Click here to download the 2009 program PDF (2.4 MB)

Wednesday, February 18 - Yukon Arts Centre

5pm - Opening Reception

Join us in celebrating the opening night of the 7th annual Available Light Film Festival. Was it really seven years ago that Zacharias Kunuk was here to present Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner? Opening night guests include John Walker, Daniel Janke, Martin Rose, and cast and crew of How People Got Fire. Light snacks will be provided by Baked Café and the bar will be open.

6:30pm - Passage

Dir. John Walker, Nova Scotia/Ontario, 2008, 107m, G | Film Website

Accomplished documentary director, John Walker (Strand, Men of the Deeps), returns with a film that pushes the boundaries of the medium. Passage pits Inuit oral history against fraudulent colonial history in an examination of the historical record of 19th century Arctic explorer, John Rae and the fate of the Franklin Expedition. Using a unique blend of dramatic action, and behind-the-scenes documentary footage, Walker vaults the story from the past into the present and we are witness to history in the making. Set in the actual locations of Raeʼs journey, from his boyhood home in the remote Orkney Islands off Scotlandʼs north coast, to the epic landscape of his Arctic expeditions, to the boardroom of the British Royal Navy—the centre of power of the British Empire, Passage is a story of incredible sacrifice, stunning distortion of the truth and single-minded obsession. It challenges the way we look at history.

John Walker (Director) in attendance.

Screening Sponsor: Burnet Films Ltd.

“One of the great triumphs in Canadian documentary film history."
~ The Toronto Star

9pm - How People Got Fire

Dir. Daniel Janke, Yukon, 2009, 14m, G

This NFB animated film tells the gentle story of a young girlʼs journey of discovery and empowerment. A second internal story tells quite literally how people got fire, and remains true to the language used by elder, Kitty Smith, when she told the story to her family, a story-telling tradition more than 10,000 years old.

Martin Rose (Producer) and Daniel Janke (Director) in attendance.
World Premiere.

followed by: Slepé lásky (Blind Loves)

Dir. Juraj Lehotský, Slovakia, 2008, 77m, G | Film Website | Trailer

In Slovakian with English subtitles. Compassionately drawn, intimate, even voyeuristic, this fantastical documentary, shot over a five year period observes the lives and loves of six blind people: an orchestra musician and his wife go about their daily routines that include teaching blind children and knitting; a woman who is expecting her first child wonders if it too will be sight-deprived; a Roma man courts a Slavic woman despite the disapproval of both their families; and a teenage woman wonders when she will experience her first love, and whether he can accept her as she is.

Screening Sponsor: Cinder Wood Kitchens.

Thursday, February 19 - Qwanlin Cinema

7pm - OʼHorten

Dir. Bent Hamer, Norway, 2008, 90m, G | Film Website |Trailer

In Norwegian with English subtitles. Odd Horten has driven the same train route for forty years. He lives in a nest of comfortable rituals. But the time has come for the 67-year-old engineer (Bård Owe, performing with Buster Keaton-like perfection) to retire. A highly visual mood piece, the tale unfolds as a series of vignettes set in a winter landscape, where OʼHorten finds himself in a bad dream of absurdist situations as his daily routine unravels. From the director of Kitchen Stories and Factotum.

9pm - Ballast

Dir. Lance Hammer, USA, 2008, 96m, 14A | Trailer

Set in the Mississippi Delta during the winter, Hammerʼs stark but very moving debut feature examines the impact of a rural storekeeperʼs suicide on his twin brother, his estranged wife and son (all played by non-professional actors). An award winner for Best Director and Cinematography at Sundance 2008, Ballast is a spare, evocative tone poem that emanates from somewhere far, far away from the glamour of contemporary pop culture.

Friday, February 20 - Yukon Arts Centre

11am - Ce quʼil faut pour vivre (Necessities of Life)

Dir. Benoît Pilon, Québec, 2008, 102m, PG | Film Website

In French and Inuktitut with English subtitles. In 1952, an Inuit hunter named Tivii, played by the effervescent Natar Ungalaaq, (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, ALFF 07 Guest), is stricken with tuberculosis, and forced to leave his Baffin Island home and family to recuperate in a sanitarium near Québec City. Uprooted, far from his land and his loved ones, unable to speak French and faced with a completely alien world, Tivii finds strength by sharing his knowledge with a young Inuk boy who is also at the sanitarium. This film was Canadaʼs official entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2009 Oscars.

Screening Sponsor: Yukon Human Rights Commission.

1pm - Nurse.Fighter.Boy

Dir. Charles Officer, Ontario, 2008, 93m, 14A | Film Website

Jude is a single mother descended from a long line of Jamaican caregivers. Silence is a past-his-prime boxer who fights illegally to survive. Ciel is a boy who delves into music, conjuring dreams for his mother. During the last week of summer, a late-night brawl finds the fighter in the nurseʼs care, causing their three fates to be forever entwined. Written and produced by the director of the recent Canadian indie film, Only.

