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Monday, February 28, 2011

Oscar 2011: winners and The King’s Speech

The King’s Speech takes home the big Oscars, including Best Actor for Colin Firth. Here’s our look at what won, and what we thought of it all…











And so it came to pass that, once more, the Oscars went with a film that was very much within its comfort zone. Taking home the gongs for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay,
Elsewhere, The Social Network won awards for its screenplay, its score, and its editing. The Fighter bagged a pair of best supporting trophies, while many awards went along with predictions. Thus, Natalie Portman won Best Actress, Toy Story 3 was Best Animation, Inception took a collection of technical prizes home (as well as a well deserved cinematography Oscar for Wally Pfister).
Inevitably, the debate has begun already as to where Oscar has gone right and wrong here. As I said in my predictions last Friday, I really like The King’s Speech, but giving it prizes for screenplay and direction, given what it was up against there, is veering very much on the side of generous. I do congratulate all involved, and massive credit to Tom Hooper simply for getting the project going. But if I was David Fincher, I’d be wondering what I had to do to get a Best Director statue. No quibbles whatsoever with Colin Firth, mind.
Still, I learned a while back that the best way to deal with some of the choices of the Oscars is to substitute the word ‘Best’ in the category award names for ‘Favourite’. That seems a lot more honest.


The Social Network was only able to pull in awards for best adapted screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), best soundtrack (Trent Reznor) and best film editing, while The King’s Speech pulled in top honors for best actor, best director and the coveted best picture among various other categories.
From the “F Bomb” being dropped to some big upsets, here’s the full list of Oscar 2011 Winners:

1. Best Picture: “The King’s Speech.”
2. Actor: Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech.”
3. Actress: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan.”
4. Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, “The Fighter.”
5. Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter.”
6. Directing: Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech.”
7. Foreign Language Film: “In a Better World,” Denmark.
8. Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, “The Social Network.”
9. Original Screenplay: David Seidler, “The King’s Speech.”
10. Animated Feature Film: “Toy Story 3.”
11. Art Direction: “Alice in Wonderland.”
12. Cinematography: “Inception.”
13. Sound Mixing: “Inception.”
14. Sound Editing: “Inception.”
15. Original Score: “The Social Network,” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
16. Original Song: “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3,” Randy Newman.
17. Costume Design: “Alice in Wonderland.”
18. Documentary Feature: “Inside Job.”
19. Documentary (short subject): “Strangers No More.”
20. Film Editing: “The Social Network.”
21. Makeup: “The Wolfman.”
22. Animated Short Film: “The Lost Thing.”
23. Live Action Short Film: “God of Love.”
24. Visual Effects: “Inception.”
The King’s Speech was the big winner at the 2011 Academy Awards.

Rachel Weisz Starring In Psychosexual 360

Rachel Weisz is on a roll. Not only has the Oscar winner received warm reviews for her role as a righteous voice for oppressed Bosnian women in TIFF entry The Whistleblower , but she's also slated to star in Terrence Malick's next project. On top of these comes news that she’ll star in director Fernando Mereilles' 360.

This will be Weisz and Mereilles' second collaboration, after The Constant Gardener, which earned Weisz her Oscar for portraying an activist slain in
Africa. While Rachel’s career has resisted any sort of easily definable path (from The Fountain to The Brothers Bloom to The Lovely Bones), even for her 360 will be a weird. The movie’s being described as a psychosexual drama, with a script based on the Arthur Schnitzler play, Reigen. The play takes the audience through brief scenes between couples, either before or after a sexual encounter. Each new scene shows one member of the previous coupling with another sexual partner, and so on. Apparently this linking of sexual liaisons comes full circle, whatever that exactly means.

It will be interesting to see Mereilles try and pull off this high concept, which has inspired a good number of previous films, including Ken Kwapis's 2005 Sexual Life. Weisz is an amazing actress who should provide a wonderful anchor for the director's experiment.

