Spotlight Sublist: 2025 - 5 - Resilience
Train of Dreams
Tony, a 16-year-old high school dropout, is desperate to escape from his home life and his struggling single mother. After this rebel without a cause gets into criminal trouble, he is forced to spend time in juvenile detention, where an inspiring teacher desperately tries to get through to him.
Captured in the raw, cinema-verité style in a way that only NFB films of this era can, this moving and realistic coming-of-age story features a truly remarkable performance from Jason St. Amour, and a timeless message of hope that resonates now more than ever.
Director
John N. Smith
An Officer of the Order of Canada, Smith’s credits include award-winning TV docudramas such as Dieppe, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, and the Gemini Award-winning The Boys of St. Vincent. He also directed numerous feature films, including Sitting in Limbo, which won Best Canadian feature at TIFF in 1986, Dangerous Minds, A Cool Dry Place, Geraldine’s Fortune and Love & Savagery among others. In 2013, he won the Directors Guild of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award.
Writers
Sally Bochner, Sam Grana
Cast
Jason St. Amour
Producers
John N. Smith, Sam Grana
Genre
Drama
Interests
Classics, Family Relationships
Original Language
English
Nadia, Butterfly
Based on director Pascale Plante’s own competitive swimming career, and also featuring Olympic swimmer Katherine Savard in the lead role, this stunning drama perfectly captures an experience that awaits all athletes in a uniquely realistic way.
“Nadia, Butterfly takes the gold.” – Chris Knight, The National Post
Director
Pascal Plante
Montreal-based Plante is a screenwriter and director whose short film credits include Drum de marde!, Blue-Eyed Blonde, and Nonna, among others. His features include Les faux tatouages, which premiered at the Berlinale, Nadia, Butterfly, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, and Les chambres rouges, which has garnered 15 awards and 34 nominations internationally.
Writer
Pascal Plante
Cast
Ariane Mainville, Katerine Savard, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Hilary Caldwell
Producer
Dominique Dussault
Genre
Drama
Interests
Sports, Strong Female Leads
Original Language
French