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| Parkdale |
Since the Worldwide Short Film Festival is an impressive
undertaking by the Canadian Film Centre, it’s understandable that the fest has
a programme to spotlight the latest works by CFC students. This year’s “CFC
Short Dramatic Films” offers four films, running about fifteen minutes each,
which give festivalgoers a glimpse at new talents that have arrived on the
Canadian film scene.
The first film, Parkdale, is arguable by a talent
who has arrived already. Previous visitors to WSFF will surely remember Lisa
Jackson’s Savage, which screened at
the fest and deservedly went on to win the Genie for Best Live Action Short. Jackson’s
CFC film, Parkdale, confirms that she
is a real talent. Parkdale starts the
programme with a gritty dose of realism as two sisters hit the streets of
Toronto as they try to escape a return to foster care. As with Savage, Jackson successfully undertakes
a worthy, powerful message in her small-scale drama: she can make a succinct
point in a medium that takes other artists a feature length. Parkdale differs than Savage though by offering a much more
sober tone: whereas Savage took an
uncanny, humorous approach to the traumas of Canada’s residential schools, Parkdale is a sparse, natural depiction
of lost youth. This stark portrait of life on Toronto streets should hit close
to home for viewers at WSFF.
Parkdale sets a
bar that isn’t quite matched by Silent Cargo. A well-intentioned,
but ultimately heavy-handed message movie, Silent
Cargo is a bleak story of human trafficking. The film shows a lot of
promise nevertheless, for it boasts impressive production value and an
excellent performance by lead actress Ellen Wong.
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| Oliver Bump's Birthday |
After the two dramatic shorts, the programme lightens things
up with two comedies. At the top of the CFC class might be Jordan Canning’s
film Oliver
Bump’s Birthday. At twelve year’s old, most kids might worry about
becoming a teenager. For Oliver Bump, however, the approach of his thirteenth
birthday poses imminent death. All the previous Bump children have kicked the
bucket just as soon as they blew out the candles on their first birthday of
adolescence. Ever determined to cheat fate, Oliver constructs a rocket ship and
plans to escape. Oliver Bump’s Birthday
is wildly imaginative and gleefully peculiar: it’s like a family-friendly Todd
Solondz movie crossed with a big colourful cupcake. (With Sprinkles.) As with Parkdale, Oliver Bump’s Birthday includes some outstanding performances by
young actors, which further proves that these directors have a really good skill
at orchestrating things from behind the camera.
Last in the line-up is arguably the most ambitious film of
the bunch, The Secret of the Goat. Goat
is a quirky fable about a man and wife whose marriage is thrown for a loop
when the husband brings home a goat one crisp autumn day. The story of the love
goat plays out in a strangely placeless land of maple leaves and lederhosen,
but one’s inability to put a finger on the film is part of its charm.
Which of these CFC
alums might turn out to be the next Sarah Polley? Find out when “CFC Short
Dramatic Films” screens at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Sunday, June 10 at 12:30
pm.
***Note: this
screening is free for students and seniors with valid ID. ***
Please visit www.shorterisbetter.com for tickets,
program/film info, and show times.
(And click here for updates & reviews of this year's Worldwide Short Film Festival.)
(And click here for updates & reviews of this year's Worldwide Short Film Festival.)
