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| Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood star in Into the Forest. Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
The line-up boasts some a homecoming for Cannes hit Sleeping Giant, which comes to the festival after director Andrew Cividino's short film of the same name screened at the fest last year. Cividino spoke at the event and credited the festival for giving the short both the confidence and the street cred to secure financing for the feature. Also on hand was filmmaker Patricia Rozema, whose adaptation Into the Forest marks the biggest name on the call sheet in yesterday's announcement. The director (a festival favourite) gave a special shout-out to Ellen Page for her work in getting the film made.
The line-up offers lots of promising discoveries from established and new filmmakers alike with new films from Guy Édoin (Ville-Marie, which stars Monica Bellucci), director Igor Drljaca and producer Albert Shin who bring The Waiting Room after last year's sleeper hit In Her Place (still the best Canadian film to be released theatrically this year), and Guy Maddin, who brings the crazy with The Forbidden Room and a handful of loony-sounding experimental stuff. The fest also boasts a strong presence of Aboriginal filmmakers with new work from Amanda Strong and shorts from Kent Monkman and Caroline Monnet, the latter of which is reviewed here.
Yesterday's announcement offers few reasons for Canuck film fans to be disappointed, although the event had a few notable omissions including the co-pro The Girl King starring Sarah Gadon and especially Ingrid Veninger's live score Chilean trip He Hated Pigeons. No Pigeons is a surprise since the film is done, screener ready, and DCP'd. On the other hand, Veninger is exactly the kind of Canadian filmmaker primed for a spotlight in TIFF's new Platform program. She's more than paid her dues and deserves the boost that the international competition sidebar offers. Handling said that this year's fest features 72 Canadian films and co-productions, but only 70 have been announced (unless my faulty math fails me). Maybe there are two more to come? Is Claire Denis a pigeon person?
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Born to be Blue
Robert Budreau,
Canada/United Kingdom, World Premiere
Born to be Blue is a reimagining of jazz trumpeter Chet
Baker's life in the 1960s. When Chet is cast to star in a film about himself, a
romance heats up with his female co-star, the enigmatic Jane. But his comeback
bid is derailed when his past returns to haunt him and it appears he may never
play music again. Starring Ethan Hawke and Carmen Ejogo.
Into the Forest
Patricia Rozema, Canada, World Premiere
In a not-too-distant future, sisters Nell and Eva find
themselves shuttered in their home. Surrounded by nothing but miles of dense
forest, the sisters must fend for themselves using the supplies and food
reserves they have before turning to the forest to discover what it will
provide. They are faced with a world where rumour is the only guide, trust is a
scarce commodity, gas is king and loneliness is excruciating. And yet somehow
miraculously, love still grows. Starring Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood.
Ville-Marie
Guy Édoin, Canada, World Premiere
An actress shooting a movie hopes to reconcile with her son.
A paramedic haunted by his past tries to stay the course, while a caring nurse
keeps an eye on him from afar as she tries, at the same time, to keep an
emergency room running. It is at the Ville-Marie Hospital that these four lives
will take an unexpected turn. Starring Monica Bellucci, Patrick Hivon, Pascale
Bussières and 2015 TIFF Rising Star Aliocha Schneider.
TIFF DOCS
Al Purdy Was Here
Brian D. Johnson,
Canada World Premiere
Al Purdy was Canada’s unofficial poet laureate, though he admits he didn't write a good poem until he was 40. He found his voice in an A-Frame cabin he built in Ontario's Prince Edward County. Canada’s leading musicians and artists from Bruce Cockburn and Sarah Harmer to Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje come together to tell his story and celebrate his poetry.
Al Purdy was Canada’s unofficial poet laureate, though he admits he didn't write a good poem until he was 40. He found his voice in an A-Frame cabin he built in Ontario's Prince Edward County. Canada’s leading musicians and artists from Bruce Cockburn and Sarah Harmer to Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje come together to tell his story and celebrate his poetry.
Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr
Patrick Reed and
Michelle Shephard, Canada
World Premiere Omar Khadr: child soldier or unrepentant terrorist? The 28-year-old Canadian has been a polarizing figure since he was 15. In 2002, Khadr was captured by American forces in Afghanistan and charged with war crimes, including murder. After spending half his life behind bars, including a decade at Guantanamo, Khadr is released. This is his story, in his own words.
World Premiere Omar Khadr: child soldier or unrepentant terrorist? The 28-year-old Canadian has been a polarizing figure since he was 15. In 2002, Khadr was captured by American forces in Afghanistan and charged with war crimes, including murder. After spending half his life behind bars, including a decade at Guantanamo, Khadr is released. This is his story, in his own words.
Ninth Floor
Mina Shum, Canada, World Premiere
It started quietly when six Caribbean students, strangers in
a cold new land, began to suspect their professor of racism. It ended in the
most explosive student uprising Canada had even known. Over four decades later,
Ninth Floor reopens the file on the infamous Sir George Williams Riot: a
watershed moment in Canadian race relations and one of the most contested
episodes in the nation’s history. Director Mina Shum (Double Happiness) locates
the protagonists in clandestine locations throughout Trinidad and Montreal —
the wintry city where it all went down. In a cinematic gesture of reckoning and
redemption, she listens as they set the record straight.
This Changes Everything
Avi Lewis,
Canada/USA World Premiere
Seven powerful portraits of community resistance around the
world lead to one big question: what if confronting the climate crisis is the
best chance we’ll ever get to build a better world? Inspired by Naomi Klein’s
international bestseller and directed by her partner Avi Lewis, This Changes
Everything is an affecting and hopeful call to action.
Welcome to F.L.
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, Canada, World Premiere
Welcome to F.L. portrays a community of teenagers navigating
their environment, identity and other questions of youth within their
high-school world in a small town in Quebec. Learning to define themselves
inside and outside school boundaries as they transition into the challenges of
adulthood, they expose refreshing points of view filled with humour, philosophy
and courage.
DISCOVERY
Closet Monster
Stephen Dunn, Canada,
World Premiere
Oscar Madly hovers on the brink of adulthood — destabilized
by his dysfunctional parents, unsure of his sexuality, and haunted by horrific
images of a tragic gay bashing he witnessed as a child. A talking hamster,
imagination and the prospect of love help him confront his surreal demons and
discover himself. Starring 2015 TIFF Rising Star Aliocha Schneider and 2014
Rising Star Connor Jessup.
Fire Song
Adam Garnet Jones, Canada World Premiere
When a teenage girl commits suicide in a remote Northern
Ontario Aboriginal community, it's up to her brother Shane to take care of
their family. Shane was supposed to move to the city for university in the
fall, and has been trying to convince his secret boyfriend to come with him,
but now everything is uncertain. Torn between his responsibilities at home and
the promise of freedom calling him to the city, circumstances take a turn for
the worse and Shane has to choose between his family and his future.
The Rainbow Kid
Kire Paputts, Canada
World Premiere
Part gritty coming-of-age story, part episodic road film
filled with magic realism, The Rainbow Kid follows Eugene, a young man with
Down syndrome as he embarks on a life-changing adventure to find the pot of
gold at the end of the rainbow.
River
Jamie M. Dagg,
Canada/Laos, World Premiere
In the south of Laos, an American volunteer doctor becomes a
fugitive after he intervenes in the sexual assault of a young woman. When the
assailant’s body is pulled from the Mekong River, things quickly spiral out of
control. Starring Rossif Sutherland.
Sleeping Giant
Andrew Cividino, Canada North American Premiere
Spending his summer vacation on rugged Lake Superior,
teenager Adam befriends Riley and Nate, smart aleck cousins who pass their
ample free time with pranks, vandalism and reckless cliff jumping. The
revelation of a hurtful secret sets in motion a series of irreversible events
that test the bonds of friendship and change the boys forever.
