ArtsList

Art Gallery of Hamilton and Festitalia join forces to present Hamilton’s own International Film Festival:
Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Sugar included in line up.

Eight internationally-acclaimed recent releases. Four screenings celebrating Canadian films. Special selections for children. Festival parties featuring performances by Sophia Perlman and The Sicilian Jazz Project.

From Wednesday, September 23rd through Sunday, September 27th, 2009, the AGH Festitalia International Film Festival features twelve films for adults and two screenings for children and families.

The festival will screen at three venues: Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); Westdale Theatre (1014 King Street West, Hamilton); and Art Gallery of Hamilton, Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Pavilion (123 King Street West, downtown Hamilton).

The AGH Festitalia International Film Festival offers four programming platforms:

1. Part of Vista Italia, the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s year-long celebration of Italian arts and culture presented by TD Bank Financial Group, this film festival component includes films specially selected for Hamilton’s Italian community and fans of Italian cinema at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas. Films include Quiet Chaos (Caos calmo); Valentino: The Last Emperor; Gomorrah; Il Divo; and Tetro. Short-format films by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before each feature.

2. A selection of international films includes some of the world’s best-regarded recent films at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas: The Pool; Sugar; and Séraphine. Short-format films by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before each feature.

3. The Hamilton Spectator CineKids presents two screenings for children and families at the Art Gallery of Hamilton: Finn on the Fly; and It’s An Animation Celebration!, a selection of classic and recent short animated films from Canada and the United States.

4. The Spotlight Series presents four screenings at Westdale Theatre, showcasing critically-acclaimed Canadian films, including: Amal; My Winnipeg; The Stone Angel; and Fugitive Pieces.

Parties: The Festival will include two parties at the Art Gallery of Hamilton: the Opening Party (Wednesday, September 23rd from 8 pm to 12 midnight) featuring performances by jazz vocalist Sophia Perlman; and the Friday Night Festival Party (Friday, September 25th from 8 pm to 12 midnight) featuring performances by The Sicilian Jazz Project.

Individual tickets for films screened at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas and Westdale Theatre are $10. Tickets to The Hamilton Spectator CineKids screenings are $5 each. Tickets for the Opening Party and Friday Night Festival Party are $50 each.

A Festival Pass – which includes a ticket to each of the eight films screened at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas as well as one ticket to both the Opening Party and Friday Night Festival Party – is available for $125. Tickets are presently available for purchase on line at www.artgalleryofhamilton.com.

Wednesday, September 23rd
The Pool
6:45 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Director Chris Smith, USA, 2009, 98 min., Hindi, with English subtitles. Rated PG.

A film that quietly evokes life on the margins, The Pool tells the story of poor, illiterate teenager Venkatesh (Venkatesh Chavan) who scrapes together a meager existence by working at the local hotel and selling plastic bags with his much younger pal Jhangir (Jhangir Badshah). Together, they dream of the luxurious life represented by a swimming pool they spot hidden behind a villa’s walls. One day, the pool’s owner (Bollywood star Nana Patekar, Salaam Bombay) spots Venkatesh and hires him as his yard boy. Venkatesh accepts the job in order to get closer to the coveted pool, but he soon develops a cross-caste friendship with the owner’s rebellious daughter Ayesha (Ayesha Mohan), a member of India’s leisure class.

Opening Party
8 pm – 12 midnight at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King Street West, downtown Hamilton)

Party ticketholders receive a complimentary drink ticket, hors d’oeuvres, DJ entertainment and a performance by jazz vocalist Sophia Perlman and Darcy Hepner from 8:30 pm. Perlman has performed with notable Canadian jazz musicians including Adrean Farrugia, Terry Clarke, Jeff Healey, The Bob Brough Quartet, Richard Whiteman, Brandi Disterheft, Richard Underhill, The Toronto Jazz Orchestra, Ravi Naimpally, Kieran Overs, and the Top Brass Orchestra, and has appeared regularly with the seven-piece swing band The Vipers at Toronto’s Reservoir Lounge.

Quiet Chaos (Caos calmo)
9:15 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Director Antonello Grimaldi, Italy/UK, 2008, 112 min., Italian and French, with English subtitles. Rated 18A.
Pietro is a happily married, successful executive and father of a 10-year old daughter, Claudia. One day, after saving two women from drowning, he arrives home to discover his wife has suddenly died. Now Pietro has to take care of his daughter. When he drives Claudia to school soon after, he decides to wait for her all day in front of the school. Soon that’s what he does every day.

