Enjoyable portrait is most effective at showcasing the bountiful beauty of fleshy, filthy sketches, as well as the empowered pursuit of pleasure for which they continue to stand
Date/Time: Sep 30 2017, 9:45 pm to 11:45 pm
Vancouver, Vancouver Playhouse | Event calendarCost: $15.00
Find tickets: here
In 2017, VIFF continues to expand the frame to create multi-experiential streams that include some of the best cinema from around the world fused with related talks and events in a unique Film+ model. VIFF audiences and creators have a chance to discover, discuss and connect more at one of North America's most accessible festivals, in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet.
With more than 300 films from 73 countries, VIFF 2016 audiences were treated to narratives and documentaries that entertained, informed, inspired and left viewers in awe of the filmmaking talent that exists here in Canada and from creators around the world. Look here for a list of
2016 award-winners. We can't wait to see what the 2017 Festival line-up!
Tom of Finland
Panorama | Contemporary World Cinema
When LGBTQ icon Tom of Finland died, in 1991, the subversive artist who saw his "pornographic" drawings of well-endowed hunks go from criminal to celebrated (MOMA has some of his work) could be hailed justifiably as one of the key pioneers in bringing gay culture into the mainstream. Director Dome Karukoski’s biopic stars an excellent Pekka Strang as Tom (real name: Touko Laaksonen) and traces his obsessions back to WWII when the young artist-to-be served in the military. After the war, the closeted advertising illustrator began secretly drafting homoerotic pictures of hunky soldiers, farm boys and Brando-like bikers, fetishistic imagery that soon gained an underground following. As homosexuality began to be decriminalized, those underground works reached a wider audience, eventually leading to Los Angeles-based publisher Doug (Seumas Sargent) agreeing to publish them. And then came the halcyon days and nights in the California of the 1970s and 80s…
"Karukoski’s… enjoyable portrait is most effective at showcasing the bountiful beauty of [Tom’s] fleshy, filthy sketches, as well as the empowered pursuit of pleasure for which they continue to stand… Tom’s Californication years… yield some lively material, as Karukoski and screenwriter Aleksi Bardy look back wistfully at an era of sexual revolution in the U.S. that pointedly seems all the more distant and golden in this age of aggressive conservatism."—Guy Lodge, Variety
FIPRESCI Prize, Gothenburg 17
More info
The Vancouver International Film Festival 2017 Events