Friday, February 18, 2011

A Wake director Penelope Buitenhuis will be at the AMC Yonge and Dundas theatre

“A Wake” movie: Sex, lies and death tapes

















Starring Nicholas Campbell, Tara Nicodemo, Graham Abbey, Krista Sutton, Sarain Boylan and Martha Burns. Directed by Penelope Buitenhuis. 99 minutes. At AMC Yonge-Dundas. 14A

The guest of honour, flamboyant theatre director Gabor Zazlov (Nicholas Campbell), is in the living room. In a coffin. Yet he turns out to be the life of the party in Penelope Buitenhuis’ A Wake.

We first meet Gabor as he pleads with his wife Hanna (Tara Nicodemo) from his sickbed to do something she angrily insists she can’t bring herself to do.

Clearly she has acquiesced when we see her next. Friends, all members of the cast of Hamlet directed by the eccentric Gabor four years earlier, arrive at an isolated stone farmhouse in snowy rural Ontario. Shocked by Gabor’s sudden death, they embrace Hanna, murmur condolences and sit down at a communal table to drink, eat and talk about the great man.

Like The Big Chill without the Motown soundtrack, this bunch who had last been together for the Shakespearean drama that had soured by opening night, are reunited in Gabor’s name and with his presence is felt everywhere. Years of suppressed resentment, jealousy and unrequited love are uncorked with the free-flowing wine.

Hanna tells them she plans to video their remembrances of Gabor to play at a future memorial. Those too shy to talk to her lens can use a private camera set up in a small powder room as a kind of confessional.

Among the prodigal hams is handsome Tyler (Graham Abbey), who played Hamlet. Now a B-list Hollywood TV actor, he’s struggling to stay sober on this booze-soaked weekend while trying to hide his attraction to Earth-motherish Maya (Krista Sutton, also the story co-writer with Buitenhuis), his Ophelia. Tyler may be carrying a torch for Maya, but he has the hots for slutty Danielle (Sarain Boylan), who arrives looking like a refugee from an explosion in a Frederick’s of Hollywood outlet.

The troupe’s patrician patron Sabina (Martha Burns, the best of the cast) has a Danielle-shaped burr under her saddle for reasons that become clear right about the time the penny drops that the cast is reenacting Hamlet long before the Shakespeare comes out.

Gabor’s adult son Chad (Kristopher Turner) picks a lousy time to show up from a lengthy trip to Europe, finding the house full of drama, his stepmother wielding a video camera and his dad suddenly dead and in his box at a makeshift memorial.

It’s hard to not feel sorry for bird-like, wounded Hanna, who finds herself the target of everybody’s misplaced anger. A picture of Gabor emerges as a mad despot who delighted in emotionally jerking his actors around — something he still seems able to do in death as his final wish demands the cast read Hamlet aloud, as directed by his widow.

Much like Gabor, director Buitenhuis brings her actors together for A Wake and lets the chips fall where they may as they improvise their unscripted scenes. In some cases, it’s very successful, especially scenes with the brittle Sabina and wounded Hanna. But braying, sex-starved Danielle grows tiresome very quickly, and real estate magnate Raj (Raoul Bhaneja), who lost the role of Hamlet to Tyler, gets lost amid those busily acting around him. Without a script to keep the players in line, everybody tries to come out on top and the feeling occasionally strays into chaos and worse, periods of boredom.

Still Buitenhuis deserves praise for a brave and unconventional approach to making A Wake. Its experimental feel is tempered by solid camerawork — the stark winter landscape adds the right note of melancholy. And the story contains a satisfying twist that goes a long way to redeem some of the rough edges and to remind us that dead men do indeed tell tales. Whether or not we should believe them is the tricky part.

A Wake director Penelope Buitenhuis will be at the AMC Yonge and Dundas theatre on Feb 18 and 19 to introduce the first evening screenings and will do a Q&A afterwards



Vancouver film director Penelope Buitenhuis has advice to new filmmakers: Don’t wait for funding; start making movies now










A Wake

Directed by: Penelope Buitenhuis

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

Where: Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St.

