My Salinger Year

Director Philippe Falardeau
Year 2021
Run Time 101min
Genre Drama
Based on a true story, Joanna (Margaret Qualley), an aspiring writer, takes a job at a literary agency in New York that represents the notoriously reclusive writer J.D. Salinger, and is tasked with responding to his many fan letters. While it begins as a tedious desk job, she finds herself taken in by the letters and decides she wants to help the fans get their letters to their idol, going against the wishes of her strict manager (Sigourney Weaver).

Director

Philippe Falardeau

Quebecois director and screenwriter Falardeau has won more than 32 international awards for his films, which include Monsieur Lazhar, La moitié gauche du frigo, C'est pas moi, je le jure!, The Good Lie, the political satire Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre, and the recent My Salinger Year as well as the TV show Le temps des framboises

Writers

Philippe Falardeau, Joanna Rakoff

Cast

Margaret Qualley, Sigourney Weaver, Douglas Booth, Seana Kerslake

Producers

Luc Déry, Kim McCraw

Genre

Drama

Interests

Arts and Culture, Literary Adaptation, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Tadoussac

Director Martin Laroche
Year 2017
Run Time 90min
Genre Drama
Eighteen-year-old Chloé leaves her Montreal home in mid-winter and hitchhikes to the small Quebec village of Tadoussac, determined to find answers about her own past. Hiding her true identity, she secretly searches for her mother, who abandoned her as a baby.

Director

Martin Laroche

Cast

Isabelle Blais, Camille Mongeau, Juliette Gosselin

Genre

Drama

Interests

Family Relationships, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

French

Incendies

Director Denis Villeneuve
Year 2010
Run Time 130min
Genre Drama, Thriller
A life in Canada, a secret past in Jordan. A dying mother (Azabal) in Montreal leaves separate letters to her twin children to be read once she passes away. Jeanne (Désormeaux-Poulin) is to deliver hers to the father the twins never knew, and Simon (Gaudette) is to give his to the brother they didn’t know they had. The siblings travel to the Middle East separately, where they uncover a startling and painful family history.

Incendies is the kind of film you’ll want to watch more than once. With intricate timelines and a family drama spanning two very different continents, the twists and turns of Denis Villeneuve’s celebrated adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s award-winning play are explosive, frightening and emotionally intense.

Winner of eight Genie Awards and nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Director

Denis Villeneuve

Writer

Denis Villeneuve

Cast

Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard

Producers

Luc Déry, Kim McCraw

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Global Experiences, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

French

Trickster

Director Michelle Latimer
Year 2020
Run Time 264min
Genre Drama, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Jared (Oulette), a teenaged drug dealer in Kitimat, BC, finds his life upended by a series of preternatural events that expose the magical undercurrent both in his community and in his own family. When a mysterious stranger (Queypo) comes into town looking for his mother (Lightning, in a CSA-winning performance), Jared is forced to come to terms with his own powers in order to save the people he loves.

Based on the critically-acclaimed novel Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson (Haisla/Heiltsuk) and steeped in Haisla mythology, Trickster was named by Playback as the top scripted series of 2020 and received 11 CSA nominations, winning three.

Director

Michelle Latimer

A filmmaker and actor, Latimer’s first short, Choke, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her credits include several documentaries and dramatic shorts, such as The Underground and Nuuca. She has directed the television series Rise, Burden of Truth and Trickster.

Cast

Crystle Lightning (Cree), Joel Oulette (Cree/Métis), Kalani Queypo (Blackfoot), Anna Lambe (Inuk)

Genres

Drama, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker, Literary Adaptation, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Fire

Director Deepa Mehta
Year 1996
Run Time 104min
Genre Drama, Romance
Courageous and emotionally powerful, Fire follows Sita (Nandita Das) and Radha (Shabana Azmi), two women living in New Delhi who are disappointed with their arranged marriages. While Sita is trapped in a relationship with her cruel and unfaithful husband, Jatin (Jaaved Jaafei), Radha is married to his brother, Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a religious zealot who believes in suppressing desire. Lonely and lacking in love and passion, the two women begin to seek solace and friendship in each other, only to discover a passionate romantic love that must be kept secret.

