Films
CLARA
Director: Akash Sherman
2018 | 105 minutes
Clara tells the story of Isaac Bruno, an astronomer consumed by the search for life beyond Earth. Convinced that the universe is a dark and lonely place, Isaac meets Clara, an artist who shares his fascination for the wonders of space. Their unlikely collaboration leads to a deep connection, and a profound scientific discovery
EDGE OF THE KNIFE/SGAAWAAY K’UUNA
Directors: Gwaai Edenshaw, Helen Haig-Brown
2018 | 100 minutes
Set in the 19th century on the island of Haida Gwaii on British Columbia’s north Pacific coast, Edge of the Knife is the legendary indigenous tale of Adiits’ii, who retreats alone into the forest after a tragic accident at sea takes the life of his beloved nephew. Wracked with grief and hounded by spirits, he slowly transforms himself into the Wildman, or Gaagiixiit. Will he ever be forgiven? Can he forgive himself? Can he ever re-enter his community? A daring, groundbreaking film made entirely in two dialects of a nearly extinct Haida language (note: 2019 is UNESCO’s the Year of...
FOR THOSE WHO DON’T READ ME/À TOUS CEUX QUI NE ME LISENT PAS
Director: Yan Giroux
2018 | 107 minutes
All his life, Yves has dedicated himself to writing poetry, regardless of the cost to his life and lifestyle. After a chance meeting at a book launch, the now middle aged Yves storms into Dyane’s life, a graphic designer who falls for his charms and invites him into her home and her life. Her son Marc immediately disapproves of this eccentric stranger in his mother’s bed. Soon enough, however, the studious teenager finds Yves’ rebellious ways attractive and, inspired by the bedraggled poet, begins to explore his own artistic side. Meanwhile, Yves feels increasingly trapped and...
GIANT LITTLE ONES
Director: Keith Behrman
2018 | 93 minutes
Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins) and Ballas Kohl (Darren Mann) have been best friends since childhood. They are high school royalty: handsome, stars of the swim team and popular with girls. They live a perfect teenage life – until the night of Franky's epic 17th birthday party, when Franky and Ballas are involved in an unexpected incident that changes their lives forever. Giant Little Ones is a heartfelt and intimate coming-of-age story about friendship, self-discovery and the power of love without labels.
Hugh Hefner’s After Dark: Speaking Out in America
Director: Brigitte Berman
2018 | 101 minutes
From Brigitte Berman, Oscar winning director of Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got (1985), comes this remarkable documentary of one of America’s most influential and controversial cultural icons, Hugh Hefner. In addition to its considered portrait of Hefner as a man of his times who also transcended them, this film features an incredible array of archival footage from Hugh Hefner's landmark TV series, Playboy's Penthouse (1959-1960) and Playboy After Dark (1968-1970). Amongst the martinis and bonhomie, Hefner’s shows offered urgent cultural and political commentaries from pop culture...
Mouthpiece
Director: Patricia Rozema
2018 | 91 minutes
Faced with the sudden death of her mother and wrestling with the daunting responsibility of delivering the eulogy, aspiring writer Cassandra finds solace and inspiration in her imagination and in her memory, which rapidly become indistinguishable. As the funeral service approaches, Cassandra’s conflicted, complex reflections on and memories of her mother intensify and push her life in new and unexpected directions. Moving back and forth in time, the film’s multifaceted narrative probes the intimacies and emotional complexities of how we remember, what we remember, and why we remember. Based on the award-winning play by...
PROSECUTING EVIL: THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD OF BEN FERENCZ
Director: Barry Avrich
2018 | 83 minutes
Barry Avrich’s gripping new documentary tells the fascinating story of Ben Ferencz — the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor and lifelong advocate of “law not war.” After witnessing Nazi concentration camps shortly after liberation, Ferencz became lead prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen case at Nuremberg, which has been called the biggest murder trial in history.
He was 27 years old and it was his first trial. All 22 Nazi officials tried for murdering over a million people were convicted. Ferencz went on to advocate for restitution for Jewish victims of the Holocaust and later for...
THE FIREFLIES ARE GONE/LA DISPARITION DES LUCIOLES
Director: Sébastien Pilote
2018 | 96 minutes
On the verge of her high school graduation, a brilliant, high-spirited young 18 year-old woman named Léo can’t wait to get out of her drab small town in Quebec’s hinterland. Tired of her mother’s nagging, her stepfather’s relentless and reactionary right wing opinions, and her absent father who lives and works far, far away, Léo is restless, alienated, and bored. She’s also weary of adults telling her what is best for her future. All of Léo’s ennui and frustration changes, however, when she meets Steve, a quietly charismatic 30-something guitar teacher who still lives in town in his...
THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE
Directors: Don McKellar
2018 | 111 minutes
Based on the Giller-Award-winning novel, Through Black Spruce is the story of a young Cree woman whose disappearance triggers events in two worlds: in Moosonee, the remote Northern Ontario community she fled years ago, and Toronto, where she modelled before vanishing. Her twin sister, at home hunting moose in the North but a fish out of water in the city, reluctantly heads south to retrace her sister’s steps. The two worlds collide when the fallout from the missing woman's troubled life comes to a violent head, back in Moosonee.