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Toronto has the stars, Hollywood distributors and the international media beating a path to its cinemas. Vancouver's film festival is much less of a hype market where film fans can get down to the serious business of watching a truly international selection of movies. At least, that's the tale of two festivals that many Canadians out West seem to subscribe to. Certainly, Vancouver's film festival is a laid-back affair. At the World Premiere, on Friday of No Maps For These Territories, an entertaining documentary about local sci-fi writer William Gibson (he who is credited with first coining the word "cyberspace"), the author himself could be found sitting out front of the small cinema, having a smoke and a coffee while punters queued a few feet away to engage with the taped version of the man. There wasn't a photographer in sight. On another occasion, I found myself exchanging film notes at a World Premiere with a woman doing her knitting. Vancouver doesn't stand on ceremony. This festival can also be unpredictable: when Ang Lee, director of the opening film, the martial arts drama, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, couldn't make it to Vancouver, a 160 kilogram Siberian tiger appeared on stage before the screening instead. Just a little reminder that this is one of North America's busiest filmmaking centres and that means there are animal actors too. It hasn't exactly been movie-watching weather thus far. This frequently rainsoaked patch of the Pacific Rim has been drenched these first four festival days in gorgeous sunshine. The city - a jumble of glass high rises and buildings of eclectic modern styles, surrounded by forested mountains and the sea - looks fantastic. Too good, in fact. It's tempting to push off from English Bay in a canoe or disappear into one of the city's urban forests for the day rather than sit in cool, dark room. The beautiful weather is normal at the beginning of the festival, I'm told. The organisers have promised that it always rains in the second half of the festival. The good spell has not deterred punters. This year's programme which, as in previous years, is strong in the Canadian and Asian departments, has been keeping the movie houses brimming over. Films from Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, China, Hong Kong not to mention North American Asian cinema comprise a substantial part of the programme ranging from the wrestling comedy and year's box office champion in Korea, The Foul King, to Wong Kar-Wai's exquisitely shot period romance, In The Mood For Love. Naturally, the Canadian films, of which there is a good number, are getting lots of interest. Although Stardom, a decidedly mediocre spoof of the supermodel world, seems to be getting pushed the hardest, top of my list so far is Scorn. This is an intelligent chiller-thriller based on a true crime story, that took place in Vancouver, about a 17-year-old who convinces two of his classmates to assassinate his mother and grandmother so he can collect the inheritance. It's not been without controversy: the mothers of the two boys convicted of murder have claimed that the film falsifies their sons' stories. In a difficult moment for Scorn director Sturla Gunnarsson, one of the mothers confronted the director in the post-screening Q&A asking why she wasn't approached at any point during the making of the film by the filmmakers. The screenplay was based to some extent on a week of interview's with the still incarcerated Darren Huenemann. Gunnarsson could only offer a belated apology. Still with horrors... one of the documentarys of the festival looks like being the disconcerting Uncle Saddam, which, in the style of the soap opera, Dynasty, reveals just how monumentally vain and vicious the Iraqi dictator has become. The doc which was shot under false pretences, shows Saddam talking about body odour, his doubles and grand plans, among other things. A brave piece indeed.
Other
diverting documentaries profiling the brilliant Malian guitarist Ali
Farke Toure and Canadian film director David Croenenberg are
also worth looking out for.
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