Kabul Transit is an unguided look at Afghanistan's capital in 2003. The film is a patchwork of fragments, views of the various parts of the city and various people from money changers to kite fighters to female university students to Canadian soldiers. There's no narrative thread or history lesson attached, and while I appreciate seeing a view of Afghanistan with no interpretation attached I left wanting something more.

Simply put 10 + 4 = Amazing! Mania Akbari documents her battle with cancer in such a funny and poignant way in this sequel of Abbas Kiarostami's Ten. The film is a series of discussions between friends and family and it could've turned out slow and overly sentimental but it never does. Instead, Akbari gives us the raw and brutally honest moments in life; the kind of moments only found in painful circumstances like illness and imminent death.

I pretty much knew I wouldn't like Yamashita Nobuhiro's latest feature The Matsugane Potshot Affair, since a few weeks ago I turned off his 2005 film Linda, Linda, Linda, 20 mins in. 20 extremely long and tedious minutes in. I was right, although I did last 35 minutes this time before I walked out of the theatre. And I wasn't the first one to leave, a handful of people beat me to it.

The Matsugane Potshot Affair is supposedly chock full of black comedy and has been compared to Fargo. I love black comedy, I love Fargo, but I don't consider feeling up an unconscious victim of a hit and run humorous. Judging from the limited guarded laughter, only a few people in the audience did.

Gwen Haworth, a local filmmaker, is premiering her film She's a Boy I Knew at VIFF next week. It's an intimate look at her transition from MtoF (male to female) and its effects on her family. That's a pretty bold move, putting your family and your transition on the screen like that, and I wanted to find out more...

What made you decide to document your transition?
When I came out in 2000, I couldn't find a film about transgender folk that I felt was suitable for showing my family. I definitely wasn't about to bring home 'Boys Don't Cry, or 'The Crying Game'. There's a real dearth of films out there whose target audience are the families & communities surrounding trans folk. Very few trans-related films are about proactive characters engaging in the process of mutual understanding and compassion.

(Read more of our interview after the jump.)

Got your VIFF program guide yet? Circled your favourites? Cross-referenced show times in your already jam-packed day planner? Don't worry, we're here to help. This year Jark-the-prolific and I will be calling in sick to work, braving long line ups in the rain, and watching movies at 10am - whatever it takes to bring you as many VIFF reviews as we can.

The fun starts September 27th and, to prep you, we've compiled a list of what we consider to be this year's must see films. Our top picks after the jump.

Photo by Ruth and Dave from the BR Flickr Pool.

Call me petty but ever since my accident at a Cambie Street construction site last month I've hated the RAV line more than ever. Nevermind P3s, Arbutus Corridors, or Cambie businesses shutting down, when you've been limping for weeks and still have an open wound and thus can't wear pants after a month, it gets personal.

Let me set the scene: it was a Sunday night last month, I was riding my friend's scooter down to the beaches out by UBC when it started to rain - out of nowhere it was suddenly pouring. So I turn back and am riding back to East Van. At 19th I try to cross Cambie. I have a stop sign. It's a pretty blind corner, so I gun it faster than I normally would, trying to cross the street and get out of the construction mayhem as fast as possible and not get hit by oncoming cars in the process. Little do I know that they're using large metal slabs to cover entire intersections. Large metal slabs. In Vancouver. Where it rains a lot. Are they crazy?