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
How Heavy This Hammer
Kazik Radwanski,
Canada, World Premiere
Erwin, a 47-year-old father of two, spends his time idly
procrastinating between work and family, and is seemingly more engaged by
playing a crude Viking computer game. His listless energy is contrasted on
weekends by throwing himself into 'old boys' rugby matches. As Erwin's marriage
with his wife becomes increasingly compromised, something stirs inside him… or
maybe something has stopped stirring.
My Internship in Canada (Guibord s’en va t’en guerre)
Philippe Falardeau, Canada, North American Premiere
Guibord is an independent Member of Parliament representing
a vast county in Northern Quebec who unwillingly finds himself in the awkward
position of determining whether Canada will go to war. Accompanied by his wife,
daughter and Souverain (Sovereign) Pascal, an idealistic intern from Haiti,
Guibord travels across his district in order to consult his constituents and
face his own conscience. This film is a
sharp political satire in which politicians, citizens and lobbyists go
head-to-head tearing democracy to shreds.
Our Loved Ones (Les êtres chers)
Anne Émond, Canada North American Premiere
The story begins in 1978 in a small town on the Lower St. Lawrence, where the Leblanc family is rocked by the tragic death of Guy, found dead in the basement of the family home. For many years, the real cause of his death is hidden from certain members of the family, his son David among them. David starts his own family with his wife Marie and lovingly raises his children, Laurence and Frédéric, but deep down he still carries with him a kind of unhappiness. Our Loved Ones is a film of filial love, family secrets, redemption and inherited fate. Featuring 2015 TIFF Rising Star Karelle Tremblay.
The story begins in 1978 in a small town on the Lower St. Lawrence, where the Leblanc family is rocked by the tragic death of Guy, found dead in the basement of the family home. For many years, the real cause of his death is hidden from certain members of the family, his son David among them. David starts his own family with his wife Marie and lovingly raises his children, Laurence and Frédéric, but deep down he still carries with him a kind of unhappiness. Our Loved Ones is a film of filial love, family secrets, redemption and inherited fate. Featuring 2015 TIFF Rising Star Karelle Tremblay.
The Waiting Room
Igor Drljaca, Canada, North American Premiere
Jasmin, once a
successful actor in former Yugoslavia, now lives in Toronto with his second
wife and young son. While juggling a construction job and a busy audition
schedule, he dreams of re-launching an old televised stage show that made him
famous in his homeland. When he is cast in a role that triggers recollections
of the civil war, he is forced to reconcile his current reality with memories of
his past success. From the team behind Krivina and In Her Place.
VANGUARD
Endorphine
André Turpin,
Canada World Premiere
Thirteen-year-old Simone is trying to feel emotion again as a trauma survivor. Twenty-five-year-old Simone is a solitary woman trying to control panic attacks. Sixty-year-old Simone is an accomplished physician who gives a conference on the nature of time. The new film from celebrated director and cinematographer André Turpin intertwines the lives of three women in an intoxicating cinematic puzzle.
Thirteen-year-old Simone is trying to feel emotion again as a trauma survivor. Twenty-five-year-old Simone is a solitary woman trying to control panic attacks. Sixty-year-old Simone is an accomplished physician who gives a conference on the nature of time. The new film from celebrated director and cinematographer André Turpin intertwines the lives of three women in an intoxicating cinematic puzzle.
Hellions
Bruce McDonald,
Canada, Canadian Premiere
Strange trick-or-treaters plague conflicted teenager Dora
Vogel at her isolated home on Halloween. Under siege by forces she can’t
understand, Dora must defend both body and soul from relentless hellions, dead
set on possessing something Dora will not give them. Set in a visually haunting
landscape, Hellions redefines the boundaries of horror with its potent brew of
Halloween iconography, teenage angst and desperate survival. Starring Chloe
Rose.
No Men Beyond This Point
Mark Sawers, Canada,
North American Premiere
Sixty years ago, women began reproducing asexually, and now
are no longer able to give birth to male babies. This deadpan mockumentary
follows 37-year -old Andrew Myers — the youngest man alive —who is at the
centre of a battle to save men from extinction. No Men Beyond This Point asks
what would happen if only women ran the world.
