REGENT PARK FILM FESTIVAL to November 21, at Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas East). regentparkfilmfestival.com. Rating: NNNN
Celebrating its 13th year, Toronto’s only film festival to offer both free admission and free childcare – which is kind of essential, when you think about it – harvests the best of the festival circuit for a few days of screenings at Daniels Spectrum.
Highlights include Yosef Baraki’s Mina Walking (Thursday, 8:30 pm), which screened at the Reel Asian festival earlier this month. Set in Kabul, it follows a 12-year-old girl (Farzana Nawabi) who serves as the primary income earner and caregiver for her disintegrating family. Canadian writer/director Baraki does a Talkback session after the screening.
Shonali Bose’s romantic drama Margarita, With A Straw (Friday, 8:30 pm) is a little more adult than the festival usually offers, revolving around a young Delhi woman with cerebral palsy (Kalki Koechlin) who leaves home to study in Manhattan and finds herself attracted to another woman (Sayani Gupta). It’s a little on the obvious side plot-wise, but the strong cast keeps it going.
Shelley Saywell’s documentary Lowdown Tracks (Saturday, noon), chronicles musician Lorraine Segato’s efforts to create an album with five homeless Toronto musicians. It’s a modest but triumphant look at the way music can bridge barriers – but more importantly, it’s about the shared humanity of the people gathered in a recording studio. Saywell, Segato and OCAP organizer A.J. Withers do a Talkback session after the film.
The festival closes later that evening with Meet The Patels (Saturday, 8 pm), Los Angeles filmmaker Ravi Patel’s autobiographical documentary about his parents’ attempts to find him a nice Indian-American girl.
Like everything else in the festival, it’s a movie that deconstructs a cultural stereotype as part of its approach to story – and it’s well worth your time.
