2005 Film Festival

Planet in Focus is Canada’s most acclaimed International Environmental Film and Video festival. Our annual film fest showcases compelling documentaries, animation, dramatic features, shorts, and experimental works that celebrate, question, and establish varied ways of viewing the state of our world.

Planet in Focus’ 7th annual festival will be held November 1 to November 5, 2006 presenting films from across Canada and around the world. This year we are launching a new “Spotlight Programme,” beginning with “Toronto in the Moving Image from the Dawn of Cinema to the Present.”

Submit your film for Planet in Focus 2006. Earlybird Deadline: April 15. Final Date for submissions: June 1, 2006.

2005 Film & Video Choice Selections

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
Opening night (USA)

Director Taggart Siegel and Farmer John will be in attendance.

Directed award winning documentary films including Split Horn: The Life a Hmong Shaman In America, Blue Collar and Buddha, and Heart Broken in Half.

Canadian Premiere

A roller-coaster ride through the life of maverick farmer, John Peterson who presided over the near death of his family farm. Tracking the life of Farmer John interspersed with home movies of his childhood, Taggart Siegel takes us through the demise and transformation of a traditional American, Midwestern family farm through the eyes and words of playwright and farmer John Peterson. In a moment of crisis, John copes with depression, travels to Mexico and gets creative producing the play Ember Days on the contemporary farmers’ plight and yet he resurrects himself as an organic farmer. Throughout, he contends with slander, arson, a Sheriff’s investigation and allegations of murder and devil worship. You’re never sure what’s around the corner in this must see award winning doc! – R.S.

Taggart Siegel has produced many films including Destroying Angel, The Beloved and The Disenchanted Forest for National Geographic Television.

AWARDS FOR BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

San Francisco International Film Festival – Golden Gate Award
Newport International Film Festival – Grand Jury Award
Nashville Film Festival – Reel Current Award (selected by Al Gore)
Nashville Film Festival – Grand Jury Award
Chicago International Documentary Festival – Audience Award
Slamdance Film Festival – Audience Award
Wisconsin Film Festival – Audience Award
Wisconsin Film Festival – Grand Jury Award
Santa Cruz Film Festival - Director's Award
Inspiration Film Festival – Grand Jury Award
Inspiration Film Festival – Audience Award

Rio Arriba (Up Stream)
Ulises de la Orden, Argentina, documentary, 72 min., 2004
(Spanish with subtitles)

Canadian Premiere

A personal, reflective journey of history, self-discovery and recovery. Filmmaker Ulises de la Orden explores the economic, cultural political impact of European focused monoculture on the land and people of the Andean hillsides of Argentina. De la Orden grandfather was a manager at a sugar mill that hired Indigenous labourers. He begins by asking “what land and lifestyle did the labourers leave in order to work at the mill?” Travelling by plane, train, bus, foot and donkey upstream he searches for the answers. Truth and testimony survive atop the Andean steppes. The indigenous descendents of the original mill workers relate stories of land theft, forced labour and cultural loss. Beautifully shot and rhythmically edited with a reflective narrative that measures the loss of habitable, sustainable culture against the material gains of a colossal capital expansion. – M.S.L.

Ulises de la Orden earned a degree in Cinematography at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. The numerous projects that he has worked on include Seven Years in Tibet, Evita, Patagonian of British Descent, and Balnearios. Rio Arriba is Ulises’ first solo endeavour.

Birdpeople
Eduard Erne, Germany, documentary, 92 min., 2004
(German and French with subtitles)
Canadian Premiere

Over four years, twenty biologists, dropouts and adventurers raised the birds in Jacques Perrin Winged Migration. The Birdpeople became birdparents following and “raising” the migratory birds on their transcontinental journey’s. But this fascinating film is about human behaviour and the transformation of those who “imprinted” themselves on the birds. Birdpeople will make you wonder about the human environment the birds had to adjust to in the making of Winged Migration. Was it nature, art, or artifice? – C.T.P

Eduard Erne studied directing at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He has worked as an actor and director in Vienna and the TAT (Theater am Turm) alongside Elke Lang and Ulrich Waller. Erne has lived in Frankfurt am Main since 1985.

Travels by Tricycle
Wang Dongdong, China, documentary, 42 min., 2004
(Mandarin with subtitles)
Canadian Premiere

Travels by Tricycle is a charming and fabulist adventure borne out of love. 74-year-old Wang Yimin is cycling across China on a custom built tricycle trailer with his 98-year-old mother sitting in the back. She has yearned to see China, but never had the opportunity to leave her small apartment. Pedalling along busy highways, up steep dirt hillsides, through thick rain storms and into crowded markets he travels with a fortitude and emotional stamina that does not lapse. For over a year, Wang and his mother trek across their country in a simple tour motored by filial devotion. Modern, industrial China serves as the backdrop for a journey rooted in Confucian principles. – M.S.L

Wang Dongdong was born and raised in Harbin, China where he also started his filmmaking career at the Heilongjian Television Station, producing and directing numerous documentaries. He has received national acclaim for such films as GrowingUp, Xue Xia’s Three Days, Maliyasuo’s Winter, and The Happy Life of Miao Oing’s Family. He is currently working on his doctoral degree in Harbin Institute of Technology.

Heavy Metal
Neil Diamond & Jean-Pierre Maher, Canada, documentary, 48 min., 2004
(English with French subtitles)

In Northern Quebec, a major mining disaster has been secretly devastating the people and the environment for over forty years. Seeking community redress, Cree environmentalist Joseph Blacksmith and American geologist Chris Covel compile an environmental report, and attempt to put a stop to the lethal heavy metal pollution. Samples are collected from the areas in which the mines are operating as well as from people’s hair – extremely toxic levels of arsenic, cyanide and mercury are found. Blacksmith and Covel overcome hurdle after hurdle, to complete their report—we are there when the report is delivered to the Quebec National Assembly. And then, a terrible tragedy occurs – and a controversial deal is made. Vital, gritty and hard-hitting. – R.S

Neil Diamond has directed a number of powerful productions on the Cree - Cree Spoken Here, Indian Posse: Life in Aboriginal Gang Territory andDab Iyiyuu 2. He has also also written articles for the The Nation.

Jean-Pierre Maher has worked for 15 years in film production and was nominated for a Gemini award for the best series on youth for the Origins of Human Aggression : The True Story and La Paix des braves et Visages de la violence. Both Directors recently received the 2005 Rigoberta Menchu Prize for Heavy Metal.