Nature / Writing

Let's cut to the chase - I highly recommend the German film At Eye Level ( Auf Augenhöhe ) and it's only got one more screening at this year's TIFF Kids; tomorrow (Sunday April 9, 2017) at 3:30 pm. Suggested for ages 11-13 by TIFF Kids programmers, it's unfortunate that the marketers who put together the trailer and chose the visual look for its title screen seem to be trying to sell it as some kind of wacky family comedy: There's humour in it, certainly, but this is a lovely relationship film - not just in terms of the blossoming father and son relationship, but in the way it presents friendship as well. Mostly male friendships, which range from being strained within the confines of a group home for children to being thoughtful and compassionate, though still far from perfect, in the adult world. One of the most beautifully understated arcs is how young Michi (Luis Vorbach) changes how he relates to other kids, including his former roommate Justin (Marco L...

TRIO - The Hunt for the Holy Shrine is a high-quality adventure film that owes a lot to Indiana Jones. Recommended by TIFF programmers for ages 10-13, this subtitled Norwegian film follows four friends (I assume they started out as a trio in the Norwegian TV show of the same name, and the team gradually expanded) as they race to solve the mystery of Saint Olav's lost shrine before an internationally-known art thief and her henchmen get there first. Like most movies of this type, enjoying The Hunt for the Holy Shrine starts with a healthy suspension of disbelief. The biggest for me was that the tablet owned by Lars the techie is able to do absolutely anything he wants it to do (where do I get the helicopter flying app?). But it's all in good action/adventure fun, and it's worth forgoing realism for the sake of a good teen treasure hunt. The production values in this are high, making great use of a variety of locations. From sweeping shots of picturesque fishing v...

Thursday March 24, 2016 I've been busy pouring over the programming for TIFF Kids 2016, which starts on April 8. There are a ton of great-sounding new films I'm excited about seeing, but I'm also thrilled to see that Toronto families will get two more chances to see one of my favourite films from last year's festival. Paper Planes  is a 2014 Australian film directed by Robert Connolly and starring Ed Oxenbould as Dylan, an 11-year-old dealing not only with his mother's death, but with his father's debilitating grief. Discovering competitive paper plane flying gives Dylan somewhere to focus his energy and a way to to make new friends; which at first only drives he and his dad (Sam Worthington) further apart. I usually only take Steve to two or three TIFF Kids movies a year, so I always hope they'll turn out to be good ones. He came with me to Paper Planes  and we both thought it was a wonderful family film. I highly recommend checking it out this ...

Monday April 06, 2015 It is time. I love spring for the returning birds and the awakening trees and the influx of kid's movies at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Tomorrow I'll be diving into the TIFF Kids Film Festival with glee, starting with a full day of movies on Tuesday and industry programming from Wednesday to Friday. I'll try to pop in here to give you the scoop as much as I can, but really - if you're in Toronto and have kids (or work in kid's media) you really should make the migration to King Street for yourself: Check out the two-week slate of films and family activities at http://tiff.net/festivals/tiffkidsfestival15 Connect Online: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Wattpad | Goodreads | Google+

Sunday April 20, 2014 I was surprised yesterday when I heard that the Dutch film Regret! won the TIFF Kids Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film. I saw Regret! on the first weekend of TIFF Kids 2014, and it immediately became the first film I would name when people asked if I'd seen anything good. It's an incredibly well-made movie about bullying gone too far, with a nicely balanced script (adapted from a novel) and effortless performances from a cast of talented young actors. The Story David (Robin Boissevain) knows it isn't right that his mild and out-of-shape classmate Jochem (Stefan Collier) is the constant target of pranks and ridicule. But Sanne (Charlotte Bakker) and her small group of followers are unrelenting, even when David makes feeble attempts to intervene. David's crush Vera (Dorus Witte) does a better job of standing up for Jochem, but she becomes a target because of her friendship. With no help coming from a teacher (Dave Mantel) wh...

Sunday April 20, 2014 This is another place-holder post to recommend "Felix" from South Africa, which  won the TIFF Kids Festival Jury Award Ages 8-10   and so will get an additional screening tomorrow (Monday April 21) !  Of course I also recommend both of the other feature-length award winners that screen again on Monday, "Regret!" and " Side by Side ". Take your pick - you can't lose! Felix lives with his widowed mother and his two younger siblings in a lower-income community in South Africa. He dreams of being a jazz musician like his father, and his acceptance-with-scholarship to a private school seems set to offer new musical opportunities along with academic ones. But after losing her husband due to his hard-living musician's lifestyle, Felix's mother is distraught by her eldest son's dreams and makes Felix choose between exploring his talent and remaining part of the family. Felix  is a lively, energetic and colour...

