Films
The original 2020 selection - part of the CANADA NOW showcases & tour in the US - and recently released Canadian films.
MATTHIAS & MAXIME
Director: Xavier Dolan
130 minutes | French with English Subtitles
Two childhood best friends are asked to share a kiss for the purposes of a student short film. Soon, a lingering doubt sets in, confronting both of them with their preferences, threatening the brotherhood of their social circle, and, eventually, changing their lives.
Cannes Film Festival 2019, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020, BFI London Film Festival 2019, Stokholm Film International Festival 2019
GUEST OF HONOUR
Director: Atom Egoyan
2019 | 105 minutes | English, Armenian with English Subtitles
Internationally acclaimed veteran auteur filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Adoration, Remember) returns with a complex, absorbing family drama about a father-daughter relationship wrestling with past traumas that inform present circumstances. Jim Davis (played brilliantly by David Thewlis) is a health inspector in Hamilton, making sure restaurants are up to health code standards. His daughter, Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira), a high school music teacher, has been recently incarcerated for inappropriate behaviour with students. Jim is convinced that she innocent, but...
AND THE BIRDS RAINED DOWN /
IL PLEUVAIT DES OISEAUX
Director: Louise Archambault
2019 | 127 minutes | French with English Subtitles
In this meditative drama about time and friendship, award-winning director Louise Archambault (Familia, Gabrielle) weaves together the stories of three aging hermits who have left their former lives and gone ‘off the grid’ into the Quebec landscape. Living in a remote forest near a lake, Tom, Charlie, and Ted pass the time by tending to their neighbor’s cannabis crop, swimming, singing, and reminiscing. Their peaceful pastoral existence is soon shattered by a sudden death of one in their group, and by the arrival of two women: a young...
ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF NOAH PIUGATTUK
Director: Zacharias Kunuk
2019 | 111 minutes | English, Inuktitut with English subtitles
Set in 1961 on Canada’s far northern Baffin Island, Zacharias Kunuk’s latest drama is a quietly riveting tale drawn from the historical reality of the attempted forced relocation and cultural assimilation of Canada’s Inuit Indigenous peoples. One Day revolves around Noah Piugattuk and his nomadic Inuit band who live and hunt as their ancestors have done for millennia in the vast snowy landscapes. During one hunting trip, proceedings are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of an Inuit translator and a white government employee, known as ‘Boss.’...
THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
Director: Yung Chang
2019 | 106 minutes | English
This fascinating, intimate portrait of British journalist Robert Fisk may be about a single journalist, but it’s also an intelligent and valuable documentary about how -- now more than ever -- credible, reliable journalism in general is crucial to understanding our tumultuous world. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Yung Chang (Up The Yangtze) follows Fisk’s storied and often dangerous career, from his early coverage of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland to the various, ongoing, and intense Middle East conflicts from the Israeli-Palestinian tensions to recent...
WHITE LIE
Directors: Calvin Thomas, Yonah Lewis
2019 | 96 minutes | English
Twentysomething university student Katie Arneson (played with arrestingly intensity by Kacey Rohl) is struggling to balance life and school. Estranged from her father and damaged by the death of her mother, Katie is trying to cope with not only financial stresses in her life, but also a recent cancer diagnosis. To deal with both, she starts an online funding campaign to pay her way through school and for the ongoing cancer treatments. Trouble is, Katie’s cancer story is fake; she’s made it up as a personal fundraising scheme. While initially convincing, cracks soon begin to appear in her story....
ANTIGONE
Director: Sophie Deraspe
2019 | 109 minutes | French with English Subtitles
Writer-director Sophie Deraspe’s incisive ‘liberal adaptation’ of the Greek tragedy by Sophocles is the daring story of one young woman’s passionate commitment to make the world a better place, even if it means sacrificing herself. An Algerian-born teenager growing up with her immigrant family in Montreal, Antigone’s (a stunning, luminous performance by Nahéma Ricci) world is shaken when her oldest brother is killed by police and her other brother arrested; if convicted, he will face deportation. Antigone soon invents a fearless, dangerous plan to free him: but can it succeed? As Antigone’s...
A BROTHER’S LOVE /
LA FEMME DE MON FRERE
Director: Monia Chokri
2019 | 117 MINUTES | French with English Subtitles
Sophia is 35 years old, single, and facing that dreaded mid-life crisis. After failing to secure a position in a university Philosophy Department due to some controversial elements of her dissertation, she needs to re-examine her life decisions to this point. Since her part-time job managing a community centre art gallery isn't enough to pay for her own apartment, Sophia ‘temporarily’ moves in with her beloved older brother, Karim. Given their intense sibling relationship, he's more than happy to share his place. This seemingly unbreakable bond will be...
BLACK CONFLUX
Director: Nicole Dorsey
2019 | 100 minutes | English
Set in small town Newfoundland in 1987, Nicole Dorsey's stylish debut feature revolves around the lives of two very different misfits. Intelligent and creative, Jackie Dunphy (Ella Ballentine in a striking performance) is a promising high school student with a bright future, but she struggles with both her damaged family’s past and her own confusing present. Raised by her aunt and haunted by Dunphy family failures, Jackie tries to fit in by partying and skipping school, all by way of carving out her own identity. In another part of town, meanwhile, Dennis Smarten (Ryan McDonald) is a socially awkward, slightly...
RED SNOW
Director: Marie Clements
2019 | 95 minutes | English
This striking, stylish debut feature by Marie Clements offers an intense, dramatic perspective on modern warfare. RED SNOW revolves around Dylan, a Gwich'in soldier from the Canadian Arctic serving in Afghanistan. Captured in a deadly ambush, he is imprisoned and interrogated by a ruthless Taliban commander. This interrogation triggers in Dylan powerful, painful memories of his past involving the love and tragic death of his Inuit cousin, Asana. While in captivity, Dylan also befriends a Pashtun family who, like him, desperately want to flee from the brutal realities of life under the Taliban. Together they...