Women in Film Festival

When: Sat., 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St.

Tickets: Festival pass costs $35 for WIF members, $45 for non-members.

Admission to A Wake, the awards ceremony and opening reception is $25, or $30 for non-members.

Short-film screenings: $10, $12. Tickets available from womeninfilm.ca or at the door. Panel sessions are free.

VANCOUVER -- Vancouver-based film director Penelope Buitenhuis has advice for any young woman embarking on a career as a filmmaker: Don’t sit around talking about it. Make the films.

“With digital media you can make your own films cheaply,” says Buitenhuis, whose latest feature, A Wake, headlines the two-day Women in Film Festival on Saturday at Vancity Theatre.

“Just like any profession, you need to practise. I would say make [the film] before you expect any return. People tend to wait for funding, and I say just make them, and then you have something to show for yourself and the funding might follow. If you have good ideas and some kind of style, you just start.”

No one starts their directing career with features. All directors, Buitenhuis included, start with short films. In fact, she still makes them when she has the chance between features and television episodes.

“I live a pretty crazy life, and I always have crazy stories to tell,” says Buitenhuis, who moved back to Vancouver from Toronto two months ago. “Shorts are the quick and easy way to tell them. You don’t have to get funding to make them.”

Buitenhuis, a Toronto native, attended film school at both the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser University before moving to Germany and France for 10 years.

She spent the first decade of her career making short films, directed her first feature, Trouble (“a rock ’n’ roll drama”), in 1992, and has made theatrical features, TV movies, documentaries, episodic television and the occasional short ever since.

By anyone’s standards, she’s prolific, making 15 feature-length films in that period, as well as multiple episodes for 15 series, including Cold Squad and Paradise Falls.

“Producers love me because I can make movies extremely fast and therefore extremely cheap,” says Buitenhuis. “I won’t say I’m the Roger Corman of Canada, but it has a certain [cachet] when people know they’ll get what they want on time and on budget.”

Although Buitenhuis has production companies in Vancouver and Toronto, she rarely has to do the producer’s job of hustling distribution and financing, which saps time from making films.

“I’m good at meetings, but I’m not good at financing,” says the director, adding she’d like to produce her films.

Much has been made of Kathryn Bigelow’s victory last month at the Academy Awards, the first woman to win the best director prize, for The Hurt Locker. Buitenhuis says it’s a step in the right direction, but there are plenty more strides to be made.

She says women in Canada account for less than 10 per cent of directors.

“We’re still in a huge inequity right now,” she says.

The Women in Film Festival packs a lot into its two days. Saturday’s schedule begins at 10 a.m. with a two-hour program of shorts by first-time female directors, followed by a networking lunch, pitch sessions, a second program of short films, a 4 p.m. panel on the Year of Women in Movies, a screening of A Wake (Buitenhuis will take part in a question-and-answer session after the film) and wrapping up with the opening reception.

There will be three Legacy Awards presented Saturday night, including a $100,000 in-kind prize from the Creative Women Workshops Association.

Sunday begins with a panel session titled A Film and Television Industry Market Update: Facing the Hard Facts, followed by two programs of film shorts.



Big crowd packs Cairo's Tahrir Square for 'Day of Victory'







Cairo, Egypt .- A sea of Egyptians from all walks of life packed every meter in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday for a "Day of Victory," a rally to celebrate the one-week anniversary of the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.


In what was a symbol of the dramatic change taking hold across the society, a Muslim cleric banned from speaking publicly during the Mubarak years, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, delivered the Friday sermon. The throng in Tahrir Square was estimated at hundreds of thousands, and his public appearance was broadcast on state television.

"O Egyptians, Coptic Christians and Muslims, this is your day, all of you. January 25 was your revolution," said Qaradawi, who has a program called "Shariah and Life" on the Al-Jazeera television network.

