Tag Archives: Film

Celebrate International Women’s Day with These Great Films

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International Women's Day Films

Wednesday, March 8 is International Women’s Day! In the weeks leading up to this one we have seen many calls for action, including V-Day, Day of Big Change and A Billion Rising. To find out about more events that are happening in your city this week go to the International Women’s Day Event Page! Right now there are 1062 events in Canada alone!

There are quite a few ways to both celebrate IWD and increase your knowledge on various women’s rights issues. Here are some films that will be screening during the week that should help you do just that:

On March 6th Miss Representation, a film which discusses the problematic portrayal of girls and women in the media will be playing at The Royal Cinema.

On March 8th the Centre for Social Innovation will be screening It’s a Girl, a film about gendercide in China and India.

Also on March 8th Sisters on the Planet, presented by Oxfam and Toronto Climate Coalition, will be showing at Friends’ House. Sisters on the Planet investigates thedisproportionate effects of climate change on women.

To celebrate the day the National Film Board of Canada will be streaming seminal works by/for/about women on their site. Various films will screen all week long so check back often! If you want to learn more about the history and contemporary state of Canadian feminism we suggest you log onto the site on March 8th. Karen Cho’s new movie Status Quo: The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada, which provides is a fantastic, sobering account of Canadian feminism will be streaming. Check out our exclusive SDTC interview with her here.

However you choose to celebrate International Women’s Day, we hope it proves to be enlightening, informative and empowering!

First Position, a doc about young ballet dancers, opens July 20th

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First Position follows a diverse group of young ballet dancers as they prepare for the ultimate, career-changing competition: The Youth America Grand Prix.

From passionate dedication to incredible precision, each of the students followed in the film inspire awe in different ways. 14 year old Michaela was born in Sierra Leone, and adopted by a family in Philadelphia after her parents were shot. 11 year old Aran shows off his BB gun and his foot stretcher. 17 year old Rebecca drives a car with a Princess license plate, 12 year old Miko displays an alarming self-possession. 16 year old Joan Sebastien lives alone in New York, cherishing rare visits home to Columbia to visit his family. 11 year old Gaya has a mesmerizing stage presence and an adorable romance with Aran.

Through the film, you watch as these young dancers push themselves to the limit to prepare for the Grand Prix, a contest where 5,000 dancers compete for a few hundred spots at the showcase in New York. The incredible power, and pain, of their art form is displayed, and from the first moments of the film, you’re invested in their success. The documentary uses a non-judgemental eye, presenting the ups and downs of the dancers’ lives. You’ll be blown away by their talent and drive, and moved by their performances.

Will The Perks of Being a Wallflower film measure up to the rawness of the original novel?

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There are few things (okay, maybe there are a greater number of things) more anxiety inducing than a film adaptation of a treasured book. Double that feeling if it’s a treasured childhood book.

For many MTV-Generationals, Steven Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is requisite reading. It’s like Salinger for the un-snarky. Basic premise: “Charlie”, a shy and lonely teen, writes letters to an anonymous reader that detail various moments in his life.  Charlie’s letters hit certain topics like introversion, friendship, and shyness right on the head––which is what made this book of particular interest to me.

It introduced many to The Smiths’ sob-fest that is “Asleep”, and made many a teenager crave mix-tapes, a gaggle of misfit friends, as well as that one cool older teacher who just seems to, y’know, like understand. So imagine my fear when they released the trailer for The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It’s directed by Chbosky, the book’s author, which inspires a certain amount of confidence; but, the coming-of-age genre (in American film, especially) is rather over-saturated. While the book deftly, eloquently, and simply touches upon the motherlode of issues (depression, sexual abuse, homosexuality, etc.), I can’t help but feel that the film will be a sanitized version of a book.

The trailer itself ticks off the “awkward adolescent movie” formula. Indie rock? Check. Potential for manic pixie dream girl? Check. Obligatory wild house party scene? Triple check.  It’s bleary, wistful, and almost a little too constructed to ever measure up to the rawness of the novel. Do I feel pandered to? Less so than when I saw 500 Days of Summer, more so than when I watched Daydream Nation. While the trailer gives a decent-enough impression of the film (and again, I can’t really knock it, until I’ve seen it), it does nothing to inspire confidence in die-hard fans of the book.

The cast is an absolute teen dream, trust. Ezra Miller, whose turn as the psychotic Kevin in We Need to Talk About Kevin, was nothing short of terrifying, plays Patrick, one of Charlie’s friends.  Emma Watson, fresh off of My Week with Marilyn and the Harry Potter series, plays Sam. The titular role goes to Logan Lerman, who you may remember from Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Add to this Nina Dobrev (yes, The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev), and you’ve got your teen bases covered. Rounding out the adult cast are the ever affable Paul Rudd, the consistently-on-point Melanie Lynskey,  Kate Walsh, and Dylan McDermott.

Win a copy of City of Lost Souls, the fifth book in the Mortal Instruments series!