“…a gentler, deceptively simple drama looking at life as much as death. Beautifully modulated, fluidly told film expresses pain with warm understatement….” – Jay Weissberg, Variety

Thursday, September 24th

Valentino: The Last Emperor
6:45 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Director Matt Tyrnauer, USA, 2008, 96 min. Rated PG.

Produced and directed by Matt Tyrnauer, Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, Valentino: The Last Emperor provides a first-time glimpse into Valentino’s world of bygone glamour. Filmed from June 2005 to July 2007, the crew shot over 250 hours of footage with exclusive, unprecedented access to Valentino and his entourage. The resulting non-fiction film is a portrait of an extra-ordinary partnership, the longest running in fashion, and a dramatic story about a master confronting the final act of his celebrated career.

Gomorrah (Gomorra)

9:15 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Director Matteo Garrone, Italy, 135 min., Italian, with English subtitles. Rated 14A.
Based on Roberto Saviano’s bestselling exposé of Italy’s most famous Mafia organization, the Neapolitan Camorra,

Matteo Garrone’s film weaves in and out of five separate narratives, cumulatively building a kaleidoscopic portrait of present-day Naples in the crime-ridden suburbs of Scampia and Secondigliano. Each vignette closely follows the characters’ daily routines, presenting a world where relationships are continually shifting and loyalties confused. On the surface, Gomorrah simply reflects the gestures and modest aspirations of ordinary people. Yet collectively, these small narratives amount to a devastating indictment of a crime ring that extends to the furthest reaches of society.
Special Presentation, 2008 TIFF.

Friday, September 25th

Il Divo

6:45 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Director Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France, 2008, 118 min., Italian, with English subtitles. Rated PG.
Reaching into the turbulent political history of post-war Italy, acclaimed director Paolo Sorrentino crafts a dazzling portrait of one of the country’s most complex and dubious political figures of the last fifty years. Giulio Andreotti (Toni Servillo) entered politics in 1946 and went on to lead seven governments, turning his Christian Democratic party into a force that ran Italy in what was essentially a one-party system. During this dark period of murder and assassinations, Andreotti successfully navigates the backroom corridors of command but seems more interested in obtaining power than actually wielding it. Winner Jury Prize Winner, 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Special Presentation, 2008 TIFF.

Friday Night Festival Party

8 pm – 12 midnight at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King Street West, downtown Hamilton)

Party ticketholders receive a complimentary drink ticket, hors d’oeuvres, DJ entertainment, and a performance by Sicilian Jazz Project from 9:30 pm. Led by award-winning guitarist/composer Michael Occhipinti, the Juno-nominated Sicilian Jazz Project has been dazzling audiences since 2004 with its intriguing mix of Sicilian folk source material and the best elements of modern jazz.

Sugar

9:15 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, USA, 2008, 114 min., English and Spanish, with English subtitles. Rated 14A.

Miguel “Sugar” Santos (Algenis Pérez Soto) is a Dominican baseball star struggling to make it in the United States and pull himself and his family out of poverty. Travelling from his tight knit community to spring training in Arizona and then to a minor league team in Iowa, he is the proverbial fish out of water. He rooms with a kindly older couple and experiences a faltering romance, but homesickness soon sets in. When a nagging injury puts him on the sidelines for a time, he begins taking a closer look at the world around him and, ultimately, his place within it. 2008 TIFF.

Saturday, September 26th

Spotlight Series: Amal

1:30 pm at Westdale Theatre (1014 King Street West, Hamilton)
Director Richie Mehta, Canada, 2007, 101 min. Rated 14A.

In chaotic New Delhi, an aged and seemingly homeless man cheats everyone he meets. When Amal, an auto-rickshaw wallah, generously allows him to dodge his fare, both are affected in a way that has far-reaching consequences. This vividly textured portrait of contemporary India is an extraordinarily ambitious and heartfelt debut from first-time director Richie Mehta. Showing us an unvarnished India rich in flavour, Amal is a powerful and touching story of one man‘s decency. 2007 TIFF.

Spotlight Series: My Winnipeg
4:30 pm at Westdale Theatre (1014 King Street West, Hamilton)

Director Guy Maddin, Canada, 2007, 80 min. Rated 14A.
The latest work from iconoclastic and wholly unique filmmaker Guy Maddin, this documentary (or “docu-fantasia” as Maddin describes it) about his hometown seamlessly blends local myth with childhood trauma. A deliriously layered provocation, My Winnipeg is outrageous, informative and wildly entertaining. Winner, Toronto-City Award for Best Feature Film, 2007 TIFF.

