Category Archives: Film

02.10.16
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[VFF ’16] Foodies: A Culinary Jetset Should Be More About Haute Cuisine

poster1Victoria Film Festival
Sun, Feb 14th, 1:00pm
Cineplex Odeon Victoria Cinemas
780 Yates Street
Victoria, BC

FOODIES: A Culinary Jetset is not necessarily a comprehensive look at the culture of taste-testers from all around the world wanting the best in what dining is about. A lot of emphasis is placed on fine-dining instead of the everyday. Not everyone can afford to go to Michelin star restaurants and they tend to be concentrated in major metropolises instead of areas of the Pacific Northwest like Seattle. As a catalog of high-end restaurants, I’ve noted what this film suggests as places to go. However, I’d be interested in knowing what I can hit nearby instead of flying elsewhere to get a taste of the best.

Narrator Adrian Moar talks about the lives of Andy Hayler, Katie Keiko, Aiste Miseviciute, Perm Paitayawat and Steven Plotnicki. These individuals go to extremes to taste the best in what these restaurants offer instead of exploring what’s around the corner. As Plotnicki points out, the people who actively travel and blog about it are doing it for status. These people who have high readership on their online journals can have influence upon the establishments who are wanting to keep tabs on them. Soren Ledet of Geranium in Copenhagen, Denmark knows it.

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02.08.16
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2016 Victoria Film Festival Opening Weekend Recap & What’s Coming

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The 2016 Victoria Film Festival (VFF) started off with a great bang with the Friday night screening of My Internship in Canada, a very funny political satire by Philippe Falardeau (Congorama). This movie explores how democracy should really work instead of who can sway prevailing opinion.

CTV Arts Reporter Adam Sawatsky introduced this film and Exantus, one of the two leads. He was present for this screening. Kathy Kay, festival chief, welcomed film enthusiasts who came down for this movie and party. On a blustery evening packed with many events around town (including a broader movie festival at Cineplex theatres and a Jim Brynes concert up in Sidney), competition is getting tough. The VFF is a fixture for cinema buffs to enjoy and I was here instead of anywhere else!

The night continued strong with a Gala party at the historic Promis building, located off Government street. Filmmakers, performers and attendees of the festival mingled.

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02.06.16
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[VFF ’16] The Sandwich Nazi, A Documentary Review

viff2015sandwichnaziLa Charcuterie
19080-96th Avenue Unit 8
Surrey BC V4N 3R3
(604) 882-0881

Saturday, Feb 6th 6pm
The Vic Theatre
808 Douglas St,
Victoria, BC

A trip to the industrial neighbourhood of Port Kells in Surrey, BC is needed to experience Salam Kahil’s capricious if not salacious behaviour in The Sandwich Nazi. Yes, the allusions to Seinfeld are there, and if the two had to be compared, Kahil is funnier. The size of the sandwiches he makes must be noted. They look huge and to finish it in one sitting must be a feat!

Kahil, an immigrant from Lebanon, is the focus in director-producer Lewis Bennett’s documentary. He was once a male escort and while the first act spends too much time on his escapades, thankfully all that changes halfway when viewers learn there’s more to him than meets the eye.

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02.04.16
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[VFF ’16] Going Behind the Counter with The Sandwich Nazi, An Interview with Lewis Bennett

viff2015sandwichnazi

The Sandwich Nazi
Saturday, Feb 6th 6pm
The Vic Theatre
808 Douglas St,
Victoria, BC

Although a car is needed to get to Surrey, BC to visit La Charcuterie Delicatessen, a deli and Scandinavian grocery store in an industrial neighbourhood known as Port Kells, thankfully to get taste of what goes on there can be seen around the world. The Sandwich Nazi is an aptly titled documentary that looks at the scandalous life Salam Kahil, the owner and operator of this establishment. At Two Hungry Blokes, we’re eying the size of those sandwiches that’s made than the owner’s ballsy attitude. Until we can get there, Ed had the opportunity to communicate with Lewis Bennett, who decided to turn the life of this deli operator into a hilarious film!

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08.10.15
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Follow the Rising Water known as Yakona, A Documentary

Originally published on Otaku no Culture by Ed Sum

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Plays at Cinecenta
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Aug 11 7:00 & 9:15 pm

For other showtimes, please click here.

Not many documentaries can hold a viewer for more than 45 minutes. When one does, they are typically filled with narration to explain the purpose of why it is expanding an individual’s mind to the wonders of the planet Earth, or the universe. Sometimes, in a theatrical presentations like Yakona, the purpose is to captivate and let the viewer decide for themselves what the visual thesis is about. Through sound and image instead of narration (having this track would have been beneficial), a creation and apocalyptic myth are being forged about the San Marcos River (located in Central Texas) as it borne from springs in the aforementioned region to Spring Lake.

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06.01.15
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It’s a Steak (R)evolution, A Movie Review

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After watching Steak (R)evolution, I’m never buying my beef from a grocery store ever again. Sorry Thrifty Foods but I’m going to a butcher instead! I’ve often gone to them for bacon and burger patties, but for steak, I never thought about the differences in what gets sent to market or to what I like to call a meat broker. Yes, prime sides of prized bovine do go to auction, and the education does not end there about humanity’s relationship with the cow.

This movie not only provides a look in what makes for a perfect cut of beef but also shows how regional bovine can impart a special taste upon the product that gets eaten by humans. I’m not talking about Kobe Beef, to which I’ve sampled once in my life (I do want more, but the prices were the primary deterrent). At the same time, just how I want to cuddle my favourite cow (one species, the highland cattle with their winter coats are too adorable to consider slaughtering) might lead me to giving up the meat altogether. Some subspecies are just that darned cute (alpaca like if I had to draw comparisons) and they should not be considered for slaughter. To realize that they are bred to feed connoisseurs is difficult to fathom, but yet, to understand the intricacies of how these beasts are raised to being brazed on the grill or pan needs people to have more than an iron clad understanding of why we, as humans, have gone from a hunter-gatherer species to an agriculture-based society.

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