VTIFF Program-Guide 2023 - Flipbook - Page 19
FILMS A TO Z
JOAN BAEZ: I AM A NOISE
LIKE A FISH ON THE MOON
LIMBO
Directed by Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle and Karen
O’Connor
USA | 2023 | Documentary | 113 min | English
Directed by Dornaz Hajiha
Iran | 2023 | Fiction | 78 min | Farsi w/subtitles
Directed by Ivan Sen
Australia | 2023 | Fiction | 109 min | English
Film Source: Magnolia
Sponsored by: Kevin Meehan
Film Source: Asian Shadows
Sponsored by: Anne Barbano & Michael George and
Pascal Cheng
Film Source: Music Box
Sponsored by: Jennifer Rangnow
SHOWTIMES
WEDNESDAY, OCT 25 | 1:45 PM | FH
SATURDAY, OCT 28 | 7:15 PM | BB
SHOWTIMES
THURSDAY, OCT 26 | 7 PM | FH
SUNDAY, OCT 29 | 1 PM | BB
Even if you’re a fan of Joan Baez and have been following
her career for decades, there are plenty of surprises in the
new doc from directors Miri Navasky, Karen O’Connor and
Maeve O’Boyle. An unusually intimate entry into the
popular-song-biopic sweepstakes, I Am a Noise deftly
navigates the professional and personal, covering her
career from folk-goddess to activist to Bob Dylan
collaborator and, finally, as an icon on her farewell tour.
There’s more than enough musical history and archival
footage to make a case for Baez as a legend. But it’s the
personal stuff that startles – she digs deep on her family,
particularly her (and her sister Mimi’s) innate darkness and
unwillingness to be happy. The final third of the film goes
way beyond what we expect from the average rock-star bio,
stunning us (and Baez) with her unearthed family legacy.
~SM
SHOWTIMES
WEDNESDAY, OCT 25 | 4:15 PM | FH
SUNDAY, OCT 29 | 3:15 PM | FH
Writer-Director Hajiha’s taut family drama of parents
grappling with the sudden mutism of their young son is of
such authenticity that it’s almost as if one was watching an
observational documentary. The immaculate script, superb
acting by a cast of three non-professionals, the
cinematography — never flashy but skillfully employed to
serve the ever-shifting dynamics amongst the characters
— all come together to create a sensitive film that portrays
the shifting dynamics within a couple who have been taken
out of their comfort zone in a situation they cannot
understand. As one of our programmers noted, it is
discovering gems like these that make our curatorial work
so rewarding. ~OY
In this gritty, downbeat, Outback noir, detective Travis
Hurley (Simon Baker of The Mentalist, unrecognizable)
arrives in the town of Limbo to investigate the cold-case
murder of a local Indigenous girl 20 years earlier. The
murder investigation moves slowly, since director Ivan Sen
is focusing more on the atmosphere (like any good noir).
Loaded with interesting characters who have little to lose,
this visually distinctive work is shot in striking monochrome
B&W and set in a rarely seen part of rural Australia - rocky,
dusty, foreboding – where people live in spaces carved out
of the earth. Sen handles the writing, cinematography,
editing, music and visual effects, which may account for
the uncanny unity of concept and execution. ~SM
*** Followed by in-person Q&A with the director Thursday screening only ***
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