CANADA NOW set to screen in New York from Thursday, April 6 – Sunday, April 9 at the IFC Center.
CANADA NOW: NEW FILMS FROM CANADA at the IFC Center is presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Canada in New York.
From the recent numerous international successes of Canadian directors such as Xavier Dolan (Mommy, It’s Only the End of the World), Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, and the forthcoming Blade Runner sequel), Philippe Falardeau (The Bleeder, The Good Lie) and Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild, Demolition), you might be thinking that there must be something special in that cool drinking water north of the 49th parallel. As this year’s selection of impressive new Canadian films reveals, you would not be wrong.
Get ready to travel across the daring and dramatic contemporary Canadian cinematic landscape. Have a look at what’s now and what’s next in those cinematic lights in the northern North American skies.
And yes, there will be hockey.
“Celebrating in 2017 the 150th anniversary of Confederation across Canada, as well as Telefilm Canada’s 50th, is an opportunity to spotlight what makes Canada, and its cinema, so special—its rich diversity,” said Carolle Brabant, Telefilm’s Executive Director. “And this year’s Canada Now touring series speaks to this diversity, with works from talented women and Indigenous filmmakers. In addition, there are titles from both emerging talent as well as accomplished veteran directors such as Bruce McDonald, Nettie Wild and Xavier Dolan. Get ready to be transported from the Arctic Circle to western Asia, and from downtown Montreal to small town Nova Scotia.”
About Telefilm Canada — Inspired by talent. Viewed everywhere.
Created in 1967, Telefilm is dedicated to the cultural, commercial and industrial success of Canada’s audiovisual industry. Through its various funding and promotion programs, Telefilm supports dynamic companies and creative talent here at home and around the world. Telefilm also makes recommendations regarding the certification of audiovisual treaty coproductions to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund and the Talent Fund, a private donation initiative. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/telefilm_canada and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/telefilmcanada.
THE COMPLETE LINE UP.
All NY screenings will screen at the IFC Center (323 Ave of the Americas, New York, NY 10014).
SPECIAL SCREENINGS – New York and Los Angeles only
IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD (NY and LA only)
Canada/France 2016 | 99 minutes
Director: Xavier Dolan
Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan’s latest film, IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD, a Canada-France co-production, revolves around Louis (Gaspard Ulliel, Best Actor at the César Awards), a terminally ill playwright who returns from Paris to his family in small town France after an absence of 12 years. As Louis struggles to find the right moment to reveal his secret, he discovers that his very presence soon unleashes old family tensions, particularly from his resentful brother, emotionally troubled sister, and an overwrought mother attempting to keep the family from tearing itself apart. Intense, emotionally raw, and, as always in the work of Dolan, supremely stylish, the film boasts an all-star cast including Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassell, Léa Seydoux, and the legendary Nathalie Baye. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and Best Director at the César Awards
RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD (NY only; RUMBLE will have its theatrical run at Film Forum)
Canada 2017 | 97 minutes
Directors: Catherine Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana.
With Robbie Robertson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Martin Scorsese, Tony Bennett, Steven Tyler, Iggy Pop, Stevie Salas + many more.
This powerful documentary about the role of Native Americans in contemporary music history—featuring some of the greatest music stars of our time—exposes a critical missing chapter, revealing how indigenous musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives and, through their contributions, influenced popular culture. Artfully weaving North American musicology and the devastating historical experiences of Native Americans, RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD reveals the deep connections between Native American and African American peoples and their musical forms. A Sundance 2017 sensation, Bainbridge’s and co-director Maiorana’s documentary charts the rhythms and notes we now know as rock, blues, and jazz, and unveils their surprising origins in Native American culture. Filled with engaging interviews and featuring such musical luminaries as Buffy Saint-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Link Wray, and Jimi Hendrix, RUMBLE will have you hearing ‘American’ music in a whole new way. Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Masterful Storytelling at Sundance 2017. RUMBLE will have its US theatrical premiere at Film Forum on July 26 for a two week run.
Films in CANADA NOW touring film series 2017:
HELLO DESTROYER
Canada 2016 | 110 minutes
Director: Kevan Funk
Kevan Funk’s startling debut feature, HELLO DESTROYER, is an elegant film about the inelegant realities of being a hockey enforcer and literally fighting one’s way to the big leagues. Tyson Burr (Jared Abrahamson, TIFF Rising Star 2016) plays for the minor league Prince George Warriors. In his role as the team’s tough guy, Tyson is expected to protect the more skilled players. Although thoughtful and somewhat shy off the ice, he is told constantly by the team’s coaches that his only route to the professional ranks is by being aggressive on it. When his violent play leads to the serious injury of an opposing player, Tyson suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the team, the league, the community, and even his family. An astute critique of the culture of violence inherent in Canada’s national sport, HELLO DESTROYER is also a fascinating drama of identity, masculinity, and isolation. If Ingmar Bergman had made a film about hockey, this would be it.
