VTIFF Program-Guide 2023 - Flipbook - Page 25
FILMS A TO Z
TOTEM
THE TUBA THIEVES
Directed by Lila Aviles
Mexico/Denmark/France | 2023 | Fiction | 95 min | Spanish
w/subtitles
Directed by Alison O’Daniel
USA | 2023 | Documentary | 91 min | English
UMBERTO ECO: A LIBRARY OF THE
WORLD (UMBERTO ECO: LA BIBLIOTECA
DEL MONDO)
Film Source: Filmmakers Collaborative
Sponsored by: Main Street Landing
Directed by David Ferrario
Italy | 2023 | Documentary | 80 min | Italian w/subtitles
SHOWTIMES
SATURDAY, OCT 21 | 1:15 PM | FH
Film Source: Cinema Guild
Sponsored by: Phoenix Books
Taking a surprising string of tuba thefts at high schools
across California as its jumping-off point, The Tuba Thieves
embarks on an inventive and engaging cinematic
rumination on sound, deafness, and visual language. Open
captions are present throughout, translating language,
both spoken and signed, and decoding the soundscape
with deft, evocative descriptions. Urban noise, the crackle
of wildfires, and the hum of machinery are just as central to
the film’s ambient palette as character and story. There is
the felt sense that The Tuba Thieves is aiming to break
through cinema’s sound barrier. ~TW
“A complex, enigmatic look at the impact of sound on
day-to-day life and what happens when it’s removed from
the picture — the theft, in essence, happens within the
language of the movie itself. ~ Eric Kohn, Indiewire
SHOWTIMES
THURSDAY, OCT 26 | 2:15 PM | BB
Film Source: Sideshow
Sponsored by: Ducky & Frank Donath
SHOWTIMES
SUNDAY, OCT 22 | 12:30 PM | BB
Winner, Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2023 Berlin International
Film Festival
Mexican director Lila Avilés’ marvelous second feature
unfolds over a single day, as a large extended family throws
a raucous, lavish birthday party for one of its own. But seen
through the eyes of 8-year-old Sol (sensational newcomer
Naima Senties), the joys, smiles and hugs of the party
mask a deeper sorrow. Despite a large cast, Aviles draws
each character in exquisite, compassionate detail, from
the boozing sister to the pained father, frequently finding
their loneliness within the crowd. The film’s golden glow,
the layered family dynamics, and perfectly calibrated
performances create a luminous portrait of a loving family
poised on the edge of grief. It’s the kind of brilliantly
observed film in which a pause before blowing out birthday
candles carries the immense emotional weight of
revelation. - SM
Note: *Everyone in the audience will have the opportunity
to hold a latex balloon during the screening. This technique
is a throwback to the tradition of Deaf moviegoers who
would gather in Deaf clubs in the 1950s and 60s and hold
balloons while watching films together. The latex
membrane of the balloon is another form of access – a
second speaker – for the audience to feel the soundtrack.
Sound waves travel through the air into the surface of the
balloon, enabling the audience to access a huge range of
vibrations, from the tiny sensitive sounds to deeper
sub-bass frequencies.
This stimulating documentary presents the biography of a
man, the books he inhabited, and the books that inhabited
him. Author, semiologist, lover of language, literature, and
lying, Umberto Eco was a bibliophile in the truest sense of
the word, and David Ferrario’s film does justice to those
dangerously dated passions. The camera pores over
yellowed pages, cracked spines, walls and walls of books
from libraries the world over, giving substance to the
labyrinthine connections of Eco’s mind. In addition to
being the story of a man and his erudition, Ferrario’s
documentary is a cautionary tale about the loss of history
and truth in an endlessly prolific digital library. All
demagoguery starts with a lie. What happens when truth
becomes incommunicable? ~TW
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