COLLECTIVE INVENTION First Look: Stills and Trailer

"Honey, I have something to tell you."

In director Kwon Oh-kwang's Collective Invention journalist Sang-won (Lee Chun-hee) accepts an assignment to investigate an urban legend, the story of a man participated in a pharmaceutical company's clinical trial to earn cash--and transformed into a fish. Sang-won discovers the story is true and tracks down Gu (Lee Kwang-soo), the legendary fish-man, setting off a media frenzy and some fine social satire. Plus, there is a man with a fish head. I don't know about you, but that's all I need.

If you're not such an easy sell, we do have some intriguing stills and the trailer for your pondering pleasure...

Waiting for the bus

Waiting for his brine shrimp. A Fish-Man's life involves a lot of waiting.

We also have Magritte's  "Collective Invention"  (1934).

And here's the trailer!

COLLECTIVE INVENTION screening times:

Sep. 14, Monday, 6:00 pm, SCOTIABANK 1

Sep. 15, Tuesday, 11:45 am, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Sep. 19, Saturday, 9:30, SCOTIABANK 3

Festival Trailer Mash-Up 2014

Vanguardians, prepare your minds for the awesome power of five hours of festival trailers condensed into a beautiful three minutes and five seconds by super videographer Aaron Van Domelen.

Are you ready?

Here we go....

FINAL SCREENING: Proxy

Zack Parker's harrowing thriller Proxy has its last festival screening tonight.

See the poster and a behind the scenes video, here. And Parker talks with the Vanguard Blog's Sasha James:

SJ: Your 2011 film, SCALENE, and PROXY both deal with women recovering from grief after a vicious attack. Do you feel like female grief and retribution are underplayed in film? 

ZP: I think I just feel that women are more fascinating to watch. They seem to be able to portray a complexity and depth of emotion that you just don't typically see in men. 

I actually have three children and have been a stay-at-home dad for over eight years, so, I've been around a lot of young mothers at playgroups, birthday parties, etc. I should also mention that my writing partner Kevin Donner has been a stay-at-home dad for six years. So, we are both kind of immersed in this world of women, observing how they talk about their children, their lives, their husbands, each other. Proxy is basically a warped perspective of that world, greatly magnified and filtered through two damaged minds.  

More from that interview here.

PROXY Final Screening:

Saturday, Sept 14th, 8:00 PM SCOTIABANK 9

SAPI: Poster and Trailer

We're sorry, little afflicted girl, but the poster and trailer for Sapi were posted by Indiewire and we just have to look.

First up, the poster has all the creepy markers, smoke and skulls and an old house and a robed figure.

I don't think you should tell them what you are afraid of...

And here is the full-on creepy trailer.

SAPI screens two more times:  

Saturday, Sept 7th, 9:45 PM SCOTIABANK 10

Sunday, Sept 15th, 3:00 PM SCOTIABANK 14

CELESTIAL WIVES OF THE MEADOW MARI Director Profile: Alexey Fedorchenko

Director Alexey Fedorchenko began his film career in a most peculiar way: by not. Initially earning a degree in economics in his hometown of Yekaterinburg, Russia, it was years later that he started working in the documentary facility of Sverdlovsk Studios and then in the screenwriting department of the Russian Institute of Cinematography. So it only makes sense that Fedorchenko began his career making short documentaries. 

For his first feature film, First on the Moon (2005), Fedorchenko combined his experience with documentary with the fantastical to end up with a "mockumentary" about the the "first" landing on the Moon in the 1930s by the Soviets. Shot in gorgeous black and white, Fedorchenko described the story as "something of an homage to the generation of our fathers and grandfathers, including their honesty, their genuine belief in an ideal". The film was celebrated by critics both in Russia and around the world and went on to win a handful of awards, including one from the Venice Film Festival. Two short clips from First on the Moon can be viewed here. 

Fedorchenko has been quoted as saying that "all fictional films are fairytales, fairytale for adults, done in different genres." Silent Souls (2010), Fedorchenko's second feature film, holds true to this. Silent Souls was a road movie based on short story and rich in the folklore and traditions of the Meyra people. Silent Souls impressed countless critics, including Roger Ebert, who commented that the "profound and immensely touching film in only 75 perfect minutes achieves the profundity of an epic." It was considered a frontrunner for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and went on to win the Golden Osella for Cinematography. You can watch the trailer below: 

Not quite ready to leave Russian folklore behind, Fedorchenko further explores this theme in Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari, screening at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Working again with the same screenwriter from Silent Souls, Fedorchenko wove together 23 vignettes about love, beauty, and female sexuality. Words really don't even begin to describe this magical film, so we urge you to watch the trailer. Even if you've watched it already, watch it again. You know you want to:

CELESTIAL WIVES OF MEADOW MARI Screening Times:

• Wednesday, Sept 11th, 7:00 PM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 4
• Thursday, Sept 12th, 9:15 PM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 2
• Saturday, Sept 14th, 9:30 AM SCOTIABANK 8