Who was that friendly, striking woman on John Landis's arm during his festival visit?

That's a question I've been asked all week, but to say she's the Hollywood moviemaker's wife is telling only half the story.

Deborah Nadoolman Landis is an Oscar-nominated costume designer and scholar whose iconic creations include Michael Jackson's red Thriller jacket, John Belushi's toga in National Lampoon's Animal House and Indiana Jones's signature fedora and jacket.

As you might have guessed, it's the outfit worn by Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies she's most often asked about.

"All the time," laughs Landis, who has also earned acclaim for her theatre and opera costume designs.

"Every year, I judge the masquerade at Comic-Con in San Diego, and every year I have fans dressed up as Indiana Jones coming up to me asking if they got things right."

She cracked up again at a reception at the Maritime Museum when asked if she's working on another movie.

"What else do you want me to do? Another movie on top of this?," she joked. "I shudder when someone says, 'Oh, what are you doing?' You really don't want to know."

Landis, chairwoman of the David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design at UCLA, has spent five years curating Hollywood Costume Design, an upcoming exhibition on the history of Hollywood costume design at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

She also has three books coming out - Filmcraft: Costume Design, Costume Sketchbook and her lavishly illustrated hardcover catalogue for the London retrospective.

The designer says she hasn't stopped since embarking on her life's "second chapter" at 40 by ratcheting up her educational achievements. She earned a PhD in history of design at London's Royal College of Art and has already written or edited several publications, including Screencraft: Costume Design and Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design.

Landis, whose credits include Coming To America, which earned her the Oscar nomination, An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers and Burke and Hare, said she is happy designers are finally getting more recognition.

"When I started, many contemporary films had no costume designers because producers were trying to save money," she said, noting designers of period films and fantasies tend to attract the lion's share of nominations.

"Almost 100 per cent have designers now," she said, using Inception as an example of a film that values costume design.

"People like [director] Chris Nolan brought designers back into Hollywood movies."

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PUPPET LOVE: Sunflower Hour director Aaron Houston seemed relieved being able to speak English on his home turf this week.

His wickedly funny mockumentary about children's TV puppeteers with issues has been seen mostly by Europeans so far.

"The first time we showed it to an audience was in the Czech Republic," said the Vancouver-based filmmaker, referring to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where it won the Independent Camera Award.

"Comedy doesn't necessarily travel that well, and it's another language, with subtitles. But they loved it over there."

The film has also been accepted into festivals in India, Estonia and Uruguay, where it seems to have universal appeal.

"I think my style of writing or whatever makes it more human than cultural or societal," said Houston, whose film follows a quartet of dysfunctional puppeteers auditioning for a cheesy kiddie TV show produced by a porn merchant.

"It's been interesting to see the reaction globally. It shows that when things are broken, we're all the same."

Houston was inspired to make the film after watching a children's show with his daughter. He was surprised to see that the name of the puppeteer for the main character was bigger and brighter than others on the credits.

"It struck me as funny that there are even big egos in children's TV," he said. "I always thought children's TV would be pure and moralistic and that these people would be like their characters, doing it all for the right reasons."

Patrick Gilmore, who plays a weirdo whose puppet condemns homosexuality, said he's glad Houston lost his naïveté.

"Are you telling me there wasn't some debauchery and drugs going on with those TV shows?" laughs the Vancouver actor.

"You hear stories about Jim Henson and Frank Oz drinking and doing drugs and you think, 'Yeah, to get that kind of creativity you've got to be out of your mind.' "

Gilmore couldn't resist asking Houston what drugs he was on when he created his movie.

"None," smiles Houston. "I'm just high on life."

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GOING TO THE DOGS: Actress and animal rights activist Linda Blair couldn't resist dropping by the SPCA for a quick tour Friday afternoon. She took to the animal shelter and its furry inhabitants like a fish to water, taking time to greet newfound canine companions such as retired 10-year-old "puppy mill mommy" Angelina, a terrier and chihuaha cross, and Elmer, the shelter's three-legged English mastiff mascot.

