OVERALL IMPRESSION OF SIFF 2004

Last year I parked myself at Shaw Tower and gorged on lovely films. This year, unfortunately, I actually had to work and couldn’t spend my days in a cycle of films and The Sopranos. Still, I’ve decided to post my thoughts on the few films I caught at this year’s Film Festival here on this blog.

The ‘big names’ this year, or at least the film-festival favourites, were Osama, Capturing the Friedmans, and that awesome Sunday Apr 18 triple-bill, Barbarian Invasions-Fog of War-Uzak. A group of mostly sombre movies, reflecting what seemed like a very depressing slate of films overall - the schedule had documentaries on Tibet, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bali, and Vietnam. Not that I need every film to be filled with shiny happy people, of course, but it’s no shame to have joyful movies. Of course, as I said, I did hit very few films this year, so who am I to judge?

What else would I have loved to see in the programme? Off the top of my head, American Splendor and the Station Agent. Yeah, yeah, I’m a sucker for American indie movies.