Canada

Quote:
When lesbian teen Jaime is sent to live in a Jehovah’s Witness community, she falls hard for a devout Witness girl and the two embark on an intense affair with consequences that will reshape the rest of their lives.Read More »

Is being hit by lightning a random natural occurrence or a predestined event? Accidents, chance, fate and the elusive quest to make sense out of tragedy underpin director Jennifer Baichwal’s captivating new work, an elegant cinematic meditation on the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. To explore these profound questions, she sought out riveting personal stories around the world–from a former CIA assassin and a French storm chaser, to writer Paul Auster and improvisational musician Fred Frith. The philosophical anchor of the film, Auster witnessed his friend get struck dead by lightning as a teenager, and has been wrestling with its import on destiny ever since. In a neurological experiment, Frith improvises with his guitar to demonstrate the ubiquity of electricity in our bodies and the universe. Visually dazzling and aurally seductive, Act of God singularly captures the harsh beauty of the skies and the lives of those who have been forever touched by their fury.Read More »

Quote:
Jessy, age 12, dreams of becoming a wrestler. Already, life is a daily fight; home is chaotic and his innocence is quickly disappearing. Reality hits hard in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, a poor area of Montreal, but it can’t compete with the Friday night wrestling that gives Jessy the courage to escape his destiny. “Le Ring” tells the story of a little fighter determined to make his own way.Read More »

Quote:
PICTURE OF LIGHT (1994) feature documentary, takes a film crew to the Sub Artic to capture the wonder of the Northern Lights. While combining glimpses of the characters who live in this remote environment and the crew’s both comic and absurd attempts to deal with extremes, the film reflects upon the paradoxes involved in trying to capture the natural wonder of the Northern Lights on celluloid. Aurora Borealis…the lights with no bodies, pouring colours from the sky…images provided by nature more special than any special effect. Their majesty and their mystery lead the film to a most unexpected and haunting finale which considers the future of our relationship to technology and nature, in an increasingly artificial or “virtual” world. Read More »

Imdb:
Keepers of the Magic celebrates the breathtaking cinematic images that have transfixed audiences around the world. This ground-breaking documentary explores our fascination with moving images and provides insight into how cinema’s most iconic moments came to be. Most of all, it honours the great masters of cinematography, unsung heroes whose vision and talent was always right before our eyes.Read More »

Set in a dreary urban landscape of Edmonton, LOVE AND HUMAN REMAINS is a dark comedy about a group of twentysomethings looking for love and meaning in the ’90s. The film focuses on roommates David, a gay waiter who has has given up on his acting career, and Candy, a book reviewer who is also David’s ex-lover. David and Candy’s lives are entangled with those of David’s friends (a busboy, a psychic dominatrix, and a misogynistic civil-servant) and Candy’s dates (a male bartender and a lesbian schoolteacher). Meanwhile, a serial killer menaces the concrete and asphalt neighbourhood in which David and Candy live.Read More »

Quote:
Balifilm was originally commissioned as a stage performance, created from diary images and sounds collected in 1990 and 1992 by Peter Mettler on the island of Bali. The soundtrack is a live recording of eight Gamelan musicians playing the bronze and wooden instruments of Indonesia during the projection of the film. Balifilm is a personal, lyrical observation and expression of the creative pulse of an extraordinary culture.Read More »

Quote:
One 24 December, Léopold Tremblay, 32 years old, a snow removal worker, is busy with the snowstorm falling on Montreal. But he must also think of buying gifts for his wife and son, picking up his cousin returning from the South at the train station, and moving furniture for his friend Théo. At 11 p.m., the snow lets up and Léopold can finally go to midnight mass at St. Joseph’s Oratory, where his son sings in the choir.Read More »

Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history, and fulfill their mother’s last wishes.Read More »