Screening Sponsor: Norcan Leasing Ltd.

3pm - California Company Town

Dir. Lee Ann Schmitt, USA, 2008, 77m, G | Film Description

This exploration of Californiaʼs landscape and past uses a formal approach and 16mm film to document the history of one-time boomtowns built and abandoned by the industries that created them. Schmittʼs poetic film, which employs no narration or interviews, proceeds loosely through time, as the resource industries of the 20th century (mining, lumber, oil) give way to the military, leading to multinational corporations, and the use of small towns as satellites for growing metropolises. The ideology of progress and the expansion of the North American frontier had a profound impact on California, but one can see the Yukon in these places as well.

Friday, February 20 - Old Firehall

7:30pm - RiP: A Remix Manifesto

Dir. Brett Gaylor, Québec, 2009, 80m, 14A | Film Website

Web activist, Brett Gaylor, explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. The filmʼs central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazilʼs Minister of Culture and a pop culture critic are also along for the ride.

Screening Sponsor: Norcan Leasing Ltd.

9pm - Patti Smith Dream of Life

Dir. Steven Sebring, USA, 2007, 109m, 14A | Film Website

Dream of Life is a plunge into the philosophy and artistry of cult rocker Patti Smith. Known as the godmother of punk, she emerged in the 1970s, galvanizing the New York art scene with her unique style of poetic rage, music and swagger. The film follows this multitalented and private artist over 11 years of international travel, through her spoken words, performances, lyrics, interviews, paintings, and photographs to reveal a complicated, and charismatic person.

Screening Sponsor: Northern Film and Video Industry Association.

Saturday, February 21 - Yukon Arts Centre

10:30am - NFB Animation for Kids

All tickets to this screening are only $3
Three films: 65m total running time

How People Got Fire

Dir. Daniel Janke, Yukon, 2009, 14m, G

Wapos Bay: A Time to Learn

Dir. Dennis Jackson, Saskatchewan, 2007, 24m, G

Wapos Bay is an animation series about the adventures of three Cree children living in remote northern Saskatchewan. Guided by elders, extended family and their own curiosity, T-Bear, Talon and Raven learn how to balance traditional ways with newer ones. In this episode, Talon has to deal with missing sled dogs and a pile of homework before setting out for the trap-line with his father.

Léon in Wintertime

Dir. Pierre-Luc Granjon and Pascal Le Nôtre, Québec, 2008, 27m, G

Wintertime is harsh in the land of King Balthasar, especially if youʼre Léon, an eight-year-old adopted bear suffering from an identity crisis. After the distraught cub runs away from home, a mischievous storyteller sweet-talks him into performing on stage. Pure and tender, this puppet animation is a delightful medieval tale.

Screening Sponsor: Scotiabank.

12pm - The Linguists

Dir. Daniel A Miller, USA, 2007, 65m, G | Film Website

This fascinating documentary accompanies scientists David Harrison and Gregory Anderson of the Living Tongues Institute to Siberia, Bolivia, India and Arizona to record languages on the verge of dying. Their travels – at times sad, scary, even hilarious – reveal how the loss of a language affects us as human beings. This screening is one of several worldwide presentations of this film in recognition of International Mother Language Day (Feb 21).

Screening Sponsor: Cambio Consulting and Angela Walkley.

1:30pm - Religulous

Dir. Larry Charles, USA, 2008, 101m, 14A | Film Website

In English, Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, Spa with English subtitles. Uh oh. The director of Borat and Curb Your Enthusiasm, teams up with American comedian Bill Maher to take on the stories and beliefs behind the worldʼs organized religions.

Screening Sponsor: Arctic Star Printing Inc.

“Despite the frequently hilarious interludes, and there are many very funny bits here, this film is deadly serious about the toll that religion has taken on human history. To Maher and Charlesʼ infinite credit, the film is not a simple hatchet job. Maher has the courage to let his subjects speak their minds, and the graciousness to listen.”
~ Vancouver International Film Festival

3:30pm - My Own Private Lower Post

Dir. Duane Ghastantʼ Aucoin and Gordon Loverin, 2008, 32m, PG | Trailer

In Tlingit and English with English subtitles. Duane Gastantʼ Aucoin embarks on a journey with his mother to understand the effects that the Lower Post residential school had on her life. While he never attended Lower Post, he comes to the realization that this residential school has had a profound influence on him. Haa Koosteeyi (Our Tlingit Way) is where mother and son find the strength to overcome and truly survive, in a performance that also features Sharon Shorty and Rae Momborquette.

