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Bill Brownstein wrote a great article on Birthday Girl for the Montreal Gazette two weeks ago. He called the film “stylish, decidedly satirical and playfully subversive.”

If you didn’t get a chance to see it, here it is.

I finally got my hands on the .mp3 of an interview I did with Jeff Low of Making Contact, a program on Evolution 107.9. The radio station is part of BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology).

I did the interview during the Vancouver International Film Festival back in October.

You can listen to the full interview here.

I did an interview with a Spanish journalist, Omar Ruiz-Diaz, who writes for the Spanish paper Diario El Popular. Here’s a link to download the full article. I’m going to try to get someone to translate it.

We had the second screening yesterday afternoon. It went just as well as the first night. The audience really seemed to like the overall spirit of the film. The question and answer period was really nice as well.

Someone who went to one of the screenings sent me this email, so I thought I would share it…

I wanted to let you know I saw your film Birthday Girl last night and it was truly a solid piece. A zany story that was tight, short, to the point, well- written AND entertaining! Crazy! Great job!

The week flew by but I had an amazing time.

I met Gonçalo Tocha yesterday - a very nice filmmaker from Portugal whose feature film Balaou has its international premiere at VIFF. Balaou took home Best Portuguese Film and Best Cinematography in a Portuguese film at Indielisboa this past April. The photo above is the promo material he gave me for his film. Probably the most unique promo material I have seen so far. I hope I get a chance to see the film before I take off.

Got a chance to see Hank and Mike this afternoon. It’s a very funny film about two easter bunnies who get fired and try to figure out what to do with their lives. The two main actors have been playing these characters for over ten years, they then decided to make a short film based on the characters - so the feature was the next logical step. I hope it does well internationally - Canada doesn’t have enough home grown comedies - let alone good comedies to promote.

To top off a great day, Matt and I got tickets to see Marjan Satrapi’s Persepolis. (we only had to wait in line for an hour). It was as brilliant as the book. The film is honest, funny and insightful. The animation is unlike any film I’ve seen. So glad I got a chance to see it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just found out that the Cloud Seeding program (which Birthday Girl is playing in) is sold out. Very exciting news, except for those who wanted to come to the screening and didn’t buy tickets in advance. Gabe Gilker, who plays Lindsay in the film is flying out for the screening as well.

I met Thomas Michael, the actor/writer/producer of the Canadian film Hank and Mike which has its world premiere at VIFF tonight. The film has a great premise and looks really entertaining. I’ll see if I can still get some tickets.

Went to see Brian de Palma’s Redacted on Thursday night. Can’t say I was very impressed.

Friday I went to see Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which is wonderful. Schnabel won best director at Cannes this year for the film. It was beautifully shot, well acted and the story is incredible. I highly recommend seeing it when it comes out in the theatres.

On our way.

We arrived 10am sharp. Someone from the festival picked us up at the airport and brought us straight to the hotel. The organizers of the festival are wonderful and incredibly friendly. We picked up our guest passes and program guide. I couldn’t resist a photo in front of the VIFF poster.

I was interviewed by BC Institute of Technology yesterday afternoon. The show will air Friday morning 9am (PST).
You can listen to it from their site: Evolution 107.9 FM

Also saw a British film that’s been getting some great reviews called London to Brighton. It was excellent. Very well written and thrilling from beginning to end. A great way to start off the festival.

I had these Moo business cards printed up last week to bring to Vancouver. I chose three images from the film that I thought best represented the movie.

Here’s a promo picture I’m thinking of using for the film. The photo was taken by Rob Maguire, the set photographer.

I was just reading about some other films that will be screening with Birthday Girl at VIFF.

The film is being shown with six other short films, one of which is called Smile, by Canadian filmmaker Julia Kwan. Julia’s feature film debut Eve and The Fire Horse won the special Jury Prize at Sundance last year and was critically acclaimed by Roger Ebert. It’s supposed to be a wonderful film and it looks beautiful.

Looking forward to seeing it.

The other films screening with Birthday Girl look great as well…

- Latchkey’s Lament by Troy Nixey
- Kodiak by Andrew MacLeod
- Burgeon and Fade by Audrey Cummings
- Four Walls by Raha Shirazi
- No Bikini by Claudia Morgado Escanilla

Can’t wait to see them.