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Cinema’s best in New West

> Film festival presents local and international films

Cheryl Minns
Senior Columnist

 

he New West Film Fest

(NWFF) returns for its
sixth year with a variety of
feature length and short films
that are diverse, educational,
and entertaining. The festival
will take place on October
20-22 at Landmark Cinemas
near the New Westminster
SkyTrain station, and at
the Douglas College New
Westminster campus.

“We have an amazing
lineup this year, including
local films, drama, fantasy,
documentaries, and 3-D
animations,” said Kathleen
Somerville, one of the founders
of the New West Film Society
that organizes the festival.

On October 20, Landmark
Cinemas will be playing the
Canadian drama Closet Monster
and the Brazilian documentary
Waiting for B, which follows
Beyoncé fans in Brazil.

On October 21, the Cuban
drama Viva will be screening
at the Douglas College New
Westminster campus. The free
screening is presented by the
college’s Associate of Arts in
Intercultural and International
Studies (AAI), which
focuses on communication in
multicultural environments.

“Were excited for this film
screening because it’s a great
opportunity to let students

know about the program,”
said Brenna Clarke Gray, the
program’s coordinator.

The Viva screening was
arranged by Ruth Mandujano-
Lopez, a Modern Languages
instructor who is a member of
the AAII committee and a New
West Film Society director.

“I knew Brenna was looking
for a film for the program’s
yearly event in October,” she
said. “When I told her about the
NWFF, she was very supportive
about the idea of combining
forces with the festival.”

Mandujano-Lopez has
previously coordinated
screenings at the college with
the Latin American Film
Festival (VLAFF). She worked
with VLAFF to arrange the
college’s screening of Viva,
which VLAFF showed at its
own festival in September.

“I chose Viva because the
protagonist is a young Cuban
man—the same age as many
of the students that will be
present—who is defining his
identity and his goals for the
future,” she said. “We also
needed a topic that made the
audience reflect on international
and intercultural issues, and
this film is perfect for that.”

Also, on October 21,
Landmark Cinemas will
be playing the European
comedy-drama The Lobster,
which follows David (Colin
Farrell) in a dystopian society
as he tries to find a mate

  

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in 45 days. If he doesn't, he
will be turned into a lobster.

Following the feature film will
be a series of short films.

“We have added a new
element this year, which is a
‘mini shorts film festival’ within
our festival,” Somerville said.
“This is the first year we opened
submissions for short films, and
we received dozens of films for
consideration from across North
America and around the world.”

On October 22, two
Canadian documentaries,

The Pristine Coast and
Fractured Land, will be playing
at Landmark Cinemas, as

well as the comedy-drama
Captain Fantastic, starring

 

( Knives, masks, and psychopathic killers, oh my!

(¥ Chairman of the Board: Fun feline fiasco

(¥ Are you watching closely?

And more!

  

Viggo Mortensen.

The festival will close with
an after party at the CG Masters
School of 3D Animation and
VFX, which is located near the
New Westminster SkyTrain
station. The free event will
include students’ 3-D animation
work and a talk from CG
Masters School co-founders
Nicholas and Vickie Boughen
about the animation business.

Anvil Centre will host
a mixed-media event titled
Mediated Visions: film, art
& technology on October 18
in collaboration with NWFF,
DOXA Documentary Film
Festival, Momentum Youth
Arts Movement, City of New

Comic corner: New take on acampfire staple

> ‘The Colony of the Damned: Part 1’ review

Brittney MacDonald
Life & Style Editor

 

OOOO

ctober is the perfect time to

let our inner horror fiends
out. In what has now become
Comic Corner tradition, I have
decided to spend this month
seeing what the horror genre of
the graphic novel world has to
offer. Unfortunately, this first
outing was far from ideal.

The Colony of the Damned
is both written and drawn by
Rhino Rinaldi. It focuses on the
old ghost story of Roanoke. For
those of you unfamiliar, Roanoke
was an English colony in the late

1500s. What makes it famous is
that one day, every settler that
lived there just up and vanished.
A hearty feat, considering that
according to records, over 100
people called Roanoke home,
and not one of them was ever
seen again. The only clue was
the word “croatoan” carved into
a post. No one knows what the
word means, or what happened
to the people, so naturally the
old story has inspired some fairly
radical creative interpretations.
Sadly, Rinaldi’s work is
not one of the better ones. The
Colony of the Damned would be
right at home between the pages
of an emo teenaget’s sketchbook.
The story offers nothing new,
and instead seems to be focused

on offending the right-wing
as much as possible instead of
presenting a cohesive plot.

The art is highly detailed,
but lacks polish. The anatomy
seems stiff, and the entirety of the
book is left in pencil with light
sources not even registering as
necessary. Overall, the art looks
unfinished and messy, which is
upsetting because the bare bones
of something good are there—it
just needs that extra TLC of
some ink, ora bit of colour to
really take it to that dark place
that Rinaldi was trying to hit.
Needless to say, I will not be
picking up Part 2 of this series,
and I won't be recommending
it to anyone to add to their
October reading list.

 

Image via evbuc.com

Westminster Arts Services, and
the centre’s New Media Gallery.
The event will include a

Phoned Footage workshop,
artists’ talks, and the New
Media Gallery exhibit, Witness,
which features five international
works that explore the world

of surveillance and vision
technologies. In the Anvil
Centre Theatre, there will be a
screening of Werner Herzog’s
documentary Lo and Behold:
Reveries of the Connected World,
which looks at the effects and
possibilities of the Internet.

For more information on the
New West Film Fest, show-
times, and ticket information,
check out NewWestFilmFest.ca.

dyplanet.com

Image via in