Project Grizzly

Director Peter Lynch
Year 1996
Run Time 72min
Genre Action/Adventure, Documentary
When Troy Hurtubise was attacked by a grizzly bear in 1984, he decided that he would never be a victim again and set about constructing an armoured suit that could withstand a grizzly attack. Built out of titanium, rubber and chain mail, and supported by interior air bags, the 145-pound (66-kilogram) suit (with Hurtubise often in it) is clobbered by baseball bats, thrown off cliffs and hit by a pickup truck. Seen around the world and even spoofed on The Simpsons, Project Grizzly has become a cult favourite.

The most hilarious scenes in the film feature Hurtubise as a kind of Japanese robot, willingly testing himself and his suit. The journey takes him to the Rockies…and to some scenes of self-awareness.

“One of the most provocatively entertaining and loopily Canadian documentaries of the decade.” — Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

“It’s fantastic.” — Quentin Tarantino

Director

Peter Lynch

Lynch earned international success with his wildly popular and critically-acclaimed Project Grizzly. His features include The Herd, Cyberman, A Whale of a Tale and Dem Bones. Lynch won a Genie for his short film Arrowhead. His most recent feature film, Birdland, was released in 2018.

Cast

Troy Hurtubise

Producers

Michael Allder, Gerry Flahive, Louise Lore

Genres

Action/Adventure, Documentary

Interests

Biography, Classics, Cult & Offbeat Cinema

Original Language

English

Pippi Longstocking

Directors Michael Schaack, Clive A. Smith
Year 1997
Run Time 75min
Genre Animation, Comedy, Family

Nobody sees the world quite like Pippi Longstocking, an irrepressible and irresistible nine-year-old who also happens to be the strongest girl in the world. After travelling for years with her pirate father, Pippi settles down in a small town with her horse and her monkey, only to be rudely bothered by a meddling socialite and a couple of bumbling thieves out to get her father’s treasure. Throughout everything, Pippi’s boundless energy and wit make this a perfect story for all ages, complete with catchy musical numbers and memorable shenanigans.

Based on Astrid Lindgren’s classic novel series, Pippi Longstocking continues to charm audiences and remains a positive role model for her indomitable spirit.

Directors

Michael Schaack, Clive A. Smith

Writers

Astrid Lindgren, Catharina Stackelberg

Cast

Melissa Altro, Catherine O'Hara, Carole Pope

Producers

Waldemar Bergendahl, Michael Hirsh

Genres

Animation, Comedy, Family

Interests

Classics, Family Relationships, Literary Adaptation, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Walking

Director Ryan Larkin
Year 1968
Run Time 5min
Genre Animation
In this classic NFB short, animator Ryan Larkin uses an artist's sensibility to illustrate the way people walk. He employs a variety of techniques--line drawing, colour wash, etc.--to catch and reproduce the motion of people afoot. The springing gait of youth, the mincing step of the high-heeled female, the doddering amble of the elderly--all are registered with humour and individuality, to the accompaniment of special sound.

Director

Ryan Larkin

Producer

Ryan Larkin

Genre

Animation

Interest

Classics

Original Language

No Dialogue

Neighbours

Director Norman McLaren
Year 1952
Run Time 8min
Genre Animation, Drama
A groundbreaking - and Oscar-winning - short that uses live actors as stop-motion subjects to tell the tale of a destructive feud over a flower. 

Director

Norman McLaren

Writer

Norman McLaren

Cast

Jean Paul Ladouceur, Grant Munro

Producer

Norman McLaren

Genres

Animation, Drama

Interests

Classics, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

Hunger

Director Peter Foldès
Year 1973
Run Time 11min
Genre Animation, Drama

Rapidly dissolving images form a satire of self-indulgence in a world plagued by hunger and poverty in this Oscar-nominated film, among the first to use computer animation technology.

Director

Peter Foldès

Producers

Peter Foldès, René Jodoin

Genres

Animation, Drama

Interests

Arts and Culture, Classics

Original Language

No Dialogue

Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

Director François Girard
Year 1993
Run Time 98min
Genre Drama
Mirroring the structure of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the recording that made eccentric Canadian pianist Glenn Gould famous, this dramatic narrative is broken up into 32 short pieces. Each short film provides an insight into an aspect of Gould’s life and career. Some are filmed as dramatic re-creations, while others are more abstract: There is even an animated piece accompanied by a recording of a Gould performance.

Colm Feore is brilliant as Gould, humanizing the difficult genius whose studio recordings, imaginative radio documentaries and insightful writings are still influential in contemporary classical circles.

“Instead of a laborious bio-pic, we get a sly, quick-witted meditation on a character always likely to elude our grasp.” — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Director

François Girard

Girard won a Grammy for Secret World Live, a Peter Gabriel concert film. Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould won four Genie Awards, including Best Picture. The Red Violin won eight Genies and an Oscar for Best Original Score.  His recent films include Boychoir, starring Dustin Hoffman, and Hochelaga terre des âmes, which was nominated for eight CSAs, winning four. His latest, The Song of Names, premiered at TIFF 2019.