The massive 10-monthold puppy rewarded Blair with a big wet kiss that left some drool on her face.

"Oh, well, he's got some of my lipstick, so it's a fair trade," laughed Blair, who will appear at a meet-andgreet reception this afternoon at Bon Rouge Bistro. Proceeds from the $30-ahead fundraiser will benefit her Linda Blair World Heart Foundation.

Here are Michael D. Reid's latest Victoria Film Festival reviews. The 10-day cinematic showcase wraps up Sunday.

SISTERS & BROTHERS

Where: Odeon

When: Today, 2: 45 p.m.

Rating: 3

After Mothers & Daughters and Fathers & Sons, Carl Bessai comes full circle with this quirky, lightweight final film in his family dynamics trilogy - a respectable and surprisingly more dramatic than humorous meditation that anyone with a brother or sister should relate to. Playfully using a comic book motif as a linking device - ostensibly to recapture our childhood obsessions? - the prolific Vancouver writer, director and cinematographer cross-cuts four contrived mini-dramas involving as many sets of siblings. In the most engaging and far-fetched, a slimy would-be film producer (Tom Scholte) persuades a sexy young Vancouver actress (Amanda Crew) to drive to L.A. with him, promising her a shot at a female action hero role, with her shrill sister (Camille Sullivan) in tow. Victoria's Cory Monteith also gamely sends up his Hollywood fame in a nod to Entourage as a movie star trying to get along with his brother (Dustin Milligan), an actorturned-humanitarian who resents him for abandoning their mother. Ben Ratner and Gabrielle Miller also show up as a schizophrenic brother and his care-giving sister, with a nice turn by Jay Brazeau as an eccentric so-called lawyer. And in the most preposterous episode, a sullen teen (Kacey Rohl) lashes out at her mother (Gabrielle Rose) even more than usual when an Indian half-sister (Leena Manro) she never knew she had suddenly moves in. While this might not be Bessai's greatest film, it's a fitfully captivating and nicely acted diversion - one that seems like a chamber piece compared to New Year's Eve and other current multicharacter pieces out there.

Article 12

Where: Empire Capitol 6

When: Today, 4: 30 p.m.

Rating: 2

Given the potency and urgency of its provocative topic - the erosion of our privacy in a chillingly Orwellian world - it's a pity Argentinian filmmaker Juan Manuel Biain's documentary is as turgid, conventional and preachy as it is. If you can make it past the yawn-inducing succession of talking heads Biain unwisely begins with, this cautionary meditation on surveillance, voyeurism and our escalating vulnerability to violations of our basic right to privacy does grow more absorbing as it gets into specifics. It's fascinating to realize, for instance - through visuals that augment what we're being told - how our "digital footprints" - our use of debit cards, transit passes, key cards and so on - can so readily be exploited. It makes it frighteningly easy for corporations or other parties to access sensitive data that can reveal our daily whereabouts, online activity, religious beliefs and spending habits, such as whether we're buying too much booze or cigarettes - valuable information for insurance companies. With our civil liberties increasingly threatened thanks to the increasing threats of global terrorism, there's a certain pleasure to be derived from hearing musician and activist Brian Eno playfully advocating the destruction of TV transmitters to stop "the monolithic thinking that media produces," or helpful counter-surveillance hints from the likes of hacker Emmanuel Goldstein, one of the most colourful contributors.

Some of these so-called solutions are questionable, perhaps, but at least they snap us back to attention amid Biain's meandering treatise that subjects us to seemingly endless input from the usual suspects - Noam Chomsky and the gang. Some of it is genuinely compelling, but too much of what we're hearing is redundant and, worse, simply states the obvious. It would take a lot more than a few flashy visuals of Times Square, shots of aerial drones and other such filler that Biain employs to make this half-baked documentary more compelling than it is. In spite of such drawbacks, however, the film succeeds in that it might compel you to learn more about your privacy settings - and tighten them - the next time you're on Facebook.

mreid@timescolonist.com