Qaradawi said the "youth of the revolution has lifted the head of this country and made us proud once again.

"They are the new partisans of God. These are the young people of Egypt. The revolution is not over yet. The revolution just began. We need to rebuild Egypt. Be aware of those who want to take it away from you," he said.


Qaradawi insisted that the money "stolen" by the Mubarak regime be returned to the Egyptian people and praised the "martyrs" who died in the upheaval and for the sake of the religion.

With the square and adjacent streets filled, observers said the turnout could be the largest so far at the square, the epicenter of Egypt's revolution, and the atmosphere was festive. Many waved Egyptian flags, hoisted banners and posters, and beat drums.

Meanwhile, thousands of people attended a pro-Mubarak demonstration dubbed "the Friday of loyalty" in front of a mosque, state TV reported.

The march at the square is also meant to remind the military that Egyptians were watching the ongoing reform process.

Celebrations are expected in other cities across the nation as well.

Organizers said in a statement that the event was held to "both celebrate the revolution and call for a number of demands that are yet to be fulfilled."

Some of those demands include "freeing political detainees, issuing a statement on lost protesters, ending the state of emergency, holding corrupt officials accountable and tracing their assets," the statement said.

The military has been in charge since February 11, when Mubarak resigned. Top military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and vowed to remain in charge until elections can be held in six months or so.

The sheikh praised "the armed forces' statements on protecting the revolution and their promises for a democratic transition of power," and he hailed the nation's courage and unity.

"The people changed, so God changed their destiny. The state of fear crumbled. The old Pharaohs used to scare people, and the old regime did the same. But the young people insisted, and they raised our heads with pride," Qaradawi said.

"Egyptians stood together, Muslims and Christians, and the revolution brought down the sectarianism that they (the old regime) promoted for so long. We saw Christians protecting their Muslim brothers while they prayed in Tahrir Square during the revolution









ELLEN SEIDLER SUCCESSFUL INDIE FILMMAKER AND ANTI-PIRACY CRUSADER AT CMW 2011

ELLEN SEIDLER:










www.cmw.net



Toronto: She’s the co-producer/co-director of the sexy, hit lesbian romantic comedy, And Then Came Lola, starring Ashleigh Sumner and Jill Bennett, and a crusader against online piracy and its negative impact on indie filmmakers.

Since the world premiere of LOLA, Ellen Seidler has waged a one-woman crusade against the flourishing online black market that profits pirates and ad service providers, but leaves artists and creators penniless.

“It’s difficult enough to see one’s film being pirated widely online,” says

Seidler, “What is most disturbing is that everyone is making money, it seems, except those who own the rights to the film.”

And Then Came Lola premiered in June 2009 as part of the San Francisco Frameline LGBT Film Festival and has since screened in more than 100 LGBT film festivals around the world, including Toronto’s own Inside Out LGBT Toronto Film Festival. Like many independent filmmakers, Seidler and her co-director Megan Siler, personally financed the $250,000 required to make the film.

Within hours of its worldwide release, unauthorized copies of the film began appearing on websites that specialize in pirated content. These websites also feature ads for legitimate companies, often placed through ad service providers like Google’s Adsense.

“Seidler’s story is nothing short of inspirational,” says Graham Henderson, President of the Canadian Recording Industry Association. “At a time when piracy is threatening the livelihoods of all creators, her unwavering campaign against pirates and those who finance massive online theft through advertising dollars, will resonate with every indie artist, no matter the genre.”

Seidler, a 25-year broadcast journalism and film veteran, will share her experience with CMW delegates during the Global Forum Networking Breakfast, a ticketed event, and will be available for one-on-one interviews upon request.

