TIFF13 REVIEW: 2013 Short Cuts Canada Programmes

Programme 1 A far cry from the documentary short Joda—a visual letter to Jafar Panahi—that was included in the TIFF Short Cuts Canada Programme last year, graphic designer turned filmmaker Theodore Ushev’s Gloria Victoria is all about the visceral and aural capabilities of film without something as unnecessary as words. Full of sumptuous textured layers formed by sketch drawings, Russian Constructivist elements, what I believe were faces from Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, and more, the rising crescendo of Shostakovich’s “Invasion” from Symphony No. 7 helps spur on an emotive war in…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Moon Point [2012]

“My grandmother doesn’t let me out of the house without coupons” If quirky indie had a handbook, Moon Point would be a film ripped from its pages. Beginning with a handmade credit sequence of cardboard Valentine’s cards with names of the cast and crew a la Napoleon Dynamite‘s geek chic, you know what to expect very early on. And when the opening line deals with the crass recollection of childbirth as though the funniest subject on Earth, perverted ice cream truck drivers, homicidal karaoke contest winners, and the weirdest innkeeper…

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