The first weekend of TIFF Kids International Film Festival has come and gone and just like it’s older brother the Toronto International Film Festival, that means there is still a ton of great movies on the schedule to still check out. So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Even though, under its original name Sprockets, the festival has been around for 15 years, there is just something in the air that is a little bit different. Maybe it’s because the TIFF Bell Lightbox is a great venue for an event such as this. Maybe it’s because the DigiPlaySpace is an overwhelmingly hit. I think these are just the tip of the iceberg. When you are powered by such a great choice of film options, it can’t be helped that an almost magical feeling is permeating the air.
We are a little bit melancholy that this is our last instalment of our TIFF Kids Preview series as it has been a joy to be immersed in one of the most powerful, imaginative and fun sectors of the film industry. We hope that this and the previous reviews have been able to whet your appetite to partake in the festival and its many offerings.
For now, we give you Part III of our TIFF Kids International Film Festival preview.
Gattu Themes: competition, overcoming adversity, importance of education Content Advisory: threats of physical violence, instances of an adult slapping a child
Director Rajan Khosa will join us at the screenings on April 17!
Tuesday April 17 10:00 AM Saturday April 21 10:00 AM buy tickets
Fresh off of its award for best feature film at the Berlin film festival comes the best movie I’ve seen at TIFF Kids, about a street orphan in India obsessed with kite-flying and the lengths he goes to in order to beat a mysterious rival in the city known for clipping every other challenger off with the advantage of a slightly higher altitude she is competing from.
Raised in the Himalayan foothills of a town named Roorkee, street-smart Gattu has to deal with an over-protective uncle in Anees, a man who makes his nephew work odd jobs. As much as the movie is about the young Gattu, it breathes an equal amount of empathy into his uncle, a man who we write-off as a tyrant who forces Gattu out of school with shakedowns and threats, but who we come to understand more and more by the end of the film.
We’re pulled in from the beginning with incredibly tense kite-flying games (done with magnificent CGI work) that consume the locals. Kali is the best kite-flyer by far, and the clever, enterprising Gattu will stop at nothing to beat her, even if it means having to steal or to lie his way into achieving his goals. Gattu needs a higher place to fly his kite, so he steals a uniform from a clothesline and lies his way into a school where he has no business being so that he can get on the roof, which is positioned at precisely the right altitude to take on Kali’s kite. But then he’s found out and part of the joy of the movie is watching how he not only gets himself into this mess, but then how it is he cleverly gets himself out of it.
“Gattu” plays as a thriller from the onset with the young boy’s eyes fixed upwards towards the skies, but then grows more and more over the course of its running time into a perceptive character study that shows what life is among the working poor in India today. Older children should find this stuff riveting in a story that never condescends to younger folks, but simply shows Gattu going about his way in life and doing the best with what he’s been given. What an extraordinary movie this is.
- MovieJay
First Position Themes: ballet, dance, perseverance, competition
Friday April 20 12:15 PM Sunday April 22 02:30 PM buy tickets
Six ballet students from different social, economic, regional and ethnic backgrounds do battle in the Youth America Grand Prix, a competition unknown to me until this enormously satisfying documentary came along to open my eyes about the world of ballet and its fanatical young dancers. The prestigious competition follows the world’s top dance companies and schools as they seek new prospects from five continents and from all walks of life.
Did you know that more than 5,000 dancers under the age of 19 join this grueling tournament every year? I surely didn’t, and while the rest of us go about our lives, the lives of entire families are besieged by early morning rituals, expensive dance classes, injuries, strict teachers who appear to be living their dreams through children, all of this taking place within the reality that less than a fraction of 1% of all the ballet hopefuls in the world will ever work professionally.
Out of the 5,000 who enter, some 300 make it to the finals in New York. One of which is Michaela, a 14 yr-old orphan from Sierra Leone adopted by a Jewish family in Pennsylvania. She recounts the story of her parents being murdered. Another is Aran Bell, an 11 yr-old American whose family is stationed overseas in Italy since his father serves in the Navy. Due to the costs of ballet dancing, Aran’s father accepts a deployment to Kuwait for 6 months that will bring the family enough income to help Aran pursue his dreams of being a professional ballet dancer.
