Our Fall Series is here; 8 great films for your viewing pleasure.
All showtimes are 7 + 9:30 pm in
room 1-306 at The College of New Caledonia
Thursday, 13 September 2018
Fall Films 2018
Our Fall Series is here; 8 great films for your viewing pleasure.
All showtimes are 7 + 9:30 pm in
room 1-306 at The College of New Caledonia
November 24th: THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Director: Desiree AkhavanUSA, 2018 English 90 minutes
Principal Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Jennifer Ehle, Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck
After her clandestine romance with her female best friend is revealed, Cameron Post’s (Chloë Grace Moretz, Brain on Fire; The Clouds of Sils Maria) conservative aunt and guardian sends her away to undergo conversion therapy.
Despite dealing with the tragedy of losing her parents in a car crash, Cameron seemingly fits in well with her conservative Montana community: she performs well at school, holds a place on the track team, participates in her local youth group, and has a picture-perfect boyfriend on her arm. However, when she and her best friend Coley are caught embracing after a high school dance, Cameron’s life quickly comes crashing down around her.
Cameron is immediately sent to pray away her “same-sex attraction” at God’s Promise, an evangelical conversion therapy camp, where she’s forced to wrestle with her identity and sexual orientation among a group of similarly stranded youths. After making a real connec- tion with fellow campers Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane, American Honey; Hearts Beat Loud) and Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck, Indian Horse; The Revenant) and seeing some of the devastating effects of the camp’s program on others, Cameron is forced to question the legitimacy of the camp’s dogmatic teachings and decide for herself who she really is.
Winner of the US Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic feature at Sundance, The Miseducation of Cameron Post deftly explores how identities, families, and communities are intertwined through its stellar cast of up-and-coming actors and Desiree Akhavan’s skilled and thoughtful direction.
“Chloë Grace Moretz puts in a career-best turn as a teen sent to ‘pray away the gay’ at a Christian camp in Desiree Akhavan’s compassionate LGBT story.”
– Jordan Hoffman, The Guardian
The TRAILER:
November 17th: RAMEN SHOP
RAMEN SHOP
Dir: Eric Khoo. Singapore, Japan, France, 2018, 89 minsThe way to the heart is always through the stomach in Ramen Teh, a tear-stained tale of broken families and healing recipes. Erik Khoo’s gentle drama is handled with a sincerity that could commend it to incurable romantics and insatiable foodies alike.
Food and family has proved a classic combination from Tampopo to Eat Drink Man Woman and Sweet Bean. Ramen Teh feels very much in that tradition with constant scenes of food being lovingly prepared as ingredients are chopped, seasoned, simmered, reduced and transformed into mouth-watering dishes. It is very much a film that should not be approached on an empty stomach.
Food is a way of life for Masato (Takumi Saitoh), a ramen chef in the Japanese city of Takasaki. His working life unfolds to a soundtrack of the contented slurping of noodles and broth. When his dour, distant father dies, Masato discovers a suitcase filled with family photos, souvenirs and notebooks left by his Singaporean mother who died when he was just ten. Masato decides to visit Singapore, exploring the food culture with blogger Miki (Seiko Matsuda), revisiting the places that meant so much to his parents and tracking down surviving members of his mother’s family.
When Masato learns more of his parents’ past, the film slides into glowing flashbacks of their tender romance and veers perilously close to Nicholas Sparks territory. The screenplay by Fong Cheng Tan and Kim Ho Wong is rarely surprising and the dialogue is often too on the nose for comfort. “Did his heart become as hard as stone because of mother?“ wonders Masato as he reflects on his unfeeling father. The discovery of his mother’s diary prompts the remark: “The diary is a quilt of memories that she had stitched together.”
What saves the film from outright soap opera is the delicate restraint and careful observation of Eric Khoo’s direction. He allows the story air to breathe, savours the sights of Singapore and also teases out the way in which this family saga of fracture and reconciliation finds a resonance in the past history between Japan and Singapore. The point is underlined by having Masato visit an exhibition on the Japanese atrocities during World War Two.
