Special: Festival Partner, Homewood Suites is offering 10% off rooms if you mention you're coming to the festival when booking.
Friday March 2nd
What the Health
7:00 pm Sat. Mar. 2nd at Star Hall
1 hr. 37 min.
Directed/Written by: Kip Andersen & Keegan Kuhn
The film follows intrepid filmmaker Kip Andersen as he uncovers the secret to preventing and even reversing chronic diseases – and investigates why the nation’s leading health organizations don’t want us to know about it. With heart disease and cancer the leading causes of death in America, and diabetes at an all-time high, the film reveals possibly the largest health cover-up of our time. With the help of medical doctors, researchers, and consumer advocates, What the Health exposes the collusion and corruption in government and big business that is costing us trillions of healthcare dollars, and keeping us sick.
Join Kip as he tracks down the leading and most trusted American health nonprofits to find out why these groups are staying silent, despite a growing body of evidence. Audiences will be shocked to learn the insidious roles played by pharmaceutical companies, agribusiness, and processed animal food companies in the nation’s health, especially in the most vulnerable communities, and will cheer at the transformation and recovery of those who took their lives into their own hands.
Radiance (Japanese: Hikari)
8:50 pm Fri. Mar. 2nd at Star Hall
1 hr. 41
A passionate writer of film versions for the visually impaired meets an older photographer, who is slowly losing his eyesight. In his photographs, she discovers an odd connection to her past, and together they discover a radiant world that until now was not visible to Misako's eyes.
It is through poetry that this masterpiece allows us to pay more attention, to watch and listen to the world around us. The film allows for new conversations and inspires a broadening of the mind to understand others better. Hikari explores the responsibility, resilience, hope, and the possibility, even for those in the dark, to see the light.
CultureBox
“A subtle reflection on Naomi Kawase’s own art”
Cineuropa
“Radiance is a strong competition film from Naomi Kawase and one of my favourites at #Cannes2017”
Saturday March 3rd
7:00pm Sat. March 3rd at Star Hall: 61 minutes
Ethiopia Rising
Director: Mark Dodd
Writers: Mark Dodd, Ashley Norton
Director: Mark Dodd
A new feature documentary from the award-winning maker of
‘The Man Who Stopped the Desert’
The story of one man's mission to create an Eden out of Africa's barren landscape.
Ethiopia Rising The remarkable and inspiring story of how one man turned his barren environment, destroyed by war, into a lush and verdant Eden. For the last thirty years, Abu Hawi has fought tirelessly to protect the beautiful forests surrounding his village. Following the devastation of a long civil war he planted over a million trees, mobilised an entire community to regenerate their surroundings and saved his village from certain extinction.
"Here are the awards. They come from local administration level up to national and global level", Abu proudly states as he shows off his award cabinet. Abu has achieved international recognition for his efforts at greening his once parched region.
But before things became what they are today, Abu had to face a long and strenuous fight. During the 1970s, Ethiopia experienced its most devastating famine to date. "You could not eat once a day, let alone two, three times", Abu recalls. But he could also see a way out. While the villagers of Abreha Atsbeha were cutting trees vigorously, Abu urged this activity to cease. "When my friends asked me why I did this, I told them that cutting these trees will turn the area into desert", Abu says.
But it wasn't just Abu's friends who questioned his decision to protect the trees. In fact, Abu met strong opposition from many fellow villagers, some of whom denounced him to the government, convinced that he was spying for a rebel group that was fighting the Derg.
Things have changed since then. "I am nearly seventy years old. In these seventy years I have never seen anything like what we have now", admits a remorseful villager who used to oppose Abu's movement. In fact, when people began to see the positive impact of protecting trees, Abu was made leader of his village. This is also how he got the name Abu Hawi, meaning 'Man of Fire'.
