Inuit film opens 31st Toronto film festival
Last Updated: Thursday, September 7, 2006 | 9:59 PM ET
CBC Arts
The Toronto International Film Festival got underway Thursday with the gala presentation of the Canadian film The Journals of Knud Rasmussen.
The festival's opening film didn't draw the celebrities expected to turn out later in Toronto. But the cast, including actors Leah Angutimarik and Pakak Innukshuk and the film's directors, Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, made their appearance on the red carpet in front of Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday night.
The Canadian-Danish co-production was considered by some as a bold choice to open the festival, which runs until Sept. 16.
Actors Pakak Innukshuk, right, and Leah Angutimarik pose for photographers as they arrive at the opening night gala premiere for the movie The Journals of Knud Rasmussen at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Thursday.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
"This is a film made for audiences and I don't think it's the slightest bit different for Inuit audiences or non-Inuit audiences," Cohn said on the red carpet at the concert hall.
"People will see this film with their eyes and with their hearts. This is a film about human experience."
Kunuk and Cohn had established an international reputation with their 2001 indie film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner ).
Despite being shot in Inuktitut (and presented with English subtitles), the three-hour epic won critical acclaim and a host of film honours, including a Genie Award in Canada and the prestigious Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen is based on the true story of a Danish explorer and anthropologist who visited Canada's North in the 1920s. However, the film tells the story from the perspective of the Inuit people Rasmussen meets. As with Atanarjuat, the film's dialog is in Inuktitut with English subtitles.
Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer who brought her voice to the film, said she hoped the movie would dispel some myths about Inuit culture.
"When I travel the world, people are like, 'Oh, you live in igloos,'" said Tagaq, who lives in both Spain and Nunavut.
"It's like, 'No, we don't anymore.' My TV [is] not carved of ice and having these films come out kind of opens people's eyes to that, you know, we're fiercely proud of our culture."
Enormous impact
Now in its 31st year, the Toronto International Film Festival has become one of the city's pre-eminent cultural events.
"It has enormous impact," festival director and CEO Piers Handling told CBC News.
While established directors can test their latest work before a film-loving audience, the festival also provides first-time filmmakers a chance to build a name for themselves.
"Even if the film isn't bought, it's just the industry [is] seeing your film, recognizing the name," Handling said. "Financiers, agents are all here. It's amazing the number of filmmakers who will get American agents out of being at the festival. Even a Canadian agent."
The festival has also gained a reputation in the film industry as an early venue for the top contenders for the winter movie awards season.
Wide range on festival lineup
The festival's 352-film lineup includes selections from 61 countries, ranging from dramas and horror movies to documentaries, independent features and short films.
"Toronto offers the widest breadth of any of the major festivals," said Tom Ortenberg, president of Lionsgate Films.
Notable selections this year include:
- Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, a documentary following the furor over the country trio after lead singer Natalie Maines publicly criticized U.S. President George W. Bush.
- All the King's Men, a new adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, starring Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo and Oscar-winner Sean Penn.
- Away From Her, actress Sarah Polley's feature directorial debut and based on an Alice Munro work.
- Death of a President (or D.O.A.P.), the headline-grabbing, documentary-style drama about the fictional assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush.
- Volver, Pedro Almodovar's award-winning, multi-generational tale about the women in one family.
- Never Say Goodbye, the Indian blockbuster that has divided audiences in its native country for delving into the taboo topic of marital infidelity.
- Infamous, a look at author Truman Capote and the years he spent researching his classic In Cold Blood.
- Summer Palace, the sexually and politically charged drama that Chinese director Lou Ye screened at Cannes, resulting in China banning him from filmmaking for the next five years.
The festival is largely regarded as a place to screen new movies in advance of theatrical release or for international releases to win larger distribution. However, organizers have also arranged some special, one-off, film-related events.
Controversial filmmakers Michael Moore, John Waters and John Cameron Mitchell will be among the participants of the festival's Maverick program, during which prominent filmmakers discuss their latest works, their oeuvres and topical issues.
Also, Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin will also screen his new silent film, Brand Upon the Brain!, with accompaniment from members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, two sound-effects artists, a narrator and a singer.
The festival ends Sept. 16 with the world premiere of Amazing Grace, based on the story of 18th-century British abolitionist William Wilberforce and his campaign to end the slave trade.
With files from the Associated Press, Canadian Press
