MADDIN, ROSSELLINI, AND MINNELLI HEADLINE DIALOGUES

Toronto – Dialogues: Talking with Pictures at the 30th Toronto International Film Festival features presentations by Guy Maddin and Isabella Rossellini, Liza Minnelli, Nick Cave and John Hillcoat, Tsai Ming-liang, Larry Clark and Michael Almereyda, and Stuart Samuels. This year's programme also showcases two world premieres: Guy Maddin's MY DAD IS 100 YEARS OLD and Bob Fosse's newly restored LIZA WITH A 'Z'. Dialogues is a popular and critically acclaimed series featuring directors and film artists presenting films that have inspired them or that mark a significant moment in their careers.

Guy Maddin and Isabella Rossellini (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) present the world premiere of MY DAD IS 100 YEARS OLD (Canada). Written by and starring Rossellini in every role, and directed by Maddin, the film was made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rossellini's father, the celebrated Italian director Roberto Rossellini. Following MY DAD IS 100 YEARS OLD, Isabella Rossellini and Maddin present her father's 1945 neo-realist classic, ROME, OPEN CITY (Italy), a film that figures prominently in Maddin and Rossellini's short.

Stage, screen, and singing icon Liza Minnelli presents the world premiere of the newly restored LIZA WITH A 'Z' (USA, 1972), the first concert ever filmed live for television. Directed by Bob Fosse (CABARET, ALL THAT JAZZ), the film has been digitally cleaned and restored, and the original soundtrack has been completely remixed in 5.1 Dolby Stereo sound. LIZA WITH A 'Z' produced a Top 20 album and won the Emmy™ for Outstanding Single Program. That same year, Minnelli's film career reached new heights when she played Sally Bowles in Fosse's CABARET (1972), which won eight Academy Awards*, including Best Actress.

Celebrated musician Nick Cave and filmmaker John Hillcoat present Hillcoat's daring and courageous first film, GHOSTS...OF THE CIVIL DEAD (Australia, 1988). Cave contributed his talents as a writer, actor, and composer on the project. It concerns a contemporary maximum security prison that comments on an insidiously repressive political climate. Cave and Hillcoat have been collaborating for nearly two decades. Their latest film, THE PROPOSITION (Australia/UK), directed by Hillcoat and written by Cave, has its world premiere in Visions at this year's Festival. The film tells the story of a lawman who offers to save the younger brother of an outlaw on the condition that the outlaw kill his older sibling.

Tsai Ming-liang presents Wang Tianlin's THE WILD, WILD ROSE (Hong Kong, 1960). An adaptation of Bizet's opera, Carmen, this musical tells the story of a sensuous singer who seduces and destroys both herself and the man she loves. The film, along with Ming-liang's REBELS OF THE NEON GOD (1992), was recently named one of the 100 best Hong Kong films by the Hong Kong Film Awards.

This year's Festival also presents the North American premiere of Ming-liang's latest film, THE WAYWARD CLOUD (China/Taiwan/France), in Visions. The film tells the story of a lonely young woman who returns to Taipei from France during an extreme water shortage.

Writer/director and photographer Larry Clark (KIDS) and filmmaker Michael Almereyda present William Eggleston's STRANDED IN CANTON (USA, 1973). The film, shot on an early Sony handicam, chronicles Eggleston's friends, family, and other Southerners, capturing intimate moments, and both the quiet beauty and drug-fuelled revelry of the night. In addition to STRANDED IN CANTON, Almereyda presents the Canadian premiere of his documentary, WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD (USA), an intimate portrait of the acclaimed photographer as a companion screening to the Dialogues presentation.

Filmmaker Stuart Samuels presents the Canadian premiere of his MIDNIGHT MOVIES: FROM THE MARGIN TO THE MAINSTREAM (Canada). This feature documentary tells the hidden history of classic films of the late 1960s and 1970s, including George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), Alejandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO (1970), Perry Henzell's THE HARDER THEY COME (1972), John Waters' PINK FLAMINGOS (1972), Jim Sharman's THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975), and David Lynch's ERASERHEAD (1977). Shown at midnight, these films reinvented the medium while pushing the boundaries of bad taste and social taboos. Attending these midnight movies became a social identifier and a rite of passage for a whole generation of youth in crisis. Guests will include critics, industry professionals, and filmmakers featured in the documentary.