Is it masochistic or is it simply the sacrifice of following one’s dreams? “First Position” is more exciting and tense than most action movies, and should find a release in theaters and then on home video in the coming months after its successful film festival run this last year. As good as “Spellbound” and other docs following the pressures placed on children to succeed in a racket where the outcome is almost inevitably failure, “First Position” gets inside the world of ballet and shows us how universal its expression is among cultural and economic lines all across the world.
- MovieJay
Snowflake, the White Gorilla Themes: animal rights, passing judgement, acceptance, perseverance Content Advisory: animated violence, partially clothed woman depicted in a work of art
Tuesday April 17 09:45 AM buy tickets
Take away the villainous Luc de Sac (who lives on a cul de sac, no less) and this story really happened. In 1967, local villagers in Africa’s Equitorial Guinea captured a remarkable baby gorilla. Instead of the thick brown or black fur of most gorillas, this baby had a coat of pure white. Through a series of fortunate circumstances, the rare white gorilla ended up at the Barcelona Zoo, where he became an international star. He was given the Spanish name Copito de Nieve and the English name Snowflake and went to live for roughly 40 years until his passing in 2003.
Based very loosely on this story, Snowflake the White Gorilla is a fictional tale that effortlessly combines live action and CGI and brings the animals to life in the movie through animation. Brought to Spain by a zoologist, he shows the baby gorilla to his family with his daughter forming an instant bond with the little big guy. “What’s his name?”, she asks her father. “To this point he’s called The White Gorilla”, which she finds totally unoriginal, and so names him Snowflake.
The film is an innocuous series of adventures following Snowflake having to adapt to his new environment at the zoo, the discrimination he faces from the other gorillas who don’t like him because he’s not like them, and then his breaking out of the zoo in order to find the witch he has read about in a circus pamphlet who promises to “make your dreams come true”. Snowflake hopes she can turn him black so that he can fit in with the other gorillas. But the outside world can be a cruel place, and the evil and superstitious Luc de Sac is out to capture Snowflake, convinced that the special gorilla will bring him eternal good luck.
A lovely film and one that should definitely be watched by young and old alike.
- MovieJay
We are now in full swing with the TIFF Kids International Film Festival (the festival formerly known as Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth) and while the first part of our preview covered some of the fantastic films of the initial couple of days of the festival, we are now getting into the all important first weekend.
The festival, which runs until April 22nd, has brought together some of the most innovative programming focuses on kids in the world. It may be easy to dismiss this genre of filmmaking as simply fluff, elementary movies that are not really worth the time unless you have children yourself. That kind of thinking is very much faulted and a huge mistake as it excludes you from some of the best films ever crafted.
So no we carry on with the second part of our preview where MovieJay gives us an overview of six more films.
Le Tableau (The Painting) Themes: visual art, free choice, social justice, activism, racism Content Advisory: animated violence, partially clothed woman depicted in a work of art
Saturday April 14 05:30 PM Wednesday April 18 10:00 AM buy tickets
Le Tableau is a visual treat, an elegant and gentle animated fable out of France that is meant for us to sit back and drink in. It considers its characters, some drawn and others painted, that come to life in that most popular of cinematic traditions–when humans are out of sight.
The water-colored world where our story begins is seen in some primary but almost entirely secondary colors; forests of green and lavender, skies of deep orange.
There are three different sorts of folks in the painting and they’re all aptly titled: the Alldones, the Halfies and the Sketchies. The Alldones rule over this world on the drunkenness of the power they feel for being completely painted figures. Halfies tend to be somewhat painted but may have a body part or part of their wardrobe untouched by paint. They are outcasts in this world, but they don’t have it as bad as a Sketchy, the lowest form of life to an Alldone. They are hated and hunted by the Alldones practically for sport. In a wonderful and melancholy sequence, a Halfie with just a small part of her dress unpainted is swiftly kicked out from an evening at the castle where the painting’s ruler speaks to his fellow Alldones, re-affirming their greatness.
Some Alldones are sympathetic to the other folks and see them as equals. Le Tableau centers on a touching relationship between one Alldone and his true love who happens to be a Halfie who can not see him because her face went unpainted. Together with another Halfie and a Sketchy, they journey out of the forest in search for their creator, named the Artist, of course. They believe once they find him that maybe he can help by finishing what he started!
It was a pleasure to discover this movie, one that should illuminate young minds of about 9 and up, I’d say. The visuals are a delight to sink your teeth into, and the story is thought-provoking and at times sad. I’m not sure the ending builds to as great an impact as I was hoping for, but oh, what a lovely journey this movie is.