Takumi Saitoh cuts a rather diffident figure as the dreamy, gangly Masato but that serves to bring out the quality of the supporting cast with Mark Lee making an impression as Uncle Wee, a culinary enthusiast who comes alive when he teaches his nephew to make the family’s famed pork rib soup recipe.
Seiko Matsuda lends sweet support as Miki whilst Beatrice Chien makes the most of her limited screen time as Masato’s formidable grandmother Madam Lee. The many dishes presented for our delectation could also qualify as a notable supporting act.
The TRAILER:
November 10th: MARIA BY CALLAS
Maria by Callas
Director: TomVolfFRANCE, 2017 French, English, and Italian w/ English subtitles 113 minutes
Documentary
With: Maria Callas, Fanny Ardant, Aristotle Onassis
Pulling back the curtain on one of the world’s most recognizable voices, Tom Volf ’s Maria by Callas presents an intimate and carefully constructed portrait of revered soprano Maria Callas through a compilation of found footage, photographs, home videos and records, personal letters, and rare behind-the-scenes footage.
Iconic both onstage and off, Maria Callas’ talent and operatic artistry brought her legions of fans and admirers from around the world. However, despite her success and widely esteemed talent, Maria’s artistic life was often eclipsed by her celebrity. With rumours, scandals, and intense public scru- tiny plaguing her throughout her career, Maria frequently found herself forced to defend her work ethic and shield her personal life from the public, ultimately leading her to feel torn between her two identities: Maria and Callas.
Meticulously weaving together rare archival material and employing Fanny Ardant’s (Paris je t’aime; Elizabeth) careful voicework to bring Maria’s writing to life, Volf introduces a new generation of fans to Maria’s magnetic personality, unquestionable artistry, and transcendent vocal performances, while also complicating the prevailing narrative surrounding her personal life and public image.
The TRAILER:
November 3rd: TRANSIT
Transit
Director: Christian PetzoldGERMANY/FRANCE, 2018 German, French, and French Sign Language w/ English subtitles 101 minutes
Principal Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Lilien Batman
From German auteur Christian Petzold (Barbara; Phoenix), Transit is an expertly crafted, anti-historical experiment that fol- lows one man fleeing the Nazi invasion and launches into a narrative mind game, in one of the most daring pieces of filmmaking to date.
When Georg (Franz Rogowski, Victoria) decides to flee Paris for Marseille on the eve of the Germans’ occupation of the city, he discovers a stranger’s personal effects in his bag. Among them are papers guaranteeing a Mexican visa and two love letters. Once he realizes they belong to Weidel, a writer who took his own life for fear of persecution, Georg intends to hand them over to the Mexican consulate in hopes that the letters will find their way back to Weidel’s widow. But when the consul accidentally identifies Georg as Weidel, he assumes the dead man’s identity in a last-ditch effort to escape. In a twisted turn of events, Georg meets Weidel’s widow, Marie (Paula Beer, Frantz), and they fall madly in love. From there, the story launches into a tangled matrix that defies time and crosses parallel worlds, straddling both past and present. Both subtle and dynamic, Rogowski’s performance leaves you truly captivated, allowing you to suspend your disbelief and be transported across multiple timelines.
Through the historic yet contemporary architecture of a technology-void Marseille, Petzold challenges viewers to question the landscape of past and present. Based on Anna Seghers’ 1994 novel, Transit is an arthouse gem that rewards the attention it demands.
“Transit invites viewers to trace their own specula- tive connections between Seghers’ narrative and the contemporary rise in neo-Nazism and anti-refugee sentiment, all while its principal story remains achingly moving.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
The TRAILER:
October 20th: THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS
Three Identical Strangers
Director: Tim WardleUK, 2018 English 96 minutes Documentary
With: Robert Shafran, David Kellman, Eddy Galland
In Tim Wardle’s Sundance Special Jury Prize– winning documentary, a chance encounter brings three identical triplets together nearly two decades after they were separated at birth and adopted by separate families. However, their elation at their reunion is soon under-mined by the realities of fame, family, and a creeping suspicion that something sinister tore them from one other in the first place.
Robert Shafran arrives at college ready to reinvent himself, but when strangers continue to refer to him as “Eddy,” their welcomes quickly become unnerving. Robert soon finds himself face-to-face with his exact double: Eddy Galland. The pair’s astonishment at finding each other and the incredible story of their past and chance meeting is quickly picked up by local media, catching the attention of David Kellman, their identical triplet.
