Wednesday Feb 10

1:30pm - NFB 70th Anniversary Program (81 min total running time)

All tickets for this screening $5

The Man Who Slept

Dir. Ines Sedan, Québec, 2009, 12 min

Sofia’s husband sleeps all the time. The living, busy world outside calls to her, but she’s stuck in her apartment while her husband’s snores. How can she free herself?

Peggy Baker: Four Phrases

Dir. Howie Shia, Québec, 2009, 5 min

Built around a selection of intimate interview excerpts, this short travels through a variety of animation techniques to celebrate a dancer’s work and legacy.

Runaway Train

Dir. Cordell Barker, Manitoba, 2009, 9 min

What would happen if the world were a driverless train thundering recklessly over bumpy tracks?

Spare Change

Dir. Ryan Larkin and Laurie Gordon, Québec, 2009, 8 min

A street beggar takes us from wintry Montréal sidewalks to the gates of Heaven and Hell, and back.

The Spine

Dir. Chris Landreth, Ontario, 2009, 11 min

This is a poignant and hilarious story of redemption that takes us into the relationship between a man and a woman trapped in a spiral of mutual destruction.

Vive la rose

Dir. Bruce Alcock, BC/Québec, 2009, 7 min

Based on a traditional song by Emile Benoit, this is the moving tale of a tragic Newfoundland love story, in which a simple man raises his voice in melancholy farewell to his beloved.

Deadman

Dir. Chelsea McMullan, British Columbia, 2009, 29 min

A Wild West obsessed dreamer quixotically pursues his plan to construct a replica of an Old-West town, complete with a saloon and villainous gunfighters. His neighbour, a Cree man, is troubled by the dreamer’s ignorance of the disparity between fantasy and the actual history of the Canadian west. This documentary film is layered as a film within a film.

3:30pm - Finding Farley + This Land (96 min total running time)

All tickets for this screening $5

Finding Farley

Dir. Leanne Allison, British Columbia, 2009, 62 min | Film Website

Rather than fly or drive the thousands of kilometres to visit Canadian literary legend Farley Mowat, Leanne Allison, Karsten Heuer, and their toddler, Zev, find other ways to traverse the Prairies, Barrenlands and Maritimes, stringing together the settings of many of Mowat’s stories along the way. This documentary compares two views of Canada — one of the iconic Canadian author — the other of an adventuring family walking and paddling in Mowat’s footsteps.

Screening Sponsor: Harper Street Publishing

This Land

Dir. Dianne Whelan, British Columbia, 2009, 34 min | Film Trailer

In March 2007, a small group of Canadians set out to cover more than 2,000 km of the harshest terrain on the planet, the west cost of Ellesmere Island, by snow machine. They confront blizzards, labyrinths of crushed sea ice and near-impassable glaciers, with temperatures hovering around -50°C. With a mesmerizing soundtrack by Nunavut-born singer and narrator Tanya Tagaq, Dianne Whelan’s documentary is a graceful and beautiful film; chock-full of magnificent landscapes and propelled by a sharp sense of patriotic adventurism.

5pm - Opening Reception

Join us in celebrating the opening night of the 8th annual Available Light Film Festival. Light snacks will be provided by Baked Café and the bar will be open.

6:30pm - 65_RedRoses

Dir. Philip Lyall and Nimisha Mukerji, British Columbia, 2009, 82 min | Film Website

Normally a colourful, positive, vivacious young woman, Eva is only a ghost of herself when we meet her in this heartrending, and life affirming film. She is suffering through the advanced stages of Cystic Fibrosis and her lungs are functioning at minimal capacity as her family and friends helplessly watch her deteriorate. When Eva opts for a double lung transplant that could save her life she forms a supportive online community with other CF patients to share the emotional and physical highs and lows she experiences during the months of waiting for a donor.

Winner of 3 awards at the 2009 Vancouver International Film Festival, including VIFF’s Most Popular Canadian Film Award.