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The Mortal Instruments is a dark, sexy series that’s about to be made into a film starring The Blind Side’s Lily Cole. In Clary’s New York, Shadowhunters, Demons, and Downworlders like werewolves and vampires are all very real. Sent by the angel Raziel to protect the earth from demons, the Shadowhunters are aided by the Silent Brothers, who rule over the City of Bones, a necropolis below the streets of Manhattan. Here, they guard the Mortal Instruments.

For Clary, from the moment she watched Jace murder a demon in a New York nightclub and discovered she had the Sight, life has been fraught with passion and fear. The fifth book in the series, City of Lost Souls, comes out May 8th, and is cloaked in mystery. What will happen to Clary, and to Jace, the boy she loves more than anything in the world, who has disappeared? Find out by entering to win a copy! We’ve got five to give away!

To enter, email haleycullingham [at] gmail [dot] com!

The Bully documentary sheds light on the importance of students taking a stand, but also leaves the viewer with a lot of questions

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I walked out of Lee Hirsch’s Bully with a lot of questions. 

The documentary film, which follows five families dealing with the effects of bullying over the course of a year, is certainly moving. Alex is a young boy who is being viciously bullied on the bus and at school, and his teachers are failing to help him. Ever since coming out, Kelby has dealt with homophobia from teammates and teachers in her small-town school, but feels supported by her family, girlfriend, and close group of friends. Ja’maya is a young women who got so frustrated with bullies that she took her mother’s gun on the schoolbus. The last two stories are the most upsetting: they follow the families of Tyler and Ty, both of whom took their own lives, due to factors including bullying.

Suicide, like bullying, is a complex issue that is dangerously easy to simplify. With both, the natural instinct is to look for a villain, for someone to blame. Unfortunately, Hirsch gives in to this temptation in the film, choosing bullying as a scapegoat when it is one of what may have been many factors affecting these young men. This goes for all of the narratives the film follows: It almost feels like there are too many stories, with too many layers, to accurately express what’s really going on. Left out of the narrative are several things that seem incredibly important. (Emily Bazelon wrote an excellent article in Slate outlining some of those omissions.) While bullying certainly seems to have played a part in the tragic deaths of Tyler and Ty, there are layers of the story that seem to be missing.

Bully is an advocacy film, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything but. But even as an advocate, its treatment of the material at hand is, at times, a detriment to its main purpose. While no one can, or would, deny the pain these kids are going through or the importance of telling their stories, you’re left with a desire to ask the filmmaker to step out of the room so you can get the real story. Where Bully succeeds, however, is in illuminating just how incredibly destructive the cycle of bullying can be, and how, with administrators seemingly unable to stop it, it is up to you, as students, to take a stand. Inspiring figures like Kelby, and Ty family and friends, emphasize how speaking up and coming to someone’s defence can make all the difference.

In the end, Bully falls into the trap of the educators and administrators themselves: with the best of intentions, it is aware of the problem, but seems to miss much of the point. But while the documentary itself may sometimes fail to express the full story, that doesn’t make these testimonies any less important.

Come Hungry, Leave Happy: The Hunger Games brings the addictive novel to life with blockbuster flair

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The lead up to the Hunger Games movie may have been filled with Harry Potter and Twilight comparisons, and when it comes to the can’t-put-it-down factor, these are entirely accurate. The thing is, however, The Hunger Games is a bit darker than the former and SIGNIFICANTLY darker than the latter. For those who haven’t read the books three times already in anticipation of the film’s release this week: The Hunger Games takes place in the future world of Panem, where rebellious districts are punished by a ruling Capitol with a twisted annual event called The Hunger Games. Two children are selected from each District and forced to fight to the death in a simulated arena. The games are broadcast all over Panem, and citizens watch with Olympian fervor, betting on the winner and cheering on their district.

Katniss, whom we love as a strong and complex young female character, is thrown into the games when her younger sister Prim’s name is picked. She volunteers in her place, winning the loyalty and admiration of her District and all of Panem. Ever since her father’s death, she has been providing for her mother and Prim. She leaves them in the care of her best friend, the strapping young Gale, played by none other than Liam Hemsworth a.k.a Miley Cyrus’s boyfriend. The other tribute from her district is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a baker’s son with a kind heart and a flair for making people like him. The two are whisked from the poverty of their home to the sumptuous and surreal world of the Capitol, where they are groomed for competition along with their fellow tributes, with the help of their whiskey-soaked mentor, played by Woody Harrelson, and a team of stylists, led by Cinna (Lenny Kravitz).

But all anyone really cares about is this: does the movie live up to the books? The Hunger Games is rendered in a stylized way that does the original material justice. The young performers bring nuance to their characters, who are living in a world where truth and performance are never that far removed. The Games are just as intense on screen as they are on the page, and there are added cinematic layers that enhance our understanding of the arena. While some storylines (inevitably) fall by the wayside, the film is clearly made for the fans, but even if you’ve never read the book, you’ll be hooked. Director Gary Ross manages to combine his own vision with Hollywood panache and the story’s inherent strength to create the kind of guilty-pleasure blockbuster Twilight was always meant to be. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be freaked out by how savage the Games are, you’ll leave the theatre counting down the days until Catching Fire is released, and maybe itching to pick up a bow.