With the three brothers happily reunited and busy taking full advantage of their new- found celebrity, their parents take up the less pleasant task of investigating what separated the three young men in the first place. When their questions are met with evasive and unsatisfactory responses from the triplets’ adoption agency, a larger conspiracy bubbles to the surface, with an indeterminate number of victims at play.
A film of triumph and tragedy, and a true testament to the power of documentary film, Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers leads its audience through an emotional journey about how we understand our families and ourselves.
“A gripping, stranger-than-fiction account of a real-world medical conspiracy, the film begins as a human-interest story and builds to an impressive work of investigative journalism into how and why they were placed with the families who raised them.”
– Peter Debruge, Variety
The TRAILER:
October 13th: THE CHILDREN ACT
The Children Act
Director: Richard EyreUK, 2017 English 105 minutes
Principal Cast: Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Fionn Whitehead
Adapted by Booker Prize–winning author Ian McEwan from his own novel, this riveting drama stars two-time Academy Award winner Emma Thompson (The Legend of Barney Thomson; Alone in Berlin) as a British High Court judge tasked with making a decision that will speak to our most fraught questions regarding religious tolerance — and could mean life or death for an innocent young man.
Judge Fiona Maye (Thompson) is married to her work, which has become a problem for her husband, Jack (Stanley Tucci, Spotlight; Margin Call), who announces that he wants to have an affair. Treating the matter more as an annoyance than a life-altering crisis, Fiona kicks Jack out and focuses on her current case. The question: should a couple who are Jehovah’s Witnesses be permitted to deny a life-saving blood transfusion to their leukemia-stricken 17-year-old son (Fionn Whitehead, Dunkirk)? Fiona finds herself taking unusual measures to determine her verdict — measures that will have far-reaching consequences.
Directed by Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal), The Children Act brims with intelligence, sophistication, and intrigue. The elevated tension places unusual focus on its protagonist’s every word and gesture — a challenge Thompson meets with virtuosity. Her Fiona is a cauldron of conflicted feelings bubbling beneath a veneer of composure. As she finds herself sliding deeper into a mire of professional compromise and personal desperation, we come to empathize with her singular burden... and wait for the outcome with keen anticipation.
“The Children Act is that rarest of things: an adult drama, written and interpreted with a sensitivity to mature human concerns.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
The TRAILER:
September 29th: LEAVE NO TRACE
Leave No Trace
Director: Debra GranikUSA, 2018 English 109 minutes
Principal Cast: Ben Foster, Thomasin McKenzie, Dale Dickey
Following her breakout hit Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace is an intimate and complex coming-of-age story following a father and daughter struggling to maintain their unconventional lifestyle, set against the rugged terrain of the Pacific Northwest.
Will (Ben Foster, Hell or High Water; Kill Your Darlings) is a PTSD-inflicted veteran and widower living off the grid with his daughter, Tom (Thomasin McKenzie, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies), in a public park near Portland. When Tom makes a mistake that alerts the authorities to their existence, the family is removed from the park and placed in a home by state officials. Immersed in a world she has never experienced, Tom is drawn to the friendships, community, and comforts of her new surroundings. Meanwhile, Will is confronted with the triggers of the modern world.
Leave No Trace is a surprisingly endear- ing portrait of a father and daughter forced to contemplate whether family survival means sticking together or letting go. The lush Oregon landscape expertly contrasts the tension-filled narrative, with Foster delivering one of his most memorable performances to date — though it’s McKenzie who truly makes her mark. From the director who launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career, Leave No Trace is sure to make McKenzie a newcomer to watch.
“Once again, Granik introduces us to a kind of fam-ily that cinema rarely captures believably, and she does so with a style that’s both lyrical and realistic at the same time, anchored by a pair of unforgettable performances.”
– Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
The TRAILER:
September 22nd: HEARTS BEAT LOUD
Hearts Beat Loud
Brett HaleyUSA, 2018 English 97 minutes
Principal Cast: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Toni Collette, Blythe Danner, Sasha Lane
Frank (Nick Offerman, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl; Danny Collins) owns a record shop in Brooklyn, where his passion for music is still felt through the torn posters on the wall and makeshift record crates. A widower, Frank has raised his daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons, The Only Living Boy in New York), alone for the last 11 years, and he’s having trouble coming to terms with her imminent departure for university.
While Sam is taking summer school in preparation, Frank convinces her to take a study break for a jam session, where they create their first original song, “Hearts Beat Loud.” Realizing the song’s potential, Frank uploads it to the internet. When he hears their song playing in a coffee shop, he wants to pursue the band and Sam’s talents as a musician and songwriter. While Sam discourages him, she struggles with leaving in her own ways: her discovery of her passion for music and her relationship with her girlfriend Rose (Sasha Lane, American Honey; The Miseducation of Cameron Post) create emotional turmoil that serve as fodder for her songwriting talents.
Director Brett Haley (I’ll See You in My Dreams; The Hero) moves the audience through emotionally charged moments with beautiful original music written by his longtime collaborator Keegan DeWitt. At the heart of the film is a story about family, saying goodbye, and making way for new beginnings.
“Music is the tie that binds a Brooklyn father and daughter in a film that refuses to go sappy on us thanks to the tough core of intelligence and wit that Nick Offerman brings to the party.”
– Peter Travers,Rolling Stone
The TRAILER:
Friday, 11 May 2018
GOD OF HELL - a play
Pocket Theatre, in conjunction with Cinema CNC, presents GOD OF HELL, by Sam Shepard, May 15th, May 17th-20th, 2018 in room 1-306 at CNC. Showtime all nights: 8 pm.
Directors: Peter Maides and Allison Haley
Starring: Frank Caffrey, Krista Dunlop, William Kuklis, and Peter Maides.
Tickets are $18 general, $15 student, senior, unemployed, and are available at Books and Company and at the door.
This is an uproarious, brilliantly provocative farce that brings the gifts of a quintessentially American playwright to bear on a particularly American dilemma. Frank and Emma are a quiet, respectable couple who raise cows on their Wisconsin farm. Soon after they agree to put up Frank's old friend Haynes, who is on the lam from a secret [government?] project, they are visited by Welch, Haynes' unctuously terrifying pursuer. His aggressive patriotism puts Frank, Emma, and Haynes on the defensive, transforming a household in America's Dairyland into a hellish chaos governed by a brand of conformity wherein the distinction between the personal and the public is dangerously blurred.
Wednesday, 7 February 2018
UNARMED VERSES - March 11th: 9:30
Director Charles Officer Canada 85 minutes 2017
Documentary, featuring Francine Valentine
Charles Officer's deeply affecting Unarmed Verses — winner of the Best Canadian Feature Documentary prize at Hot Docs — follows Francine Valentine, a sensitive, shy, and fiercely curious adolescent, as she discovers the power of poetry, of music, and of her own voice. Officer spent over a year documenting Francine and her family, and much of his film is devoted to her involvement in a songwriting and recording program run by the grassroots community-building organization Art Starts.
Though clearly gifted, Francine battles both her diffidence and deep-seated insecurities about her identity. (A single, profound shot of her bedroom wall depicts a poster of two girls — European and Asian in appearance — identified through graffiti as "perfect.") Living with her father, elderly grandmother, and brother in a Toronto Community Housing project, Francine is also facing relocation to make way for a new mixed-use development, an index of the city's relentless gentrification and a lack of concern for existing residents. All of this is assembled seamlessly and lyrically by Officer, whose skill is especially evident in his delicate use of sound — as befits his intriguing, young subject.
This feature documentary presents a thoughtful and vivid portrait of a community facing imposed relocation. At the centre of the story is a remarkably astute and luminous 12-year-old black girl whose poignant observations about life, the soul, and the power of art give voice to those rarely heard in society. Unarmed Verses is a cinematic rendering of our universal need for self-expression and belonging.