Directors Nimisha Mukerji and Philip Lyall in attendance.
Screening Sponsor: Baked Café

8:45pm - J’ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother)

Dir. Xavier Dolan, Québec, 2009, 100 min | Film Trailer

Xavier Dolan’s audacious feature film is the greatest Canadian film success story of the year. It received a triumvirate of prizes at the Cannes Festival and is the talk of the town in Québec. At just 17, Dolan penned the script for this semi-autobiographical story of a stormy relationship between a mother and her son. Hubert (Dolan, now 21) is a precocious, opinionated and just-out-of-the-closet teenager whose contempt for his mother consumes him. Their exasperation is mutual, and when his mother’s finally had it and sends him to the Our Lady of Sorrows boarding school it seems that their strained relationship will fall apart. Dolan’s star will doubtless continue to rise on the strength of the performances, and the poetic images in his debut feature.

Screening Sponsor: Association franco-yukonnaise

Thursday Feb 11

5:15pm - Rocaterrania

Dir. Brett Ingram, USA, 2009, 75 min | Film Website

Artist and natural history illustrator, Renaldo Kuhler is a fascinating eccentric who has been creating the culture, language, political history and architecture—right down to the uniforms that people wear—of Rocaterrania, a tiny fictional nation of Eastern European immigrants tucked into a corner of upstate New York. Renaldo first conceived of Rocaterrania as a teenager. Now in his 70s he continues to develop its layered world of queens, despots and eunuchs through imaginative illustrations and writings. But, as the documentary reveals, each change of government in Rocaterrania reflects a deeper meaning for Renaldo, an outsider who has searched his whole life for somewhere he could belong.

6:45pm - Cole

Dir. Carl Bessai, British Columbia, 2009, 100 min | Film Website

Carl Bessai offers up an authentic and challenging drama with his latest feature, set in Lytton, BC. Twenty-something Cole Chambers is trapped in this small, rural town, pressured to choose between the pursuit of his dream to be a writer and the care of his troubled family. Cole helps his sister run the family gas station and raise her two children despite frequent clashes with her abusive boyfriend, a dysfunctional redneck. When he decides to escape his undue responsibilities and take a university class in the city, Cole gets more than he bargained for—falling in love with a fellow student—a woman from a reality very different from his own. Honest, and at times difficult to watch, Cole won the Best Canadian Feature Film Award at the Atlantic Film Fest ’09.

Director Carl Bessai in attendance.
Screening Sponsor: Northern Film and Video Industry Association

9pm - Neil Young Trunk Show

Dir. Jonathan Demme, USA, 2009, 84 min | Film Website

Academy award-winning director, Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia, Stop Making Sense), employed a ‘fly on the wall’ improvised approach to capture Canadian icon, Neil Young in concert. Young performs whimsical ‘acoustic’ and ‘electric’ versions of songs from his massive recorded catalogue in the historic Tower Theatre in Pennsylvania, surrounded on stage by artifacts from his life. His brush with death in 2005 from a brain aneurysm has apparently only heightened Young’s live performance. If you only see two concert films this year, then this should be one of them.

Screening Sponsor: OMNI Productions

Friday Feb 12

1pm - H2Oil

All tickets to this screening $5

Dir. Shannon Walsh, Québec, 2009, 81 min | Film Website

Ever wonder where American gets most of its oil? If you thought it was Saudi Arabia or Iraq you are wrong. America’s biggest oil supplier has quickly become Canada’s oil sands. Located under Alberta’s pristine boreal forests, the process of oil sands extraction uses up to 4 barrels of fresh water to produce only one barrel of crude oil. We understand on one level that our dependence on oil is near suicidal, but how much do we know—or do—about what is happening in our own country? Shannon Walsh’s stunning documentary demonstrates that oil and water are not only mutually incompatible, but that we eventually have to choose one over the other.

H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against tar sands expansion. Unlikely alliances are built and lives are changed as they come up against the largest industrial project in human history.

4:45pm - Black Field

Dir. Danishka Esterhazy, Manitoba, 2009, 88 min Film Trailer

This prairie period drama is sexy, gothic, suspenseful and captivatingly performed. In fact it’s everything Canadian period dramas are not notoriously known for. Set during a 19th century prairie spring, two young sisters are struggling to survive on their isolated family farm after the recent death of their parents. David, a mysterious and charming French-Canadian trapper, arrives and comes between them.

