I have had a theory that I had the privilege of living in Toronto, I might run into famous Canadian film people doing ordinary things. Toronto is now the fourth-largest city in North America, behind New York City, Mexico City, and Los Angeles. The magnitude of Toronto makes that dream not so likely.
Ben Gordon and Matt Hoffman had a bit of fun to try and find acclaimed Canadian film icon Don McKellar in Finding Don McKellar. Like several films dating back at least to Michael Moore's Roger and Me, the fun is not actually finding McKellar.
Gordon and Hoffman have fun in the process of the 11-minute short film with recreating moments from McKellar's masterpiece Last Night, shot in Toronto, and a list of favourite Toronto places McKellar noted in a 24 Hours article.
McKellar is a triple threat as writer, director, and actor. The film honours his achievements in all these categories.
As we've noted, I first discovered his talents through Twitch City.
Americans can find McKellar's talents as a voice actor in Window Horses and in Mina Shum's Meditation Park as well as The Grand Seduction, all on Netflix.
Gordon and Hoffman use Finding Don McKellar to draw attention to Canadian film as well as Canadian television. Extending this to a full-length film might be more than enough time to go through McKellar's career but could be a good way to draw attention to the wonderful world of Canadian film.
Though this film takes a different path from Women Who Act, both do a fine job with giving insight into Canadian film.
Finding Don McKellar would be a good opening short film before you watch Last Night. You could pair this film with Your Mother and I, a short film from Anna Maguire featuring McKellar and Julia Sarah Stone.
video credit: YouTube/Ben Gordon photo credit: Finding Don McKellar film
Come From Away tells the story of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador and how the town responded to an influx of sudden visitors after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Planes were flying to and from Europe and Asia from Canada and the United States. With U.S. airspace restricted, the planes had to land somewhere. That somewhere was Canada.
Operation Yellow Ribbon process had 256 planes in Canada in 17 different airports. Gander took in 38 airplanes while Halifax had 40 planes. Other transatlantic flights ended up in St. John's, Moncton, CFB Goose Bay (Labrador), and Stephenville, NL.
Vancouver and Winnipeg handled the majority of flights coming from the other direction. Edmonton and Calgary airports helped out as well.
Transport Canada didn't want flights coming into Toronto, Ottawa, and Montréal. Despite this announcement, some planes did land at Pearson International Airport in Toronto and Montréal–Mirabel International Airport and Dorval (now Pierre Trudeau) International Airport in Montréal.
The Broadway musical Come From Away touring the United States takes us through the anxieties of those traveling and wondering where they were as well as the dilemmas of those in Gander about how to accommodate the influx of travelers.
They landed with little news about what had happened and had to stay on the planes for awhile. Once they exited the planes, the passengers and crew had a lot of disorienting confusion and concern. They were also greeted with warmth, love, and lots of food.
The townspeople were settling into an ordinary day when called upon to help those trapped by events in the United States.
The show is filled with ordinary details such as a school bus strike temporarily lifted to help get large amount of people to destinations. At one point, a woman is happy to be there but still wants to go home.
A gay couple try to hide their relationship because they aren't sure about whether these people will understand. Turns out gay people are everywhere, even in Newfoundland.
They see a moose at one point. We hear Newfoundland lingo. Cod tongues were mentioned. There is even a song about the screech ceremony, which might have seemed unusual even if the passengers had been to other parts of Canada.
The warmth, friendliness, and generosity of the people of Gander and Newfoundland is apparent, obvious, and loved. The lasting friendships of those people in the play and in real life are awe-inspiring.
There are Canadian references such as Tim Hortons (which got a big laugh at the show I attended in Chicago) and Shoppers (Drug Mart). Even if you didn't know what Shoppers was, you soon figured it out.
There might be a concern about seeing or laughing at a musical that has to do with 9/11. The show has little to do with the actual attacks but more about the people temporarily in a foreign land and their triumphs and struggles. The show might trigger such moments if you are more sensitive about what happened that fateful day. Your feelings are more than valid. We do not judge.
The Chicago audience had a chance to learn more about what happened during a Q&A session, featuring Lt. General Rick Findley from North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD); James Earl Jones II, a Chicago native who is in the show; and Beverley Bass, the first female American Airlines pilot who features prominently in the musical.
Even for those who landed in Canada but closer to the United States, Findley reminded the audience that the Canada-U.S. border was closed for awhile. The musical makes a note about showing how long it would take just to get to the U.S. border from Gander.