KONELINE: OUR LAND BEAUTIFUL
Canada 2016 | 96 minutes
Director: Nettie Wild
KONELINE: OUR LAND BEAUTIFUL, award-winning documentary filmmaker Nettie Wild’s latest is a visually stunning celebration of an extraordinary part of the world, as well as a politically charged examination of the agents of ‘progress’ increasingly encroaching on the pristine landscapes of northern British Columbia. Set in the Tahltan territory, the film explores the various human forces, good and not so good, currently at work in this previously unspoiled environment: there are drilling companies looking for diamonds, construction crews erecting massive transmission towers, and indigenous Tahltan people’s community elders protesting and debating what is happening on their land. Rounding out this mesmerizing portrait of a place is a Tahltan man who is struggling to preserve the dying language of his people; indeed, it is the Tahltan word ‘koneline’ which gives the film its title. Winner of the Best Canadian Feature at the 2016 Hot Docs Festival, Wild’s film is, as Linda Barnard writes in the TORONTO STAR, ““Astonishing, stunningly beautiful…. equal parts sigh, song and cry.”
MALIGLUTIT (SEARCHERS)
Canada 2016 | 94 minutes
Director: Zacharias Kunuk
The latest film from Zacharias Kunuk, the writer-director of the critically acclaimed epic THE FAST RUNNER (winner of the Camera d’Or in Cannes and a huge international hit), SEARCHERS is an Inuit reworking and relocating of John Ford’s signature 1956 Western, THE SEARCHERS. Transporting its intense tale of abduction and revenge from the dusty American west to the vast snowy vistas of the Canadian Arctic, Kunuk’s film revolves around Kuanana, who returns from a successful caribou hunt to a catastrophic scene. In his absence, someone has attacked his igloo, his wife and daughter have been taken away, and the remainder of the family has been slaughtered. Guided by the spirit helper of his father, a loon named Kallulik, Kuanana sets out across the white, seemingly infinite Arctic landscapes to get his wife and daughter back and to take revenge on those who have committed these atrocities. It is an unforgettable journey.
NELLY
Canada 2016 | 101 minutes
Director: Anne Émond
Based on the life and electrifying writings of former sex worker-turned-bestselling novelist, Nelly Arcan (born Isabelle Fortier), acclaimed writer-director Anne Émond’s third feature film (Nuit #1, Our Loved Ones), NELLY, is a powerhouse drama of sexuality and solitude. Arcan’s first novel Putain (Whore) enjoyed instant critical and popular success upon its release in 2001. Moreover, the multiple similarities between its prostitute protagonist Cynthia and Arcan’s own life as a sex worker fuelled considerable media attention. Émond explores Nelly’s blurring of identities as she struggles to make meaning in her life while simultaneously performing that life in various personae: Nelly, the confessional writer; Cynthia, the expensive escort; Marylin, the glamorous celebrity; and Amy, the wild, libidinous lover. This arresting tale of a brilliant yet troubled woman haunted by her past, her beauty, and her uncertain future features a towering performance by Mylène Mackay (TIFF Rising Star 2016) in the title role.
WEIRDOS
Canada 2016 | 89 minutes
Director: Bruce McDonald
From renowned director Bruce McDonald, a key figure in Canadian film for over three decades, comes WEIRDOS, an offbeat and endearing coming-of-age story of teenagers in small town Nova Scotia in 1976. As July 4th approaches and America gets ready to celebrate its Bicentennial, up in Canada 15 year-old platonic pals Kit (Dylan Authors) and Alice (Julia Sarah Stone) decide to hitchhike out of their tiny Canadian town to go visit Kit’s gloriously eccentric and unstable mother, Laura (Molly Parker), in faraway Sydney. In addition to the romantic tension growing between them (or is it?), little did they know that their summer trip would lead them straight down the road to the strange confusions of adulthood. An understated, insightful existential road movie, WEIRDOS boasts an excellent 1970s soundtrack, a dollop or two of magic realism, and an impressive ensemble cast – even Andy Warhol shows up!
WINDOW HORSES (THE POETIC PERSIAN EPIPHANY OF ROSIE MING)
Canada 2016 | 88 minutes
Director: Ann Marie Fleming
Veteran indie animator Ann Marie Fleming’s charming WINDOW HORSES follows an aspiring Chinese-Iranian-Canadian poet Rosie Ming on an amazing trip to a poetry festival in Iran, where she begins to discover many things about her family history and herself. Travelling alone from her home in Vancouver to Shiraz, the rather awkward, tentative Rosie soon finds herself in the company of renowned Persian poets and writers from Europe who ask about her Iranian roots. While in this heady world of poetry and politics, she uncovers dramatic secrets about the Iranian father she thought had abandoned her as a child. What she learns will change her life forever. At once whimsical and serious, personal and geopolitical, this animated marvel features the voices of such Canadian international stars as Don McKellar, Ellen Page, and Sandra Oh.
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