-MovieJay
Famous Five Content Advisory: minor language, two brief scenes involving a gun
Director Mike Marzuk will join us at the screening on April 21!
Saturday April 14 10:30 AM Saturday April 21 03:15 PM buy tickets
British author Enid Blyton‘s popular 50′s and 60′s child-adventure series “The Famous Five” gets its first treatment in German, but loses nothing in its translation with Anne, George, Julian, Dick and Timmy the dog returning to solve crimes in their small coastal town. This first edition, hoping to begin a series of German films of the Five, starts with an updating of “The Five on the Rocky Island” that begins with the news that Anne, Julian and Dick are going on a trip to visit their cousin, Georgina, born a girl but who sees herself as a boy and demands to be called George. We accept this news immediately because we sense that George knows herself well, even at the age of 11, and besides, George is tougher than most boys (including her cousins, who never make fun but are impressed by George).
George’s father is working on a highly secretive research project that forces him to camp out for a few days on the island offshore. On the island is a gorgeous lighthouse that dad promises to use to signal to his family every night at 6 that he’s there, he’s doing fine and he’s thinking of them. We learn that the project has something to do with creating a clean, alternative energy source for the area.
In a hike that takes the kids through a mighty and dark cave, they both rescue a trapped pooch and quickly name him Timothy as well as stumble across a hideout with a transistor radio that they learn is spying on George’s father. Later, they begin to follow a strange man in a long coat taking pictures of the area and of the island. Who is this guy? And why are the two police officers in town so quick to ignore the kids and get them in trouble for their efforts? They’re fishy, too!
“The Famous Five” continues in the long tradition of Nancy Drew, Saturday morning serials, and movies like “The Goonies” where kids lead the way with their pluck, intelligence and toughness. But it’s young Valeria Eisenbart who steals the show as George with her tough-mindedness and strong physical presence thoughout. Yes, it has subtitles, but I bet you won’t even remember needing them much in this movie that gets just about everything right in terms of characters we like and a plot that balances real suspense and tension along the way.
-MovieJay
Elias and the Treasure of the Sea
Saturday April 14 11:45 AM Saturday April 21 10:15 AM buy tickets
Elias, the little rescue boat, is back in the sequel to “Elias and the Royal Yacht” in this wonderful and thoughtful computer-animated gem from Norway. Elias’ job is to look after the other boats and shipping vessels in the small coastal town named Cozy Cove, where the winter fishing season is about to begin. It’s hard times for the folks in Cozy Cove; business isn’t what it used to be and many of the boats are getting a little older and a little more tired. Elias rallies the other boats and pushes them to do the best job they’ve ever done in order to save Cozy Cove.
But the choleric and icy Polar Queen of the sea has other plans. She runs a super-industrial factory just a little to the north of the small fishing village where her three gigantic and modern fishing trawlers go back and forth as they plunder the sea of all its fish. One day, the Polar Queen’s trawlers race through Cozy Cove and net almost every fish around, leaving nothing behind for the boats who live there to catch. While the boats are angry, confused and sad, Elias decides to follow the Queen’s trawlers back to the factory in order to get the town’s fish back.
“Elias and the Treasure of the Sea” is a wonderful adventure–aimed at perhaps 1st and 2nd graders, but enjoyable to all ages–that is as entertaining as it is thoughtful with its themes having to do with our environment, our ecosystem in particular. The computer-generated animation is lush with vivid primary colors that will remind audiences of the world of “Finding Nemo” with its blues, reds and yellows. We can feel the cold of that deep blue sea and we come to really care for little Elias as well as with Gaddy, the little yellow submarine who works for the Polar Queen but who comes to like Elias and then to help him on his journey to save Cozy Cove.
-MovieJay
Cool Kids Don’t Cry Content Advisory: coarse language, depiction of child undergoing treatment for cancer
Actresses Hanna Obbeek and Johanna ter Steege will join us at the screenings on April 14 and April 15!