Writers

François Girard, Don McKellar

Cast

Colm Feore, Gerry Quigley, Gale Garnett, Don McKellar

Producer

Niv Fichman

Genre

Drama

Interests

Arts and Culture, Biography, Classics, History

Original Language

English

Strange Brew

Directors Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas
Year 1983
Run Time 90min
Genre Comedy
A Canadian comedy classic, Strange Brew follows lovable hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie (Moranis and Thomas, respectively) on an epic adventure soaked with beer and filled with doughnuts.

When her father dies suddenly, Pam (Griffin) is orphaned, and control of her family’s brewery threatens to fall into the hands of the conniving Brewmeister Smith (von Sydow). In stumble Bob and Doug, who land jobs as beer inspectors when their scheme involving a mouse in a bottle impresses the brewery brass.

Hilarity ensues as the boys attempt to foil the Brewmeister’s sinister plot to take over the world. Though the film appears at first glance to be a bonehead comedy, it is a deceptively clever farce based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Long before Wayne and Garth or Beavis and Butt-Head, there was Bob and Doug. Canada is proud to call them our own.

Directors

Rick Moranis

Moranis and Dave Thomas’s work on the Emmy Award–winning SCTV series earned them a place among the greatest comedians this country has ever produced. The duo came together again in 2018 for the live SCTV reunion, which was directed by Martin Scorcese and was released as a Netflix special.

Dave Thomas

Rick Moranis and Thomas’s work on the Emmy Award–winning SCTV series earned them a place among the greatest comedians this country has ever produced. The duo came together again in 2018 for the live SCTV reunion, which was directed by Martin Scorcese and was released as a Netflix special.

Writers

Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Steve De Jarnatt

Cast

Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Max von Sydow, Lynne Griffin

Producer

Louis M. Silverstein

Genre

Comedy

Interests

Classics, ESL

Original Language

English

Anne of Green Gables

Director Kevin Sullivan
Year 1985
Run Time 199min
Genre Drama, Family
On turn-of-the-20th-century Prince Edward Island, siblings Matthew (Farnsworth) and Marilla Cuthbert (Dewhurst) decide to take in an orphaned boy to help them on their farm. Instead, they get freckle-faced, red-haired Anne Shirley (Follows). The stubborn and outspoken 11-year-old girl’s fiery spirit and imagination are sure to turn life upside down on the peaceful island, and add a lot of love into the Cuthberts’ lives.

So begins Anne of Green Gables, one of the most beloved stories in Canadian literature for readers of all ages. This mini-series adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s series of novels — one of the highest-rated broadcasts in Canadian television history — features Megan Follows in the title role, who has since gone on to become one of Canada’s most critically acclaimed actors.

This trophy-sweeping Genie Award-winner is a charming, family-friendly affair that is sure to delight.

Director

Kevin Sullivan

Writers

Joe Wiesenfeld, Kevin Sullivan

Cast

Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Farnsworth, Jonathan Crombie

Producers

Ian McDougall, Kevin Sullivan, Trudy Grant

Genres

Drama, Family

Interests

Classics, Family Relationships, Literary Adaptation, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Jésus de Montréal (Jesus of Montreal)

Director Denys Arcand
Year 1989
Run Time 120min
Genre Drama
The Passion Play has been a success for more than 40 years at a Montreal church, but the old-fashioned staging has made modern audiences restless. When the priest in charge hires a young troupe of actors to stage a revised and more inventive version, things don’t go exactly as planned.

Combining religion and some unconventional theories about Jesus, the troupe’s work begins to ruffle some feathers in the Catholic church, even as the life of main actor Daniel (Bluteau) starts to mirror the Messiah’s journey in unexpected and poignant ways.

Told with sharp humour and heart, the film received critical acclaim and won numerous awards, including the Genie for Best Picture and the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Director

Denys Arcand

Writer

Denys Arcand

Cast

Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Rémy Girard, Gilles Pelletier

Producers

Roger Frappier, Pierre Gendron

Genre

Drama

Interests

Arts and Culture, Classics

Original Language

French

Scanners

Director David Cronenberg
Year 1981
Run Time 103min
Genre Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
After 10 seconds, the pain begins. 15 seconds, you can’t breathe. 20 seconds, you explode.

Scanners are social outcasts, the by-product of a failed experimental drug given to their mothers during pregnancy, and possess the unusual ability to read and control minds.

Security firm ConSec wants to harness these telekinetics and turn them into a powerful new weapon; however, Revok (Ironside) is hellbent on destroying ConSec and taking over the world. The only man who may be able to stop him is the stoic but equally powerful Vale (Lack).

Chaos reigns as the duo face off in a series of dramatic duels featuring some of cinema’s most jaw-dropping practical effects.

Busting heads and box-office numbers when it opened in 1981, Scanners demonstrates Cronenberg’s talent for accessible, fun and truly awesome science fiction.

Director

David Cronenberg

Writer

David Cronenberg

Cast

Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside, Patrick McGoohan

Producers

Pierre David, Claude Héroux, Victor Solnicki

Genres

Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Interests

Classics, Cult & Offbeat Cinema

Original Language

English