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Forgive me for being a bit late this week, being audited for something from 2005 sucks up hours like nothing else. Now I know why hoarders exist, they were all once audited! But enough of my woe, let's move on with this week in film.

I was going to make some wildly unique plug about the Canadian documentary Up the Yangtze, directed by Concordian grad Yung Chang but everybody else already has! So to summarize, the film follows a cruise boat running along the Yangtze river just a few months before the flooding of the Three Gorges Dam. The highly regarded film is making the rounds this week at a Reel Asian fundraiser, Canada's Top Ten and Doc Soup with a wide release next week. The film was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this past month.

Tonight however, the Cinematheque still has limited seating available for the gorgeous Russian post-war film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, which is also having a repeat screening on Sunday at 5pm. The film is a love story set in medieval Russia and the screening will feature a new 35mm print of the 1964 film.

On Saturday, the charming camerabar is screening some free classic films. Buster Keaton's The Cameraman will be screened at 1pm, followed with Dziga Vertov's masterpiece, The Man With a Movie Camera at 3pm. Infamous for the creation and utilization of new cinematic techniques, I would be betraying my degree if I didn't make mention of it.

Last but not least, this weekend marks the ToRo Arts Group's First Annual Toronto Romanian Film Festival! The films selected vary from pre-/per- to post-Communist realities, and they range from the first ever Romanian feature film created in 1912, The War of Independence, to the 2007 film California Dreamin (Endless) which was well received at TIFF this past year. All screenings will be at Innis Town Hall and tickets range from $15 for adults and $10 for students.

Until next week!

Photo of Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors from John Wayne