The Vancouver International Film Festival is underway. Although not as famous as its sister festival in Toronto or as glamorous as its Cannes cousin, it features a wide assortment of unique movies and documentaries from all over the world (324 films, 132 premieres with 11world premieres) It’s more of a moviegoers festival than a celebrity fiesta and it has an almost cult-like following.

Next year I want to be like those filmfest aficionados and take my vacation during the festival so that I can watch over 200 or so movies in two weeks! I want to talk about movies from Srebrenica and know at least one Nepalese born German director. I want to know a cool moviemaker other that Quentin Tarantino damn it!

But that’s next year, this year I’m aiming for 5 movies. Last Saturday I went to the screening of ‘Dance like a man’ (North American premiere) at the Ridge Theatre in Kits (I think). I made a day out of it; we crossed the bridge to the other side, did the stores on 4th, had a great Thai dinner, which made up for walking all day and then went to the screening in the evening.

So there’re these people who were on their 4th to 5th to 6th screening so they had to have dinner right there at the theatre… now that’s dedication.

The movie (Dance like a man) is based on the play with the same name, and features Anoushka Shankar (Norah Jones’ half-sister) in her acting debut as a Bharatanatyan dancer. She’d also be performing with the Vancouver Symphony in mid-October so there was a mini ticket giveaway contest at the beginning, they asked questions about her sister, father, music, etc all easy questions but you had to jump and shout and scream your answers (be rowdy about it) so I didn’t win, I’m always pretending to be proper in public.

‘Dance’ was nicely done with convincing characters. It looks into the social scene in modern India; it deals with talent, ambition, humour, family relationships, and dark secrets. It has great dance scenes, very beautiful choreography. It also featured the cutest car ever! Now I want to be a Reva driving Bharatanatyan dancer when I grow up!

Next I’ll be seeing ‘Mr & Mrs Iyer’ another Bollywood production because let’s face it…Bollywood IS the new Hollywood. I’m just staying ahead of the trend!

PLAYING: Hey whatever - Westlife

READING: Hey, Nostradamus! – Douglas Coupland

WATCHING: Gilmore Girls

QUOTE: “All the world's a waiting room and we're standing in line”