TIFF BELL Lightbox Jun 23 - Jul 7

PROGRAMMING AT TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX

June 23 – July 7, 2011

TIFF CINEMATHEQUE

June 23 to June 25: The New Auteurs: João Pedro Rodrigues’ Outlaws of Desire

For its third installment (running June 23 to June 25), The New Auteurs presents provocative Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues, whose films explore the complex nature of human desire and sexuality. Screenings include Rodrigues‘ bold feature debut O Fantasma (Phantom, 2000), a portrait of a young, sexy garbage man whose unrequited fixation results in a shocking metamorphosis; Rodrigues‘ most critically-acclaimed film to date, To Die Like a Man (Morrer como um homem, 2009), which radically upends the drag queen genre with its compassionate, mystical tale of a transsexual torn between genders; and Two Drifters (2005), an unlikely love triangle between a recently deceased gay man, his bereft lover and an eccentric, roller-skating supermarket price checker.

João Pedro Rodrigues and long time collaborator João Rui Guerra da Mata will be in attendance to introduce their films.

O Fantasma (Phantom)
Preceded by Parabens! (Happy Birthday)
Thursday, June 23 at 6:30 p.m.

To Die Like a Man

Friday, June 24 at 8:45 p.m.

Two Drifters

Preceded by China, China

Saturday, June 25 at 5 p.m.

Carte Blanche:

Tod Browning’s silent film, The Unholy Three (1925)

Saturday, June 25 at 8 p.m.

July 1 to August 7: Raj Kapoor & The Golden Age of Indian Cinema
One of the giants of Indian cinema, actor, director, mogul and legend Raj Kapoor is synonymous with the rise of Bollywood. The highly influential Kapoor is revered throughout India, the former Soviet world, the Middle East and beyond for the films he made during the Golden Age of Indian cinema. Running from July 1 to August 7, TIFF presents the first major Kapoor retrospective in North America in nearly three decades – featuring a number of newly struck 35mm prints – and an exciting new installation from acclaimed filmmaker Srinivas Krishna.

Films include Kapoor’s directorial debut, Aag (Fire) (1949); his first megahit Barsaat (Monsoon) (1949); one of the most famous Indian films ever made, Awaara (The Vagabond) (1961); record breaking Sangam (1964); and the charming Bobby (1973), which was a major hit with young urban audiences. To help contextualize Kapoor’s work, the retrospective also includes key films from the Golden Age era and beyond, including Bimal Roy’s ghost story – Madhumati (1958) – Guru Dutt’s celebrated tragedy – Pyaasa (1957) and Mehboob Khan’s Andaz (1949) and the legendary Mother India (1957), considered by many to be the most important Indian film ever made.

Films screening between July 1 – 7 include:

Barsaat (Monsoon)
Friday, July 1 at 12:30 p.m.

Shakespeare Wallah
Saturday, July 2 at 8:30 p.m.

Sangam
Sunday, July 3 at 12:30 p.m.

*There will be a 15-minute intermission approximately two hours into the film.

Mother India
Sunday, July 3 at 5:30 p.m. 

Boot Polish
Monday, July 4 at 6:30 p.m.

Kal Aaj Aur Kal (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow)
Tuesday, July 5 at 9 p.m.

Aag (Fire)
Wednesday, July 6 at 6 p.m.

Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai (Where the Ganges Flows)
Thursday, July 7 at 6 p.m.

EXHIBITIONS

Running until July 3: Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

The inaugural exhibition in TIFF’s Canadian Film Gallery, Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star, chronicles the life and career of one of the first and greatest stars of the silent cinema. Amassed over a 30-year period by private collector Rob Brooks, this exhibition draws on his extraordinary collection of 1,900 items, including photographs, posters, memorabilia, postcards, and products endorsed by Pickford. The exhibition is curated by Sylvia Frank, Director of TIFF’s Film Reference Library and Special Collections.

