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Often, when watching a feature film, the shaping hand of the director is barely noticeable. There's a certain sameness, particularly with Hollywood stuff, in the tone and the treatment of the subject, which itself is often a rehashed or plagiarised storyline. The movie could have been made by any number of directors. There's no chance of that watching The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito), a most bizarre story of twisted obsession, which recently opened VIFF.

After a decade of covering documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival (29 September – 14 October), I've come to rely on certain staples. Each year, filmmakers tackle the issue of oil dependency with a sharp focus on the ecological and humanitarian travesty of the tar sands; wrestle with the vexed question of clean, green energy for all; fret about the downward spiral of biodiversity; and seek spiritual solace from the chaotic materialism of mainstream western lifestyles. All these are covered in one shape or other in the five films (one a drama) I've seen so far.

DOXA, Vancouver's purely documentary film festival, marks its 10th anniversary this year with 95 films showing between 6th and 15th May, the festival's biggest programme yet.

America Ferrera is a long way from the territory of hit comedy television series Ugly Betty in this latest cinematic venture. The Dry Land, which Ferrara was producer on and stars in, dramatises the impact of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, as a working class soldier, James, returns to his family after serving in Iraq. The setting is ordinary, working class, small town Texas. The dialogue could almost have been cut and paste from similar films, such is its ordinariness. James lives in a trailer, finds work in his father-in-law’s slaughterhouse, and has a sick mother.

One of the trickiest aspects of creating drama from a celebrated artist's life is finding an actor who can convey both the emotional life and the talent of that artist. It takes an accomplished actor to provide a convincing face to that artist and an excellent artist to convey the talent.