Summer is spent and BIFS kicks off its new fall season with “Cooking with Stella”, a comedy set in exotic New Delhi, India. Newcomers Maya and Michael arrive to join the Canadian Embassy and inherit an expert cook, Stella, who has served many predecessors. The comedy issues from Stella’s wily strategies for lining her pockets with domestic graft. A mutual love of food comes to bond her with her new charges even as her schemes teeter on the brink of exposure. Lots of fun in this fully-cooked tale directed by Dilip Mehta and written by him and his renowned filmmaker sister, Deepa (“Water”, “Heaven on Earth”). Important note: this screening is on Sat. Oct. 2, a break from our usual “last-Saturday-of the-month” practice.
Oct 30 marks the arrival of “Last Train Home”. A work both epic and intimate in scope, it documents the spring tidal wave of millions of migrant factory workers returning home for the Chinese New Year. Grounded in the lives of the Zhang family, “Last Train Home” portrays a changing nation discarding its traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance. Breathtaking in scale and beautifully crafted, the film has earned numerous prizes as well as being nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Festival.
November brings an eco-extravaganza evening which includes the premiere of “Almost Green”, a comedy set on Bowen Island starring James Glave, resident writer and dedicated, if oft-thwarted, “Greenie”. Witty, ironic and charged with closely-observed Bowen idiosyncrasies, “Almost Green” is nearly golden.The evening will continue with “The Clean Bin Project” which turns on a competition between environmentalists Jenny Rustemeyer and Grant Baldwin. In a year long challenge, the couple battles to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the least landfill garbage. Their light-hearted rivalry is set against a keen examination of the large-scale environmental impacts of our “throw-away society”.
BIFS is pleased to welcome the makers of both films who will take questions and doubtless spark lively discussion.