June 10 to August 14: My Name is Raj

My Name is Raj, TIFF’s first co-commission with Luminato, celebrates Indian Film Pioneer Raj Kapoor.  Drawing on Kapoor’s tendency to play himself in his films, the participatory installation by filmmaker and artist Srinivas Krishna puts viewers in the action, using some of Kapoor’s iconic scenes, a photo studio, and a loop of film clips. A photo wall of these portraits leads the viewer to a loop of clips from Kapoor’s films in which Krishna manipulates the actor-director’s image, even taking his place on screen. Viewers then enter a photo studio where their portraits are taken in the guise of Kapoor’s characters and inserted into his cinematic worlds on monitors—a fantasizing reinvention of identity that takes us to the heart of Kapoor’s art and its hold on Indian audiences. The installation will run in the atrium of the TIFF Bell Lightbox from June 10 to August 14, also coinciding with TIFF’s Raj Kapoor: the Golden Age of Indian Cinema retrospective July 1 to August 7.

June 30 to September 18: Fellini: Spectacular Obsessions
Our new exhibition in TIFF Bell Lightbox’s HSBC Gallery spotlights the extraordinary world of the great Italian director Federico Fellini, whose name has become synonymous with decadence, glamour and excess. Comprised of over four hundred works that explore the obsessions that recur throughout his films and life, Fellini: Spectacular Obsessions places this singular artist within the context of the mass media, celebrity culture—and the rise of the paparazzi! The exhibition is divided into several thematic sections that address the many facets of Fellini’s life and work, including Fellini and His Double; Grotesques; The Book of Dreams; The Trevi Fountain: Making a Myth; and I paparazzi / I, Paparazzo.

NEW RELEASES

Every week, TIFF will launch exclusive engagements, giving audiences multiple opportunities to watch the best of international and Canadian cinema’s past and present on the big screen. Regular $12.00/Students $9.50/Seniors $9.50. Schedules and tickets available online every Wednesday. See tiff.net or check local listings for show times.

Release Date: June 17, 2011

The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick, 2011, USA

Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival—only the fifth American film in two decades to claim the coveted prize—Terrence Malick’s philosophical epic has already become the cinematic event of the year. Incorporating Malick’s trademark pastoral palette with spectacular sequences of cosmic creation and destruction (courtesy of 2001 special-effects wizard Douglas Trumbull), The Tree of Life is a visual poem that addresses some of the fundamental questions of human existence. In Waco, Texas in the 1950s, Brad Pitt is a stern patriarch trying to teach his three boys the ways of the world while clashing with the gentler philosophy of his wife (Jessica Chastain); decades later, Sean Penn plays one of the sons, now a lost soul adrift in a glass-and-steel world, searching for the past in his present. Endowing each moment, from the smallest (the tiny foot of a newborn baby) to the largest (the dawn and demise of the dinosaurs), with breathtaking beauty and majestic scope, Malick has made one of the great American films of the new century.

Release date: Thursday, June 30, 2011

Armadillo

Janus Metz, 2010, Denmark

Armadillo took audiences by surprise at this year’s Cannes Film Festival when it became the first documentary to screen in the Critic’s Week competition, then took the top prize in that section. The film follows Danish soldiers fighting the Taliban in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.

Special PresentationS and Film Series

June 11 to August 20: Family Classics

TIFF’s new, ongoing series of Family Classics Saturday matinees kicks presents films from the Disney vault. From charming musical fantasies to grand adventures on the high seas and powerful sagas of the wilderness, these enchanting films continue to delight audiences of all ages.

Newsies Kenny Ortega
Saturday, June 25 at 2 p.m.

Whale Rider Niki Caro
Saturday, July 2 at 2 p.m.

June 11 to August 20: The Best of Midnight Madness
Our new, recurring series of late-night cult movies kicks off with a selection of audience favourites from the first 20 years of the Festival’s Midnight Madness programme. Brain-eating slugs, cowboy mummies, S&M assassins and rock ‘n’ roll zombies – why bother spending your summer outside?

Man Bites Dog Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoit Poelvoorde
Saturday, June 25 at 11 p.m.

Opera Dario Argento
Saturday, July 2 at 11 p.m.

June 12 to August 30: Hollywood Classics: Montgomery Clift

TIFF Cinematheque‘s year-round series continues from June 12 to August 30 with a summer-long retrospective on Montgomery Clift, the tormented, vulnerable and unique star of 1950s American cinema.

