  Vogue magazine editor Ann Wintour (in sunglasses) in the documentary The September Issue. |
Don't like what's playing at the local multiplex? You have plenty of other movie choices in the big city. Toronto is hosting several film festivals and cinema events of note this month.
Doc Soup
Calling all fashionistas! Doc Soup, the monthly fix for all Hot Docs devotees, presents The September Issue for its season opener this year.
R.J. Cutler's documentary about Anna Wintour and the September issue of Vogue -- the industry bible every year --is an insider's look at the $300-billion fashion industry. The film might even reveal how the Vogue editor got nicknamed Nuclear Wintour.
See The September Issue on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 6:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at Bloor Cinema. Tickets $12. Visit hotdocs.ca.
Sold out? You can see The September Issue in theatres starting Oct. 23.
Chai Tea and A Movie
The monthly leadup to the annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival, begins Oct. 25 with a screening of Karin Albou's The Wedding Song. Set in Tunis in 1942, the film concerns two young women, one Jewish and one Muslim, who have grown up together and are best friends. Then the German army arrives. Screenings at Cineplex Odeon Sheppard Centre. Tickets $15. tjff.com.
Darryl's Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival
Yee-haw! Darryl's Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival celebrates 10 years of sex and humour. Dress up like a porn star and show up at the Bloor Cinema on Saturday, Oct. 17, 9 p.m. for a night of extreme silliness and satirical, naughty, short movies. This is a licensed event. Your $20 ticket includes the after-party at The Annex Wreck Room. hardliquorandporn.com.
Brazil Film Fest
The third annual Brazil Film Fest brings the best of Brazilian cinema to Toronto with 11 feature films that celebrate the country's culture. The Festival will open with Lais Bondanzky's The Ballroom, an award-winning movie about the regulars at a dance hall in Sao Paulo, and closes with Helena Solberg's music documentary, Enchanted Word (Palavra (en)cantada).
Renowned Brazilian singer Adriana Calcanhotto, one of the movie's featured artists, will make her Toronto premiere by closing the Festival with a performance on Oct. 25, 9 p.m. at the Royal.
Other highlights include Riding High, a psychological thriller from Roberto Santucci Filho; That's It (Apenas O Fim), by Matheus Souza, which covers a whole generation through the love affair between two university students; The Man Who Bottled Clouds, Lirio Ferreira's documentary about the life and work of songwriter, lawyer, and congressman Humberto Teixeira (AKA Baiao Doctor, the author of such classic Brazilian popular songs as Asa Branca); and the 1974 classic doc This is Pele, from Luiz Carlos Barreto.
The Brazil Film Fest runs Oct. 22-25, 2009 at the Royal Cinema, 608 College St. All films have English subtitles. Tickets and full program at brazilfilmfest.net.
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
The 10th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival features global aboriginal filmmakers and media artists, and this year boasts some 125 works of Indigenous innovation in film, video, radio and new media.
The fest opens with two Canadian films: Reel Injun, a film about stereotypes of the "cowboy and Indians" era. The documentary uses archival Hollywood footage and interviews with, among others, Robbie Robertson, Clint Eastwood, Adam Beach, Graham Greene, John Trudell, and Jim Jarmusch. And showing before Reel Injun is Tungijuq, a short film about Inuit hunting traditions and a woman's transformative journey, starring throat singer Tanya Taqaq and award-winning filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner).
Other highlights of imagineNATIVE include Alanis Obamsawin's film Professor Norman Cornett: Since When Do We Divorce the Right Answer From an Honest Answer?; the world premiere of Sarah Roque's Six Miles Deep, a movie about the brave women who stood behind the lines during the 2006 Caledonia/Six Nations land claim dispute; Richard Franklin's Australian comedy Stone Bros., a stoner road trip movie about Aboriginal cousins; and Barking Water, the closing feature of the festival from Sterlin Harjo. Barking Water is a drama about ex-lovers searching for hope and redemption towards the end of their lives. The imagiNATIVE festival runs Oct. 14-18.
VisitimagineNATIVE.org for ticket and event info.
Planet In Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival
Last but not least, the 10th annual Planet In Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival runs Oct. 21-25, bringing to Toronto more than 85 of the best movies on environmental themes from 25 countries around the world.
The opening gala movie is Leanne Allison's delightful documentary Finding Farley, an homage to the Canadian literary giant that takes in the settings of Mowat's stories -- this country's prairies, barrenlands and Maritimes.
Other highlights include Mark Terry's new climate change documentary The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning, which will also be seen in Copenhagen during this year's UN Climate Change Conference in December.
The festival's closing gala is Earth Keepers, a documentary featuring young activist Mikael Rioux who founded Echofete, Quebec's first environmental festival, Christian de Laet, president of Development Alternatives, the largest NGO in the world, Indian activist Ashok Khosla, Karl-Henrik Robert and others who love this planet. The film, from Sylvie Van Brabant, is a manifesto against apathy.
On Friday, Oct. 23, as part of Planet In Focus, you can attend a special Sun TV evening at the Gardiner Museum that will focus on architecture and Toronto. Hear Tarek El Khatib, Les Kline, Jonathan Kearns and Jill Taylor on a panel moderated by the Toronto Sun's own Rob Granatstein.
Tickets and info at 416-531-4689 or visitplanetinfocus.org.