WAVELENGTHS
88:88
Isiah Medina, Canada, North American Premiere
A digital cinema incendiary, Isiah Medina’s anticipated
feature debut explodes with ideas about time, love, knowledge, poverty, and
poetry, all erupting within a densely layered montage that is formally rigorous
and emotionally raw. 88:88 (or --:--) is what appears when bills are paid after
the electricity has been abruptly cut off, demonstrating that people who live
in poverty live in suspended time.
88:88 will be preceded by Denis Côté’s short film May
We Sleep Soundly.
The Forbidden Room
Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin, Canada, Canadian Premiere
Honouring classic cinema while electrocuting it with energy,
Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin’s grand ode to lost cinema begins (after a prologue
on how to take a bath) with the crew of a doomed submarine chewing flapjacks in
a desperate attempt to breathe the oxygen within. Suddenly, a lost woodsman
wanders into their company to tell his tale of escape from a fearsome clan of
cave dwellers, and we are taken high into the air, around the world, and into
dreamscapes, spinning tales of amnesia, captivity, deception and murder,
skeleton women and vampire bananas. Like a glorious meeting between Italo
Calvino, Sergei Eisenstein and a perverted six-year-old child, created with the
help of master poet John Ashberry, Mathieu Amalric, Udo Kier, Charlotte
Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin, Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin, Maria de
Medeiros, Jacques Nolot, Adèle Haenel, Amira Casar and Elina Löwensohn make up
a cavalcade of misfits, thieves and lovers.
Invention
Mark Lewis, United Kingdom/Canada World Premiere Shot in Paris, São Paulo and
Toronto, Mark Lewis’ anthology of films captures the ever-changing textures of
these cities through moving images of glass, light, shadows and reflections,
offering homage to the City Symphony films of the 1920s, while also juxtaposing
modernist architecture with the compositional structures of old master
paintings.
Minotaur
Nicolás Pereda, Mexico/Canadam, World Premiere
Acclaimed Mexican-Canadian auteur Nicolás Pereda (Greatest
Hits) returns to the Festival with this lovely, wraithlike fantasy that
observes three thirty-somethings as they sleep, dream, read and receive
visitors in a Mexico City apartment.
Free and open to the public during the Festival, the
following Wavelengths Installations will be showcased at various venues
throughout downtown Toronto:
Bring Me The Head of Tim Horton
Guy Maddin, Evan
Johnson and Galen Johnson World Premiere
Guided by the spirit of Maddin’s “Cuadecec Manifesto” (which calls for makings-of en masse), Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton is a strange and stirring behind-the-scenes look at Paul Gross’s new feature, Hyena Road. Shot on location at CFB Shilo near Brandon, Manitoba and in Aqaba, Jordan, the film summons psychedelic energy from the main event. Presented at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West.
Guided by the spirit of Maddin’s “Cuadecec Manifesto” (which calls for makings-of en masse), Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton is a strange and stirring behind-the-scenes look at Paul Gross’s new feature, Hyena Road. Shot on location at CFB Shilo near Brandon, Manitoba and in Aqaba, Jordan, the film summons psychedelic energy from the main event. Presented at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West.
The Forbidden Room - A Living Poster
Galen Johnson World
Premiere
Initially designed to promote Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, A Living Poster employs the same digital techniques used to create the text-based intertitles and treat the footage within the film. A looping collection of living, moving, morphing posters, it blurs the boundaries between poster and trailer and suggests an anachronistic collision between digitally corrupted video files and a damaged film print from the silent era forming a beguiling hybrid aesthetic of digital data loss and decaying analogue emulsion. Presented at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West.
Initially designed to promote Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, A Living Poster employs the same digital techniques used to create the text-based intertitles and treat the footage within the film. A looping collection of living, moving, morphing posters, it blurs the boundaries between poster and trailer and suggests an anachronistic collision between digitally corrupted video files and a damaged film print from the silent era forming a beguiling hybrid aesthetic of digital data loss and decaying analogue emulsion. Presented at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West.
