Tag: window horses

Art + Culture

Art/Film: VIFF

It’s that time of the year again….

Sandra Oh & Ann Marie Fleming
Sandra Oh & Ann Marie Fleming  – as it turned out needn’t have worried

On the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival which ended yesterday is the 35th Vancouver International Film Festival which starts on September 29th to October 14th.  I just picked up the festival guide and I can’t wait to see a ton of films of which I will report back to you my favourites.

In the meantime I want to give a SHOUT OUT to my friend Ann Marie Fleming who’s full length animated movie Window Horses (which I previously blogged about) premiered at TIFF to rave reviews.

This is a beautifully narrated and colourfully animated story of a young girl’s journey employing poetry, music and illustrations to celebrate the value of self-discovery.  After being invited to a poetry festival in Shiraz, Iran, by a mysterious figure, Rosie Ming faces challenges that ultimately lead to her self-realization. The film’s superb voice cast includes festival veterans Sandra Oh, Don McKellar and Ellen Page.

From CTV News:

“The reason why I wanted to do this film and why I moved it to Iran and why I think it’s important to do now is I wanted to make a gesture of understanding, compassion and intolerance in this world of increasingly dark images and xenophobia and fear,” says Fleming.

“This is not a political film in any way, but the gesture is political. I just wanted to make some lightness, to be able to see people for what we have in common and how poetry — poetry! — is actually the glue that’s put us all together through all these millennia.”

The Canadian Press recently spoke with Fleming about the film, which she wrote, directed and produced (in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada). It’s slated to hit theatres in spring 2017.

You can VOTE for this film for MUST-SEE BC Movies (until September 29th) and help support Canadian Art at:

http://mustseebc.viff.org/

 

 

 

 

 

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Art + Culture, Girl Who Would be King

ART/Culture/FILM – Window Horses

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” – Edgar Allan Poe

Everyone knows that Poe is a Poet but we all have different viewpoints of another person’s image.  That is called perception. What happens when someone doesn’t fit into the “usual” image we form for something they represent?windowhorses7

What is Window Horses?

Window Horses is a new Animated, Multi-Cultural, Unusual, Smart Feature Film with a Message. I find it inspiring. It is written, directed and produced by someone I know, Ann Marie Fleming, who has been making award winning films for over 25 years. Because she is such an unusual & inspiring person herself I knew that at the very least it would be interesting and worth checking out.  So….

windowhorses2

Rosie Ming is a mixed-race, 20-something, introverted, closet poet who dreams of going to Paris.  She doesn’t know a thing about her parents.  Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy, Sideways, Under the Tuscan Sun, etc…) is Rosie. Her work is about transformation!

Taken from the Website:

This film is our small effort to try and add a little more peace, love and understanding to our increasingly complex and conflicted world through art, poetry, history and culture. Heady stuff!

Not to give too much away but….

It’s about love (it’s always about love…) – love of family, poetry, history, culture. Here’s the story: Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather be in Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all who tell her stories that force her to confront her past; the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her and the nature of Poetry itself. It’s about building bridges between cultural and generational divides. It’s about being curious. Staying open. And finding your own voice through the magic of poetry.

Rosie goes on an unwitting journey of forgiveness, reconciliation, and perhaps above all, understanding, through learning about her father’s past, her own cultural identity, and her responsibility to it.

WATCH the Trailer:

“Window Horses hits all the things that are important to me: it’s pro-girl, pro-tolerance, pro-diversity and PRO-ART!! My nieces are mixed race and it’s very important to me that they see themselves represented in this society.” – Sandra Oh

Heady Stuff Indeed!

Window Horses will be playing during  VIFF (September 29 – October 14, 2016).  For program & tickets please visit:

https://www.viff.org