Between 300 and 500 DVDs are released every week in North America, says professional film programmer Angela Pressburger of Gibsons. The sheer volume is overwhelming for anyone trying to find a specific topic. Viewers need some way to sort through all those new releases in order to show a film to others or simply to screen one at home for their own enjoyment. Pressburger decided to create a website that highlights the week's new releases and lets fans know why a particular film is worth watching.
Easier said than done. The project proved massive and was almost a year and a half in the making with much volunteer help and effort. She launched the site, www.maptomovies.com, just two weeks ago, and already almost 100 people have signed up for the free newsletter.
"It seems to have touched a spot," she says.
Pressburger's life has been steeped in film, starting at an early age from her film-making father Emeric, who made revered British classics The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus as well as the re-released A Matter of Life and Death - also known as Stairway to Heaven. Her sons are also involved in the movie business. Andrew, the eldest, produced Trainspotting and went on to 28 Days Later. Kevin, not to be outdone, managed to scoop an academy award for One Day in September, and he directed Touching the Void.
Pressburger's own distinguished career began as art catalogue editor for the Smithsonian among other places, the position of vice president for an award winning CD ROM media company in Vancouver, a script reader, a filmmaker of Whisper in the Air, a documentary about Marconi, and more recently, as a consultant film programmer for various international film festivals.
Locally, she is well known as founder of the Sunshine Coast Film Society, a four-year-old organization that screens films many Tuesday nights in Gibsons.
The website reviews eight to 10 films each week and tracks sources for acquiring them. Pressburger was gratified to find that many of the videos were available from outlets on the Coast. Maybe they won't stock dozens of them as they would a Hollywood hit, but interesting films can often be found on the bottom shelves. Most of her requests for information come from discerning viewers in the 40 to 65 age group, she says, the baby boomers, the culturally creative.
This week's website features Indian Bollywood films, not your singing, dancing, comic ones so much as those with content. For example, one film, Chokher Bali, describes a widow in turn-of-the-century India who lives in her in-laws' home. One of the husbands falls in love with her, putting her in a moral predicament.
For Pressburger, it sparked a connection with another film set in England. The House of Mirth, based on an Edith Wharton novel, is about a poor relation at the turn of the century who goes to live with a wealthier family. It's a tragic and beautiful drama. The website creator likes to make those kind of connections.
"I want people to take a look at the other side of the world," she says.
"I didn't want to review Hollywood movies that already get publicity."
Map to Movies features good festival fare; it also takes in the spiritual, the artistic, the metaphysical, films that matter or stimulate curiosity. And it lists good old-fashioned classics that have been re-released on DVD.
Right now, the website is a volunteer labour of love for Pressburger and others, but she hopes to see a day when it becomes a viable business. View it at www.maptomovies.com.
Rereleases:On Tuesday, Nov. 22, the Sunshine Coast Film Society will show the American 1968 classic, The Shoes of the Fisherman, featuring some great performances from a stellar cast (Anthony Quinn, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Vittorio DeSica, Oscar Werner). This big-budget film, based on Morris L. West's best-selling novel, has just been re-cut for release on DVD with the participation of the director, Michael Anderson, now a resident of the Sunshine Coast.
Characterized by impeccable production values, it incorporates footage from inside Vatican City intercut with scenes on vast soundstages, all aided by an award-winning original score. It deals with sweeping ideas, raising questions around issues of faith, social justice and the Catholic Church's role in a rapidly changing world. It foreshadowed the ascension to the papacy of a cardinal from a communist country, predating similar events by more than a decade.
Director Michael Anderson is scheduled to attend. The film is at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 7. Admission to this special event is $7.50 for members, $10 for non-members. For more information check out www.scfs.ca.