La Giubba
Tony Romano and Corin Sworn, Canada/United Kingdom, World Premiere The first major collaboration
between Canadian artist Tony Romano and English-born, Toronto-raised Corin
Sworn, La Giubba follows the intersections of five drifters over the course of
two summer days in southern Italy. This installation is presented in
partnership with Clint Roenisch Gallery (190 St Helens Ave, Toronto).
Stories are Meaning-Making Machines
Annie MacDonnell and
Maïder Fortuné, France/Canada,
International Premiere
A live in-cinema reading at TIFF Bell Lightbox performed by
Canadian artist Annie MacDonnell and French artist Maïder Fortuné which
explores a new form of cinematic memory. Originally commissioned by Le Centre
Pompidou's Hors Pistes Festival, Paris.
SHORT CUTS
4 Quarters
Ashley McKenzie, Canada,
Toronto Premiere
Willy and Jane just want to feel happy in one another’s
company. He’s a sleep-deprived student living close to the bone. She’s a
troubled drug addict in constant need of $20. Nursing their fledgling
friendship on the margins of society proves to be a wicked problem.
A New Year (Nouvel an)
Marie-Ève Juste, Canada, World Premiere
Florence is having a New Year’s Eve party, but at 37 weeks
pregnant she feels somewhat ambivalent about the festivities and frolics of her
friends.
Bacon & God's Wrath
Sol Friedman, Canada, World Premiere
In this short documentary, a 90-year-old Jewish woman
reflects on her life's experiences as she prepares to try bacon for the first
time.
The Ballad of Immortal Joe
Hector Herrera, Canada, World Premiere
Written with a nod to traditional cowboy songs and to the
northern ballads of Robert W. Service, this film puts a supernatural twist on a
tragically romantic Western. Voiced by Canadian actor Kenneth Welsh (Twin
Peaks, The Aviator, The Day After Tomorrow) and scored by Toronto greats The
Sadies, this is the third chapter in the silly rhyme collection Beastly
Bards.
BAM
Howie Shia, Canada, World Premiere
In a dense inner city haunted by primordial gods, a young
boxer struggles to understand the disturbing consequences of his explosive rage
— both inside and outside the ring. Presenting the young boxer's battles in
terms both heroic and tortured, BAM combines a biting urban soundtrack with a
hand-drawn, comic-book style, mashing up cacophonous drums and grinding electronics
with soft brushwork and swift action.
Benjamin
Sherren Lee, Canada, World Premiere
When a dually-pregnant lesbian couple loses one of the
babies in utero, the grieving mothers break their surrogacy arrangement with
their closest friends in order to keep the remaining baby.
Beyond The Horizon
Ryan J. Noth, Canada, World Premiere
In 1845 Sir John Franklin led 128 men on the ships HMS
Erebus and HMS Terror on a search for the Northwest Passage. The fate of the
crew and ships has been slowly uncovered since September 2014, when Parks
Canada archaeologists discovered the resting place of the HMS Erebus in the
remote Arctic Ocean. Reflecting on the ship and story from the perspective of
the sailors and the archaeologists, the film paints a crushing visual portrait
of a place where time can lose all meaning.
Boxing
Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley, Canada, World Premiere
Sheila returns to her weekly boxing class after a traumatic
event, and tensions mount when one of the other women refuses to stop showering
her with sympathy.
Boy
Connor Jessup, Canada, World Premiere
After a fatal bicycle accident, 12-year-old Jacob moves
through the world as a ghost. Unseen and unheard, he trails his classmate home
from school. As the ghost boy watches, an image of a grief-stricken family
slowly begins to take shape.
