Category: TIFF

Distilled

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We have winnowed the list of 82 films down to 13 (a friend of ours is taking 2):

  1. Thu Sep 7: The Bothersome Man *or* Requiem
  2. Fri Sep 8: Citizen Duane *or* Chronicle of an Escape
  3. Sat Sep 9: The Wind That Shakes the Barley *or* EMPz 4 Life
  4. Sat Sep 9: Rescue Dawn *or* All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
  5. Sun Sep 10: Candy *or* Retrieval
  6. Sun Sep 10: Kurt Cobain About A Son *or* 2:37
  7. Mon Sep 11: Diggers *or* Blindsight
  8. Mon Sep 11: Little Children *or* Fay Grim
  9. Tue Sep 12: The Half Life of Timofey Berezin *or* 10 Items or Less
  10. Wed Sep 13: The Hottest State *or* Day Night Day Night
  11. Thu Sep 14: The Pleasure of Your Company *or* Snow Cake
  12. Fri Sep 15: D.O.A.P. *or* Penelope
  13. Sat Sep 16: Outsourced *or* Macbeth

Nellie’s filling out the paperwork now. Tomorrow I’ll drop it off and lock my fingers into the “crossed” position.

[tags]tiff, toronto international film festival[/tags]

My first cut of picks for the film festival

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I just went through the festival guide and marked all the films I found interesting. I narrowed it down to 82. Nellie is reviewing my list now, whittling out the ones she doesn’t want, but she’s not being very brutal about it and we’re probably going to end up with about 70. Figure maybe 10-15 more get eliminated because of scheduling problems and…well, we’re gonna have some touch decision on our hands. We can only see 13 or 14, so somethin’s gotta give.

Anyway, here’s the first cut. I can’t be bothered linking them to the official schedule.

  1. 2:37
  2. 10 Items or Less
  3. 7 Ans
  4. A Few Days Later…
  5. A Good Year
  6. A Stone’s Throw
  7. Abeni
  8. After the Wedding
  9. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
  10. All The King’s Men
  11. Amazing Grace
  12. As the Shadow
  13. Away From Her
  14. Babel
  15. Bamako
  16. Black Book
  17. Blindsight
  18. Bobby
  19. Book of Revelation, The
  20. Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
  21. Bothersome Man, The
  22. Breaking and Entering
  23. Cages
  24. Candy
  25. Cashback
  26. Catch a Fire
  27. Chacun sa nuit
  28. Cheech
  29. Chronicle of an Escape
  30. Citizen Duane
  31. Copying Beethoven
  32. D.O.A.P.
  33. Day Night Day Night
  34. Deliver Us From Evil
  35. Diggers
  36. Dixie Chicks – Shut Up and Sing
  37. Dog Problem, The
  38. EMPz 4 Life
  39. Fay Grim
  40. Fido
  41. For Your Consideration
  42. Fountain, The
  43. Four Minutes
  44. Griffin & Phoenix
  45. Half Life of Timofey Berezin, The
  46. Hottest State, The
  47. Island, The
  48. Jindabyne
  49. Journals of Knud Rasmussen, The
  50. Kurt Cobain About A Son
  51. Lake of Fire
  52. Last King of Scotland, The
  53. Last Kiss, The
  54. Last Winter, The
  55. Little Children
  56. London to Brighton
  57. Love and Other Disasters
  58. Macbeth
  59. Namesake, The
  60. Out Of The Blue
  61. Outsourced
  62. Penelope
  63. Pleasure of Your Company, The
  64. Quelques jours en Septembre
  65. Requiem
  66. Rescue Dawn
  67. Retrieval
  68. Seraphim Falls
  69. Severance
  70. Shame
  71. Shortbus
  72. Snow Cake
  73. Stranger than Fiction
  74. Thicker than Water
  75. This is England
  76. U.S. vs. John Lennon, The
  77. Un Crime
  78. Un Dimanche à Kigali
  79. Wake, The
  80. When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts
  81. Wind That Shakes the Barley, The
  82. Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siècle

[tags]toronto international film festival, TIFF[/tags]

Halle-almost-lujah

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The paper is jeeeeuuuuust about done. All written and formatted; all that’s left is to fix up the citations and write out the references. I’ll dash that off tomorrow, leaving me with the rest of the weekend to relax get to the rest of the course work so I’ll have time to pick my festival movies.