Sunday April 20, 2014 This is a place-holder post, as I'm heading out to do family Easter things shortly, but I want to recommend "Side by Side" from the UK, which  won the TIFF Kids Festival Jury Award Ages 11-13   and so will get an additional screening tomorrow (Monday April 21) !  That said, I also recommend both of the other feature-length award winners which will screen on Monday, "Regret!" and "Felix". Take your pick - they're all great! "Side by Side" is about a brother and sister whose lives are in upheaval and set out on a quest together across the Scottish countryside. Unlike many sibling relationships in kids movies (which are often either antagonistic or buddy-buddy/ying-yang/perfect-partner-crime-solving-duo), "Side by Side" offers a fun and realistic look at siblings who can at once love and hate each other. They are both baffled by the choices their sibling makes, and yet offer each other the best c...

Thursday April 10, 2014 The 2013 film  Giraffada  is the story of a giraffe-obsessed boy and his veterinarian father, who spend their days caring for plants, animals, and each other while living in the occupied West Bank. Young Ziad (Ahmad Bayatra) doesn't fit in with other children, but he's lucky enough to have close contact with Rita and Brownie, the giraffes who live at the Qalqilya Zoo where his father Yacine (Saleh Bakri) is on staff. Yacine struggles to do what's best for his animal charges, constantly butting heads against a zoo manager who saves money by painting a donkey to look like a zebra, expecting bears to survive on carrots, and providing his vet with out-of-date medications. When a nearby attack leads to tragedy inside the zoo, Yacine has to promise Ziad a miracle that he's not sure he can deliver. With the help of a French photo-journalist and an Israeli zoo vet, they challenge checkpoints and risk everything to give Rita a reason to live. ...

Tuesday April 08, 2014 Directed by Julie Bertuccelli , School of Babel  ( La Cour de Babel ) is a 2013 observational documentary from France. It focuses on one year in teacher Brigitte Cervoni's "reception class" (" une classe d’accueil ") at La Grange-aux-Belles school in Paris. From www.lacourdebabel.com The reception class serves as a landing ground and safe haven for students who have arrived in France with a limited (or completely absent) understanding of the language. The students are anywhere from 11 to 15 years old, but far more striking than the age range are the differences in their lives before they arrived in their new home. They come from all over the world - Northern Ireland, England, Chile, Brazil, Mauritania, China, Serbia, the Ukraine, and elsewhere. There are refugees and asylum seekers, a boy whose family moved for economic reasons and a girl who was sent away by her mother to escape oppression and abuse from her father's side of ...

Monday April 07, 2014 Assuming I don't sleepily smash my alarm clock to little bits, I'll be out the door nice and early tomorrow to get to the TIFF Bell Lightbox for the first morning of the 2014 TIFF Kids International Film Festival. Formerly known as Sprockets, TIFF Kids offers screenings and events for children and young teens, plus industry events for the people who work, study, or are trying to break into the world of kids media. I attended the festival for the first time last year and was blown away by both the films and the sessions I attended - unfortunately my decision to register came at the last minute, so I didn't set aside time to prepare beforehand or blog after the fact . But this year my notebook and I are ready*, so expect a lot of posts about kids movies from around the world over the next two weeks. Got kids? Got a whole class of kids? Just like movies that are made for kids? Check out  http://tiff.net/festivals/tiffkidsfestival for this year...

Sunday April 21, 2013 I was hoping to blog about the TIFF Kids International Film Festival as it happened, but since the 2013 festival is in its final few hours as I write this, some post-festival wrap-up will have to suffice. The Feature Films During this year's festival, I managed to see seven of the feature films, and I enjoyed every one of them. They were all international productions and so will likely be hard to find again here in Canada, but if you do get the chance I would recommend any of them. I'll do write-ups on at least a few of them individually, but in the meantime here's a quick list, in the order of TIFF's recommended ages: Ages 6-8 Casper and Emma - Best Friends (Norway, 2012) || IMDB || YouTube Ages 8-10 Ernest and Celestine (France/Belgium/Luxembourg, 2011) || IMDB || YouTube Ages 8-12 The Diary of Summer (China, 2010) || YouTube Stepping on the Flying Grass (Indonesia, 2011) || IMDB || YouTube Ages 9-13 Eskil & Tr...

Monday April 15, 2013 I don't have time for a full post tonight, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I spent most of Sunday and Monday watching films at the TIFF Kids International Film Festival here in Toronto, and it's been fantastic! The festival continues until Sunday April 21, with the weekdays focused on school groups and the weekends for families (although public tickets are also available for many of the weekday screenings). If you're in the Toronto area and have kids aged 3-13 (or are just an adult with a particular interest in children's entertainment, like yours truly) and you HAVEN'T checked out the festival line-up, I highly recommend heading over to tiff.net/tiffkids to see what's on offer. I will post more about the films I've seen as soon as I can, but in the meantime, here's the TIFF Kids 2013 trailer to whet your appetite (you can also check out the many related videos, including individual movie trailers, on the TIFF ...