Montreal World Film Festival 2007

Of course, being so busy also means i have had no time to even mention the World Film Festival, which i what makes late August early September into my favourite time of the year. By far.

i’ve seen a couple of films so far, which i may write about later tonight if i get a moment, but in case i don’t i want to direct folks who are in Montreal to the FFM Website and to specifically call attention to the following two documentaries about the struggle against fascism in South America in the 1970s and 80s. i’m going to be checking them out, and i certainly encourage you all to do the same. Here they are, with the descriptions from the festival website:

Calle Sante Fe (in Spanish with French subtitles): On October 5th, 1974, in a house on Santa Fe Street, in the suburbs of Santiago, Chile, Carmen Castillo is wounded by the secret police. Her companion and comrade, Miguel Enriquez, leader of MIR and of the resistance against Pinochet’s dictatorship, is killed in combat. CALLE SANTA FE is the director’s own story, a personal tour of the populist revolt against Pinochet, of her exile and of her guilt at having survived while others did not. An attempt to exorcise the ghosts of the past, the film also asks difficult questions about the entire resistance: were those heroic acts really worth it? Did Miguel die in vain?
August 31, 2007 • 21:00:00 • CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 15 ÉCRAN METROMEDIA PLUS • L15.31.6 • Fr. & s.t.f.
September 02, 2007 • 10:00:00 • CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 15 ÉCRAN METROMEDIA PLUS • L15.02.1 • Fr. & s.t.f.
September 03, 2007 • 15:30:00 • CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 15 ÉCRAN METROMEDIA PLUS • L15.03.3 • Fr. & s.t.f.

The Disappeared (in Spanish with English subtitles): the story of one man’s search for identity. Horacio Pietragalla, the only child of parents murdered during Argentina’s “Dirty War”, was raised, unbeknown to him, by the maid of the very same officer who killed both his parents in cold blood. The three-year search for his true identity unearths, literally, all of the horrors and injustices experienced during the war that ravaged Argentina from 1976 to 1983, and includes rare interviews with top political and military figures responsible for the destruction.
August 28, 2007 • 21:10:00 • CINÉMA ONF • ONF.28.6 • Espagnol s.t.a.
August 29, 2007 • 17:00:00 • CINÉMA ONF • ONF.29.4 • Espagnol s.t.a.
September 01, 2007 • 15:00:00 • CINÉMA ONF • ONF.01.3 • Espagnol s.t.a.
September 02, 2007 • 13:20:00 • CINÉMA ONF • ONF.02.2 • Espagnol s.t.a.

These may sell out, so to get tickets go to the Quartier Latin cinema (just off St-Denis, just north of Berri metro) ahead of time. And tickets are significantly cheaper if you by them in batches of ten (or thirty!), so consider bringing some friends…

More on the festival later, i hope…