Jones told the story of taking an initiative to visit Gander. The touring company only had a single official week off in the year. Jones took that opportunity to go to Gander.
His plane didn't arrive until 3:15 am yet Jones were greeted upon his arrival in Gander. Jones said Gander has a Wal-Mart, mom/pop shoppes, and an open door policy. He said they took him everywhere and he was immersed in the community. Jones mentioned the Bread Box and noted the "mug shot" there is having your picture in front of a wall of mugs.
Jones got an offer to chase icebergs where a woman was driving a random stranger (Jones) for several hours to see icebergs. He said the people there never wanted a thank you or money for their help for Operation Yellow Ribbon.
He told the audience that Gander is now up to 12,000, up from 9,000 in 2001.
Beverley Bass arrived late with a delayed flight the night of the discussion. Bass said her plane was the 36th of 38 planes to land on September 11. Her September 11 day started in Paris and was scheduled to end in Dallas.
The passengers on her flight were forced to remain on the aircraft with limited news. Bass said the passengers and crew didn't leave the airplane until 7:30 am on September 12. They stayed in Gander for 5 days.
When they did leave the airplane, they went through a tiny terminal. Bass remembered the tables full of food that the people of Gander had cooked up the previous night. They handed everyone a plastic bag full of food.
I asked Jones how much he knew about the story before doing the play: "Nothing." He didn't know Gander existed and had never been to Canada. Jones didn't even know about the Tom Brokaw Operation Yellow Ribbon video (above) that NBC News ran during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Jones said the story blew my mind and "you will be compelled to find out about Gander once you've heard the story."
Location might be a factor in seeing this musical as opposed to where you see Hamilton. Jones said the Toronto Come From Away shows felt like a party. He was reminded in the Q&A that a lot of Newfoundland people live in Toronto (not just Q's Tom Power).
If you don't get a chance to see the musical, you can find out more about the experience through a documentary You Are Here. Jones mentioned the documentary in his presentation and noted that the documentary is already available in Canada.
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival has announced its Rising Stars. Each year, TIFF picks 4 young Canadian stars in the making.
The Rising Stars have different paths whether they have done a couple of films or mostly TV work.
The 2019 Rising Stars are (left to right) Kacey Rohl, Mikhail Ahooja, Nahéma Ricci, and Shamier Anderson.
We have our first sibling connection as Anderson joins his brother Stephan James (class of 2015) on the list. Anderson and his brother Stephan co-founded the B.L.A.C.K. Ball, an event hosted in Toronto during TIFF and in Los Angeles during Oscars season.
Rohl, from Vancouver, has done mostly television, including The Killing, Arrow, Hannibal, Wayward Pines, and The Magicians. She will be featured in White Lie playing at TIFF 2019.
Ahooja, a Montréal-based actor, has done a mix of plays, TV, and movies. TV credits include Au secours de Béatrice, Prémonitions, and Juste nous deux. His feature films include La Maison du pêcheur, Fabuleuses, and The Twentieth Century, the latter playing at TIFF 2019.
Ricci, born in Montréal, has a varied career as a performer, interpreter, and author/director. She is also the author, director, and interpreter of the play Identikit, presented in the Montréal fringe festival. Ricci has been in Ailleurs and the upcoming Antigone playing at TIFF 2019.
Anderson, from Toronto, has had the most famous career in and out of Canada. His TV work includes Wynonna Earp and Goliath. His feature roles include Across the Line, Destroyer, and City of Lies. Endings, Beginnings debuts at TIFF 2019.
We continue to see past Rising Stars. Jared Abrahamson (2016) is in the TV show Travelers available on Netflix in the U.S. and Canada. Alexandre Landry (2014) was in the latest Denys Arcand film The Fall of the American Empire | La chute de l'empire américain. Grace Glowicki (2016) was in Paper Year and will be in Raf at TIFF 2019. Charlotte Sullivan (2012) just finished up the final season of Mary Kills People. Karelle Tremblay (2015) starred in The Fireflies Are Gone. Sophie Nélisse (2016) will be in The Rest Of Us at TIFF 2019. Evelyne Brochu (2013) was in Monia Chokri's La femme de mon frère, a film that debuted at Cannes 2019.
For the first time in 9 years, the Toronto International Film Festival will open with a Canadian film. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band from director Daniel Roher is one of 5 Canadian films in Galas or Special Presentations.