THE TRAILER:
MEDITATION PARK - March 11th: 7 pm
Director: Mina Shum
CANADA, 2017 English, Cantonese, Mandarin w/ English subtitles 94 minutes
Principal Cast: Cheng Pei Pei, Tzi Ma, Sandra Oh, Don McKellar
In Meditation Park, Mina Shum (Ninth Floor, Double Happiness) returns to the themes that propelled her early work. The film opens with Maria (Cheng Pei Pei; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) hosting a birthday celebration for her workaholic accountant husband, Bing (Tzi Ma, Arrival). Maria reveres Bing and remains in awe of the sacrifices he has made for the family, so much so that she even respects his insistence that she not speak to their son after a long-ago slight.
But when she finds evidence that Bing may not be the perfect person she believes him to be, she’s forced to consider her world in a radically different light. Maria embarks on a journey of self-discovery by engaging with the world around her, something Bing has always discouraged. She befriends a group of local eccentrics and a rather shady neighbour, Gabriel (Don McKellar; Window Horses, Trigger). Maria soon realizes that people’s lives are much more complicated than Bing has led her to believe.
Shum exhibits genuine compassion with her insight into the experiences of first-generation immigrant women (including showing how men control their wives by discouraging them from social interaction and learning other languages).
Meditation Park is a charming and generous film, boasting fine performances by its leads and great support by McKellar, Liane Balaban (The Grand Seduction), and the star of Shum’s debut, Double Happiness, the phenomenal Sandra Oh (Window Horses, Blindness), as Maria’s daughter.
“Shum mines her favourite theme — immigrant experience in Canada — in what seems at first to be a gentle slice of life but eventually develops a powerful emotional force.”
– Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine
THE TRAILER:
MAISON DU BONHEUR - March 11th: 2 pm
March 11th: 2 pm: Maison du Bonheur
Director Sofia Bohdanowicz
Canada/France 2017 62 mins
In French with English subtitles
Featuring: Juliane Lumbroso-Sellam, Nadia Cassel, Roberto Cassel, Albert Eddassouki, Manouk Kurdoghlian, Claude Tougard-Lumbroso
Winner of VIFF’s 2016 Emerging Canadian Director award, Sofia Bohdanowicz (Never Eat Alone) returns in form with this lively documentary. Asked to make a film about her friend’s mother, a Parisian astrologer named Juliane, the director sets off for Montmartre and crafts a lovingly made portrait of an infectiously exuberant personality and the lovely pre-war apartment she’s called home for 50 years.
Shooting on 16mm with a vibrant colour palette, Bohdanowicz imbues the simplest objects and activities with resonance and meaning. Juliane tells the story of falling for her late husband, and how he taught her how to read astrological charts—in one charming scene she even gives the director a reading—but mostly Bohdanowicz focuses on her subject’s everyday life: how she spends her mornings, where she gets her hair and nails done, what she bakes and cooks and, most importantly, how those rituals connect her to family and tradition. Maison du bonheur is a sensitive look at how the meaning of life hides in plain sight amidst quotidian details, and it serves as a reminder that the way we construct our daily lives can itself be an art.
— Adam Cook
THE TRAILER:
AVA - March 10th: 9:30
March 10th: 9:30 Ava
Director: Sadaf Foroughi
IRAN/CANADA/QATAR, 2017 Farsi w/ English subtitles 103 minutes
Principal Cast: Mahour Jabbari, Bahar Nouhian, Leili Rashidi, Vahid Aghapour, Shayesteh Sajadi, Houman Hoursan, Sarah Alimoradi
In Tehran, upper-middle-class teen Ava abides by a strict routine of school, violin lessons, and curfew. When Ava’s mistrustful and overprotective mother questions her relationship with a boy — going so far as to consult a gynecologist — Ava is stunned by the outrageous privacy violation. The incident seriously diminishes trust between the girl and her parents and teachers, which in turn bleeds into all spheres of her life. What’s more, the tightly controlled environment around Ava, who is forbidden to date, go out, or pursue her more artistic aspirations, foments feelings of suffocation and isolation. That her parents — including her sympathetic but powerless father — seem more concerned with social optics than their daughter’s welfare only escalates Ava’s rebellious behaviour, triggering serious and life-altering choices.
Sadaf Foroughi vividly renders her lead character’s internal turmoil while exposing the snowball effect of her family’s shaming. Each frame is stunningly composed with scenes offering a searing critique of the cage our protagonist finds herself in, all while creating one of the strongest, most richly developed female leads we’ve seen this year. With Ava, winner of the Discovery Award at TIFF ’17, Foroughi has established herself as a cinematic force.
