Canada's Top Ten 2002

January 21, 2003

 

At an industry event presented by the Toronto International Film Festival Group, actors Arsinée Khanjian (Ararat, À ma soueur! ) and Fabrizio Filippo ("Queer as Folk", Waydowntown) unveiled the details of Canada's Top Ten 2002, an annual initiative to honour excellence in Canadian cinema, which includes a public component for the first time this year. Also announced was the 10-member, national panel of filmmakers, programmers, journalists, and industry professionals who took part in selecting the films of Canada's Top Ten 2002. Further details are available at Canada's Top Ten. The ListThe following films, nine features and one 50-minute film, comprise Canada's Top Ten 2002 (listed alphabetically):

"The outstanding quality and variety of these films not only reflect the creativity of some of Canada's most revered filmmakers, but also confirm the emergence of brave new talent in this country. Canada's Top Ten keeps on honouring the great achievements of the Canadian directors, writers, producers, actors, and all of the creative teams who were involved in the making of these wonderful films," said Piers Handling, Director of the Toronto International Film Festival Group. "By expanding our annual Canada's Top Ten event, we recognize the importance of getting the public closely involved in our continued celebration of Canadian cinema."

 

The Panel

Canada's Top Ten 2002 10-member panel are (in alphabetical order): Luc Dery - Montreal-based award-winning producer (UN CRABE DANS LA TæTE) Laura Michalchyshyn Ð Senior Vice-President of Dramatic Programming for Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting Inc. and Vice-Chair of the National Screen Institute Tom McSorley Ð Executive Director of the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa, William D. MacGillivray Ð Nova Scotia-based filmmaker(LIFE CLASSES) Katherine Monk Ð Film Critic for The Vancouver Sun, and author of Weird Sex and Snowshoes and Other Canadian Film Phenomena Geoff Pevere Ð Film Critic for The Toronto Star, and co-author of Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey SŽgolne Roederer ÐGeneral and Artistic Director of the Rendez-vous du cinŽma quŽbŽcois Bruce Sweeney Ð award-winning Vancouver-based filmmaker (LAST WEDDING) John Walker Ð award-winning documentary filmmaker (STRAND: UNDER A DARK CLOTH) Jerry White Ð Professor of Film/Media Studies at the University of Alberta, and editor of North of Everything: English Canadian Cinema Since 1980.

 

Established in 2001 by the Toronto International Film Festival Group, Canada's Top Ten is a unique annual event devoted to celebrating and raising awareness of Canadian cinema. A 10-member national panel composed of filmmakers, programmers, journalists, and industry professionals votes on the best Canadian films of the year, which can include features, shorts, documentaries, animation, and experimental films. Each film must have either premiered at a Canadian film festival or obtained a commercial theatrical release in Canada in 2002. The films need not have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

 

The Films

ARARAT (ON) Director/Writer: Atom Egoyan; Producer: Robert Lantos Taking place in present-day Toronto, ARARAT is the story of two estranged families and their search for reconciliation and truth. Set against the production of an epic film about the tragic events of 1915 Armenia, the film explores the quest for personal, sexual, and cultural identity. "ARARAT is impressive in the way that it engages but refuses to be brought down by the problems of representing genocide. A work of high seriousness, ARARAT is also a pleasure to watch; Egoyan's eye has rarely been sharper than it is here." - Jerry White

Awards and/or Nominations: Nine Genie nominations, including Best Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Original Screenplay

 

DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY (MB) Director: Guy Maddin; Producer:Vonnie von Helmolt; Choreographer: Mark Godden A synthesis of avant-garde film, sensuous dance with pantomimed scenes, gothic decor, and intertitles reminiscent of silent cinema, this film is based on the acclaimed full-length ballet "Dracula". "A perfect marriage of Maddin's fragmented, dark, and hallucinogenic style with a dazzling gothic ballet. A pure cinematic experience that is thrilling to watch." - John Walker

Awards and/or Nominations: Winner of an International Emmy and two Gemini Awards, including Best Direction in a Performing Arts Program or Series

 

FLOWER AND GARNET (BC) Director/Writer: Keith Behrman; Producer: Trish Dolman This first feature revolves around two young siblings learning how to cope with the death of their mother and how to become a family once again with their estranged father. "Echoes of Claude Jutra and Ingmar Bergman. Seldom has the true significance and complex force of 'family values' been so thoroughly investigated and so thoughtfully affirmed. Behrman is a talent to be reckoned with." - Tom McSorley

