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VIFF 2015: Add four more good films to the list

Dan Webster

Above: "Accused" is a Dutch-made film based on a real story.

So, day two of this short — it ends tomorrow — trek to the 34th Vancouver International Film Festival was more successful than day one. Which is saying something because a 50 percent success rate is always something to be envied.

Today's, though, was far better. In fact, I like pretty much all four films we saw. And I might even have liked the fifth, which we planned on seeing, but the festival managers could never get the subtitles to read correctly — and our French is nowhere near good enough to make sense of characters speaking Quebecois.

But that left four films, which were as follows:

"3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets": With all the recent gun violence in the U.S., this documentary proved to be particularly relevant. It involves a 2012 case in Florida in which four black teenagers got into an argument with a middle-age white guy at a gas station. The white guy pulled out a pistol and put 10 rounds into the kids' car, even though they were — witnesseses and police testified — unarmed. One of the boys died. Following the George Zimmerman case, the shooter cited Florida's "Stand Your Ground" statute. And the movie, which depends on good access to the whole judicial proceeding, uses that statute as the basis for its exploration of current U.S. law.

"Embrace of the Serpent": Based on two actual Amazon expeditions, this narrative study focuses on a white explorer in 1909 and a second white explorer who follows in his footsteps some 40 years later. Shot in black-and-white, which gives the whole project a newsreel feel, the film deals with a range of issues: rape of the Amazon, disruption of indigenious tribal life, the effects of missionary work, culture clash and individual ambition played out against scientific investigation. The film may be a bit less successful than it intends, but it is an intriguing effort.

"600 Miles": News of violence below the border hits the headlines on a regular basis. This narrative film takes us into the front lines, keying on a young Mexican man who thinks he has what it takes to be part of the cartel trade. But when he runs into a U.S. ATF agent (played by Tim Roth, who also executive-produced), he discovers that the world is a far more dangerous place than he ever imagined. Scenes of almost glacial slowness are disrupted by sudden and imposing violence. And the ultimate effect is as wrenching as a punch to the gut.

"Accused": Based on a real case, this narrative study tells the story of a woman — a nurse with a complicated emotional makeup — who gets accused of murdering a baby under her care. Then from that case, the woman is accused of several more similar murders, and eventually she is sentenced to life in prison. The film is a powerful study of the unjustly accused woman, and her struggle to overturn her conviction, and an indictment of what we've come to think of as the progressive legal system of The Netherlands.  

That makes eight films in two days, six of which I would recommend to most anyone — but mostly to fans who share our desire not just to see good cinema but to spend days on end watching those glorious images dancing across the big screen.

VIFF 2015 still has a week to run. And not a single showing that we attended was sold out completely. So my suggestion would be, take a few days, drive to this beautiful city and take in some movies.

You just might see something life-changing.