Saturday April 14 01:45 PM Sunday April 15 02:15 PM buy tickets
Akkie is a football-crazed tween in the Netherlands heading into grade 8, her last year before high school. Don’t let her blond hair and blue eyes fool you: Akkie has a tough-as-nails personality, is whip-smart, and she likes to get her hands dirty. She’s arguably the best football player at her school and that causes a nasty rivalry with Joep, a boy in her class with a chip on his shoulder about, oh, everything. Their resentment for one another leads to a fight one day after school that sees Akkie giving as good as she gets but winding up with a bloody nose that doesn’t stop running and a trip to the hospital and some tests. Akkie’s got Leukemia. Chemotherapy sessions begin immediately. Her hair starts to fall out.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this. All she wants is to be a striker for the school’s football team, to win the tournament, and to graduate to high school. Now she’s stuck in a hospital fighting for her life.
Anyone familiar with “Degrassi” will immediately plunge themselves into the world of “Cool Kids Don’t Cry” because it works precisely in the same ways; part after-school special, part perceptive human drama for and about the trials, troubles and tribulations of young people in adolescence. This movie cares deeply about all of its characters, from their jolly teacher to Akkie’s over-protective mother to her circle of friends, all of whom remind us of the closest people in our own lives. The movie is also very perceptive in how it sees young romantic feelings develop inside its characters and the relationships Akkie has to both Joep and to her close friend Laurens are touching. With mature performances by its young stars and a story that does not condescend to adolescents, “Cool Kids Don’t Cry” is a very good film that reminds us that life is indifferent to our plight, but we don’t have to be indifferent to it.
-MovieJay
The Blue Tiger Content Advisory: adult smoking, scene of animated violence, mild profanity, child slapped by adult
Director Petr Oukropec will join us at the screening on April 22!
Sunday April 15 10:15 AM Sunday April 22 10:00 AM buy tickets
Petr Oukropec’s directorial debut out of the Czech Republic is a highly enchanting one about a character I think you’ll love in Johanka. She’s a precocious girl of about 9 whose bedroom window is just across the way from her favorite place in the world, a botanical garden. Johanka has a vivid imagination. She loves to daydream and draw more than playing with others her age or having to do homework. She does have one best friend, the trusted Matyas, a boy who simply understands her for who she is.
Johanka lives in a bigger-than-average city ruled over by a diabolical mayor and his henchmen. One day the mayor visits her school where all the students have been assembled to hear him speak. He delivers a presentation showing the development projects and a huge shopping center to be built in the city, and it happens to be right on top of the botanical garden in the poorer part of town where Johanka lives.
There is no point describing any further the plot of this movie except to say that it involves mysterious sightings all around the city of what is alleged to be a blue tiger and how that eventually connects to Johanka and her quest to save the garden.
In a recent interview upon the film’s opening in eastern Europe, the director revealed that the child actors here are starring in their first roles ever. That’s probably why we love them as much as we do, because Johanka and Matyas are genuinely captivating together, with Johanka as a free-spirited daydreamer with visions that come to life all over the movie in wonderfully-animated sequences, and Matyas as a loyal, highly intelligent and honest friend. They seem so much like real people to us that we forget they’re even performing. “The Blue Tiger” is a magical discovery.
-MovieJay Lotte and the Moonstone Secret
Sunday April 15 10:30 AM Sunday April 22 10:15 AM buy tickets
This is the second film in the “Lotte” series after 2007′s “Lotte from Gadgetville”. If you haven’t heard, Lotte is a young pup and she’s an extraordinarily popular Estonian animated character that can be found in all the toy stores over there and whose name will grace a commercial jet there later this year.
The quaint and peaceful seaside village of Gadgetville is filled with interesting characters, not least of which Lotte, who is a dreamer and an idealist. Her father is an inventor and a tinkerer though in this story it is her uncle Klaus, her father’s lazy brother who sleeps in his old trunk with his feet hanging out from under his blanket. One night, two hooded rabbits creep around the village trying to find out which foot belongs to the shoe that has come into their possession. It finally leads them to Klaus, the dog they shared an adventure with ages ago when they went off camping together and found three mysterious and magical moonstones. Klaus and Lotte set off with the rabbits to find the remaining stones.
The animation here recalls other gentle children’s stories like Winnie the Pooh or Rupert in the way that landscapes and backgrounds are still as if they’ve come right out of a book while the characters are the ones given the freedom of movement. Younger audiences should find lots to connect with when it comes to Lotte, particularly in her pluck, determination and sense for doing what’s right, and with Klaus on a comic level in how he ends up playing second-fiddle to his niece.
A gentle and innocuous movie for young children.