Awards and/or Nominations: Winner of Claude Jutra Award (Genie Awards); Best Emerging Western Canadian Feature Film Director, Vancouver International Film Festival; Genie nominee for Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

 

GAMBLING, GODS AND LSD (ON/Switzerland) Director/Writer/Cinematographer: Peter Mettler, Producers: Alexandra Rockingham Gill, Ingrid Veninger, Cornelia Seitler A documentary exploring four themes - the desire to transcend, the denial of death, the illusion of safety, and our relationship to nature - the film is a voyage that spans countries and cultures, and joins vastly different people, places, and times. "At times playful and often profound, Mettler's film throws images and ideas around with an air of confidence and sense of wonder that are a wonder in themselves. Brilliant." - William D. MacGillivray

Awards and/or Nominations: Grand Prix du Jury, Visions du Réel Nyon; Best Documentary Feature, Vancouver International Film Festival; Best Documentary Award, Festival international du nouveau Cinéma et des nouveaux Médias de Montréal; Genie nominee for Best Documentary

 

MARION BRIDGE (ON/NS) Director: Wiebke von Carolsfeld; Producers: Jennifer Kawaja, Bill Niven, Julia Sereny; Writer: Daniel MacIvor (based on his play) Starring Molly Parker, Rebecca Jenkins, and Stacy Smith, this mature first feature is an emotionally moving story about three sisters bound together and torn apart by a family secret. "Without playing on Maritime stereotypes and behaviour, von Carolsfeld's MARION BRIDGE has the guts and the sensitivity to explore the inner core of the female mind. Von Carolsfeld strips these siblings down scene by scene in a way that feels both honest and, at times, ugly, but always human." - Katherine Monk

Awards and/or Nominations: Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature, Toronto International Film Festival; Best First Feature, CinŽfest Sudbury International Film Festival; Outstanding Writer Award, Atlantic Film Festival

 

LE NÈG (QC) Director/Writer: Robert Morin; Producer: Lorraine Dufour Centering around racially motivated events in the Quebec countryside, LE NÈG investigates the death of a woman through the eyes of several witnesses, each with their own version. "A forceful, inventive, difficult film about racism in French Canada, yet necessary because critiques about one's own society are always the strongest." - Bruce Sweeney

Awards and/or Nominations: Four Genie nominations, including for Best Original Screenplay

 

OCÉAN (QC) Director: Catherine Martin; Producer: Claude Cartier Constructed with carefully composed shots of the passenger quarters of the last remaining train between Montreal and Halifax, this poetic 50-minute documentary pays a refined homage to train travel and the Canadian landscape. "For the beauty of its images, the rhythm of the editing, for its poetic nature, and for using the documentary genre to capture the fading memory of what once was a reality." - Ségolène Roederer

 

SPIDER (ON/UK) Director: David Cronenberg; Producers: Catherine Bailey, David Cronenberg, Samuel Hadida; Writer: Patrick McGrath (based on his novel) Starring Ralph Fiennes, SPIDER follows a lonely and disturbed man's spiral into madness as he confronts his troubled childhood and the truth about his mother's brutal murder. "Cronenberg's austere adaptation about a hallucinating schizophrenic is his most controlled, assured, and unsettling movie about madness yet. It's also weirdly touching." - Geoff Pevere

Awards and/or Nominations: Toronto - City Award for Best Canadian Feature, Toronto International Film Festival; six Genie nominations, including Achievement in Direction and Adapted Screenplay; nominated for Best Non-European Film Award at European Film Awards

 

TOM (ON) Director/Producer: Mike Hoolboom Almost entirely constructed from found and appropriated footage (clips from home movies, mainstream Hollywood cinema, and archival films), TOM is an unconventional documentary about New York experimental filmmaker Tom Chomont. "A very soulful meditation on the life and work of filmmaker Tom Chomont. Hoolboom uses the very medium to enhance his subject's emotional reverie. A beautiful and emotionally taut homage to both the man and moviemaking." - Katherine Monk

 

LA TURBULENCE DES FLUIDES (CHAOS AND DESIRE) (QC) Director/Writer: Manon Briand; Producers: Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal, Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam In Briand's second feature, a seismologist who's been living in Tokyo in an attempt to cleanse her past from her memory returns to her hometown to investigate the halting of the tides. "Briand's quietly curious, interesting, and disturbing film borders on science and surrealism. A touching tale of overcoming human fear, longing, and sorrow." - Laura Michalchyshyn

Awards and/or Nominations: Grand Jury Prize, AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival; Best Canadian Feature Film, Montreal World Film Festival