Tetro

6:45 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Director Francis Ford Coppola, USA/Spain/Italy, 2009, 126 min. Not yet rated.

Tetro is Francis Ford Coppola’s first original screenplay since The Conversation and his most personal film yet, arising from memories and emotions from his early life, though totally fictional. It is the bittersweet story of two brothers, of family lost and found and the conflicts and secrets within a highly creative Argentine-Italian family. “Francis Ford Coppola returns to form with his richest, most enrapturing film since Apocalypse Now, an elegiac familial drama set in the bohemian Buenos Aires neighbourhood of La Boca. The black-and-white photography alone is as intoxicating as a bottle of the director’s finest red.” – Aaron Hillis, The Village Voice

Séraphine

9:15 pm at Empire Jackson Square 6 Cinemas (Jackson Square, 2 King Street West, downtown Hamilton); a short-format film by local filmmakers and musicians will screen before this feature.

Director Martin Provost, France/Belgium, 2009, 121 min., French, with English subtitles. Rated PG.

By day, Séraphine is a housekeeper. In her spare time, however, she immerses herself in the wonders of nature, expressing her feelings on canvas. Then new tenants take over the house where she works, and her life takes a turn. A testament to creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit, Séraphine is about the obscure yet endlessly fascinating artist known as Séraphine de Senlis, a simple housekeeper whose brilliantly colourful canvases adorn some of the most famous galleries in the world. Yolande Moreau’s performance as Séraphine is a towering accomplishment – she truly becomes the artist onscreen. Special Presentation, 2008 TIFF. Multiple winner, César awards, France.

Sunday, September 27th

The Hamilton Spectator CineKids presents: Finn on the Fly

1:00 pm at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King Street West, downtown Hamilton)
Director Mark Jean, Canada, 2009, 100 min. Rated PG.

Recently moved back to Canada from Spain, young Ben is having a hard time making new friends. Treated like an outcast by the kids at his new school, Ben realizes his only companion in the world is his whip-smart dog, Finn. When Finn stumbles upon a neighbour’s secret science laboratory, he is accidentally transformed into a human – but he’s really still a dog at heart. Ben tries to help Finn adapt to his new body and place in the world. In return, Finn teaches Ben all about “finding his own pack.” Best feature film winner, 2009 Sprockets.

Spotlight Series: The Stone Angel
1:30 pm at Westdale Theatre (1014 King Street West, Hamilton)
Director Kari Skogland, Canada, 2007, 100 min. Rated 14A.

Now living with her son Marvin (Dylan Baker), elderly Hagar (Ellen Burstyn) bolts from his house, determined to find a seaside home she remembers from her youth. Throughout this journey, we come to know the radiant young woman who is disowned when she marries the rough, bold Bram Shipley (Cole Hauser). In the present, Hagar finds her way to the seashore, but has little time left to amend a lifetime of unacknowledged mistakes. Screen goddess Burstyn gives a tour-de-force performance in this much-anticipated and faithful adaptation of Margaret Laurence‘s landmark Canadian novel. 2007 TIFF.

The Hamilton Spectator CineKids presents: It’s An Animation Celebration!
3:00 pm at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King Street West, downtown Hamilton)
A selection of classic and recent short animated films. Rated PG.

This afternoon of animated fun features a selection of classic and recent short animated films from Canada and the United States, including C-Block, Sleeping Betty, Runaway, The Cat Came Back, The Animal Movie, The Dingles, and Léon in Wintertime. Big people in the audience will enjoy sharing much loved blasts from their past and the entire family will delight in discovering new favourites from this century.

Spotlight Series: Fugitive Pieces

4:30 pm at Westdale Theatre (1014 King Street West, Hamilton)
Director Jeremy Podeswa, Canada/Greece, 2007, 120 min. Rated 14A.

Jeremy Podeswa’s powerful adaptation of Anne Michaels‘s critically acclaimed debut novel, Fugitive Pieces was partially filmed in Hamilton and relates a unique story about the Holocaust while meditating on universal themes of loss and hope. The story begins in Poland, where young Jakob narrowly escapes the Nazis and the brutal murder of his entire family. He is saved by Athos and a close bond develops between the two during their flight to Greece and eventual relocation to Canada. Jakob’s past is a shadow that he carries with him into adulthood, ultimately compromising his marriage and affecting his relationships. Over time, however, he embarks – almost accidentally – on a redemptive journey that testifies to the healing power of love. Opening Night Gala, 2007 TIFF.