Vancouver International Film Festival 2013!

And so it begins! My favourite time of year! It's the Vancouver International Film Festival, which kicked off last night at its new venues now that the main Granville Cinemas have shut down. This year, films will be shown at a bunch of different locations including International Village (Tinseltown), The Centre for Performing Arts, Pacific Cinematheque, Rio Theatre, Vancity Theatre, SFU Woodwards, and the Vancouver Playhouse!! Fun!!

I'll be spotlighting films over the next two weeks, and will focus primarily on VIFF posts!

Here's the first film I'd like to feature: My Prairie Home

"A true Canadian iconoclast, acclaimed transgender country/electro-pop artist Rae Spoon revisits the stretches of rural Alberta that once constituted “home” and confronts memories of growing up queer in an abusive, evangelical household. Part travelogue, part character study, Chelsea McMullan’s singular film unfolds in coffee shops, bus stations, bars and recreation centres, with her camera finding odd angles from which to examine these communities that have arisen in the middle of nowhere.

The vérité vignettes and emotional reminiscences frequently cede to fantastical performance sequences in which Spoon gives voice to an impeccably crafted, disarmingly confessional song cycle that represents the culmination of years of rumination and writing (and has been collected on the gorgeous My Prairie Home album released by Saved By Radio). For these reflective compositions, Spoon—who explored more electric avenues on the recent I Can’t Keep All of Our Secrets—fittingly returns to the country/folk influences found on earlier records.

Lyrical and alluring, McMullan’s documentary-musical hybrid calls into question our traditional definition of “home,” and celebrates the places in between, be they in music, geography or gender."

MY PRAIRIE HOME shows at the RIO THEATRE on September 29 (9:15pm) and Oct 1 (4pm)