Some of the familiar filmmakers back with more Canadian films at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival include Kathleen Hepburn, Louise Archambault, Alanis Obomsawin, François Girard, Albert Shin, Atom Egoyan, and Zacharias Kunuk.
Ellen Page is familiar to TIFF but is at TIFF 2019 with a documentary.
Here are some other Canadian film highlights from the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival:
There are 5 Indigenous filmmakers and film teams: Kathleen Hepburn (Never Steady, Never Still) and co-director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers has The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open, a drama about two Indigenous women from very different circumstances. Jeff Barnaby directed Blood Quantum, a zombie film where a Mi'gmaq community is immune to the zombie plague.
Ellen Page and Ian Daniel, her partner on the Gaycation series, co-directed There's Something In The Water, a documentary about environmental racism with the Indigenous and African communities in Nova Scotia.
Albert Shin followed up In Her Place with Clifton Hill that takes place in Niagara Falls. David Cronenberg and Marie-Josée Croze are in the cast.
Montreal producer Aisling Chin-Yee is out with The Rest Of Us, starring Heather Graham and Sophie Nélisse as mother and daughter.
Castle in the Ground is from Joey Klein (The Other Half) about neighbours attracted to each other during an opioid epidemic.
Louise Archambault (Gabrielle) is back with Il pleuvait des oiseaux | And The Birds Rained Down about hermits whose remote habitat is threatened by wildfires.
Alanis Obomsawin has her 53rd film, Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger. The documentary is about a 5-year-old Manitoba child from the Norway House Cree Nation Reserve, which you might recall from her 2017 film Our People Will Be Healed. His death led to Jordan's Principle on equitable access to government-funded services.
Murmur from Heather Young is a docu-fiction with Shan MacDonald as a troubled Halifax woman assigned to community service at an animal shelter. Raf from Harry Cepka features Grace Glowicki and Jesse Stanley as two women who change each other's lives. The adaptation of Sophocles's Antigone from Sophie Deraspe is set in modern Montréal and the primary characters are a family of immigrants.
The Last Porno Show from writer/director Kire Paputts features a struggling actor who inherits his late father's porn theatre. The new film from Amy Jo Johnson is Tammy's Always Dying with Felicity Huffman and Anastasia Phillips in a toxic mother-daughter relationship.
Xavier Dolan's new film Matthias et Maxime is not on the TIFF 2019 schedule. That could change. The film will be released in Quebec theatres on October 9.
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Dolan's film that debuted in TIFF 2018, will finally be released across Canada on August 23.
Here is the list of full-length Canadian films, their directors, and the categories where they are listed for TIFF 2019.
Galas American Woman, Semi Chellas Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, Daniel Roher The Song of Names, François Girard Special Presentations Clifton Hill, Albert Shin Guest of Honour, Atom Egoyan Special Events David Foster: Off the Record, Barry Avrich One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, Zacharias Kunuk Masters Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger, Alanis Obomsawin TIFF Docs Coppers, Alan Zweig This Is Not a Movie, Yung Chang There's Something in the Water, Ellen Page and Ian Daniel Discovery Black Conflux, Nicole Dorsey Easy Land, Sanja Zivkovic Kuessipan, Myriam Verreault Murmur, Heather Young Raf, Harry Cepka The Rest of Us, Aisling Chin-Yee Contemporary World Cinema Il pleuvait des oiseaux | And The Birds Rained Down, Louise Archambault Antigone, Sophie Deraspe The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn Castle in the Ground, Joey Klein The Last Porno Show, Kire Paputts Tammy's Always Dying, Amy Jo Johnson White Lie, Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis Midnight Madness Blood Quantum, Jeff Barnaby The Twentieth Century, Matthew Rankin
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5-15.
Twitter capture: @TIFF_NET photos credit: There's Something in the Water film; Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band film
I hesitate to give a "best of all time" to any Canadian film, but Marion Bridge is one of my favourite Canadian films. I have seen the 2002 film a couple of times in the past but wanted to rewatch the film.
Agnes (Molly Parker) is the black sheep of sorts who returns home to Sydney, Nova Scotia from the big city in Toronto because her mother is sick.
Agnes has issues with cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. Her friends at the bar are surprised she was home because they didn't see her at the bar.
Her oldest sister Theresa (Rebecca Jenkins) isn't thrilled to see her youngest sister. The middle sister Louise (Stacy Smith) is mostly distracted by watching her hockey on TV.