Black Field is filled with beautiful visuals that immerse viewers in the 1800s prairie setting. Evenings are barely lit with candles, casting the farm in shadows. Days are illuminated by the cool, spring sunlight in the open prairie sky. There are horse rides through the wilderness, and walks through fields in long, swaying dresses. Esterhazy’s film blends early western Canadian history into an intense story about the necessity of love for survival. (VIFF 2009)

“One of the top 10 reasons to go to the movies in 2010.” ~ Winnipeg Free Press

Screening Sponsor: Telefilm Canada

6:30pm - Last Train Home

Dir. Lixin Fan, Québec/China, 2009, 87 min | Film Website

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. It is the Chinese New Year and millions of migrant factory workers head to the rural villages and families they left behind to seek work in the booming coastal cities. It is an epic spectacle that tells us much about China, a country discarding traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance. Sixteen years ago, the Zhangs abandoned their young children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their wages would lift their children into a better life. In classic cinema vérité style, Last Train Home draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration. This engaging and beautiful debut film from Chinese-Canadian director, Lixin Fan, recently won the top prize at the world’s largest documentary film festival, the International Documentary Forum Amsterdam.

Screening Sponsor: Yukon Human Rights Commission

8:15pm - Taqwacore: the Birth of Punk Islam

Dir. Omar Majeed, Québec, 2009, 82 min | Film Website

More social documentary than music film, this explosive film follows a group of young Muslim musicians who have embodied the fictional characters of a novel and started their own DIY movement as they smartly and recklessly question their own religious upbringing, western culture and global politics. At the front of this band of merry Muslim stereotype–smashers is the author of the novel Taqwacore – Michael Mohammed Knight: straight-laced, super smart, conflicted and irreverent. A wild, fascinating ride through middle America and Pakistan that proves that punk is still very much alive.

Chosen by Spin magazine as one of the top 10 best music docs of 2009.

Director Omar Majeed in attendance.
Screening Sponsor: Yukon College

10:30pm - The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights

Dir. Emmett Malloy, USA, 2009, 93 min | Film Trailer

The historic 2007 tour by the White Stripes saw them play shows in every Canadian province and territory. The documentary crew traveling with Jack and Meg went behind the scenes with the enigmatic duo and their experiences on tour where they played for teens at a youth shelter in Burnaby, met with Inuit elders in Iqaluit, and played a one note show on the street in St. John’s. Under Great White Northern Lights captures their raw performances in small, odd and unlikely places such as: the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, a Winnipeg transit bus, the Shorty Brown Multiplex Arena in Yellowknife, and Lepage Park in Whitehorse.

Screening Sponsor: Triple J’s Music Café

Saturday Feb 13

10am - NFB Animation for Kids (50 min total running time)

All tickets for this screening $5 | Film trailers

Family-friendly films including: Tzaritza, Git Gob, Runaway Train, Wiggles and Giggles and more. A cute selection of animated shorts by award-winning filmmakers like Cordell Barker and Theodore Ushev as well as new talent.

11am - Finding Farley

Dir. Leanne Allison, British Columbia, 2009, 62 min | Film Website

Rather than fly or drive the thousands of kilometres to visit Canadian literary legend Farley Mowat, Leanne Allison, Karsten Heuer, and their toddler, Zev, find other ways to traverse the Prairies, Barrenlands and Maritimes, stringing together the settings of many of Mowat’s stories along the way. This documentary compares two views of Canada — one of the iconic Canadian author—the other of an adventuring family walking and paddling in Mowat’s footsteps.

Director Leanne Allison in attendance.
Screening Sponsor: Community Cable 9

12:30pm - The Horse Boy

Dir. Michel Orion Scott and Rupert Isaacson, USA, 2009, 93 min | Film Trailer

An intensely personal and epic spiritual journey, The Horse Boy follows one Texas couple and their autistic son as they trek on horseback through Outer Mongolia in a desperate attempt to treat his condition with shamanic healing. When two-year-old Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife Kristin Neff, a psychology professor, sought the best possible medical care for their son—but traditional therapies had little effect. Then they discovered that Rowan has a profound affinity for animals—particularly horses—and the family set off on a quest for a possible cure.