Casualties of Modernity
Kent Monkman, Canada, World Premiere
Celebrity artist and humanitarian Miss Chief Eagle Testickle
tours a hospital specializing in the treatment of conditions afflicting modern
and contemporary art. Led by the doctor of fine arts and closely supervised by
the no-nonsense head nurse, Miss Chief encounters romance, tragedy and
triumph.
Clouds of Autumn
Trevor Mack and Matthew Taylor Blais, Canada, North American
Premiere
Set on the Tsilhqot'in plateau in the 1970s, this film
focuses on two siblings, and explores the impact that Canadian residential
schools had on the relationships of First Nations children with each other,
their heritage, and nature itself.
Dogs Don't Breed Cats (Les chiens ne font pas des chats)
Cristina Martins, Canada, Canadian Premiere
Pregnant and homeless, Joëlle shows up at the home of her
father Jeff. Even though this solitary non-conformist and former punk rocker is
reluctant to the idea, she decides to stay and Jeff is overwhelmed by his new
interactions with the daughter he barely knows.
Dredger
Phillip Barker, Canada, World Premiere
The crew of a salvage ship is tossed into turmoil when the
young captain's wife becomes infatuated with an older shipmate. She casts
herself ashore but can’t break free from the seabed of secrets the old man
brought to the surface.
The Guy From Work (Les gars d'la shop)
Jean-François Leblanc, Canada, World Premiere
Raynald is a family man who has been working in the same
tire plant for over 30 years. This week, there is nothing unusual in his daily
life: work, hockey games with the guys, and family night. However, Raynald will
make the biggest move of his life.
It's Not You
Don McKellar, Canada, World Premiere
It's not you...or is it? Whether dumper or dump-ee, being in
that situation brings out feelings you didn't know you had. Under the direction
of the talented Don McKellar, the graduating class of the National Theatre
School of Canada takes audiences through the perpetuity of break ups.
KOKOM
Kevin Papatie, Canada, Toronto Premiere
Kevin Papatie, participant of the Wapikoni Mobile for 10
years, presents a beautiful experimental film that pays tribute to his
grandmother — his kokom — and to the Anishnabe people who have survived the
trials of history and remained strong.
The Magnificent Life Underwater (La vie magnifique sous l'eau)
Joël Vaudreuil, Canada, World Premiere
In this absurd animated parody of a classic undersea
adventure show, an authoritative narrator reveals the wonders and mysteries of
the sea — although the banal habits of these homely aquatic creatures have an
odd familiarity.
The Man Who Shot Hollywood
Barry Avrich, Canada, World Premiere
In a town lit up by a thousand stars, Jack Pashkovsky
practiced his art anonymously. By the time he was finished, he had brilliantly
photographed hundreds of the biggest Hollywood icons from Garbo to Swanson. His
collection of photographs have never been seen. Until now.
Mia'
Amanda Strong and Bracken Hanuse Corlett, Canada, World
Premiere
A young Indigenous female street artist walks through the
city streets painting scenes rooted in the supernatural history of her people.
As the alleyways become her sanctuary and secret gallery, her art comes to
life, pulling Mia' into her own transformation via the vessel of a salmon. This
hybrid documentary uses animation and sound as a vehicle to tell the story of
transformation and reconnection.
Mobilize
Caroline Monnet, Canada, World Premiere
Guided expertly by those who live on the land and driven by
the pulse of the natural world, this film takes audiences on an exhilarating
journey from the far north to the urban south. The fearless polar punk rhythms
of Tanya Tagaq’s “Uja” underscore the perpetual negotiation between the modern
and traditional by a people always moving forward. The National Film Board of
Canada (NFB) invited four talented and renowned Aboriginal artists to create a
program of works addressing Aboriginal identity and representation by reworking
material in the NFB’s archives.
Never Happened
Mark Slutsky, Canada, World Premiere
When colleagues Grady and Laura have an affair on a business
trip, they decide it might be easier if it just never happened.
Never Steady, Never Still
Kathleen Hepburn, Canada, World Premiere
Distressed and overwhelmed by the mistakes of his past, a
young lease-hand returns from Alberta's oil fields to his childhood home on
Lillooet Lake, where he finds solace in the strength of his recently widowed
mother.
