Toronto’s Vanguard
by Andre Soares
This year, the Toronto International Film Festival launches the Vanguard sidebar, "hitting audiences with a raw, pulsating aesthetic that speaks to sexual, cultural and cinematic freedoms," as per the festival’s press release. "The Festival has felt the need for some time to establish a program for ‘early adopters’, says Noah Cowan, Festival Co-Director, "people who delight in movies that push the envelopes of technology, culture, sexuality and cinema itself. These films are edgy, irreverent, definitely sexy, and have a palpable, youthful zing." To date, the program features 11 titles including four world and six North American premieres.
Among Toronto’s Vanguard films are Geoffrey Wright’s Macbeth (Australia), referred to as a "gritty and ferociously inventive contemporary adaptation" of Shakespeare’s play, set in the seedy underworld of Melbourne’s street gangs; Jean-Marc Barr and Pascal Arnold’s Chacun sa nuit (France / Denmark), the story of a highly sexual and highly sexually arousing stud (Arthur Dupont) who ends up - what else? - murdered, and the attempts of his sister (and sometime lover, played by Lizzie Brocheré) to uncover the truth; Antti-Jussi Annila’s Jade Warrior (Finland / China / Estonia), which combines Chinese and Finnish mythology by placing an ancient Chinese warrior in modern-day Finland; and John Cameron Mtichell’s sexually explicit Shortbus (US), which has already caused a sensation at Cannes.
Also, Christian Volckman’s Renaissance (France / UK / Luxembourg), an anime film noir described as a cross between Metropolis and Blade Runner; Johnnie To’s two-part actioner Election (Hong Kong); Bobcat Goldthwait’s Sleeping Dogs Lie (US), a dark comedy about a young woman (Melinda Page Hamilton) whose deep dark secret, when revealed, turns her life into chaos; 
and Gerardo Naranjo’s Drama/Mex (Mexico), which follows the emotional ups and downs of a teen prostitute and three sexually-charged youths throughout the course of one steamy Acapulco night.
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