Screening Sponsor: Autism Yukon & Yukon Association for Community Living

2:15pm - Burwa Dii Ebo (The Wind and the Water)

Dir. Vera Bollow and Igar Yala Collective, Panama, 2009, 98 min | Film Website

This powerful and remarkable film is billed as the first dramatic feature from Panama and was produced by an extraordinary collective of young aboriginal Kuna artists. The Kuna face an increasingly complex dance between the traditional and contemporary way of life. This is embodied by the two protagonists in the film. Machi, a young rural teen from Kuna Yala islands, yearns to mature and learn the ways of his Kuna elders, but is also expected to attend high school in Panama City. Rosy is a teen descended from the Kuna, but has grown up in the city.

Marten Berkman: art, film, photography of the earth

4pm - CBQM

Dir. Dennis Allen, Northwest Territories/Yukon, 2009, 66 min | Film Trailer

CBQM is an entertaining and insightful look at the Gwich’in community of Ft. McPherson, NWT as seen through the studio window of the town’s busy radio station. More than just your average station, CBQM is a dependable pal, a beacon in the storm of life and a resilient expression of identity and pride for the community. Inuvialuit and Gwich’in descended filmmaker, Dennis Allen, tips his hat to the ‘Moccasin Telegraph’ and celebrates the vital role of storytelling and music within his culture, while crafting a detailed and generous portrait of life in an arctic town.

Winner of the Alanis Obomsawin Best Feature Documentary Award at the ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival 2009.

Director Dennis Allen in attendance.
Screening Sponsor: What's Up Yukon

6pm - Crackie

Dir. Sherry White, Newfoundland & Labrador, 2009, 93 min | Film Website

A ‘crackie’ in Newfoundland is a mutt. Young Mitsy lives with her tough and um, resourceful, dump scavenging and prostitute grandmother, Bride (played in a surprisingly uncomedic way by Mary Walsh) while going to school to become a hair-dresser. Mitsy inherits a mutt called Sparky who becomes her only friend, but when her mother who abandoned her shows up unexpectedly from Alberta and stirs up trouble, Mitsy’s world starts to unravel. This feature debut by writer-director Sherry White is set in a bleak Newfoundland that might as well be Siberia, so remote is it from polite, middle-class Canada. John Doyle of the Globe and Mail calls Crackie “a masterpiece of Canadian realism.”

Director Sherry White in attendance.
Screening Sponsor: Director’s Guild of Canada – BC

8:30pm — Prom Night in Mississippi

Dir. Paul Saltzman, Ontario, 2009, 90 min Film Website

Even though the US Supreme court ordered the integration of schools in 1954, integration didn’t happen in Charleston, MS until 1970. This was the same year that white parents refused to integrate the school’s graduation dance in favour of segregated proms. Charleston High School held its first-ever integrated prom in 2008, paid for by local resident and Academy Award-winning actor, Morgan Freeman. Saltzman captures the simmering racism and blossoming hope in this anachronistic town.

The Audience Favourite Award winner at the 2009 Hot Docs Film Festival.

Screening Sponsor: Cinder Wood Kitchens

Sunday Feb 14

11am — Soundtrack for a Revolution

Dir. Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, USA, 2009, 82 min | Film Website

The People’s Choice Award winner at the 2009 Vancouver International Film Festival renders the American civil rights movement vividly through image and song. Compelling archival footage is set against dynamite contemporary performances of movement anthems by, among others, Wyclef Jean, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton and the Blind Boys of Alabama, Richie Havens, The Roots and Joss Stone. The film also features interviews with civil rights soldiers and leaders of the movement, including Congressman John Lewis, Harry Belafonte, and Ambassador Andrew Young, but it is the songs themselves that are really the stars here. A celebration of the power of music to give strength and hope, Soundtrack for a Revolution is a vibrant, soul-stirring experience.

