Volume 13, Issue 10 / October 2009

International Festivals

For this relatively mixed bag issue Offscreen does bring together three festival reports from across the globe, Telluride, Leeds, and Hong Kong. First time writer Kate Rennebohm isn’t the first person to be smitten by the particular charms of the Telluride Festival (check out Ryan Diduck’s report from 2005). Along with realizing she desperately wants to go back at some time, Rennebohm does a great job of capturing the festival’s environment and then ferreting out the works that touched her most (Bright Star, The Road, Red Riding). Philip Gillett has been covering the Leeds International Film Festival for Offscreen for quite some time now, and returns with his report on edition number 23. This experience allows Gillett to chart the festival’s subtle changes and how it continues to evolve over the years. Of special note for local Offscreen readers is the presence of two Canadian films that played at Leeds this year, one being from Quebec (West of Pluto, Henry Bernadet and Myriam Verreault, 2008). Along with Leeds, another festival which Offscreen has been fortunate to cover regularly is The Hong Kong International Film Festival, thanks to Hong Kong veteran Peter Rist. This year Rist concentrates on the celebrations surrounding the 100 Years of Hong Kong Cinema (which started at Cannes, 2009). Rist was in attendance for the public seminar, “The Controversial Centenary of Hong Kong Cinema,” and gives a detailed account of the proceedings. The final two pieces are studies of singular films and carry-overs of recent special issues, on the DVD company Severin Films, and our special Lynch Issue of last month. The first reviews Severin’s Films’ DVD release of Lucio Fulci’s last film, Door to Silence, and the final essay continues last month’s Lynch focus with a close textual analysis of Blue Velvet by another first time Offscreen writer, Stephanie Lam. (Donato Totaro, ed.)