Tickets will be available on February 29th, at Books and Company, The CNC Bookstore, and The UNBC Bookstore. Please let your friends know about the festival. The films are all confirmed; the dates and times are subject to change... we hope to have a guest for the festival and would like to highlight his/her film, so need to be flexible.
The list of films and times [currently] follows. I will make individual pages at the end of the month. [Part of the reason for delay is that I (Peter) leave Monday to go to Berlin for the Film Festival there... I know, not as exciting as ours, but it will do for now. Hopefully, all will be finalized on my return.]
DIR: Mark Sawers CANADA, 2015
80 minutes
Cast: Kristine Cofsky, Patrick Gilmore, Rekha Sharma
This wry mockumentary posits an alternate history where an explosion of virgin births from the 1950s onwards has taken men out of the procreation equation: now that only girls are being born, it seems that men’s days on earth are numbered. At thirty-seven years old, Andrew Myers is now the youngest man in the world. He has a quiet life working as a nanny for Terra and Iris, until he begins having an affair with Iris, and the two have to hide their love. With the end of humanity as we know it approaching, the couple’s actions will take on historical proportions.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/
DIR: Andrew Cividino CANADA, 2015
90 minutes
Cast: Jackson Martin, Nick Serino, Reece Moffett
This is a whip-smart study of the emotional extremes of adolescence, and their potentially catastrophic effects. Nate, Riley, and Adam are dealing with boredom with dim-witted shenanigans until Taylor arrives to change their social balance. If you’ve ever spent a teenage summer in a rural area with little supervision and nothing much to do, you’ll instantly recognize both the ennui and the creeping atmosphere of mystery and menace that pervades the experience. Cividino creates a volatile, captivating and singular look at adolescence, wholly free of the sanitized antics of Hollywood.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/
DIR:Brian D. Johnson CANADA, 2015
92 minutes. Documentary
With: Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Sarah Harmer, Michael Ondaatje, Eurithe Purdy, Tanya Tagaq
An icon of Canadian letters, Al Purdy was equal parts rock star, raconteur, and rabble-rouser: in other words, all poet. Coming to prominence in the 1960s alongside a crop of other extraordinary talents, Purdy scorned the tired tales of rural life that had dominated Canadian literature and set out to focus on contemporary Canadian experience. What emerges is a far more complex portrait of Purdy than was suggested by his public persona as the boisterous lover of booze, brawls, and verse, immortalized in his best-known poems.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/
DIR: Atom Egoyan CANADA, 2015
95 minutes
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Henry Czerny
Master filmmaker Atom Egoyan tackles one of the darkest chapters of history, giving legendary actor Christopher Plummer a majestic role as an elderly Holocaust survivor seeking revenge on the man responsible for the deaths of his family. Plummer plays Zev, a recent widower whose deteriorating state forces him to be placed in permanent care. When he discovers that the concentration-camp guard who murdered his relatives is now living in America under an assumed identity, Zev resolves to fulfill his final vow to his wife by exacting vengeance on the escaped war criminal.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/
DIR: Patricia Rozema CANADA, 2015
96 minutes
Cast: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Callum Keith Rennie
A mesmerizing story about two sisters who are forced to fend for themselves in a society that may be on the brink of collapse. Living with their recently widowed father in a house over thirty miles from the nearest town, sisters Nell and Eva gradually become aware of the severity of their situation as their supplies dwindle and the blackout continues. As they contend with the threats of intruders, disease, loneliness and starvation, the young women are forced to re-examine their place in the world and their relations to the land, their home, and each other.
The Stars Discuss the movie: https://www.youtube.com/
DIR: Anne Émond French w. subtitles,
102 minutes
Cast: Maxim Gaudette, Karelle Tremblay, Valérie Cadieux
Protected by his well-intentioned siblings from the truth about his father’s death, the sensitive David has grown into a loving husband and father of two, living a seemingly fulfilling life. But as the years go by, during which time his relationship with his wilder brother begins to strain and his kids grow into young adulthood, David begins to struggle with a melancholia that gradually threatens to engulf him. While epic in scope this film remains unerringly attuned to the inner lives of the family, portraying their heartbreaks and joys with sincerity and grace.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/
DIR: Philippe Falardeau
108 minutes
Fr, Eng, Creole, w. subtitles
Cast: Patrick Huard, Suzanne Clément, Irdens Exantus
In this satirical look at the vagaries of Canadian politics, an MP finds himself thrust suddenly into the spotlight, and it’s up to his young Haitian intern to help the hapless backbencher navigate the complexities and pitfalls of Parliament Hill. Canadians’ tendency to focus on the regional and specific at the expense of the wider picture is exposed. This gently skewering satire demonstrates that sometimes it takes an outsider to explain the workings, and the value, of the unique system that makes our democracy (sometimes) function.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/
Director: Sean Garrity Canada 2015
95 minutes
Cast: Joey King, Clé Bennett, Emily Hampshire
Jonah gambles. Jonah borrows a lot of money. Jonah loses the money, so much money that it leaves the loan-shark threatening him, his daughter, and his dog unless the debt is paid. Meanwhile, his daughter, Aurora, goes for an eye exam, the results of which are shared with her father. Unable to tell her the truth about the devestating diagnosis and unable to pay his debts, Jonah decides to take Aurora on a road trip to Churchill, Manitoba, to see the single more incredible sight he has seen: the Northern Lights.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/
