VIFF AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER 2008: BEST DOCUMENTARY

View Trailer

This Buena Vista Social Club of African music features virtuoso banjo player Béla Fleck's journey to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali to jam with superb musicians in their village settings. The banjo and Bela Fleck have become almost synonymous in certain circles. But when Fleck (who has won almost every musical award that exists) undertakes a journey back to explore the origins of his chosen instrument, he's in for a very happy series of surprises.

The array of related instruments is incredible and in the charmed spirit of generosity that everyone brings to these encounters; distinctions between pupil and student are shared in the most marvellously musical ways. But read no further: www.throwdownyourheart.com gives you a better sense of what you're in for than these words can. Follow the link “The People”, situate your mouse over the town, click “Musicians”, and voila, the artists are revealed. They include Oumou Sangare, Hruna Walusimbi, Anaania Ngoliga, the Jatta Family and many others. What a delight to be able to travel with Bela to visit these places and to share in the joy of their music.

"Fleck speaks more with his fingers than in conversation, and the pure musician-to-musician communications joyfully cross language barriers and instrument differences."— Film Forward

"A fantastic musical documentary... A mesmerizing collection of music. A real treat for music and film lovers alike."— Annette Kellerman, Aintitcoolnews.com

Portrait of Brazilian music legend Bethania. Includes interviews with Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. 

View Trailer

"Samba is sadness dancing," says Brazilian singer/institution Maria Bethânia, a woman who extolls the heart and soul of her nation through song. In a world where pop chanteuses like Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson are more celebrated for their navels than their music, Maria Bethânia is from a very different world. A world of arguably very adult passions and sorrows: loss, heartbreak, slavery, and religion. Director Georges Gachot (Maria Argerich Evening Talks VIFF 03) intercuts concert footage, interviews with the singer's family, friends and peers to create a warm and personal portrait of a woman and her impeccable art. With an unhurried pace, as easy and leisurely as a ballad, the documentary captures Bethânia in the studio and on stage, providing an insider's look at how much is put together with musicians debating on phrasing and interpretations. Often it is the impromptu renditions that are the most glorious as when three of Brazil's most celebrated singers (Nana Caymmi, Miucha and Bethânia) give a samba siren's call in the dressing room after a concert.

Much of the film simply allows the singer to speak, candidly and honestly, to the camera about her life and her art, both of which are inextricably intertwined. Most breathtaking is the music itself, which she eloquently describes like this: "Music is perfume, nothing instantly affects you, changes you." In an age of throwaway culture and mechanized pop melodies, Gachot's film is a reminder of how the power of music can give voice and identity to an entire nation.

Five scorching Romany groups tour the USA. Shot by Albert Maysles. Featuring Johnny Depp.

From VIFF 2007 program: Across the globe, gypsy music rears its melodious head, from Romania to Spain to Macedonia to India. Jasmine Dellal's documentary was filmed during the Gypsy Caravan, a six-week concert tour that took four fabulous gypsy bands--Taraf de Haidouks, Majaraja, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Esme Redzepova and the Antonio el Pipa Flamenco Ensemble--on the road together. Shot by the legendary Albert Maysles (who captured the Rolling Stones at the peak of their glory in Gimme Shelter), and featuring fierce fans of the form (including Johnny Depp), the film is a gorgeous surround-sound celebration of misery and oppression turned into music...more info

Dietrich became an international sensation after playing cabaret artiste Lola Lola in this, Germany's first major sound film. Wearing stockings and suspenders, frilly knickers and a top hat, she wraps Emil Jannings' stuffy professor around her little finger, marries and humiliates him. Yet she's not just a vamp, and he's the author of his own ruination. Among several Frederick Hollander songs, “Falling In Love Again” became Marlene's signature...more info

View Trailer

Official Site

In Festa's inspired approach to Messiaen's ten-minute organ work, 31 authors, musicians, filmmakers and dancers (including Harold Bloom and John Cameron Mitchell) simply listen and respond.

In Apparition of the Eternal Church, 31 people listen to a ten-minute piece of music through headphones and describe what they hear.

What all but a few don't know is that the music is Olivier Messiaen's monumental organ work Apparition of the Eternal Church, which the composer wrote in 1931 when he was 24 years old. A devout Catholic and the organist at the Church of the Trinity in Paris, Messiaen wrote a piece that sends some listeners to the heights of spiritual and erotic ecstasy

For others, the encounter with Messiaen is like ten minutes in Dante's inferno.

The experiment, then, is to have 31 people put the violent contradictions of Messiaen's music into words. The result is a collective interpretation improvising its way through an aesthetic landscape defined by paradox. Resolution confronts eternity, eroticism asceticism, spiritual ecstasy physical torture. Together, the music and its interpreters conjure something like what William Blake famously called the marriage of heaven and hell

"A bravura performance, not to be missed" — Nathan Lee, Village Voice

"Stunning...perhaps the finest film ever made on how people experience music, and one of the best-crafted and moving documentaries in a very long time." — Chicago Sun Times

The most famous concert of them all: 40 years ago this summer. Janis, Jimi, The Who, Joe Cocker, Canned Heat… Everybody was there – or they like to say they were. The music lives up to the legend, but in large part the mystique of this festival is preserved by this remarkable epic documentary...more info

VIFC TICKETS AND INFO

Call the Film Info Line 604.683.FILM (3456) for the latest info and listings. Tickets can be purchased in advance on-line at www.vifc.org or in person 30 minutes before showtime.

Get full privileges to a summer of sound with our all access pass!

For only $50 you can see the best in music on film. Our All Access pass gets you in to any or all of the 23 great documentaries and feature films included in our Summer of Sound: Music on Film series screening July 24-August 18, 2009

• Door sales only (VIFC Box Office - 1181 Seymour St).
• Must be 19 yrs or older and a VIFC Member to purchase. Memberships are $2 and available at the door.
• No discounts applicable.
• Nontransferable.

DOUBLE BILLING PRICING!
The Vancity Theatre is offering double bills at a special price. At just $12 for two films ($10 for Students/Seniors and Bronze and above members), it's one of the cheapest (and still most comfy) seats in town!

Adult tickets: $10
Matinees: $8

DOOR ONLY DISCOUNTS
Double Bills: Adult regular - $13, Student/Senior $11, Premium Members $11
Student/Senior: $8
Student Evening Discount: $5 (screenings after 8:00 pm, special presentations excepted)

Bronze and above members receive a $2 discount on their tickets. (Double Bill - $11) Silver and above members also receive a $2 discount for a guest ticket.

As a registered non-profit society, the VIFC screens films that have not always been seen by the BC Film Classification Board. Due to the regulations governing the Vancouver International Film Centre liquor license, all persons attending VIFC/Vancity Theatre screenings must be VIFC members AND must be 19 years or older. The only exceptions are for minors attending classified screenings, when our license will be temporarily suspended.

Valid for one year based on the date of purchase, the VIFC basic membership cost is $2.

Please note that membership benefits and restrictions are valid for VIFC presentations only. In other works, they are not applicable to Vancity Theatre rental presentations by other organizations.

For More Membership Information go to http://www.vifc.org/membership.html.

Vancity Theatre is located at 1181 Seymour St. (at Davie)