Their mother Rose (Marguerite McNeil) is an alcoholic. As Agnes is trying to quit drinking and smoking, she makes sure her mother has alcohol and cigarettes.
There is a family secret or two. Agnes is intrigued by Joanie (Ellen Page); is she part of the family secret?
Agnes is trying to get her life back. Theresa spends a lot of time with her ex-husband. Louise has a friend with whom she is secretive.
So many films involve sibling structures where you don't believe they had a past. Director Wiebke von Carolsfeld shows us authentic sister relationships with warmth and awkwardness.
Parker is absolutely fun to watch at the peak of her craft. Her character is reassessing so much in her life. Her interactions with a young Page are fun. Someone please put them together in another film. Jenkins, who is also a singer in real life, is the complete opposite of her character in Wilby Wonderful. Theresa is a thankless role on a few levels. Jenkins embraces the negative nuances of the character with acting gusto. Smith has a much quieter role. You may recognize her from New Waterford Girl, another great Nova Scotia film.
The film takes place in Sydney, Nova Scotia where Parker recently starred in Weirdos. The Cape Breton scenery is gorgeous; a true co-star of the film.
The dialogue is outstanding. To no one's surprise, Daniel MacIvor wrote the original play and the screenplay for the film. Marion Bridge won Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. The film also marked Ellen Page's feature film debut.
There is a beautiful Easter egg in the film involving The Five Senses (1999), a film where von Carolsfeld was an editor and stars Parker and MacIvor. I laughed a little too loud when I first saw the Easter egg. The people around me asked later why it was funny.
Marion Bridge is a family drama full of real and not an ounce of sap to be found. Strong acting and writing of people with a number of issues.
Americans can find Marion Bridge on Tubi with limited ads.
photo credit: Marion Bridge film video credit: YouTube/OfficialBestOfFest
I see a lot of Canadian films. I've written a lot about Take This Waltz, but haven't given the film a full review.
Take This Waltz came on the heels of Away From Her from Sarah Polley. She earned an Oscar nomination for her adapted screenplay based on the Alice Munro short story The Bear Who Came Down a Mountain. Polley wrote and directed Take This Waltz.
Lou (Seth Rogen) is a cookbook author making a lot of chicken. Margot (Michelle Williams) is his wife, a part-time tourism writer. Margo has a chance meeting with Daniel (Luke Kirby) while on assignment in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island.
Margo and Daniel think they know each other but can't place where and how. They find out when taking a cab back home that they live on the same street on the west side of Toronto.
Polley wrote an incredible seduction scene just with words that would rival most Hollywood seductions. "I want to know what you would do to me," Margo asks Daniel, even though that would never happen.
Take This Waltz has a realistic portrayal of the ramifications of what happens when a relationship is torn apart. Polley uses the imagery of water in such a beautiful fashion. Nearby Lake Ontario is only part of the woven imagery.
We did profile this earlier but worth repeating: Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman showed in this film that they could take on serious roles on the big screen. When they later went on to do other serious roles, neither got the credit for their performances in Take This Waltz.
Toronto is a co-star in the film. The city has a lot of filmmaking but few capture the city like this film: Lake Ontario, Kensington Market, College Street with the Royal Theatre (showing Mon Once Antoine), the Scrambler ride at Centreville Amusement Park on Centre Island and the Toronto ferry, Peter Mansbridge on The National, and Trinity Bellwoods Park.
The cast is peppered with noteworthy Canadian actors such as Jennifer Podemski and Graham Abbey. The title Take This Waltz comes from the Leonard Cohen song.
Outside of Alias Grace, Sarah Polley has done very little lately. That is a statement without judgment. See her wonderful filmmaking approach. This film is also one of the best Canadian films I've seen in the last decade. We are not about superlatives. You don't even have to tell your friends the film is Canadian. Let them enjoy the film without having to reflect.
video credit: YouTube/StudiocanalUK photo credit: Take This Waltz film
We would have known by now if there was a Season 3 of The Filmmakers on CBC. We offer a tribute to the program that brought perspective to Canadian film.
The Filmmakers taught us Film 101 basics in Season 1 along with profiling classic Canadian films. Season 2 brought in-depth examinations of films from female filmmakers.
Season 1 brought Canadians (and Americans in Detroit, Buffalo, and Seattle) some of the best Canadian films. The viewers heard from the directors and others who worked on the films. The Film 101 series took us some of the lesser-known roles in making a film.
Season 2 had more time to concentrate on the established and relatively new female filmmakers making Canadian films.
