VIFF 2003 – Volume 3

I had another great few shifts driving for the Vancouver International Film Festival. On Saturday morning I drove a dishevelled, party weary, Michael Cowan, the golden boy brit producer extraordinaire, back to the airport to fly out to London. We yacked a good deal and he told me to send him any scripts I finish. After that I picked up Rachel Rosen from the airport. Ms Rosen is one of the programmers for the LA Film Festival (which I may go to). On Sunday I picked up David Gordon Green the writer / director of All the Real Girls, featured at the Sundance Film Festival this past year. On Sunday afternoon I drove Bill Siegel the producer / director of The Weather Underground. We talked at length about Michael Moore, his antics at the Oscars and documentary film. I’m learning tons and do not regret spending a few hours of my life doing this.

The icing on the cake that was my weekend at VIFF was Carol and I seeing co-written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald (seen at left in a photo I took last night as he was introducing his film), the director I drove from the airport on Wednesday.

John Cooper, a reviewer from Sundance said the following:

The terrific ensemble cast of indie veterans in The Event work in sync to maximize the impact of this highly moving film. Director Thom Fitzgerald is firmly at the helm, guiding an intricate, interwoven patchwork of relationships, friendships, and family ties that unfolds with sharp insight and dramatic flair.

The Event is driven both emotionally and politically by two opposing truths. Truth No. 1: Matt wants to die; his AIDS cocktail no longer works, his health is failing fast, and he wants to leave this earth with his friends and family around him. Truth No. 2: Choosing to die is illegal; Nick, a district attorney investigating the most recent series of unexplained deaths in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, is pushing hard to get to the bottom of the apparent suicides.

As with Nick’s investigation, The Event raises as many questions as it answers. What is the responsibility of those left behind when a terminally ill person takes his or her own life? What good are laws and bureaucracy that don’t serve us? Fitzgerald’s response is to lay it bare and let all the voices be heard, leaving us to find it in the anger and discover it in the tears. The Event works on all levels, but none greater than the depth of emotion this beautifully rendered piece evokes about a man and the people who love him enough to help him die.

What a moving film and happily, one of the better ones that I’ve seen. It was an interesting experience being only 4 rows away from a film’s director during it’s showing. What an odd feeling that must be for him to see a crowd reacting to your work.

After the film the witty, but obviously shy Mr Fitzgerald took questions from the audience. He first mentioned the category 1 hurricane in Halifax, how the power was out there and that his car had been squished under a fallen tree. He was very candid about his choices in the writing, directing and casting of “The Event“. I’m glad I stayed out waaaaaay to late to do this. What a gas.