NINA
Halima Elkhatabi, Canada, World Premiere
At 16 years old, Nina is helpless to her 4-month-old baby’s
incessant crying. Without any escape from the cries and from this new presence
in her life, she ventures out from her tiny apartment into a working-class
neighbourhood of Montréal for a brief escapade.
o negative
Steven McCarthy, Canada, World Premiere
A young woman and
the man who takes care of her find shelter in a roadside motel and take the
necessary steps to feed her addiction.
Our Remaining Lives (Les vies qui nous restent)
Luiza Cocora, Canada, World Premiere
Having recently moved
to Quebec, Sofia, a 10-year-old Romanian girl, lives with her mother in a small
flat in Montreal. In a world where technology imposes human isolation, Sofia is
trying to understand her new life.
Overpass (Viaduc)
Patrice Laliberté, Canada, World Premiere
A 17-year-old named Mathieu goes out one night to write
graffiti on an overpass. But whereas his actions require a swift escape from
the scene of the crime, their true meaning is far more unexpected.
Portal to Hell!!!
Vivieno Caldinelli, Canada, World Premiere
The late and great “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays a crusty
superintendent who is thrust into the ultimate fight against evil when a pair
of cultists opens a multidimensional portal in his basement.
Quiet Zone (Ondes et silence)
David Bryant and Karl Lemieux, Canada, Canadian Premiere
This film takes audiences deep into the world of those who
suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Combining elements of
documentary, film essay and experimental film, David Bryant and Karl Lemieux —
known for their work in the musical group Godspeed You! Black Emperor — weave
together an unusual story in which sound and image distort reality to convey
the suffering of these “wave refugees.”
Rock the Box
Katherine Monk, Canada, World Premiere
Electronic dance music (EDM) is now the most lucrative
sector of the music industry but it’s dominated by men. To break that glass
ceiling, a Vancouver-raised deejay named Rhiannon Rozier did something she
never thought she’d do: pose for Playboy. Thanks to its impressionistic images,
exhilarating montage and Rozier’s remarkable candour, this film tells the story
of one woman who rocked conventions by owning her own image, her own voice, and
her own box.
She Stoops To Conquer
Zachary Russell, Canada, World Premiere
An aspiring performer struggles to breathe life into a new
character she’s created. Suddenly, she sees him: the real-life version of the
man she’s been playing. Where’s the line between inspiration and theft? A
gender-bending romantic comedy about a man and her double.
The Sleepwalker (Sonámbulo)
Theodore Ushev, Canada, North American Premiere
A surrealist journey through colours and shapes inspired by
the poem Romance Sonámbulo by Federico García Lorca. It’s visual poetry in the
rhythm of fantastic dreams and passionate nights.
The Swimming Lesson (Le cours de natation)
Olivia Boudreau, Canada, North American Premiere
Brought by her mother to her first swimming lesson, a
7-year-old girl must find, on her own, her place in the unfamiliar world of the
pool.
Wolkaan
Bahar Noorizadeh, Canada/Iran/USA, World Premiere
Insightful and enigmatic, this multi-layered mediation on
the experience of exile begins with the streets of Tehran gradually filling
with enigmatic streams of lava. In Michigan, a boy and his father’s fateful
journey ends up amid dinosaurs and a plastic volcano.
World Famous Gopher Hole Museum
Chelsea McMullan and Douglas Nayler, Canada World Premiere
A portrait of Torrington, a fading Albertan farm town with a
secret wish to be frozen in time like the taxidermied gophers that populate its
world-famous tourist attraction.
Deepa Mehta’s Beeba Boys, Jon Cassar’s Forsaken, Paul Gross’
Hyena Road, Room, Brooklyn and Atom Egoyan’s Remember are
Canadian features and co-productions previously announced.
The 2015 Toronto
International Film Festival runs Sept. 10-20, 2015.
Please visit www.tiff.net for more info.