-MovieJay
About the TIFF Kids International Film Festival
Running from April 10 through 22, 2012, the TIFF Kids International Film Festival (formerly the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth) will celebrate 15 years as one of the most important film festivals in North America with special programming and activities for children aged 3 to 13. New for 2012 is TIFF Kids digiPlaySpace, a family-friendly interactive environment which includes interactive installations, learning-centric games, apps, new digital creative tools and hands-on production activities.
Part of the reason that we are such huge fans of what is happening with the TIFF Kids International Film Festival (April 10-22) is that it is being executed in a very similar fashion to its cousin the Toronto International Film Festival. There are over 100+ Full Features and Shorts being presented for those ages 3-13, an added installation called DigiPlaysSpace and a slate of the most talented guests that both young and old should equally see.
The good folks at TIFF have released a nice little overview of who is coming when which is posted in the press release below. I will be at the Screening of Pirates 3D where Peter Lord from Aardman Animation will be in attendance and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
Hope to see you during TIFF Kids!
Oh Look! A Press Release:
TIFF WELCOMES SPECIAL GUESTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO THE TIFF KIDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Toronto — Running from April 10 through 22, 2012, the TIFF Kids International Film Festival (formerly the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth) celebrates 15 years as one of the most important film festivals in North America with special programming and activities for children aged 3 to13. With a compelling selection of features and shorts showcasing the best of Canadian and international cinema and hands-on family activities, the TIFF Kids International Film Festival welcomes an exciting slate of special guests from around the world.
Guests attending TIFF Kids over the Festival’s two public weekends, April 13–15 and April 21–22, include:
Friday, April 13
7:00 p.m.
Bill Wallauer Principal Photographer, Chimpanzee The 15th annual TIFF Kids International Film Festival opens with the Canadian Premiere of Disneynature’s feature film Chimpanzee. Chimpanzee’s principal photographer, Bill Wallauer, will be in attendance on Opening Night for a post-screening discussion about his role in the making of the film. Bill has spent over 15 years working closely with chimpanzees for the Jane Goodall Institute.
Saturday, April 14
1:45 p.m.
Hanna Obbeek and Johanna ter Steege Actors, Cool Kids Don’t Cry The Netherlands, International Premiere *Also in attendance April 15 at 2:15 p.m.
Sunday, April 15
10:30 a.m.
Andrés G. Schaer Director, SNOWFLAKE — The White Gorilla (Copito de Nieve) Spain, North American Premiere
12:00 p.m.
Thelon Oeming* Director, The Rink Canada, Canadian Premiere The Rink screens as part of the Canada For Kids shorts programme *Also in attendance April 22 at 3:00 p.m.
Allan Tong* Director, Little Mao Canada, World Premiere Little Mao screens as part of the Canada For Kids shorts programme *Also in attendance April 22 at 3:00 p.m.
Theodore Bezaire* Director, Tommy Canada, World Premiere Tommy screens as part of the Canada For Kids shorts programme *Also in attendance April 22 at 3:00 p.m.
Jeremy Lutter* Director, Joanna Makes a Friend Canada, Toronto Premiere Joanna Makes a Friend screens as part of the Canada For Kids shorts programme
Brian Hartigan* Writer, For All the Marbles Canada For All the Marbles screens as part of the Canada For Kids shorts programme *Also in attendance April 22 at 3:00 p.m.
1:00 p.m.
Tony Simpson Director, Kiwi Flyer New Zealand, International Premiere
3:00 p.m.
The Monkey Bunch: Live at TIFF Kids! TIFF Kids presents its first live concert for kids — featuring the unique, high-energy music of Toronto’s own The Monkey Bunch (comic genius Shoshana Sperling, musician/songwriter Maury LaFoy and their musical friends). Playing a variety of musical styles, The Monkey Bunch engages kids with music and humour while imparting fun yet important educational messages about the environment.
Wednesday, April 18 – SNEAK PEEK
6:30 p.m.
Peter Lord Director, The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D At a special screening, Peter Lord, director and co-founder of the Academy Award®–winning Aardman Animation, will engage with audiences following the Canadian Premiere of his latest film The Pirates! Band of Misfits, 3D. Saturday, April 21
10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
TVOKids Programming The hosts of The Space, Kara, Dalmar and Drew, will introduce a premiere screening of Finding Stuff Out, a popular science show that airs on TVOKids. After the screening, kids can join in a Q&A and activities with Harrison, the host of Finding Stuff Out. An autograph session with the hosts will take place at 11:00 a.m. 12:15 p.m.
