We are pleased to announce that the 18th Annual Cinema CNC Film Festival will take place March 7 to 9, 2014 at the Prince George Playhouse.
As in past years, we have 8 great Canadian films for you over three days. We'll show you short films. We'll sell you popcorn and other treats. There will be prizes. You will have a whole heck of a lot of fun.
Passes will be available at Books and Company, the CNC Bookstore, and the UNBC Bookstore.
Friday, March 7: 7pm: CAS & DYLAN Director: Jason Priestley Canada, 2013 English 90 minutes Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Tatiana Maslany
Life on the road has been the subject of some of the most honoured works in Canadian cinema history, from Goin’ Down the Road to Highway 61 to One Week. Smart, funny and heartfelt, Cas & Dylan, the feature directorial debut from actor-turned-filmmaker Jason Priestley can now be added to that collection of memorable films.
Screen legend Richard Dreyfuss stars as Dr. Cas Pepper, a curmudgeonly surgeon whose only companion in life is his small dog. Faced with some unexpected news, Cas makes the abrupt decision to leave Winnipeg and drive west to British Columbia—and to an uncertain future. Before departing, he meets an aspiring young writer named Dylan who possesses a life-altering secret of her own, and wouldn’t mind coming along for the ride. The two unlikely companions hit the road, encountering a series of bizarre twists and turns along their cross-country journey. And it isn’t long before they realize that, in searching for an escape route, they may have found their place in the world.
Beautifully shot against the visually stunning backdrop of the Canadian Prairies and Rocky Mountains, Cas & Dylan is a breath-taking voyage of discovery. Priestley’s wealth of experience as an actor is obvious in the performances he extracts from his two leads. Boasting a terrific soundtrack featuring Canadian artists such as Jenn Grant and Old Man Luedecke, Cas & Dylan will appeal to audiences young and old.
Friday, March 7: 9:30: THE ART OF THE STEAL Director: Jonathan Sobol Canada, 2013 110 mins. Cast: Kurt Russell, Matt Dillon, Terence Stamp, Jay Baruchel
Following the success of his debut feature A Beginner’s Guide to Endings, writer-director Jonathan Sobol returns with the muchanticipated The Art of the Steal. Featuring an all-star cast that includes Kurt Russell, Matt Dillon, Terence Stamp, and Jay Baruchel, Sobol’s riotous crime caper keeps
audiences laughing and guessing until its clever finale.
Part-time art thief Crunch Calhoun (Russell) lands in prison after a major score goes awry and his brother Nicky (Dillon) double-crosses him. Hoping to start anew upon his release several years later, Crunch returns to his former career as a motorcycle daredevil. But it isn’t long before he’s in hot water once again due to Nicky, and Crunch must reunite with his brother and their old band of criminal
comrades for one final heist: to steal a priceless (and well-guarded) historical book. Tensions escalate as Crunch and Nicky each appear to possess their own agendas and loyalties are thrown into
question.
With The Art of the Steal, Sobol skillfully creates a layered, sophisticated crime comedy, which is
bolstered by its veteran cast. Sobol’s sophomore effort is a hilarious and fast-paced heist film
reminiscent of the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, and is certain to delight a wide range of audiences.
Saturday, March 8: 1pm: HI-HO MISTAHEY! Director: Alanis Obomsawin Canada, 2013 English, Cree with English subtitles 100 minutes Documentary
For more than forty years, legendary documentary filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin has given voice to Canada’s First Peoples, chronicling the dismantling of indigenous culture and battles with dominant society. Her new film addresses another pressing issue affecting this country’s First Nations communities: the shockingly low levels of school funding and basic maintenance from Canada’s federal and provincial governments.
The Attawapiskat First Nation closed their elementary school in 2000 due to toxic land contamination. Since then, students have been learning in chilly, rundown portables infested with rodents. This has led to high teacher turnover and a host of other problems. Frustrated by unfulfilled promises of a new school from the government, the late Shannen Koostachin began one of the largest ever youth-driven movements, now called “Shannen’s Dream,” which pressed for safe, comfortable schools and culturally based equitable education for aboriginal students. Hi-Ho Mistahey! chronicles this campaign, culminating in a delegation of six First Nations youth ambassadors presenting in Geneva to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
A master of capturing irony and injustice, Obomsawin reveals startling facts. For example,under Canada’s Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs, school funding is not protected and can easily be redirected to pay for community roadwork, or litigation. Historically, Canada’s treatment of its indigenous population has been shameful to say the least, and though there has been progress in recent years, Hi-Ho Mistahey! is a testament to the amount of change still needed. Obomsawin’s latest film is one of her best, a searing criticism of government oversight told compassionately and with an unyielding message: all children deserve the chance to succeed.
