Reflections from the Festival du Nouveau Cinema and the Joys of Changing Perspective

Sometimes it’s the old ways that are the best…

Living in the city of Toronto and being a film critic/journalist (or whatever you want to call the job these days) for over 15 years puts you in a bit of a bubble when it comes to working in the film industry. It makes you forget that when it comes to film and TV, the centre of the Canadian Universe used to be Montreal.

This past October, I had the pleasure of being a guest of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (FNC) to serve on the FIPRESCI jury, which awards a prize to the best first time filmmaker. This year’s jury awarded The Devil Smokes (and Keeps the Burnt Match Heads in the Same Box) from Mexican filmmaker Ernesto Martinez Bucio.

It was my first time being on a festival jury and the experience gave me unique insight on being able to see a film festival through a different lens With that lens, I basically got confirmation of something that I kind of already knew: Montreal and Quebec have their own style when it comes to the film and television industry that allows them to carve out a unique space on the world landscape.

I had no clue they were celebrating their 54^th edition of the festival and with a manageable 100 or so features in their lineup, FNC is something that in many ways our Canadian film landscape truly needs. While TIFF is the industry behemoth, FNC feels like the festival that allows for films to have a little room to breathe and to be appreciated on a different level, rather than hustling from venue to venue in classic TIFF fashion, especially when there’s a chance to marathon the entire first season of Twin Peaks with a live audience like fans got to do at FNC.

Don’t get me wrong, I love them both, but FNC embodies the spirit of how I like to attend and tackle a film festival.  We get a base of strong studio programming that ranged from Frankenstein, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and Jay Kelly, strong indies from filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt and Richard Linklater, some local Quebecois and Canadian programming, including the highly entertaining Who Killed The Montreal Expos? and an eclectic base of world cinema, some of which was on my radar and some that, quite frankly, I had never heard of.

While I had to (mostly) stick to my category, I had the chance to take in a truly enjoyable collection of cinema that included some TIFF holdovers with director Sophy Romvari’s Blue Heron, the wild A Useful Ghost from Thailand’s Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, the lush and gorgeous The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo from writer/director Diego Céspedes, and the immaculate day-glow neon of Taipei on display in Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left Handed Girl, among others, but I’ll have to admit that it was a few of those surprises out of left field that truly caught me off guard and inspire me to keep going to film festivals each and every year.

Horror fans far and wide need to remember the name of director Yurian Retriever (who has made the unique transition from stand-up comedian to filmmaker) and her new revenge ghost story Mag Mag, which is doing the festival run now is a master class in horror movie execution. She’sa fresh new voice on the Japanese horror scene that we haven’t seen since the likes of Nobuhiko Obayashi (House) who can thread the needle between layers of emotion and provide audiences with something that is just gloriously insane.

I also had the chance to reconnect with old friends, as Toronto native and filmmaker Lina Rodriguez brought her most recent project, Puntos de Fuga,(Vanishing Points) to the screens at FNC.

It was a shocker for us both, on Lina (and her producer and life partner Brad Deane’s end) because they didn’t expect to see me there, but also on my end as Lina’s latest film is easily her most emotionally engaging effort yet.  Shooting in multiple formats, she crafts a truly remarkable glimpse into the embers and memories that are born from the immigrant experience.  While this does come from the eye of a mother and her daughter, Rodriguez opens up her lens so wide that we can all relate. I  defy anyone to not only get wrapped up in, but to adore this truly humanistic piece of filmmaking

My time at FNC wasn’t all work, though. Between screenings and cocktail parties as an ex-Montrealer (I haven’t lived there since ’94), I got the opportunity to see family and friends and to experience some of the unique culinary joys the city has to offer, from lining up at Schwartz’s Deli for some old fashioned Smoked Meat, getting fresh bagels out of the wood burning oven, and even going to the Quebecois staple franchise for some chicken (only Montrealers and Quebecers will truly understand what I mean by that).

When all is said and done, if you are the type of cinema enthusiast who either wants to take in a Richard Linklater double bill of Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague at a reasonable price (like I did) or participate in the myriad of workshops and programmes aimed at developing filmmakers; Co-General Manager and Artistic Director, Zoé Protat along with her entire team are truly developing a space where all types of cinema are not only welcome, but celebrated.

Sure, TIFF is the high octane spectacle-driven engine that fuels many elements of the film industry, especially as we slide into awards season, but FNC (and by the sounds of it VIFF, feel free to check out our article here) give the films a little more room to breathe and to be appreciate before they go to studio or international distribution for the wider audiences.  It’s here where those cinematic diamonds in the rough  get a little more chance to shine for the world to see. While Quebec has its own self-sufficient film and television industry, they also have a film festival community that is doing it all in the best way they know: by letting the artists and artistry shine while everything else takes care of itself.

By Dave Voigt
Copyright FIPRESCI