Patrica Arrianga Jordán Director, Bacalar Mexico, Canadian Premiere
2:45 p.m.
Ellen Perry Director, Will United Kingdom / Turkey, Canadian Premiere
3:15 p.m.
Mike Marzuk Director, Famous Five (Fünf Freude) Germany, International Premiere
Sunday, April 22 10:00 a.m. Petr Oukropec Director, The Blue Tiger (ModýTygr) Czech Republic, International Premiere
10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
TVOKids Programming Join Gisèle, host of TVOKids’ preschool programming block Gisèle’s Big Backyard, for a live interactive book reading followed by an animal action game with TVO’s mascot Polkaroo! An autograph session with Gisèle will follow her 11:00 a.m. appearance.
10:15 a.m.
Friedl Jooste Director, Hooked South Africa, Canadian Premiere Hooked screens as part of the Loot Bag: Laugh and a Half! shorts programme
12:15 p.m.
Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase Jump Cuts Finalists from across Ontario in the Grades 7–8 category will walk the red carpet at TIFF Kids prior to the screening of their films.
12:30 p.m.
Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase Jump Cuts Finalists from across Ontario in the Grades 3–6 category will walk the red carpet at TIFF Kids prior to the screening of their films.
2:30 p.m.
TIFF Kids International Film Festival Awards Ceremony Winners of TIFF Kids’ internationally recognized awards are announced. Awards presented include:
• Golden Sprocket Awards: The TIFF Kids young people’s feature film juries select two feature films representing two different age groups (8–10 and 11–13). Additionally, one jury for ages 9 through 13 selects a winning short film. • Audience Choice Awards: TIFF Kids audience members choose winning films in both a feature film category and short film category. • Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase Awards: The Frederick Simpson Award for Best Film Grades 3–6 and the Veronica Herman Award for Best Film Grades 7–8, selected by a jury of film industry professionals. • TVOKids Choice Award: presented to the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase short film in the Grades –6 category that best represents TVOKids’ values.
2:45 p.m.
Cameron Hood Creative Producer and Animator, Sky Force 3D The 15th annual TIFF Kids International Film Festival closes with a very special Sneak Peek of Sky Force 3D (Hong Kong).
About TIFFKids
The TIFF Kids International Film Festival takes place at TIFF Bell Lightbox from April 10 through April 22. The TIFF Kids school programme runs April 10–13 and April 16–20, and public programme from April 13–15 and April 21–22. TIFF Members and the general public may also purchase tickets to school programme screenings subject to availability. Tickets for TIFF Kids are on sale now. Prices range from Adult $12, Student/Senior $9.50 and Children (13 and under) $8.50. Opening Night prices range from Adult $25, Student/Senior $20 and Children (13 and under) $17.50. Family packs of 10 tickets are available for $75. Entry to the TIFF Kids digiPlaySpace is $5 or $2.50 with paid screening ticket. Some activities are free. For more information on screenings and activities, or to purchase tickets, please visit tiff.net/kids call 416-599-TIFF (8433) or 1-800-599-TIFF, or visit the box office at TIFF Bell Lightbox.
The creation of the Bell Lightbox has allowed the Toronto International Film Festival to really set roots and focus on what it does best, programme great films for audiences to see. The 2011 Festival was a great step in the right direction and makes the upcoming 2012 version that much more anticipated.
With this new home, the organization that runs the festival can now also focus on expanding the mandate of the other properties it manages. One of them is the popular but very underrated Sprockets Film Festival which has now been rebranded as the TIFF Kids International Film Festival.
We love the new direction and the rebranding.
One of the most slept-on areas in the film industry is Kids movies. Often deemed too juvenile for proper concern, the problem with that thinking is that it overlooks some of the best films ever made. (We’re looking at you Aardman Animation Studios, Pixar and of course Disney).
The thing that makes TIFF Kids that much more special is their focus on international fare. While we all get the requisite Peter Lord film, we also are exposed to a wide variety of films that usually don’t make it across our radar.
Xavierpop will be previewing the festival over the next few days as there are some fantastic films that you should definitely check out, regardless of your age.
Part One of our preview focuses on some of the films happening the first couple of days. Stay tuned for the subsequent parts and hopefully we’ll see you at the Lightbox.
