves last and yet come first;
Treat themselves as unimportant and yet are preserved.
Is it not because they have no thought of themselves, that they
are able to perfect themselves?”

-老子(Laozi)

When (…) read this, (…) am reminded of: “The last shall be first.”
Humility and selflessness are most certainly virtues.
Therefore, (…) am taking the ”I” out of my sentences.
(…) hope it’s not too confusing.
But (…) think sometimes we need a little confusion is our logic-obsessed society.
What do (…) know, right?
Who am (…) to make judgements about society?
What am (…) and how do (…) fit into society?
Do these questions even matter?
Why am (…) doing this?
(…) don’t really know…