- 30 -



About Ellen Seidler: Ellen Seidler is a 25-year broadcast journalism and film veteran. After working for~ABC News in New York she joined KRON-TV in San Francisco as a photojournalist and editor. Currently, she is a professor of Media & Communication Arts at Contra Costa College.~ She has also been a lecturer in Digital Media at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and has taught for the Knight Digital Media Center’s multimedia training workshops.

Ellen has also produced/directed/ and worked as a cinematographer on a variety of independent film and documentary projects. Her directing credits include the award-winning documentary “Fighting for Our Lives-Facing AIDS in San Francisco” (narrated by Linda Hunt and appearing on PBS) and the lesbian erotic short “Et L’Amour” which screened in LGBT film festivals throughout the world. She has been a contributing writer for Logo’s AfterEllen.com and is the creator and editor for the non-profit website, Breastcancernetwork.org. More recently she has become involved with efforts to raise awareness around the issue online piracy and its negative impact on indie filmmakers. Her blog on the subject can be found here: www.popuppirates.com.

Ellen received her B.A. in Fine Arts from Harvard University, and her M.A. in Journalism from UC Berkeley.

INTERVIEW

Ellen Seidler isn't in the indie game for the money. But when the filmmaker and her directing partner, Megan Siler, put up $250,000 of their own cash to make "And Then Came Lola," they expected to at least be able to break even, paying off the debts they incurred during production. Their hopes were dashed when they discovered how extensively "Lola" was being pirated on the Web, damaging the financial prospects of the movie's DVD and video-on-demand release. Seidler became infuriated, though, when she noticed corporate ads for companies like Google and Netflix popping up all over the illegal sites that carried her film. Back Stage talks to Seidler, who is fighting back on her blog and speaking out against corporate-sponsored Web piracy.




Back Stage: How much time do you spend in your day now trying to get your film taken off these sites?



Ellen Seidler: Probably a good two to three hours per day, easily. We've had close to 2,000 versions of our film online, with over 10,000 download links now that we've been able to find, and I'm sure there are many more. We've found Arabic websites, Russian, Turkish, Chinese. We found a website selling our DVD with Spanish subtitles; we haven't released it with Spanish subtitles.



Back Stage: When did you first notice the film online illegally?



Seidler: I first became aware that "Lola" was online in late April. Within a day of the German DVD release, apparently it got ripped and put up online. And in terms of the advertising, initially I was really focused on where the film was and how many of them were there and who to contact to get it taken down. But it took off, and I was just sitting there looking, and it was like, "Oh my God, look at all these ads!"



Back Stage: Have you gotten a response from any of these companies?



Seidler: I've tried to contact a number of the companies that I've found Web ads for. Only two were really successful. One was the San Francisco Ballet. They're a small arts agency, and they were incredibly upset when they found out about it. So they made arrangements with their ad company to prevent that from happening in the future and disabled that particular website. Another was Network Solutions. But those ads are still up there. A corporate VP at Netflix sent me an email, not really taking responsibility for it. It was particularly galling to see our film streaming in its entirety next to the Netflix ad when they carry our film. I haven't been able to get hold of anyone at Google, and I would love to.



Back Stage: Do you have an estimate of how much money these companies might be making off your film, or how much you might be losing?



Seidler: It may be a great deal of money; it may not. For me at this point it's more of the principle. People that support piracy always throw back at you, "Well, the people who pirate your film wouldn't buy it anyway." And not every one of them would, but some would. I have to believe it is having a financial impact on us.



Back Stage: Do you think something like online piracy might adversely affect films more than it might affect, say, music?



Seidler: It's a matter of degree. Films like ours don't have a theatrical release. All our income from this film is going to come from DVD or VOD sales. When that revenue stream is impacted, financially the filmmaker is really damaged. Big blockbusters, like "Avatar," they have an opportunity to pay off their investment in the theatrical setting. So I really think it hurts indie filmmakers a lot. I think content creators across the board are going to stop making content. I don't know if I ever want to make another film again. I know a lot of music people who have been hurt by piracy, but I think they've sort of learned to live with it.



