Toronto International Film Festival 2016: Docs, Midnight Madness, Vanguard, Cinematheque, Short Film Lineup

The full list of films screening in the Cinematheque section of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival:

Daughters of the Dust Julie Dash, USA

A landmark in the history of American independent cinema, Julie Dash’s masterpiece was the first American feature directed by an African American woman to receive a general theatrical release. Set on the Sea Islands off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina among the Gullah communities — descendants of slaves who have maintained many of their traditions. A large extended family, mostly of women, is divided on their expected move north as part of the Great Migration and the loss of tradition it represents.

Cohen Film Collection presents a new 2K digital restoration of this landmark work of American Independent Cinema.

General Report on Certain Matters of Interest for a Public Screening Pere Portabella, Spain (Informe general sobre algunas cuestiones de interés para una proyección pública)

A classic from one of the most important figures in the history of Spanish cinema, Pere Portabella’s monumental essay film constitutes the synthesis of the director’s openly political clandestine films and his surroundings. Shot in the months after the death of General Franco, it is a “documentary” film shot with the techniques of a fiction film.

Irma Vep Olivier Assayas, France

When a director in decline decides to remake Louis Feuillade’s silent serial Les Vampires, he casts a Hong Kong action heroine who does not speak any French. On the chaotic set, she finds petty intrigues, clashing egos and a wardrobe mistress with a crush on her.

Irma Vep was shot on Super 16mm and originally released in prints that were blown up to 35mm, which increased the film grain and lessened the quality of the image. With this new digital restoration created directly from the original film elements and supervised by Assayas himself, Irma Vep returns looking better, and feeling more timely, than ever before.

Lumière! Thierry Frémaux for this edition, France

Lumière! reintroduces some of cinema’s foundational moments, through gorgeous restored prints of the work of the Lumière Brothers. Featuring a selection of 98 restored films, this unique look at the birth of cinema includes insightful commentary from Thierry Frémaux.

One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (L’une chante, l’autre pas) Agnès Varda, France

Agnès Varda’s 1977 masterwork is simultaneously a musical, a protest film, a portrait of a generation and, most importantly, a tender and insightful exploration of female friendship. Based on Varda’s own experiences in feminist politics at the time, One Sings, the Other Doesn’t follows the lives of two women, with the Women’s Liberation Movement in 1970s France as the backdrop.

One-Eyed Jacks Marlon Brando, USA

Beautifully restored thanks to the efforts of Universal Studios in collaboration with The Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg — Marlon Brando’s only film as director is a brilliant and idiosyncratic revenge western about a betrayed bandit hunting down the partner who left him in the lurch. Starring Marlon Brandon and Karl Malden.

Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro, Mexico/Spain/USA

Celebrating its 10^th anniversary, the Academy Award winning Pan’s Labyrinth remains a triumph of cinematic wonder. Following a bloody civil war, young Ofelia enters a world of unimaginable cruelty when she moves in with her new stepfather, a tyrannical military officer. Armed with only her imagination, Ofelia discovers a mysterious labyrinth and meets a faun who sets her on a path to saving herself and her ailing mother. But soon, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, and before Ofelia can turn back, she finds herself at the center of a ferocious battle between good and evil. Starring Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López, Doug Jones, and Maribel Verdú.

Something Wild Jonathan Demme, USA

A straitlaced businessman meets a quirky, free spirited woman at a downtown New York greasy spoon. Her offer of a ride back to his office results in a lunchtime motel rendezvous. This is just the beginning of a capricious interstate road trip that brings the two face to face with their hidden selves.

30^th anniversary screening.

The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri), Gillo Pontecorvo, Algeria/Italy

Gillo Pontecorvo’s gritty, stirring, and unabashedly anti-colonialist account of the urban war between battle-hardened French paratroopers and Algerian resistance fighters became an instant flashpoint for controversy and was banned in France until 1971.

Restored by Cineteca di Bologna and Istituto Luce — Cinecittà at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in collaboration with Surf Film, Casbah Entertainment Inc. and CultFilms.

The Horse Thief  Tian Zhuangzhuang, China

One of the greatest achievements of Fifth Generation Chinese cinema, Tian Zhuangzhuang’s ravishingly beautiful epic set in the vastness of rural Tibet was famously praised by Martin Scorsese as the best film he saw in the 1990s.

The previously announced Canadian title in the TIFF Cinematheque selection is Sidney J. Furie’s A Cool Sound from Hell.