Duane Ghastantʼ Aucoin, Gordon Loverin (Directors) and cast in attendance.

followed by - Paddle to Quwʼutusun: Tribal Journeys 2008

Dir. Shirley McLean, 2009, 48m, G

This documentary follows several teams of paddlers (of the 106 participating canoes) as they paddled traditional Native canoes from various points along the Northwest Coast to converge at the same time for the 2008 Indigenous Games in Cowichan Bay. A finely photographed film, Paddle to Quwʼutusun focuses on the personal stories of the paddlers who come from many walks of life, and consider the journey an experience that is vital to healing and sustaining themselves, and their community.

Co-presented with Society of Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry.

Screening Sponsor: TleʼNax TʼAwei Limited Partnership.

5pm - Gala Reception

The My Own Private Lower Post and Tribal Journeys screening will be ending and the guests will be arriving for the special presentation of Mothers & Daughters. The sun will be setting in the foyer while we enjoy lovely food courtesy Mary-El Kerr Fine Food and Catering.

7pm - Mothers & Daughters

Dir. Carl Bessai, British Columbia, 2008, 85m, 14A | Trailer

This very funny and honest drama set in Vancouver blends elements of fiction and documentary using an intimate Cinema Vérité style of cinematography. The film explores contemporary relationships (in all their complicated, nurturing and at times dysfunctional glory) between three mothers, and mother figures, and their daughters.

Tantoo Cardinal (Actress) and Carl Bessai (Director) in attendance.

“With cinematic technology changing at a radical pace, it is important for filmmakers to take chances and explore how these shifts can inform our creative and narrative choices. In Mothers & Daughters, I was able to explore narrative drama in a collaborative, inventive and simple way that was extremely liberating.”
~ Carl Bessai

9pm - The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)

Dir. Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath, USA/Laos, 2008, 96m, 14A
Film Description

In Lao and English with English subtitles. This beautiful documentary by acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) tells the story of the harrowing escape of seven members of a ten-member Lao family from the 1975 revolution and Pathet Lao persecution, through their struggles to find a place in America as immigrants on the tough streets of Brooklyn. Torn apart by gang life and family discord, the events of 1975 still haunt the family 30 years on. Twenty-three years in the making, Betrayal is an immensely moving testament to hope and the resilient bonds of family. Nominated for Best Feature Documentary 2009 Academy Awards.

Sunday, February 22 - Yukon Arts Centre

11am - Slepé lásky (Blind Loves)

Dir. Daniel A Miller, USA, 2007, 65m, G | Film Website | Trailer

1pm - Frozen River

Dir. Courtney Hunt, USA, 2008, 97m, 14A | Trailer

The lure of fast money in the smuggling zone on a Mohawk reservation between New York State and Québec presents a daily challenge to a single mom making minimum wage. Strapped for money and deserted by her husband, Ray (2009 Academy Award nominee, Melissa Leo) reluctantly teams up with a young Mohawk woman, Lila, to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River in the trunk of a car.

3pm - Before Tomorrow

Dir. Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu, Nunavut, 2008, 90m, G
Film Website | Trailer

In Inuktitut with English subtitles. Ningiuq and her best friend Kutuujuk are elders in an Inuit family in the mid-nineteenth century. During the summer, their community comes together with a neighbouring family to tell stories, marry the young and share food. But Ningiuq is worried: Kutuujuk is sick and stories about the Europeansʼ impending advance are gaining momentum. Another naturalistic fiction film from the prolific filmmaking community in Igloolik, Before Tomorrow won Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Screening Sponsor: Midnight Sun Coffee Roaster.

5pm - Heaven on Earth

Dir. Deepa Mehta, Ontario, 2008, 106m, 14A | Trailer

In Punjabi and English with English subtitles. Chand is a young woman who travels from India to Canada to marry Rocky, a man she has never met. Her new life morphs into a nightmare as marriage to Rocky and his family becomes a numbing spiral of confusion and pain. To endure the misery of a suburban Ontario winter and an unhappy marriage, Chand imagines herself in the world of an Indian fable involving a King Cobra. Featuring a courageous performance by Bollywood star, Preity Zinta.

David Hamilton (Producer) in attendance.

Screening Sponsor: Yukon Womenʼs Directorate.

7:30pm - The English Surgeon

Dir. Geoffrey Smith, United Kingdom, 2007, 94m, 14A | Film Website

In Ukrainian and English with English subtitles. Henry Marsh is a superstar London neurosurgeon who volunteers his services and donates surgical tools to a struggling clinic in Kiev. Igor is Henryʼs Ukrainian counterpart and is overwhelmed by the lack of resources to treat his impoverished clients. Marian is a young man from a village who requires brain surgery to remove a tumor that causes epilepsy that could kill him any day. This remarkable film tells the story of how these three lives intersect, while diving into the heart of the existential conflict that accompanies the Godlike powers of neurological diagnosis. Featuring a music score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

Screening Sponsor: Baked Café.

“This is one extraordinary documentary, approaching hugely emotive subject matter with nimble delicacy... a life affirming, unforgettable portrait of a true humanitarian.”
~ London Time Out