“Ava’s rebellion is against more than her parents’ mistrust; it’s about the cage of societal norms in Iran that stifles female creativity and self-expression. The clarity with which Foroughi presents the situ- ation makes it easy for international audiences to follow the unfolding drama with its rising stakes.” –Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter
THE TRAILER:
THE BREADWINNER - March 10th: 7 pm
Director: Nora Twomey
CANADA/IRELAND/LUXEMBOURG, 2017 English 93 minutes
Principal Cast: Saara Chaudry, Laara Sadiq, Shaista Latif
Based on the award-winning, bestselling young adult novel of the same name by Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner tells the remarkable story of Parvana (Saara Chaudry), a young girl who is forced to become the breadwinner for her family while living under the Taliban regime. Executive-produced by Angelina Jolie and helmed by Irish filmmaker Nora Twomey in her solo directorial debut (co-director on The Secret of Kells; head of story and voice direc- tion on Song of the Sea), The Breadwinner is a rare gem that will captivate both young and mature audiences.
Living in a single room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, 11-year-old Parvana is not allowed to attend school or leave the house without a male chaperone. Her father — a history teacher until his school was bombed and his health destroyed — sits on a blanket in the marketplace, reading letters for people who cannot read or write. However, when the Taliban arrests Parvana’s father for having a foreign education, the young girl disguises herself as a boy in order to shop for food and earn money for her family.
Sumptuously rendered with swirling hand-drawn animation that has become the hallmark of Cartoon Saloon, the film captures the colours, sights, and lights of the Afghan city. Featuring a voice cast of largely Afghan, Pakastani, and Indian actors, The Breadwinner is an antidote to the typical Hollywood version of princesses. Instead, it is a timely reminder of the millions of strong young girls and women worldwide who persevere in the face of oppression or conflict.
“The Breadwinner delivers a heart-wrenching coming-of-age tale within a nation that’s lost its way.”
– Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage
THE TRAILER:
NEVER STEADY, NEVER STILL - March 10th: 1 pm
Director: Kathleen Hepburn
CANADA, 2017 English 110 minutes
Principal Cast: Shirley Henderson, Théodore Pellerin, Nicholas Campbell, Lorne Cardinal, Jared Abrahamson, Jonathan Whitesell, Mary Galloway
The highly anticipated feature debut from Kathleen Hepburn, one of Canada’s most promising young filmmakers, Never Steady, Never Still is a devastating examination of the costs of long-term illness on a family. Shirley Henderson (Anna Karenina, Marie Antoinette) delivers a fearless, deeply
moving performance as Judy, a woman who has battled Parkinson’s disease nearly all her married life. As the illness exacts its toll, her husband, Eddie (Nicholas Campbell; Unless, Goon), struggles to care for her — and pushes their son, Jamie (2017 TIFF Rising Star Théodore Pellerin; It’s Only The End of the World, Endorphine), into adulthood, demanding he take a job far from home.
Propelled by a profound sense of empathy and loss, Never Steady heartbreakingly charts the decline in Judy’s health (her increasing difficulty in managing even quotidian tasks) and fiercely, poetically laments what might have been. Judy recounting for her support group the way Eddie proposed marriage may be the most touching thing you’ll see this year.
Hepburn’s compassion shines even in the ancillary characters: pregnant teenage shop clerk Kaly (Mary Galloway, Fire Song) is the soul of generosity while Jamie’s vile and pathetic foreman (Jared Abrahamson, Hello Destroyer) represents the outside world's boundless appetite for cruelty.
The film serves as an affecting reminder that family can mess you up but also stand as the last bastion against a world that is more hostile than might have been hoped, especially for those battling illness.
“The small, exquisite moments hit hard in Hepburn’s feature debut about a family coping with tragedy while living in isolation... Hepburn makes it work because she’s interested in more than the schematics. Each character, and their every exchange, feels lived-in, rich and poetic.”
– Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Magazine
THE TRAILER:
THE DOCTOR'S CASE - March 9th: 9:30
March 9th: THE DOCTOR'S CASE
Directors: James Douglas, Leonard Pearl
CANADA 65 minutes
Written by: James Douglas [screenplay]; Stephen King [short story]
Starring: William B. Davis, Denise Crosby, Michael Coleman, J.P. Winslow, Ian Case [and a whole host of others!]
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS!
Cinema CNC is proud to present this locally produced film.
The Master of Horror meets the Master Detective. When a diabolical English lord is murdered, Sherlock Holmes and Watson must unexpectedly exchange roles in order to solve 'the perfect locked room mystery.' Based on the short story by Stephen King.
THE TRAILER:
THE KICKSTARTER PITCH:
RUMBLE - March 9th: 7 pm
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Directors: Catherine Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana
CANADA, 2017 English 103 minutes
With: Robbie Robertson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Martin Scorsese, George Clinton
Winner of the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary at the 2017 Hot Docs Film Festival, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World tells the fascinating and largely hidden history of Indigenous influence on, and contribution to, popular music of the last century. Primarily focused on rock ’n’ roll, blues, and jazz, Rumble gets its title from the infamous Link Wray instrumental hit of 1958 — a song so powerful in its musicality and so emotionally resonant that it was banned from radio play despite not having a single lyric.
Interviews from artists such as Robbie Robertson of The Band, Pat Vegas of Redbone, and Buffy Sainte-Marie illuminate how the cultural identity of Native American and Indigenous artists was obscured or deliberately under-reported, as part of a larger postcolonial effort to erase the cultural heritage of First Peoples. Robertson recalls being told as a budding musician to “be proud you’re an Indian, but be careful who you tell.” Connecting the musical histories of jazz, blues, folk, and rock ’n’ roll with the political and social movements that blossomed out of these genres, Rumble deftly displays the ways in which Indigenous artists in North America navigated activism through music, and went on to influence guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Pete Townsend. From Mildred Bailey, jazz singer of the 1930s and a favourite of Tony Bennett, to guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and his influence on The Beatles, to heavy metal drummer Randy Castillo’s iconic rhythms with Black Sabbath, the his- tory of Indigenous artists serves as a history of music itself.
Refusing to shy away from the ways in which Native American and Indigenous artists suffered from institutional racism, political persecution, and the lasting effects of cultural erasure, Rumble points to the incredible innovative spirit of these artists, and how their music served as expressions of frustration, resistance, and celebration — not only for Indigenous communities, but for generations of music lovers who found power through song.
“The influence of Native Americans on nearly a century of popular music is eloquently demon- strated in this engaging documentary.” – Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
THE TRAILER:
Monday, 15 January 2018
FACES, PLACES – February 3rd
All ticket at the door: $8 regular; $7 student, senior, unemployed
February 3rd: Faces, Places
Directors: Agnès Varda, JR
FRANCE, 2017 French w/ English subtitles 89 minutes
With: Agnès Varda, JR
A treasure of global cinema, Agnès Varda makes films alive with curiosity and playful- ness. Now in her eighties, she remains the world’s most youthful filmmaker. Her latest nonfiction film is an inspired collaboration with JR, the mysterious French street artist. Like many of Varda’s works, Faces Places is a kind of travelogue in which the wonder of each locale visited is only as potent as the populace whose existence affects it.
Their plan is simple: Varda and JR roam from place to place in JR’s truck, which is decorated to resemble a camera. In each place they visit, they meet people — coal miners, cheese makers, a Herculean farmer — and JR creates immense monochromatic portraits of them. Our endearing duo then affixes these portraits to various edifices all over town, quite literally, merging faces with places. The landscape Varda and JR traverse becomes a visual record of their encounters.
Among Faces Places’ most amusing refrains is Varda’s annoyance at JR’s refusal to remove his sunglasses, which she says reminds her of Jean-Luc Godard in the ’60s. The contrast between Varda’s French New Wave cohort, who represents her tremendous six-decade legacy, and JR, who embodies her vibrant present, speaks volumes about the scope of this amazing auteur’s durability and persistence of vision.