Back Stage: What do you ultimately hope to accomplish with this?



Seidler: I'd like to see the various agencies work together to come up with a solution that's not just about one aspect of piracy but a multilevel approach. Making these companies responsible for where their ad dollars go is a good first step. The MPAA and other major organizations who are supposedly working very hard to combat piracy would be better served to really promote the idea that piracy is not just damaging executives at the offices at Disney but it's really damaging all of the people who make their livelihood day in and day out doing catering or makeup or set design. All of those jobs are going away gradually.









Visit the Canadian Music Week website – www.cmw.net – to register for your Canadian Music Week delegate pass.



Canadian Music Week is Canada’s leading annual entertainment event dedicated to the expression and growth of the country’s music, media and entertainment industries. Combining four information-intensive conferences; a trade exposition; a film festival; four awards shows and the nation's largest New Music Festival – Canadian Music Fest - CMW spans a five-day period from March 9 to March 13, 2011 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and various downtown Toronto venues, attracting participants from across the globe. For more information, visit www.cmw.net.



We are presently confirming interviews. Interviews and a screener are available upon request.



For Canadian Music Week information, please contact:

Planet3 Communications: Piera Savage/Joanne Smale

T: 647.346.4101 E: info@planet3com.net



Bessie Bullard - Communications Director

T: 905.858.4747 E:bessie@cmw.net



For Canadian Recording Industry Association, please contact:

Amy Terrill

T: 416-967-7272 E: aterrill@cria.ca

Don Hogarth: mobile: 416.565.8920



SHOOT BETTER VIDEO: 33 tips from Ellen Seidler


One of the perks of finishing up one assignment (helping modernize our paper's website) and heading on to the next one (back to the newsroom as a combo print/online features reporter) is that I'm finding cool stuff as I pack up my office. Today's gem: Notes from a fantastic class given last March at the UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism during my week as a 2006 Western Knight Center fellow.



A lot of us in print journalism are moving toward online video storytelling these days, but you don't have to be a pro-jo to get value out of these practical rules. The ideas here belong to Ellen Seidler, but the paraphrasing -- poor as it may be -- is mine.



Discuss your expectations with the team first. Plan your shoot.

When you're shooting on new DV tape, roll 30 seconds of nothing to get past the typically imperfect tape head.

Check your audio before you need it. Are your levels set accurately?



Shoot selectively. Be disciplined with start/stop/record. It will make you a better shooter.

Shut up when you shoot. Audio makes video three-dimensional and you'll need that ambient sound... so don't yack over it.

Hold all your shots at least 10-15 seconds. You can always make a 10-second shot into a two-second shot.

Give yourself extra room in editing action shots.



Avoid excess zooms or pans. Use them sparingly, if at all, and only to reveal or emphasize.



Always begin or end a zoom or pan on a static shot. A zoom should begin with 15 seconds of wide shot, end with 15 seconds of tight shot. This gives you flexibility in editing.

Shoot in sequences: Wide shot; details; angles.

Always use a tripod when shooting a static subject.

Always use a tripod on a sit-down interview.

The wider the angle, the less shake in the shot.

Don't be shy. Get up-close and personal with your subject.

Mix your shots by this ratio: one quarter wide, one quarter medium; half close-up.

Close-up translates a lot better on the Web.

In composing shots, set up a frame and let things happen within it.



For sit-down interviews: Shoot head and shoulders.

Remember the Rule of Thirds. If you divide your screen into vertical thirds, know that the viewer's eye wants to rest on the upper third of the screen.

If your subject in a sit-down is looking into the camera, center the shot.

If the subject is looking at the reporter, then eye-level composition is good. Frame the shot with "nose room" in the direction the subject is looking. Don't center the subject in this composition.

Tell the subject: "Don't look at the camera. Look at the reporter."

Don't make eye contact with the subject.

If you're doing multiple interviews, keep the shots similar.