Will Themes: citizenship, friendship, media, politics Content Advisory: parental and child death, explosion, mild language, religious references, living in a Christian orphanage
Director Ellen Perry will join us via Skype on April 14 and in person at the screenings on April 16 and April 21!
Saturday April 14 12:45 PM Monday April 16 10:00 AM Saturday April 21 02:45 PM buy tickets
If you know it to be true that it’s “football”, not “soccer”, than this is a movie for you. It tells the story of an 11 year-old English boy named Will (Perry Eggleton) left an orphan to a Catholic parish when his mother died and his father ran away. Now his father (Damian Lewis) is back, has taken control of his life, and would like to make amends with Will and to be the father to him that he knows his son needs him to be. They start by hanging out and talking in that nervous way we do when there is much to be said and we’re having trouble with where or how to begin. They connect through their mutual love of football as the father listens in amazement at the boy’s uncanny ability to recite the stats and the history of their favorite team, Liverpool.
Later, Will agrees to leave the orphanage and be with his dad, but then tragedy strikes: Will is made an orphan a second time at the sudden passing of his father and just after he had bought the two of them tickets to the Champions League final of 2005 in Istanbul, between AC Milan and their team, Liverpool.
Will picks himself up and decides to carry on with his mission to see his team play in the finals, no matter what. He rides as a stowaway on a freight ship, has an adventure in France and is helped along the way by Alek (Kristian Kiehling) a kindred football spirit about the same or just a few years younger than his father, who hauls produce around in his truck for a living but who is connected with Will in likely and unlikely ways.
Unabashedly emotional, “Will” is a pure audience picture that aims at the hearts of football fans the world over with its universal message of believing in one’s self and carrying on especially when times get tough and you feel like you’re on the losing end of a battle that’s rigged against you.
- MovieJay
Stay! (Blijf!) Themes: citizenship, friendship, media, politics Content Advisory: mild language, family removed from their home, defacing public property
Saturday April 14 01:15 PM Sunday April 15 02:30 PM Tuesday April 17 12:00 PM buy tickets
Lieke and Milad are best friends. They’re 11 years old and go to school and live in the Netherlands. Lieke is Dutch, Milad is Iranian, the youngest son in a family of five Iranian refugees living the Netherlands. Milad’s family is denied their residency papers and it begins the process by which they will be deported back to Iran, where Milad’s father will surely be arrested after fleeing the homeland and taking his family with him instead of staying and being thrown in jail as a political prisoner.
Milad is desperate to stay and it’s his good fortune to have a best friend as hard-headed and determined as Lieke, who simply will not accept that his family should be forced to leave. As the deportation date nears, their school teacher advises them that one of the ways to make Milad’s story heard is to contact the head of the Ministry of Immigration. Milad and Lieke go many steps further and set out on the unlikeliest of journeys that will see them runaway from the Immigration Police by crossing a river in an abandoned paddle boat, sleeping out in a farm in the country, and cleverly using a kind old woman on a train as their guardian.
Stay! is a movie not only about the power of friendship and the value of human relationships, but more than that, it’s about the kind of person you need to be if you’re going to be someone’s best friend. Lieke is just 11 years old, and in her we see the best in ourselves: plucky, determined, headstrong, always daring to rise above or go beyond whatever trouble comes her way, and to always stand up for what is right. In Milad and his family, we feel sympathy for them not only for being deported, but for being treated more like they’re criminals than humans with real problems and real stories that need to be heard and understood instead of being judged as quickly as they are. Yes, even your best friend can annoy you sometimes, and other times you may not even see eye to eye on things, but Lieke and Milad remind us that the things that are most important about our best friends make those other things seem really small. -MovieJay
Wunderkinder (Miracle Children) – @MovieJay’s Top Pick Themes: genocide, child musicians, music, friendship, social justice Content Advisory: mature content – violence, shooting, person shot, guns, death (seen and discussed)
Tuesday April 17 12:30 PM Saturday April 21 05:00 PM buy tickets
Wunderkinder is a special film about the unlikely bond between Hanna, a German girl, and Larissa and Abrascha, two Ukrainian Jews. The year is 1941, Larissa is a gifted pianist and Abrascha equally so on the violin, both considered to be child prodigies in classical music. They play in concert halls to the party elite and eventually play before Stalin.
