Day one of Vancouver International Film Festival

Well, day one for me seeing movies. I saw three today. The first one I saw was called When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan. I can't heap enough praise on this movie. It was amazing. If you don't know who the Rom (or Roma or Romani) people are, this is the movie to see. The Roma are the people who left India many hundreds of years ago and travelled up into Europe. They took their love of music and dance with them. Gypsies from India (yes, there are gypsies in India, this is where they came from) Spain, Romania and Macedonia came together and formed a 35 person group to perform across North America. This is the documentary of those six weeks, and what a six weeks it was! I know I've only seen three movies so far but, for me, this is a must see! My favorite line from the movie was when Esma Redzepova (the Queen of the Gypies, and this is a real title given to her in 1976) is about to come on stage and the stage manager says, "Don't worry if you can't get the spot light right on Esma, she'll find it. The don't call her the Queen of the Gypies for nothing!" I have to go find the soundtrack or individual group's music. Other groups who were featured are Taraf de Haidouks, Majaraja, Fanfare Ciocarlia, and Antonio el Pipa Flamenco Ensemble http://www.whentheroadbends.com/

The second movie I saw today was Everything's Gone Green. This is a Canadian movie that was shot in Vancouver, however, doesn't try to hide the fact it was shot in Vancouver. The movie was based on a screenplay by Douglas Copeland. It was a good movie, well written, a few times it looked a little strained but I would still recommend people see it, if for nothing else but seeing their local areas in a film that's actually trying to be the areas it's filming in as opposed to bringing in a palm tree and being Northern California, or Arizona or LA. I did think though that it was trying almost a little too hard to be Vancouver (references are everywhere to show that it's Vancouver, so it was a little over the top at times). However, they did capture the entire "I want a better life but don't really want to work hard to achieve it" feel you sometimes get in this city.

The third movie I saw today was No Sweat. A German movie. I might have enjoyed this more if the theatre didn't feel so much like a sauna as well. It was about a small health centre run by a brother and sister. The overall theme of the movie is about the economic recession. It follows the lives of the patrons of the health centre (and health centre I mean massage, steam, etc) and how they are coping in the face of the recession. There were some good parts, and, as I said earlier, I might have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so much like a sauna in the theatre as well (I had to leave at one point to get some air), I could probably recommend it to people, but one's that would specifically like the type of movie it was, slowish with an easy pace but not feeling like it's going anywhere.

Tomorrow I'm seeing more movies and will report on them as well!

25th Annual Vancouver International Film Festival!

Woohoo! I start seeing movies tomorrow. I had decided not to see a lot of movies, and then I read the guide again, so I was up to 12 (which really for some standards, that's not a lot at all!). So I went out and got tickets for the 12 movies, then, last night I went and read the guide AGAIN and found four more movies, so now I'm up to 16. Today, read the guide AGAIN and now I want to get one more ticket!!!! We'll see though.

Saturday I'm seeing When the Road Bends, Everything's Gone Green and No Sweat. Sunday I'm seeing The Last King of Scotland, Requiem and Fido (really excited about fido!!! looks crazy). After that, just 10 more to go (well, maybe more if I keep reading the guide!!!)

Sugar Daddy's

My birthday party

A few of my friends came out with me to Celebrities on Saturday night and helped me to celebrate my birthday this year. . . .Lynn was awesome and decorated the VIP section for me! I had a blast and had to sneak out about 1/2 hour before the club closed, too many shooters (damn friends! lol)







Crazy people (below)

Sears catalogue pose! (below)

Is it Japan or is it Vancouver? (below)

Me under the decorations Lynn did at the club (below)

Is it me or is it a cut out?