Get your set-up and "two-shots" after the interview. Move the camera back, but stay on an imaginary line (and remember: once you choose a side, stick to it). Now put the reporter in the shot and have the reporter talk while you run tape of the two of them together. Then get a reverse shot over the subject's shoulder of the reporter listening. Then get a close-up of the reporter listening. You'll use these options during editing.

To really be professional, record 30 seconds of silence to get "room tone."

To get tight depth of field, stretch out your zoom.

Change your angle and perspective. Don't treat the camera like your eyes.

If you're shooting something boring like a building, get people in the shot.

Use a tripod for steady shots. If a tripod isn't available, get close and go wide.



Anticipate action.

Be actively involved in the context of what's going on.



Take care in "dressing the mic" when using a lavaliere set-up. Hide the wire in the subject's lapels, under jackets, etc. "Flip the clip" as needed. Set the mic up in line with the subject's mouth, but not too close to the throat.

A couple other useful tips from my various notes and scribbles:



Have a labeling system and be sure to label all your tapes. It's easy to skip this (something I know from experience), but don't. Pretty soon you'll have a lot of identical tapes, and you be glad you took a few seconds in the field to get organized.

Want to override your auto-focus? This is particularly useful if you're planning a zoom-out. Focus in advance on the subject farthest away and then pull back to the shot you want.





Canada U-17 to face Honduras on Saturday fEBRUARY 19

Canada U-17 to face Honduras on Saturday





First place in Group C will be on the line when Canada faces Honduras on Saturday 19 February in the 2011 CONCACAF Men's Under-17 Championship. The group match will be played at Catherine Hall Stadium in Montego Bay, Jamaica with a 12.30 local kickoff (12.30 ET / 09.30 PT).

The 2011 CONCACAF Men's Under-17 Championship runs 14-27 February. Four of 12 teams will qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, with the qualification matches set for 22-23 February in the CONCACAF quarter-final stage. Both Canada and Honduras have already qualified for the quarter-final stage, but Group C seedings and Group D opponents have yet to be decided this Saturday.

CONCACAF has announced that a live webstream will be available via www.CONCACAF.com for all quarter-final, semi-final and final matches. The Canada-Honduras match will not be broadcast, but a live text feed via www.Twitter.com/CanadaSoccerEN will be available starting one hour before kickoff. The post-match report will be available at www.CanadaSoccer.com with interviews posted in the evening at www.Youtube.com/CanadianSoccerAssoc and photos uploaded to www.flickr.com/CanadaSoccer. Additional content will be available via www.CONCACAF.com.

Both Canada and Honduras opened the tournament with victories over Barbados, thus eliminating the Caribbean nation. Honduras reversed an 0-1 scoreline to win 2-1 on Tuesday; Canada scored early and often to walk off with an 8:0 victory on Thursday. Canada needs a win or a draw against Honduras to finish first.

"We know it will be a quality match against Honduras," said Canadian U-17 head coach. "We expect it to be very competitive."

Canada trained on Friday morning in Montego Bay, a combination of recovery from the Canada-Barbados match and preperation for the Canada-Honduras match.

"We worked on a few things in training on which we hope to get better," said Fleming.

Canada was disciplined on Thursday not to be assessed any yellow cards, but Honduras does have four players who have one yellow card from their Tuesday match. It is unclear whether these players will be rested as a second yellow card will draw a one-match suspension.

After the group phase, Canada will play its quarter-final match on 23 February against a team from Group D. Trinidad and Tobago has already qualified for the quarter-final stage, but its group ranking will be determined on Saturday after the Guatemala-Jamaica match. From groups C and D, first place will play second place from the opposite group and second place will play first place.

________________________________________

L’équipe U17 du Canada est prête pour son match de samedi contre le Honduras

L’équipe qui occupera le premier rang tant convoité du groupe C sera décidée suite au dernier match de ce groupe entre le Canada et le Honduras, le samedi 19 février, au Championnat masculin U17 de la CONCACAF 2011. Le dernier match préliminaire du Canada aura lieu au Stade Catherine de Hall, à Montego Bay, en Jamaïque, avec un coup d'envoi prévu pour midi et demi à l’heure locale (12 h 30 HE/9 h 30 HP).