The Search Fred Zinnemann
Tuesday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Wild River Elia Kazan
Sunday, July 3 at 1 p.m.
Tuesday, July 5 at 6:30 p.m.

June 23 to June 25:  In Conversation With… João Pedro Rodrigues

The provocative Portuguese filmmaker – and subject of this season’s retrospective in our series The New Auteurs – joins us with his longtime collaborator João Rui Guerra da Mata to introduce the screenings of each of his films, as well as his Carte Blanche selection, the classic Lon Chaney chiller The Unholy Three.

June 30 to August 26: Fellini / Felliniesque: “Dream” Double Bills

Curated by Noah Cowan, it features contributions from filmmakers, critics and programmers who have each chosen a double bill that pairs a Fellini film with another film that is inspired by, rhymes with or contrasts with the Maestro’s unique vision. Some of the fascinating duos include Fellini’s La Strada (1954) with Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table (1990), paired by American author and filmmaker Miranda July; Fellini’s La Strada (1954) with Charles Chaplin’s Limelight (1952), paired by renowned actress, author and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini; Fellini’s 8½ (1963) with Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Beware of a Holy Whore (1971), paired by celebrated Armenian-Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan; and Fellini’s Roma (1972) with Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), paired by Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul;

June 24 at 6 p.m.: Québec Gold
Prends ça court! Presents Québec Gold 10, a selection of the most celebrated Québécois shorts from the past year.

Les fleurs de l’âge (Little Flowers)
Vincent Biron, 2010, 18 min.

La tranchée (The Trenches)
Claude Cloutier, 2010, 7 min.

Le cirque (The Circus)
Nicolas Brault, 2010, 7 min.

Les journaux de Lipsett (Lipsett Diaries)
Theodore Ushev, 2010, 14 min.

Sophie Lavoie
Anne Emond, 2010, 9 min.

Les Poissons (Fishes)
Jean Malek, 2010, 5 min.

Mokhtar
Halima Ouardiri, 2010, 15 min.

Jonathan et Gabrielle
Louis-Philippe Eno, 2010, 10 min.

M’ouvrir (Opening Up)
Albéric Aurtenèche, 2009, 19 min. 

July 1: Canada Day at TIFF Bell Lightbox
TIFF offers a full day of FREE programming that explores Canada’s rich cinematic heritage.

Mary Pickford, The Muse of the Movies Nicholas Eliopoulos
Friday, July 1 at 11 a.m.

Classic Canadian Shorts
Friday, July 1 at 1:30 p.m.

C.R.A.Z.Y. Jean-Marc Vallée
Friday, July 1 at 4 p.m.

Voulez-vous coucher avec God? Jack Christie & Michael Hirsh
Friday, July 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Black Christmas Bob Clark
Friday, July 1 at 9:30 p.m.

July 6 to August 31: TIFF in the Park Classic Musicals
Every Wednesday at sunset beginning in July, TIFF and the Toronto Entertainment District BIA present FREE outdoor screenings of classic screen musicals at David Pecaut Square (formerly Metro Square, next to Roy Thomson Hall). In addition to such family favourites as The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and The Wizard of Oz, we are also proud to offer a peek at TIFF Bell Lightbox’s epic Raj Kapoor retrospective with a screening of his classic film Jagte Raho. Screenings start at 9 p.m. in July and 8:30 p.m. in August.

July 6: The Wizard of Oz
The beloved fantasy about a young girl’s journey through a strange world, accompanied by some very special friends.

LEARNING AND WORKSHOPS

Summer Camps at TIFF Bell Lightbox
Don’t just watch movies, start making them! Sign up for one of our fun-filled two-week camps to learn what goes on behind the scenes, and then become a part of the process yourself! Supported by The Slaight Family Learning Fund.

Film Fun 101
A summer camp adventure for young minds fascinated by film! Campers will have a chance to create live action, animation and documentary film projects, learn the secrets of filmmaking from special guests and participate in games and field trips.
Session 1: July 4 – July 15 (ages 8-10)
Session 2: July 4 – July 15 (ages 11-13)
All workshops run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.