From Toronto International Film Festival website :
Anne Émond’s dazzling debut feature is a bold and intimate study of a one-night stand. Clara and Nikolai meet at a sweat-soaked rave and end their night at his apartment. The first part of the film is an erotic and candid portrait of their lovemaking, When Clara tries to sneak out without saying goodbye, this typical hookup takes an unexpected turn.Read More »
Christophe, a 30-year-old unemployed engineer, gets a proposition by his roommate to do a documentary on his job searching. Amused by the idea, Christophe accepts to be filmed daily. But what was initially conceived as a short-term project stretches into months with tensions mounting as Christophe’s employment prospects diminish and Stephane turns the documentary into full-time work.
The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge is a funny and engaging look on how unemployment affects our lives.
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Montreal Mirror wrote:
People tend to be cynical and derisive towards romantic comedies. Personally, I’m a softie and seeing people fall in love on screen always touches me. Then again, I’m aware that most entries in the rom-com genre are derivative and idiotic. But once in a blue moon, you find one that’s surprisingly original and intelligent. Les Aimants is such a film.
After five years abroad, Julie (Isabelle Blais) comes back to Montreal and crashes with her sister Jeanne (Sylvie Moreau), a woman who lies as she breathes. Jeanne is engaged to Noël (David Savard), a workaholic who’s never home, so they communicate through messages they leave on the refrigerator. When Jeanne leaves for a week of adultery with theremin virtuoso Manu (Emmanuel Bilodeau), she asks Julie to cover up for her by responding to Noël’s fridge notes. But Julie decides to get “positive revenge” on her seemingly heartless sister by making the messages she leaves more romantic…Read More »
A modern day homage to Un chien andalou deemed unviewable and exploitative by the Winnipeg Short Film Massacre.
–DogmaToDiscoRead More »
BRENDAN KELLY, The Gazette, Published: Monday, January 15 2007 wrote:
In film and life, all roads lead to Montreal.
Filmmaker Noel Mitrani returned to his place of birth and found home; French actor Laurent Lucas – and the character he portrays in Sur la Trace d’Igor Rizzi – followed their hearts
Sur la trace d’Igor Rizzi, the remarkable first feature from Montreal-based filmmaker Noel Mitrani, is a poetic look at a former French soccer star living in self-imposed exile in snow-covered Montreal. So it’s only appropriate that the film, which opens this Friday, is the result of a collaboration between two guys who, like the film’s anti-hero, made the decision to abandon France and come live here in Quebec.Read More »
From the Film Reference Library:
One of the most controversial films in Canadian history, On est au coton is an examination of the exploitation and repression of textile workers in Quebec. This National Film Board production, more social inquiry than documentary, contrasts the lives of textile workers and their bosses and places their situation in an historical context by employing footage from old films about the industry. (The title is a pun which literally means “we are in cotton,” but it also connotes “we are fed up.”)Read More »
It’s 1969 and headlines blare war and civil unrest while John Lennon and Yoko Ono -rock ‘n’ roll’s most eccentric couple- are in love. They have just gotten married,they are happy to be together and they see that the world needs some changew. They announce their mission for peace and they invite the rest of the world to do the same as they do: they are lying on their bed. But people call them silly and naive they see clowns instead of true believers.
John and Yoko just do not care…Read More »
Warning: Do NOT WATCH if you’re epileptic!
In Green Dream, Josephine Massarella has infused her vibrant, impressionistic images of nature with the spirit of the goddess Artemis. Evocative and abstract, Green Dream relies on a wide range of experimental techniques, including pixilation, optical printing, and manipulated motion to achieve a dreamlike state where the relevance of beauty and the irrelevance of use can be contemplated.
Reminiscent of the work of French experimental filmmaker Rose Lawder, Green Dream confronts modern overdevelopment with overpowering life forces. Read More »
A mute Russian girl infiltrates Toronto’s underground sex trade to avenge the death of her sister.
Montreal Gazette wrote:
2009, Canada
Directed by Andrew Thomas Hunt
Written by Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, Michael Paszt
Starring Shera Bechard, John Tokatlidis, Frank J. Zupancic, Christian Bako
82 minutes, English
HD
The exploitation film formula is fairly simple: take a social issue or problem, and try to solve it with breasts and knives. Everything from race relations to drug addiction has been tackled in this fashion. And though the films don’t provide any real solutions, I’m now unable to debate drug policy without suggesting criminals should have their genitals mutilated by woman in stiletto heels. Thanks, 1970s genre cinema.Read More »