“What emerges from them, and from the relation- ship between the 88-year-old filmmaker and the thirty-something photographer, is a poignant meditation on everything from self-revelation in the age of the selfie to change in rural France. This rich cross-generational exchange speaks to the persistence of French cinematic culture – Varda’s relationship with the pioneering filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard is a recurring theme – while the doc itself is a delight, subtle, touching and entertaining.”
– Kate Taylor, The Globe and Mail
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
LOVING VINCENT – January 27th
All ticket at the door: $8 regular; $7 student, senior, unemployed
January 27th: Loving Vincent
Directors: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
UNITED KINGDOM/POLAND, 2017 English 94 minutes
Principal Cast: Douglas Booth, Chris O’Dowd, Saoirse Ronan, Jerome Flynn
The world's first fully oil-painted animated feature film, Loving Vincent brings the art of Vincent van Gogh to life to recount the life story of this most mysterious, mythical, and tragic of great painters. Shot first as a live-action film, acted by a sterling cast — including Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Chris O’Dowd (Molly’s Game, The Sapphires), Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), and stage actor Robert Gulaczyk as van Gogh — and then painted over frame by frame with oils, Loving Vincent is simply an extraordinary cinematic achievement.
This unexpected murder mystery follows in the aftermath of van Gogh’s death in July 1890. Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth; Mary Shelley, The Limehouse Golem), the son of an Arles postman (O’Dowd), is instructed by his father to deliver a newly discovered letter to Vincent’s brother, Theo, who had supported the painter emotionally and financially. Making his journey from Paris and then to Auvers-sur-Oise, the northern French town where Vincent died, Armand encounters various people (many subjects from famous van Gogh paintings) who provide contradictory anecdotes about the painter's death, suggesting it may not have been a suicide after all.
The artist’s intoxicating colours and thick, vibrant brushstrokes come to life in jaw-dropping detail, making this a film best seen on the big screen. The film took more than six years to complete, with about 125 artists diligently hand-painting over 65,000 frames. With the van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands, the ultimate authority on the artist, officially endorsing the film, this will be the most visually stunning and magical film your audiences will see this year.
“Loving Vincent may exist as a showcase for its technique, but it’s the sensitivity the film shows toward its subject that ultimately distinguishes this particular oeuvre from the countless bad copies that already litter the world’s flea markets .”
– Peter Debruge, Variety
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
BREATHE – January 20th
All ticket at the door: $8 regular; $7 student, senior, unemployed
January 20th: Breathe
Director: Andy Serkis
USA, 2017 English Run time 118 minutes
Principal Cast: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Hugh Bonneville
After years of critical success as an actor, Andy Serkis (Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings) makes his directorial debut with Breathe, the inspiring biopic portrait of Robin Cavendish. After being diagnosed with polio at age 28, Cavendish served as a global advocate for people living with disabilities and assisted in the development of medical technologies that transformed the lives of paralyzed individuals everywhere.
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge, 99 Homes) stars as Cavendish alongside Claire Foy (The Lady in the Van, TV’s The Crown) as devoted wife Diana Blacker in this heartwarming chronicle of a couple determined to break barriers for families facing physical challenges. Completely paralyzed from the neck down, Cavendish was put on a medical respirator but refused to be confined by his hospital bed. Against his doctors’ advice, he and Diana bravely set off on a worldwide quest with their son, Jonathan, to share their story. Not only was Cavendish a miracle of science for being one of the longest living polio survivors, but he was also a pioneer in the medical community for his innovating efforts to enhance mobility for the physically impaired. With the help of his friend, professor, and inventor Teddy Hall (Hugh Bonneville, The Monuments Men; TV’s Downton Abbey), Cavendish used himself as a guinea pig to test the first wheelchair with a built-in respirator. While he and Diana faced unique pressures in their relationship, their unwavering strength and spirit lies at the heart of this story.
Known for his performance capture roles in films like the The Hobbit and The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis daringly steps into a new genre in this brilliant, life-affirming love story about perseverance, courage, and human connection. Garfield master- fully pulls off a challenging performance, transforming physically and psychologically to capture Cavendish’s optimistic and resilient spirit. Written by two-time Academy Award nominee William Nicholson and pro- duced by Cavendish’s son, Breathe shares one of the most hopeful and awe-inspiring tales of the season.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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