VIFF 2009 - Part two: Docs to watch

In part one, I recommeded five films to be on the lookout for and to recap, they were An Education, The Eclipse, Mid-August Lunch, I Remember and Cooking with Stella.

Now, in Part two, its the docs turn. Five non-fiction films that range in topics from Porgy and Bess to cooking to looking at various aspects of aging.

The first documentary I want to recommned is Porgy and Me: In the World of Porgy and Bess. In the (white) world of opera, Gershwin's alternately celebrated and controversial opera Porgy and Bess is one of the very few works that takes people of colour as its subject. Susanna Boehm's stirring documentary follows the cast of the New York Harlem Theatre Company on their European tour of Gershwin's work.

To view more information about the film, go here:

http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=2989

The second film I like to recommend is Cooking History, a film that inventively uses the field kitchen as a prism through which to view 20th century European history.

To view more information on the film, go here:

http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=3721

Number three is The State of Old, a package of films that addresses various aspects of aging in sensitive, revealing and heartwarmingly positive ways.

To view more information on the film, go here: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/Title/SSrg/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/Title/SS

Pelleas & Mellisinde (http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/2986) comes in at number four as a doc to watch. Since 1902, Claude Debussy's setting of Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist drama Pelléas and Mélisande has divided critics and audiences, but if its enigmatic drama and the hypnotic sound of its world have never really entered the mainstream, its influence on later music has been incalculable and its fans quasi-religious in their devotion. This film depicts the first Russian production of this notoriously demanding opera and also blends in rehearsal footage and interviews.

The final doc that must be watched at VIFF 09 is Argippo Resurrected (http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/4705). Antonio Vivaldi's lost opera Argippo was originally composed for a Prague debut in 1730. Lost for centuries, the opera's score was discovered by young Czech conductor Ondrej Macek.

The 2009 Vancouver International Film starts October 1 and runs until October 16. Hope you go and enjoy all 10 films that I have recommended.