Tag: CANADA

April 10, 2023 / Drama

The first Canadian fiction feature directed by a woman, Sylvia Spring’s Madeleine Is… investigates themes of patriarchy, art, and emancipatory politics in the context of Vancouver’s counterculture. Madeleine, an aspiring painter from Quebec, relocates to Vancouver at the height of the hippie era and has a series of encounters with men—a macho political radical, a fantasy figure-cum-young businessman, an older homeless man—which lead to self-discovery. The city and its paradoxes and politics are vividly evoked, while the era’s emergent feminism informs the film’s perspective.

April 9, 2023 / Animation

Your Name In Cellulite is a six minute animated film about the disparity that exists between a woman’s natural beauty and the ideal set forth in popular culture. The body will only tolerate so much in the attempt to satisfy the demands of fashion before it takes matters into its own hands.

April 9, 2023 / Documentary

Skyward examines the relationship between man, birds, and the environment at Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in St. Petersburg, FL. Centering on the growth and development of a family of Canadian geese, and restoring nature’s ecological balance.

April 9, 2023 / Animation

This colourful short animation traces the insecure protagonist’s path to tobacco addiction after he discovers, as a teengaer, that smoking can make him “cool”. His addiction follows him well into adulthood, until the scare of lung cancer forces him to face his demons. This funny yet cautionary tale is told by the protagonist as he sits on a psychiatrist’s couch, his recollections amusingly illustrated in colourful vignettes of his past. Both entertaining and visually rich, the film is a deterrent against smoking drawn in typical ’60s modernist/pop-art style.

February 24, 2023 / Documentary

A synthesis of documentary, dramatic, and experimental styles, this film follows two women recollecting their personal and familial experiences from World War II. One woman recounts the story of an aunt from story Hiroshima whose father had been a member of the peace party when the militarist government forced its way to power. Exiled from Japan they were then interned with Canadians of Japanese descent. The other woman recounts the details of her experience as a young nurse on the morning of August 6, 1945.

February 24, 2023 / Comedy

This tongue-in-cheek feature is about the misadventures of two modern men in search of bliss: macho Alex, who receives the offer of a lifetime, and sincere Blue, who goes to extravagant lengths to find the perfect bride. Alex, thrown out of the house by his wife and abandoned by his girlfriend, falls prey to a mysterious woman and her unsettling, though potentially profitable, proposition. Blue, in his relentless search, has resorted to a catalogue for a mail-order bride. He has 90 days to make up his mind before her visa expires.

February 24, 2023 / Documentary

This short documentary follows Montreal filmmaker Eylem Kaftan as she travels to Turkey in an attempt to unravel the 30-year-old mystery of her aunt Guzide’s murder. As she searches for clues and closure, she encounters antiquated customs in a Kurdish culture she’s never known. She knows that her aunt was the victim of a senseless vendetta killing and as she ventures from village to village she pieces together the woman’s final days and closes in on the identity of her killer.

February 21, 2023 / Short