Hanna and her parents live in the small town of Poltova, Ukraine because of her father’s burgeoning German brewery there. One day, Hanna attends a small concert featuring Larissa and Abrascha, and they cast a mesmerizing spell on the girl that begins an obsession she has to want to not only meet, but to play music with them. Her parents being fair-minded, culture-friendly and successful, are encouraging of Hanna when she comes to them demanding to take violin lessons from Irina, the teacher of the two prodigies.
Hanna finally meets them, they break the ice, but then their new bond is put straight to the test with the advent of the war. The German family is helped by the Ukrainians to hide and then flee from the clutches of the local party authorities, and then later it is Hanna and her family doing what they can to protect Larissa and Abrascha’s families.
I have read that the young actors were musicians first, actors second. That they are talented musicians in their own right goes without saying, but they can add acting as something they are capable and competent at doing with three remarkable performances here in a film with themes that are a cross between The Pianist in terms of music breaking beyond the borders that contain our subtle prejudices and fears, and The Boy With the Striped Pajamas in how well Wunderkinder is when it sees this world and its cruel values through the eyes of older children who are totally aware of the horrifying implications around them. The best moments are when the young ones ask straightforward, practical questions about what’s going on, and the deafening silences we experience afterwards that are filled with the knowing in the air that to answer those questions would mean to purge themselves of their own prejudices.
A wonderful experience for older children with an interest in history and classical music. -MovieJay
Alfie, the Little Werewolf Themes: family, acceptance, identity, bullying Content Advisory: minimal comedic violence, unseen animal death (eaten), biting
Saturday April 14 10:15 AM Wednesday April 18 12:15 PM Saturday April 21 02:30 PM buy tickets
The first in a series of stories based on the popular line of Dutch books for children at or around 7 years old, we follow Alfie, a blond bespectacled little baby being laid at the doorstep of a family of three. They have one child already, a baby boy named Timmie, but looking at the abandoned child at their feet, they figure their home has enough love and space to accomodate a fourth.
Alfie grows to be a pretty normal kid, except for school that is, where he is made fun of by the girl he likes and is picked on by the schoolyard bully. He’s no good at gym class and falls when trying to climb the ropes, only to be made fun of some more.
Upon us is the eve of Alfie’s 7th birthday. Waking up just before the clock strikes twelve, Alfie gets out of his bed and opens his window in order to get a better look at the big, beautiful night sky with its stars lit up from the full moon overhead. And then it happens: Alfie starts feeling funny. He gets itchy all over. Hair begins to grow all over his hands. His ears grow larger….and hairier! Within seconds he has a full and plush white beard that even Santa would envy. His pajamas stretch until they break, his chest covered in thick white fur. If there is any doubt that Alfie is turning into a werewolf (albeit the most adorable of werewolves with a look that suggests the added DNA of a teddy bear and a poodle) than that long, furry white and silver tail that pops out of his behind is the clincher.
He begins to howl at the sounds of the night that include the cries of dogs and cats. He can’t resist, so Alfie jumps out of his bedroom window and into his backyard. Impressed with his newly-acquired athleticism, Alfie begins to forage through his neighborhood with his arms helping his legs to barrel down the street faster than most cars, even. And he can climb trees, too! Lucky for werewolf-Alfie that the next-door neighbor is a kind old lady who happens to have a chicken coop in her backyard, which Alfie gets into even though he knows it’s wrong, but just can’t help himself because when the moon is full, the werewolf inside of him takes over his better nature. Not sure if it was all just a really bad dream, Timmie asks Alfie how he’s feeling when they wake up the next morning with Alfie replying, befuddled, “I think I ate a chicken.”
With werewolf lore and a healthy dose of Jekyll & Hyde to boot, Alfie, the Little Werewolf is a Friday-night fright-flick for youngsters aged about 7-8. Younger children will pee their pants, older ones will roll their eyes, but for the grades 1 and 2 set, this ought to provide an equal dose of thrills and real laughs due entirely to the performance of Maas Bronkhuyzen as Alfie, with his Harry Potter-like glasses and the burden he must carry with a very hairy, scary double-identity. -moviejay
About the TIFF Kids International Film Festival
Running from April 10 through 22, 2012, the TIFF Kids International Film Festival (formerly the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth) will celebrate 15 years as one of the most important film festivals in North America with special programming and activities for children aged 3 to 13. New for 2012 is TIFF Kids digiPlaySpace, a family-friendly interactive environment which includes interactive installations, learning-centric games, apps, new digital creative tools and hands-on production activities.