8:20pm Sat. March 3rd at Star Hall: 1 hour 26 minutes minutes
Unarmed Verses
Written and Directed by Charles Officer
Produced by Lea Marin
Executive Producer Anita Lee
Director of Photography Mike McLaughlin
Editor Andres Landau
Editorial Consultant Ricardo Acosta
Sound Recordist Mike Filippov
Original Music Composed by Menalon
This feature documentary presents a thoughtful and vivid portrait of a community facing imposed relocation. At the centre of the story is the remarkable, astute and luminous 12-year-old Francine Valentine, whose poignant observations about life, the soul, and the power of art give voice to those rarely heard in society. Unarmed Verses is a cinematic rendering of our universal need for self-expression and belonging.
Best Canadian Feature Documentary Hot Docs 2017
Best Canadian DocumentaryVancouver International Film Festival 2017
Official SelectionEBS International Documentary Festival 2017
Rogers Audience Choice Award Regent Park Film Festival 2017
People's Choice Award 2017 Canada's Top Ten Film Festival - TIFF
Sunday March 4th
7:00pm Sun. March 4th at Star Hall: 15 minutes
Superprize
The happy security guard drives a new "Smart" car which he won at the lottery. For him this mini-car, tied up by a ribbon, is his life’s triumph! The man wants to share the joy of his victory, but his "super prize" doesn't inspire just anybody.
Director
Konstantin Chelidze
Scriptwriter
Konstantin Chelidze
Producer
Vladimir Popesku
Cinematographer / DP
Alexander Kochubey
Composer
Alexander Manotskov
Editor
Konstantin Chelidze
Sound Designer
Ekaterina Ivanova
All the Wild Horses
7:30 pm Sun. Mar. 4th at Star Hall 1 hour &30 minutes
IVO MARLOH
Producer-Director
DARCIA MARTIN
Co-Producer
MICHAEL SANDERSON
Director of Photography
KEVIN AUGELLO
Sound Recordist
From the Director's Statement:
"Being raised on a farm, I learned to ride horses before I could read or write. My mother would tell me about faraway horse nations like Iceland and Mongolia, so I often dreamed of riding horses across the steppes. Years later I read about the Mongol Derby and I signed up immediately. When
I was offered a place, the filmmaker in me took over. This was too rare an opportunity to not film. "
- Ivo Marloh, Director
Synopsis:
The Mongol Derby is the longest and toughest horse race in the world. A recreation of Chinggis Khaan’s Morin Urtuu postal system, the 1000 kilometer (700 miles) race is strung along a network of 27 horse stations on the Mongolian steppe, and has in its short life become an epic equine adventure of no equal.
ALL THE WILD HORSES follows endurance horse riders from the United States, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, United Kingdom and the Netherlands as they try and compete in this race.
The riders are out on the steppe on their own and navigate with GPS from horse station to horse station, spaced around fourty kilometers apart. They battle extreme heat, extreme weather, swollen rivers and wild dogs, often on their own. They change their horses at every station, staying the nights out in the wild or with nomad families along the way. One wrong horse and they could be bucked off and lose their horse with help being hours away. Serious injuries, broken bones and heat exhaustion are a common and debilitating factor in the race.
After a dramatic start with first casualties already medivaced off the field, 22-year-old American rider Devan Horn battles heat, exhaustion and wild dogs as she takes the lead early on. South African horse whisperer Monde Kanyana is challenged with ever more difficult horses; and Irish jockeys Donie Fahy and Richie Killoran try to overcome setback after dramatic setback as they chase down the front runners. The film throws up twists, turns and a lot of drama as it builds to an unexpected, nail-biting finish.
ALL THE WILD HORSES already won Best International Feature Documentary on its premiere screening at the Galway Film Fleadh, Best International Feature Film and Best Director at Equus New York, as well asa few more awards and nominations.
The director, Ivo Marloh, rode the complete race twice in order to film the action first hand and document exactly what compels riders from all around the world to risk broken bones, life-threatening injuries, their life savings and often a good dose of mental sanity to experience one of the last true wildernesses on Earth, on the back of wild horses..
