Top Canadian Movies at VIFF

The Vancouver International Film Festival has Great New Films

Sep 30, 2007

The Stone Angel, Up the Yangtze, The Green Chain and What Happened Last Summer are some of the top Canadian movies at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival.

For top Canadian movies, head to The Vancouver International Film Festival that happens each September in Vancouver (aka. Hollywood North). Below are some of the best at this year’s VIFF.

When Hagar’s son and wife take her unwillingly to a nursing home, she refuses and embarks on an emotional journey through her past and present. Ellen Burnstyn does an extraordinary job as fiery Hagar Shipley, while Christine Horne excels as her younger self. Although the actors bring much to their roles, the script is filled with hit and miss moments that don’t carry through.

Up the Yangtze

Shot within a cruise ship and along the Yangtze River, director Yung Chang moves through the workers who hold the ship together. The beginning seems unfocused, but as the audience gets to know a poor girl whose family depends on her work and an only son who just wants to get rich, the documentary provides a haunting look at the people who are being driven out because of the Three Gorges Dam project and the tourists who want a last look at the area before it changes forever.

The Green Chain

This charming mocumentary has heart. Although it was clear from the start that the actors were not real doc interviewees, the film was well done. A charismatic performance by Brendan Fletcher, as the man living 100 feet up in a tree, was delightful, as was the always-wonderful Jillian Fargey. Babz Chula also pleases as the “Grandma” who goes to jail for protesting. Their contrasting monologues bring all sides of the clear cutting issue to the front as they each offer convincing reasons for their beliefs.

What Happened Last Summer

Opening with 1960’s Vancouver with Larry Kent’s Hasting Street, and then David Rimmer’s trippy Digital Psyche, What Happened Last Summer is a fun look into the hippy culture that thrived along 4th Avenue. Interviews with those who considered themselves part of the hippie movement are both touching and comedic, while spots on business owners along the same street are downright hilarious. This is definitely a crowd pleaser for those who lived it and for those who wish they did.

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