Home » Glasgow Film Festival 2017 » Glasgow Film Festival, Canadian Film Makers, Lauren Howes and Bart Simpson.

Glasgow Film Festival, Canadian Film Makers, Lauren Howes and Bart Simpson.

Lauren Howes and Bart Simpson, Canadian Filmmakers

Some films I saw at GFF2017

It’s impossible to make it along to every film at Glasgow Film Festival; unfortunately due to other commitments, I didn’t get to see Lauren Howes’67 Was Golden and the Falls Keep Falling – part of the festival strand Crossing The Line

Neither am I going to catch Bart Simpson’s Brasilia: Life After Design, however,  I was lucky enough to have a coffee and chat with the Canadian filmmakers.  Both very interesting, passionate about their work and charming.

Lauren Howes,‎Executive Director at Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre and Allison Gardner, Director Glasgow Film Festival

Lauren is Executive Director of the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. It sounds like a groundbreaking establishment, run by artists and not for profit. I also love the sound of the documentary.

67 Was Golden and the Falls Keep Falling

Circa 1967 – Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) is founded as Canada’s first artist run, not for profit film distribution centre. Michael Snow, one of the founders of the centre, creates the seminal and groundbreaking 16mm avant-garde film Wavelength, when Canada celebrates its 100th Anniversary as a colonized country. Showcasing seminal works alongside contemporary work – Rimmer’s Canadian Pacific meets the structuralist detritus captured in First Nations artist Lyndsey McIntyre’s Barge Dirge of the Arctic. Where the old ‘garde’ meets the new ‘garde’ the Falls Keep Falling, from when ’67 was Golden.

www.cfmdc.org/about

Bart Simpson is a Canadian producer and director of documentary and fiction films

Brasilia: Life After Design  

Bart Simpson’s Documentary Brasilia is another festival highlight and still a chance to catch this Thursday, 23 February, 11 a.m. at CCA

A meditation on living in one of the most planned cities on earth, this documentary looks at how the residents of the visionary, brutalist city of Brasilia seek to connect in today’s Brazil. Brasilia is a mythical place: a concrete utopia, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and urbanist Lúcio Costa, spawned out of the desert. But despite the population growing every year, the city plan itself cannot change as it’s protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Featuring a haunting, intimate score and images that take us deep into the city, Brasilia: Life After Design brings a human face to the utopian ideal. 

Part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2017 Stranger Than Fiction Strand

www.bartsimpson.tv/ 

Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch both these documentaries at some point.  I’m even more interested after meeting Lauren and Bart. The two filmmakers have a long standing friendship. Lauren, who is originally from Vancouver and now lives and works in Toronto, had never visited Glasgow before. She heads back home tomorrow but was off for a trip to Loch Lomond this afternoon, so it was good to see the sun come out.

Bart, on the other hand, knows Glasgow well and loves the city. At present he lives in Montreal but not so long ago his home was in Shawlands. I don’t think it would take much to persuade him to return.  He even admires our First Minister. 🙂

Hopefully we will see them both back in Glasgow for future film festivals and, with a bit of luck, I might make it to Toronto Film Festival in September.

More films at the festival

 I saw ‘Elle’ with Isabelle Hupert. She’s an amazing actor but the film was very deserving of its over 18 category; quite disturbing with a lot of sexual violence.

I also caught Marija, which is one of the films up for the audience award. It successfully depicts the grim and fragile life of immigrants in Dortmund, Germany, and Margarita Breitkreiz was well cast. I enjoyed the ambiguity and tension in the film but I didn’t find it riveting.

Another film I saw was ‘Rules Don’t Apply’ with Warren Beatty, in which Beatty clearly had a wonderful time playing Howard Hughes, the womanizing movie mogul.  The wardrobe department should win an award for this one but I thought they could have improved upon the song writing.  For a comedic film I found it quite absorbing. I particularly liked the scene when Hughes, who appears completely batty, decides to fly his private plane.  Hughes appears to share some of the characteristics of Donald Trump. Very possibly Beatty’s intention with the message: “Never check an interesting fact,” a quotation ascribed to Hughes.

Berlin Syndrome was a brilliant film. Left me pretty traumatized.

I’ve written a couple of more in depth reviews about Pawno and Handsome Devil – these are the two films I’ve enjoyed most.  I hope to catch a couple more tomorrow if storm Doris doesn’t make too much of an appearance.

Pat Byrne, February, 2017

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