Natalia Evdokimova
Natalia Evdokimova“A camera is a megaphone through which you can express yourself,” says Sophie Dab, TVMcGill’s vice-president external, on why it is important to celebrate amateur filmmaking. The Fokus Film Festival, an annual event held by TVMcGill since 2006, has grown from humble beginnings to a legitimate film festival. Taking place at Cinema du Parc on Wednesday, the festival is sure to impress even the seasoned film critic with the 29 student submissions in five different categories. Here are three movies that offer a sense of what is to be expected from this year’s festival.
The Adventures of Bruno Unemployed Superbear / Mark James (Animation)
With soft jazz playing in the background, The Adventures is a short animation starring Bruno, a bear in need of employment. Inspiration strikes Bruno in the form of an apple, and the Unemployed Superbear realizes a peculiar theme with Apple products. Presented in the fashion of private detective movies, this film highlights society’s obsession with Apple products and conversely, Apple’s fascination with the letter “i.” Less than a minute long, The Adventures of Bruno Unemployed Superbear innovatively forces the audience to reconsider our dependence on Apple and the “i” movement.
Friday, 9pm / David Zangwill and Micah Dubinsky (Fiction)
On Friday night, around 9 pm, a woman in a swanky black dress visits her bathroom in the hopes of getting ready for a night on the town. Instead, she ends up mediating on what makeup does to the face and to her larger identity. Marie Minio’s voiceover shows her thought process changing from simple, frivolous analysis to deeper scrutiny, which she cannot easily suppress. As the film continues, Minio’s inability to cope with her epiphany about her crumbling sense of self makes for a striking shot. She stands in front of her bathroom sink with two opposing mirrors showing two radically different sides of her face and her identity: one beautifully constructed and made-up and the other deconstructed with pink lipstick freely applied to the cheek. Overall, Friday, 9pm is a profound social commentary on the notion of covering our faces with makeup.
XTC / Daphnee Vasseur
(Experimental)
Recounting the story of a bad ecstasy trip, the narrator takes the audience on a journey of what not to do while taking the drug. First, it would be wise to avoid blind dates. Second, consume water, not wine, since the latter will result in a “baptism” of appetizers on said unwanted blind date. Third and generally speaking, it would be best to steer clear from ecstasy while in a pessimistic mood about the world. Beautifully edited, XTC portrays the narrator’s discernible inadequacy through a series of images ranging from newspapers to photographs to negatives and yearbooks. Coinciding perfectly with these images, the narrator’s voiceover travels as quickly as the images. XTC provides an excellent example of an experimental movie that successfully tells a story while conveying a subtle moral lesson.