When it was released in the late 1990s, Fire’s incendiary subject matter led to protests and government interventions in India. Years later, the internationally acclaimed film is as seductive and moving as ever.

The film won seven awards at film festivals around the world, including "Most Popular Canadian Film" at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
 

Director

Deepa Mehta

Mehta gained acclaim for her trilogy, Fire, Earth and the Oscar-nominated Water. Her adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children was nominated for eight CSAs. She has also directed Bollywood/Hollywood, Beeba Boys, Anatomy of Violence, and many others. Her most recent film Funny Boy has also won multiple awards, including the CSA for best direction. Most recently, she directed an episode of the series Yellowjackets. She has numerous projects in development as a writer, director and producer. 

Writer

Deepa Mehta

Cast

Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, Karishma Jhalani

Producers

Bobby Bedi, David Hamilton, Deepa Mehta

Genres

Drama, Romance

Interests

Asian Filmmaker, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, LGBTQ2S+, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Riot Girls

Director Jovanka Vuckovic
Year 2019
Run Time 81min
Genre Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

In this spirited, punky post-apocalyptic adventure film, all the adults are wiped out by a mysterious plague, leaving kids and teens to fend for themselves. In the town of Potter’s Bluff, there is a sharp divide between two groups: the have-not Eastsiders vs. the tyrannical Westside Titans. 

 

When one of their own is captured by the Titans, it's up to female punk rockers and best friends Nat (Iseman) and Scratch (Kwiatkowski) to lead the East side teens on a dangerous, high-octane mission that forever alters the future of their community.

 

Riot Girls is a punchy, poppy tribute to girlhood that raises a studded middle finger against classism and conformist culture. Packed with punk rock anthems and comic-book undertones, this film is a love letter to teenaged misfits everywhere.

 

Riot Girls confidently and entertainingly sets itself apart from the pack rather nicely thanks to a well rounded script, playful direction, and a whole lotta swagger.” - Andrew Parker, The Gate

Director

Jovanka Vuckovic

Writer

Katherine Collins

Cast

Madison Iseman, Paloma Kwiatkowski, Munro Chambers

Producer

Lauren Grant

Genres

Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Interests

Female Filmmaker, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

The High Cost of Living

Director Deborah Chow
Year 2010
Run Time 92min
Genre Drama
When Henry (Braff) makes a wrong turn and runs his car into Nathalie (Blais), he’s horrified by what he’s done. A drug dealer who’s terrified of being found by the police, Henry takes off, leaving Nathalie — eight months pregnant and unconscious — lying in the street.

In the days to come, Henry is overcome by guilt and sets out to find the woman he hit. Her life nearly destroyed by the accident, Nathalie needs a friend, and ends up finding one in the compassionate and charming Henry. Slowly, Nathalie comes out of her shell and starts to rebuild her life.

As their unlikely relationship develops, Henry must work hard to conceal his real identity and keep the truth from ruining his new friendship.

Director

Deborah Chow

Chow’s short films have played numerous festivals and have been broadcast worldwide. The High Cost of Living won Best Canadian First Feature at TIFF 2010. She directed an adaptation of Flowers in the Attic and many TV shows including Reign, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Better Call Saul, The Mandalorian, American Gods, and most recently, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Writer

Deborah Chow

Cast

Zach Braff, Isabelle Blais, Patrick Labbé

Producers

Kim Berlin, Susan Schneir

Genre

Drama

Interests

Asian Filmmaker, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Birth of a Family

Director Tasha Hubbard (Cree)
Year 2016
Run Time 79min
Genre Documentary
Four siblings, adopted as infants into separate families across North America, meet for the first time in this deeply moving documentary. 