I’m celebrating with a new template. And, in all likelihood, a stiff drink.
[tags]term paper[/tags]

Compulsory license this, biznatch

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

T-minus six days with which to finish this cursed paper. I have 5,527 words so far; I need at least 8,000. I spent last night trying to figure out which parts of the paper need more fleshing out, where I can add more research…and I think I’m pretty close. With any luck I’ll finish it Thursday night and I can use the weekend to clean it up.

All I really want to do is peruse the full film festival schedule, which was released today. [Brad Pitt…squeeeeeal!]

[tags]term papers, film festival[/tags]

Antipathy

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m having trouble finding motivation. Work is depressing right now; it’s one roadblock after another, and I’m not famous for my patience. I really believe in what I’m doing, and — as haughty/martyrish as this sounds — I feel like I’m one of the few people who’s more concerned with making the customer’s life better than with playing politics or just punching the clock. I guess everything happens slowly in huge traditional risk-averse companies, and being aware of the fact doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I’m trying to find a way around it, but it feels like every day I go to work, scramble to keep up with all the things coming at me, and when I go home I haven’t made a difference. I keep pushing, and there are good people around me pushing too, but feeling outnumbered at work every day is a hard way to live life.

.:.

Life at home isn’t really a respite these days either. I’m on autopilot right now; between trying to run 5 times a week (2-3 miles at a go) and spending 3 hours a night working on this term paper, I feel like I’m on a schedule from the minute I get home. I see my wife for the few minutes that I eat dinner and when we crawl into bed. Good thing this paper’s due in two weeks; after that we can settle into the happy insanity of the film festival. It’s some of the best quality time I get to spend with her all year, ’cause for those 10 days we’re a) on exactly the same schedule, and b) spending hours in line with nothing to do but talk. I think I look forward to that as much as the films. There’s an inspirational quote in there somewhere: “Lineups are better when you love the person you’re standing next to.” Awwwwwwwwwwww.

[tags]motivation[/tags]

Head down

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

From now ’til the 28th of this month I shall be very busy indeed, as I have to write a 40-page paper for the course I’m doing now. The topic is Intellectual Property vs. Public Health. This is not something that will just flow from my fingertips. Fortunately I’m rarely at a loss for (typed) words.

The film festival booklets are released the day after I submit the paper, so I can concentrate on that for an hour or so before I have to get back to the rest of my course work. I should wrap that up the day before the festival actually starts; once it’s over I’m off to the course intensive for a week. I then have thirteen luxurious days to relax (unless the gods are against me and I have to start my next course right away) before we jet off to the Rockies.

So yeah. See you in October.

[tags]intellectual property, public health, toronto international film festival, rockies[/tags]

TIFF!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I just bought our ticket book for this year’s TIFF (or Toronto International Film Festival). We bought 30 tickets this year; we’ll probably only see 12 or 13 and give the other 4/6 tickets to friends. This is the only year when I don’t have an MBA course conflicting with the festival, so I’m taking advantage and booking a few vacation days to take in as much festivaliciousness as I can.
Can’t say I care much for this year’s poster though…

[tags]tiff[/tags]

Mystery white boy

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

One step closer to a movie about Jeff Buckley. Wonder if Brad Pitt’s still interested. He might be a little long in the tooth now.

.:.

Some of the headlining films for the Toronto film festival were announced today. I’m excited to see a couple of recent Cannes winners: The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Babel. I think we might actually see 15 movies this year.

.:.

OK…first of all, why is CNN giving commentary space to James Dobson? Second, I wonder if Dobson ever sits back and wonders just how much of a backwards, close-minded dick he’ll sound like a generation from now? In fact, that he could possibly compare denying gay people marriage rights to the struggle to end slavery is beyond feebleminded.

[tags]jeff buckley, wind that shakes the barley, babel, james dobson, irrelevant windbag, gay marriage[/tags]