Saturday, March 8: 7pm: SIDDHARTH Director: Richie Mehta Canada/India, 2013 Hindi with English subtitles 96 minutes Principal Cast: Rajesh Tailang, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Khushi Mathur
Director Richie Mehta follows his 2008 Film Circuit People's Choice Award–winning and debut feature Amal with this powerful and heart-rending tale about a poor Delhi street merchant desperately searching for his missing young son.
A “chain wallah” who makes his meagre living mending zippers in the streets of New Delhi, Mahendra (newcomer Rajesh Tailang, in a superb performance) sends his 12-year-old son Siddharth to work in a factory in another province to help support their family, which includes his mother Suman and sister Pinky. Siddharth is supposed to come home for Diwali after a month away. When he fails to return or call, the guilt-ridden Mahendra takes swift action but faces obstacles at every turn: he has no money, or even a photograph of his son; the authorities scold him for putting his son to work and suggest Siddharth would be untraceable if kidnapped and trafficked in a population of a billion people.
Mehta deftly brings to life Mahendra’s moving, tangled, and often seemingly futile journey with a
neorealist touch that transforms the film into a genuine human portrait, setting this quest against the backdrop of community that is poor in so many ways, yet rich in family and love. Riddled with
mysteries, Siddharth reminds us that sometimes there simply are no easy answers. A powerful story about the ramifications of a single decision and the limitations that result from poverty, it underscores that in the face of the unspeakable, one must keep moving forward.
Saturday, March 8: 9:30: BURT’S BUZZ Director: Jody Shapiro Canada, 2013 English 88 minutes Documentary With: Burt Shavitz
Following his cheeky documentary How to Start Your Own Country, director Jody Shapiro returns with Burt’s Buzz, a vibrant and incisive portrait of Burt Shavitz. Famous for its all-natural personal care items, Burt’s Bees has become a household name in many parts of the world. The company built a mighty reputation as a producer of eco-friendly products made from simple ingredients, and in the process it has become a billion-dollar business. But less well- known is the eccentric man behind the brand, whose bearded face still graces many of its labels.
In Burt’s Buzz, Shapiro takes us into the reclusive backwoods world of beekeeper Shavitz, still committed to living off the land in Maine, as he has since the 1970s, in a renovated turkey coop with no running water. Shapiro explores Shavitz’s peculiar relationship with the company he co-founded with Roxanne Quimby. The birth of Burt’s Bees and its emergence as a lucrative brand may be the stuff of legend, but it’s also contentious: Shavitz sold his shares decades ago, reaping virtually nothing from the company’s financial success; yet he remains contracted to promote the brand, travelling the world making public appearances. Wise and wry, absent-minded and unflappable, Shavitz is a fascinating subject.
With a steadfast, subtle hand, Shapiro exposes the contrasts and ironies that pepper Shavitz’s life—including the collision between business and personal values—and delicately mines the humour and emotion of his story. The result is a thoughtfully layered portrait of this highly idiosyncratic pioneer, and a revealing study of what it means to be a living icon.
Sunday, March 9: 2pm: GABRIELLE Director: Louise Archambault Canada, 2013 French with English subtitles 104 minutes Principal Cast: Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, Alexandre Landry, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin Canada’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2014 Academy Awards, and produced by the team behind the Oscar-nominated Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar, Louise Archambault’s Gabrielle is a stunning, tender film about a developmentally challenged young woman’s quest for independence and sexual freedom.
Living in a group home, musically talented Gabrielle has found love with Martin, a fellow member of her choir. They want to explore their feelings for one another physically, but are not allowed. Convinced that living alone will allow her to have the intimate relationship she so desperately craves, Gabrielle tries valiantly to prove she can be independent.
