Whistler Film Festival Opens Tonight!

At the time of this posting, it appears that there are still tickets available to most films playing at the upcoming Whistler Film Festival. Although it's not on the original Film Fest Connect film fest destination list, Whistler is an excellent skiing destination, so you can hit twice as many great venues in the same tourist space.

You can see all of the film information at the festival's Films+Events Film Guide page. Here are a few trailers to get you started:

Two Frogs In The West
The closing night gala film, set in Whistler itself, is an emotional whirlwind, if the trailer is any indication:



The Bang Bang Club
A poor-quality trailer, but potentially an important, if disturbing, movie. An inside view of conflict-zone photographers based on the book of the same name, it chronicles the lives of several white South African photographers and the personal impacts of their quest for the perfect shot in the midst of South Africa's often violent transition from apartheid to democracy. (Joe Utichi wrote a piece on the film for Rotten Tomatoes when it played at Cannes, last May.)


Blue Valentine
Selling well across both the domestic and international festival circuit, Ryan Gosling's and Michelle Williams' portrayal of their idyllic love and dissolving marriage first gained traction at the Sundance Film Festival, where it sold out theaters, last January. Check out the movie's web site for the trailer: http://www.bluevalentinemovie.com/
The official site is spare, but the Facebook page is filled with recent news.

Matthew Thrift of Cinephile offered this review:
"This stunning portrait of a disintegrating relationship features career best performances from its two leads, which alongside Derek Cianfrance’s bravura direction serve to make Blue Valentine the strongest contender for the best film I’ve seen at the London Film Festival so far. Recalling Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage (1973) in its juxtaposition of couple Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy‘s (Michelle Williams) courtship and marital breakdown, it’s an emotionally devastating picture full of wit, passion and heartbreak."
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Hævnen (In A Better World)
Denmark’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award®.

Here's a brief description from the Whistler Film Fest:
"The latest drama from Academy Award nominated director Susanne Bier (After The Wedding, Brothers) centres on Anton, a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark and his work at an African refugee camp. Within these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness."