![]() |
A Mile in These Hooves |
The single-spot of OIFF also makes it easier on a film reviewer eager to cover the festival, since one avoids scurrying to multiple venues. The new media accreditation also makes OIFF 2014 the busiest festival so far. I think I was the only person reviewing the fest in previous years, but OIFF 2014 had new filmies from the Ottawa Film Scene and even from Toronto covering the fest. Welcome to the party and I hope to see everyone at OIFF 2015!
One thing that needs improvement for OIFF 2015, however,
arguably remains to be the feature film selections at the festival. Sunday
transit complications unfortunately made me miss the final feature, Brazil’s Chess Game, but the features this year sadly
leave something to be desired. OIFF 2014 includes two fine docs with My Father and the Man in Black and In the Turn, but I’m still a bit taken
aback by the inclusion of the conservative and comparatively artless The Lost Key, which saw several walk
outs at the festival. I almost made a turn for the exit myself because the film’s
out-dated views on gender and equality are offensive, but I stuck through it
hoping it would prevail in the end. It didn’t. (And I then had to wait a whopping
fifty minutes for the bus, so shame on me for wanting the extra review…)
More disappointing, though, are the festival’s two local
features, Girlhouse and American Descent. Girlhouse, for all its faults, displays a technical competency from
the Ottawa film scene that at least warrants its inclusion in the festival, but
American Descent is sloppy on all
fronts. I really want to see both the festival and Ottawa’s film scene grow,
so, while it’s frequently unpopular/controversial to dismiss local films, I find
it hard to champion local content for its own sake, especially when films like American Descent hide their local
character and leave few reasons for a local fan to overlook flaws in the production.
If we’re attracting films and media from outside Ottawa, we really need to show
the best that Ottawa has to offer and perhaps that means omitting the weak
links. Some of the OIFF 2014 films do Ottawa proud, though, for both the shorts
The Garage and particularly Wired are worthy of inclusion in the
festival on merit alone.
OIFF 2014 instead marks a stronger, more noticeable growth
for the festival in terms of curating and attracting international content, for
previous editions of OIFF were largely domestic affairs. The OIFF selections
for 2014 are an impressive sample of films from around the world with an
international scope of films from Chile, Venezuela, China, Brazil, Russia and
the USA. Most impressive, I think, is the inclusion of the short Market Hours from the Weinstein Company.
The significance of having such a noteworthy American distributor at the
festival really can’t be overstated. This addition means that people are
noticing OIFF and, more importantly, it means the local films receive more
attention as they compete alongside their peers from outside the Ottawa region.
Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez joins us
@Mayfairtheatre
to support Chris branch #ladyinno6
#OIFF14
pic.twitter.com/4cKcWTeYGd
—
Ottawa Intl FilmFest (@ottawafilmfest) October
20, 2014
The shorts are especially impressive finds by the OIFF team,
for even the lesser of the shorts this year are comparatively impressive in
terms of their professional craftsmanship. The highlights of the shorts
programmes of OIFF 2014 include Wired,
which arguably marks one of the strongest local productions in years—and far
and away the best Ottawa short I’ve seen while covering the works of the local
film scene alongside Hollywood films and world cinema. Especially notable among
the OIFF offerings is the Oscar winner The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life. Lady,
like Market Hours, simply represents
a significant selection for the Ottawa International Film Festival with the
heavy pedigree of an Academy endorsement and the benefit of exposure that it
brings to the Festival in turn. Sunday’s shorts screening with The Lady in Number 6 marks one of the
busier screenings of the Festival, as well as one of its most exciting events
with the participation of producer Chris Branch and the attendance of several
actors working in his latest picture, including Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez.
The best film of the festival, however, is easily the uproariously
funny A Mile in These Hooves. This
spot-on film by James Brylowski is one
of the sharpest, wittiest, and cleverest mockumentaries I’ve seen. Hat’s off to
the whole Hooves team for providing
one of those hidden gems that film lovers hope to find at a festival. Hooves, like Wired, is one of the best shorts of the year and I thank OIFF for
offering Canadian shorts that could easily make by top ten list when it comes
time to rounding out the best Canadian films of 2014. If OIFF improves on the
features with even half the impressive leap of the shorts of 2014, then the
Ottawa International Film Festival will be on even greater in its sixth year. At
five, though, OIFF looks to be on solid ground as it grows and contributes the
burgeoning culture of cinephilia in the 613. Here’s to many more years of OIFF
at the Mayfair!