As she did with Familia—which won Best Canadian First Feature at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival—Archambault displays her keen ability to distill the emotional currents of families at a crossroads. Gabrielle’s rock is her sister Sophie, who tries to help her but knows that full independence will never be possible. Meanwhile, Sophie is facing her own life-altering decision. Unlike the troubled relationship the women have with their mother, Sophie and Gabrielle find immeasurable strength and inspiration in each other.
At the core of this film is the heartfelt performance by Marion-Rivard (who has Williams syndrome in real life). Gabrielle’s effusive giddiness is contagious, her drive unrelenting. As the choir works towards its big performance with Quebec music legend Robert Charlebois, this turbulent, moving journey is furthered by Mathieu Laverdière’s ethereal cinematography. Gabrielle is a captivating film about tolerance and finding happiness, but, above all, it is a story of love.
Sunday, March 9: 7pm: OUR MAN IN TEHRAN Directors: Drew Taylor & Larry Weinstein Canada, 2013 English 85 minutes Documentary With: Ken Taylor, Joe Clark, Flora Macdonald, Tony Mendez, Zena Sheardown, Carole Jerome, Joe Schlesinger, William Daugherty, Gary Sick, Bob Anders
Ben Affleck’s Academy Award–winning blockbuster Argo rekindled public awareness of Canada’s
pivotal role in the rescue of US embassy staffers during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film paid homage to the valiant efforts made by then-ambassador Ken Taylor, as well as his wife and
colleagues, to provide a safe haven and counterfeit docu- ments to the six Americans who made it out of Tehran unscathed.
But Argo was entertainment first and foremost—“based on a true story,” but not the whole story. In this gripping new docu- mentary, the “Canadian Caper” is told by the man who knows it best: Ken Taylor himself. Separating the historical facts from the liberties taken in Argo, Taylor offers a vivid, first-person account of the weeks of nerve-fraying tension as he and his collaborators put their
clandestine plan in motion, know- ing that the slightest slip-up could mean dire consequences for all. No detail is spared, from the risks taken in secretly sheltering the six Americans in the Canadian
embassy and helping them flee the country, to Operation Eagle Claw, the US’ failed attempt to rescue the other 52 Americans being held hostage inside the captured American embassy.
Also featuring interviews with the rescued Americans, former Prime Minister Joe Clark, and ex-CIA
officer Tony Mendez (Argo’s main protagonist), Our Man in Tehran chronicles the amazing true story behind the thrilling feature film. Awarded a US Congressional Gold Medal and an Officer of the Order of Canada, Taylor is a real-life hero—our hero.
Sunday, March 9: 9:30: THE HUSBAND Director: Bruce McDonald Canada, 2013 80 mins. Cast: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, August Diehl, Sarah Allen
The latest from Canadian maverick Bruce McDonald, The Husband is a fresh, unique and gutsy black comedy about impotent male rage and the limits of compassion. Henry, the hero of McDonald’s film, is having a really bad year. His wife, Alyssa, a former teacher, is in jail for sleeping with a 14-year-old student, forcing Henry to raise their infant son alone. He loathes his ad agency job, and his co-workers even more. Moreover, the burden of single parenting has essentially cut him off from his friends and left him to stew. As Alyssa’s release looms, Henry finds it increasingly difficult to contain himself.
The Husband is defiantly unpredictable. We’re never quite sure where the film is headed, but we know there’s a strong chance it isn’t someplace good. Yet we watch, transfixed, as Henry approaches an undefined point of no return, primarily because it’s hard not to empathize with him on some level, but also because of the astonishing performance of co-writer and star Maxwell McCabe-Lokos. Hunched over, always infuriated and in a rush, Henry is part golem and part speed freak, furiously trying to escape his own anger. McCabe-Lokos is aided by Sarah Allen as the baffling yet sympathetic Alyssa; noted German actor August Iehl (Inglourious Basterds) as Henry’s lone remaining friend; and the iconic Stephen McHattie as Alyssa’s understanding father. Keeping all of these elements under control is McDonald, who turns in his most subtle job of direction to date.
With its sly humour and increasingly frenzied characters, The Husband borrows elements of Italian sex comedies from the 1960s while taking aim at more serious subjects. Guilt may be—as Susan Sontag once suggested—the most useless, unproductive emotion, but chances are that jealousy, leavened with macho rage, comes a close second.