L’édition 2011 du championnat masculin U17 de la CONCACAF a démarré le 14 février et poursuivra jusqu’au 27 février prochain à Montego Bay en Jamaïque. Seules les quatre meilleures équipes du classement final obtiendront leur passeport à la prochaine Coupe du Monde U17 de la FIFA ayant lieu cet été au Mexique. Les quatre élus seront donc connus lorsque les matchs de quarts de final du 22 et 23 février seront joués. L’identité du prochain adversaire du Canada pour son match du 23 février n’a pas encore été révélée comme la phase de groupe n’a pas tout à fait terminé à l’heure actuelle.

La CONCACAF a annoncé qu'une webdiffusion en direct sera disponible via CONCACAF.com pour tous les matchs de quart de finale, demi-finale et finale. Le match Canada-Honduras ne sera pas diffusé, mais les amateurs pourront suivre l’action en direct sur www.Twitter.com/CanadaSoccerFR sera disponible une heure avant le coup d'envoi du match. Le rapport du match sera disponible en soirée à www.CanadaSoccer.com et plus de détails en général quant au tournoi sont disponibles à www.CONCACAF.com .

Le Canada et le Honduras ont tous deux remporté des victoires préliminaires contre la Barbade. Le Canada est au sommet du groupe C pour l’instant, mais doit au moins faire match nul, et mieux encore, remporter une victoire contre le Honduras samedi prochain s’il compte bien y demeurer au classement final de son groupe. L’équipe ayant remporté le groupe C affrontera ensuite l’équipe ayant terminé au deuxième rang du groupe D, tandis que le deuxième meilleur pays du groupe C aura rendez-vous avec l’équipe ayant décroché le premier rang du groupe opposé.

« On s’attend à un match de calibre contre le Honduras, » a déclaré l'entraîneur-chef U17 Sean Fleming. « Nous nous attendons donc à être très compétitifs sur le terrain de jeu. »

L’escouade canadienne s’est entrainée vendredi matin à Montego Bay avec l’objectif de récupérer du match contre la Barbade et en préparation pour le match à venir contre le Honduras.

« Nous avons travaillé sur certains aspects de notre jeu avec l’espoir d’obtenir de meilleurs résultats sur le terrain, » a ajouté Fleming.

Il est intéressant à noter que le Canada n’a pas commis de fautes lors de son match avec la Barbade alors que le Honduras a quant à lui eu quatre cartons jaunes pendant son match du 15 février contre la Barbade. Le Honduras a donc payé cher sa victoire remportée contre la Barbade 2 à 1, car les cartons jaunes ne s’annulent pas à la suite de la phase de groupes. Cela veut dire que tout joueur qui reçoit deux cartons jaunes (ou un carton rouge) survenus pendant n'importe quelle étape du Championnat masculin U17 de la CONCACAF se verra suspendu et en arrêt de jeu d’un match.

L’incertitude règne toujours dans le groupe opposé comme l’affaire n’est pas marché conclu à savoir quelles équipes poursuivront le tournoi et lesquelles seront plutôt en route pour la maison. Le pays hôte de la Jamaïque a disputé le match d’ouverture du tournoi en faisant match nul avec Trinité-et-Tobago. Trinité-et-Tobago s’est retroussé les manches par la suite lors de son deuxième match pour décrocher une victoire de dernier instant avec un but tardif en prolongation. Trinité-et-Tobago a donc rendez-vous en quarts de final, mais reste à savoir qui sera à ses côtés en tour final entre le Guatemala et la Jamaïque qui disputeront le dernier match de groupe et ce faisant, la dernière qualification en lice, le 19 février prochain.



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