Screening Sponsor: Geist Magazine and Videomatica

12:45pm — The Jazz Baroness

Dir. Hannah Rothschild, United Kingdom, 2009, 83 min | Film Website

He was a black musician from a poor family in the American south and she was the child of one of the richest families on earth, raised in a castle in the English countryside. This documentary offers us the remarkable story of “American jazz genius meets eccentric British heiress.” From the moment that Pannonica Rothschild (the director’s great-aunt) heard a Thelonious Monk record, she was convinced that he was the “Eighth wonder of the world.” When the two finally crossed paths in Paris in 1954, they began a grand love affair—albeit a purely platonic one—that endured until Monk’s death 28 years later. Patron, protector and muse, Pannonica was integral to Monk’s music. Furthermore, as Quincy Jones, Thelonious Monk Jr. and Clint Eastwood suggest, the closer you look at Thelonious and Pannonica, the more similarities you find. Just as he helped revolutionize jazz, she was at the forefront of the civil rights and feminist movements.

Screening Sponsor: Jazz Yukon

2:30pm — My Tehran for Sale

Dir. Granaz Moussavi, Iran/Australia, 2009, 96 min | Film Trailer

Shot covertly on location in Tehran, this extraordinary drama tells the story of modern day Iranian youth struggling for cultural freedom. It brings to the screen never before seen images of modern urban Iran, and reveals how young Iranian people live behind closed doors. The schism between modern Iranians with cell phones, drugs and dance music and the archaic morality of a culture that insists on the burka requires a profound form of cognitive dissonance. Living inside such duality, it is little wonder that the main character, Marzieh seems utterly lost. But when faced with the reality of escaping Iran (via a smuggler) or continuing to live a lie, which path will she take? Featuring a riveting performance by actress Marzieh Vafamehr.

Screening Sponsor: Midnight Sun Coffee Roaster

4:30pm — This Way of Life

Dir. Tom Burstyn, New Zealand, 2009, 84 min | Film Website

Against the stunning beauty of New Zealand’s rugged Ruahine Mountains, Peter Karena and his wife Colleen raise their six children on the thin edge between freedom and disaster. As Peter hunts, trains wild horses and struggles to instill in his kids the values of independence, courage and happiness, his escalating struggle with his own father has profound consequences for the entire Karena clan. Following the ups and downs over four years of this growing Maori family, this documentary subtly examines the very foundation of western society – land ownership and wage work. The Karena’s desire to raise their children in the bush and teach them subsistence life skills so they can maintain their independence will resonate with rugged individualists and outdoor enthusiasts (or those who have ever considered becoming one) in this part of the world.

Screening Sponsor: Muktuk Adventures

6:30pm — Cooking With Stella

Dir. Dilip Mehta, Ontario, 2009, 104 min | Film Website

Set in the embassy compound in New Delhi, India this lighthearted caper film is a tightly paced comedy about food, deception and class relations. Michael (Don McKellar) and Maya (Lisa Ray), are a pair of new parents from Ottawa who arrive in New Delhi where Maya has landed a diplomatic post. Comfortable and insulated in their High Commission compound, they get their big taste of India from their cook, Stella. She’s a brilliant chef, loyal employee, devout Catholic and a bit of a thief. This is a movie with big ambitions that are seamlessly streamlined within a tight, compelling plot. Written by Dilip Mehta with his filmmaking sister, Deepa. Produced by prodigal Yukon son and frequent ALFF guest, David Hamilton.

Screening Sponsor: Arctic Star Printing

8:30pm — Reel Injun (Closing Gala)

Dir. Neil Diamond, Québec, 2009, 77 min | Film Website

Some of the first recorded moving pictures at the birth of cinema were of aboriginal people. Neil Diamond (who is Cree from Waskaganish, James Bay) crosses the continent to explore the history of First Nations on the silver screen. He interviews directors, writers, actors and activists, including Clint Eastwood, Jim Jarmusch, Robbie Robertson, Sacheen Littlefeather, John Trudell and Russell Means. Diamond’s exploration features film clips from the 1920s onward and is an incredible summation of the progression of aboriginal people being exploited in cinema to the reclamation of their own image as seen in films from Smoke Signals, Black Robe, Dances with Wolves, Dance Me Outside, and perhaps most significantly for Canadian cinema, the first Inuit produced feature film, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner). A timely look at how the myth of “the Injun” has influenced the world’s understanding—and misunderstanding—of First Nations peoples. Honourable mention for the Alanis Obomsawin Best Feature Documentary Award at the ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival 2009.

Director Neil Diamond in attendance.
Screening Sponsor: Tle’ Nax T’awei Group