My final count of films seen is
25 films, including some I didn't bother to review.
At
To Kill a King, one of the last films
to be screened, the theatre manager gave prizes away
to those who had seen the most films, asking people
to sit down after a certain number .. forty... fifty..
sixty.. There were still people standing after seventy!
The three people who were still standing after seventy
five scored themselves free cappucinos.
ON WATCHING FILMS
I can tell you that after the first week (I had
seen ten), I actually felt sick of films. Since
volunteers get a free pass I had a novel no-risk
experience. I simply woke up that day, looked at
the schedule and went to line up. The second week
I took a break and watched Night of the Comet,
the brainless apocalyptic film, which is surely
the anti-festival film. I just badly needed a break
from thinking at that point. The most number of
films I saw in one day was three, no more. It is
possible to see six films at the festival with the
right juggling of scheduling and if you don't mind
sitting on the fringes when you arrive late for
the next screening. I know if I saw more than four
I would probably lose track of which movie was which.
I only walked out of one film. 
I missed a few films that others said were quite
good despite my best efforts. The Korean crime thriller
Memories of Murder
apparently was good. Lots of people in lineup told
me that Wilbur Wants
to Die was hilarious. A
Boy's Life, a documentary about
an out of control boy who is on ridulin but becomes
an excellent student when taken out of his environment
was widely praised. I totally missed all of the
films that had been programmed as part of a dance
theme. I just wasn't interested. An Argentine film
Common Ground
was another one I kept on hearing about and couldn't
schedule. I was upset not to catch Uniform,
I didn't give it a thought until it had won the
Dragons and Tigers award for best new Asian
cinema. I also heard buzz about
Kamchatcka before it won
the Audience Favourite.
MY PICKS
My picks of the festival - from the films that I
did see - were Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi,
the boarding school drama Evil,
Gus Van Sant's school massacre film Elephant,
and the tense documentary about the Rio bus hijacking
Bus 174.
The undefinable ethnological feature (doc?) The
Story of the Weeping Camel also
deserves to be seen. It's unlike anything I've seen.
Also worth seeing was the Korean comedy Mutt
Boy, Errol Morris' interview documentary
with Robert McNamara The
Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the life of Robert
S. McNamara, the off-beat Thai romance
The Last Life in the
Universe, the near-future high definition
film All Tomorrow's
Parties, Takeshi Miike's nutty Gozu,
the entertaining documentary about the corporate
excess The Corporation,
the Cultural Revolution doc Morning
Sun and the sweet Iranian protest
allegory Abjad.
ON VOLUNTEERING
When you volunteer you don't just get the opportunity
to see a lot of films but you get to understand
the process of making a festival from behind the
scenes. Extremely interesting. You deal with the
problems and start seeing regular patrons who take
their vacations to coincide with the festival. There
are some rude ones but also some extremely friendly
people you go out of your way to help. I spent an
hour with a woman who was friends with Werner Herzog.
I also had to fend off a foul-smelling patron who
wanted to barge through the lineup.
You also start recognizing the faces of the people
who make it happen from the coordinators to the
major sponsors to the theatre managers who have
opened their venues to what is really a special
event. The VIFF has a handful of full-time employees
and some part-time who start to work on next year's
event almost immediately after the end of the current
one. These people line up sponsors and start finding
out which films are generating buzz in other festivals.
The major task for next year is the construction
of the Vancouver International Film Centre, which
will be the home of the festival next year.
One of the issues of the festival is an antiquated
and overly complicated ticket purchasing system
for advance tickets. Newcomers are astounded by
the extra steps they have to take to buy a ticket.
One of the reasons is that they are required to
join the film festival society. Essentially, the
film festival screenings are made to 'a private
club' so that the films do not have to be rated
beforehand. Indeed, many of the films wouldn't be
shown in B.C. otherwise.
I can't speak for other festivals but volunteering
was a rewarding experience. You get to meet a lot
of other people who love films and have the opportunity
to sit and watch films. If I happen to have a free
stretch this time next year I wouldn't hesitate
to volunteer again.