Between 1955 and 1985, the federal and provincial governments in Canada took an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children from their homes and placed them in the child welfare system. Often referred to as the Sixties Scoop, this policy was part of the same trend of forced assimilation as residential schools.

Betty Ann was one of these children, and over several decades has worked tirelessly to track down her three siblings. As the foursome piece together their shared history, their family begins to take shape. 

This film tackles grief, redemption and discovery as it chronicles the family’s emotional reunion and captures an event that remains painfully elusive for many Indigenous people.
 
 

Director

Tasha Hubbard (Cree)

Hubbard is an award-winning filmmaker and an assistant professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of English. Her writing-directing project Two Worlds Colliding won a Gemini and a Golden Sheaf Award. She has also directed the short film 7 Minutes, and the feature docs Birth of a Family and nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, which won Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs and at the CSAs. She is currently directing the feature doc Singing Back the Buffalo.

Writers

Betty Ann Adam (Dene), Tasha Hubbard (Cree)

Producer

Bonnie Thompson

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Biography, BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, ESL, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Iron Road

Director David Wu
Year 2009
Run Time 99min
Genre Drama
A tale of forbidden love set against the building of the Canadian railway in the 1880s, Iron Road tells the story of a Chinese woman (Li) who disguises herself as a man and persuades the son of a railroad tycoon (Macfarlane) to hire her onto the explosives crew.

Soon, though, she finds herself falling in love with him, and as the physical terrain becomes more dangerous, so does the landscape of the heart. Beautifully shot and featuring screen legend Peter O’Toole in one of his last roles, Iron Road revisits an important and controversial time in Canadian history.

Originally broadcast as a CBC miniseries, REEL CANADA is proud to present the feature version of this epic tale that spans two continents.

Director

David Wu

Wu is a master editor who has worked with many legendary Hong Kong filmmakers. His directorial credits include the films The Snow Queen with Bridget Fonda, Plague City: SARS in Toronto (for which he earned the DGC Best Director nomination), See You Tomorrow, and the TV show Once a Thief. He recently edited the films You Are In My Heart and Bai du ren.

Writers

Barry Pearson, Raymond Storey

Cast

Sun Li, Luke Macfarlane, Sam Neill, Peter O’Toole

Producers

Zhao Haicheng, Anne Tait, Raymond Massey II

Genre

Drama

Interests

Asian Filmmaker, BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, ESL, History, Newcomer Stories, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

Other Language

White Lie

Directors Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas
Year 2019
Run Time 96min
Genre Drama

Katie, a popular university student, has been pretending to have cancer to gain sympathy and gain the life she’s always wanted. Through fraudulent fundraising, she has been able to pay her way through university, and her relationship with her friends and girlfriend has never been better. When she is suddenly asked to produce medical records by her university, the facade she created begins to crumble and she risks being exposed for a fraud.  

A brilliantly told cautionary tale, White Lie premiered at TIFF and was named to the Canada Top Ten list. It was also nominated for 4 Canadian Screen Awards including Best Picture.

“Driven by nuanced, persuasive performances and shot with an urgent, jittery tension, White Lie is a compelling close-up character study.” — Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter

Directors

Yonah Lewis

Lewis made his first feature film, Amy George, in 2011 with his frequent collaborator, Calvin Thomas. The duo has continued to work together, co-writing, directing and producing all their films, which include the features The Oxbow Cure and Spice It Up. They recently produced the short Every Day’s Like This, which premiered at TIFF 2020.

Calvin Thomas

Thomas made his first feature film, Amy George, in 2011 with his frequent collaborator, Yonah Lewis. The duo has continued to work together, co-writing, directing and producing all their films, which include the features The Oxbow Cure and Spice It Up. They recently produced the short Every Day’s Like This, which premiered at TIFF 2020.

Writers

Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas

Cast

Kacey Rohl, Amber Anderson, Martin Donovan

Producers

Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas, Karen Harnisch, Lindsay Tapscott, Katie Bird Nolan

Genre

Drama

Interests

Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, LGBTQ2S+, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English