The 30-minute episodes introduced the films so the audience got to see the Canadian films. CBC does show Canadian films on Saturday nights in the summer. The Filmmakers was a guide for why Canadian films are important.
Johanna Schneller was the primary host in Season 1 with Amanda Parris handling the Film 101 segments. Schneller and Parris split the duties in Season 2.
A potential Season 3 of The Filmmakers could have covered the TIFF all-time Top 10, Quebec films, Indigenous films, or quirky independent films. There are enough Canadian films to generate several more seasons of The Filmmakers.
Canadian talent rarely get asked about Canadian film projects in interviews, especially with someone who is a significant force in the Canadian film scene. Women Who Act combines prominent Canadian director Patricia Rozema with 4 talented Canadian women.
Women Who Act is a series of conversations with Rozema and Andrea Martin, Ellen Page, Tatiana Maslany, and Sandra Oh. The conversations sans men produce an intriguing dynamic missing from late-night talk shows.
The audience gets to find out more about the Canadian projects that these actresses have done. Sandra Oh talks about Window Horses and working with Don McKellar on projects such as Last Night. Tatiana Maslany gets to speak about Picture Day and working with Jason Priestley on Cas & Dylan. Ellen Page speaks about working with Bruce McDonald on The Tracey Fragments.
Rozema isn't trying to fill time; she really wants to understand the actor portion of the director-actor dynamic. Rozema also plays a word association with each of the actors. She has a quirk of following up with "what do you mean by that" instead of moving on directly to a different question.
Rozema directed Oh in a episode of Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays and worked with Page on Into the Forest. She also tells Maslany that she wants to work with her. Full disclosure is noted. The dynamic feels more intimate than a regular interview.
Martin mentions that she was semi-nude in her debut Foxy Lady for Ivan Reitman. Cannibal Girls is also mentioned. They talk about Godspell with a cast of now well-known actors such as Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Victor Garber, and musical director Paul Shaffer. Martin admits that she wasn't originally cast in the play but got the part later.
Rozema asked Martin who was funnier: Americans, Canadians, or Armenians. Martin's ancestry is from Armenia. She was born and grew up in the United States and later became a Canadian citizen.
Page pointed out that she was a particular actor looking for ideal parts, especially since 17% of films have a female protagonist. Rozema was surprised the number was that high. Page, a Nova Scotia native, admitted to following CBC Nova Scotia on Twitter and e-mailing news links to friends.
Page said working on The Tracey Fragments with Bruce McDonald was "one of the best filmmaking acting experiences I've had."
Rozema and Maslany talk about the rich tradition of Canadians being funny. She found John Candy to be "very open, very Canadian." Maslany says she struggles more with comedy than drama.
Maslany worked with John Fawcett in Orphan Black. But you might not know that they worked together in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. Maslany, who was a blonde in the role, won a Chainsaw award for best supporting actress.
She spoke of the extensive rehearsal improv that lead up to Picture Day.
Maslany told Rozema of the challenge to speak all but 2 lines in German in Woman in Gold. Turns out that Maslany grew up with German spoken in her home in Regina.
Rozema noted how surprised she was that Oh takes comedy seriously after directing her on Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays. She brought up Adrienne Clarkson and Don McKellar in the name reaction. Clarkson may not be a recognisable name to Americans. Oh's reaction to McKellar was a noise, a positive noise.
Rozema brought up nudity on screen. Oh talked about women and women's bodies and how we feel about ourselves. She said actors should feel good with their choices: when you are young, make sure someone helps you keep the high road.
Oh and Page talk extensively about being in love with potential projects.
Nudity gets mentioned a few times. Martin brings it up with Rozema. Rozema brings it up with Oh. Page was partially nude under Rozema's direction with Into the Forest. Oh was topless in Dancing at the Blue Iguana. Maslany was briefly nude in Two Lovers and a Bear. As we saw in Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz, there is a refreshing dynamic with nudity being contemplated in an all-female environment.
The timing of the interviews in the 2015 film is intriguing for Maslany since she wasn't sure what would happen past Orphan Black and for Oh since she was trying to figure out her post Grey's Anatomy career well before Killing Eve.
Each interview is about 15 minutes. Barry Avrich wrote and directed the film.
You can access Women Who Act with Amazon Prime with an additional rental fee.
The impact that Simu Liu has had on Kim's Convenience has spread around the world. Liu is cast as the first Asian lead in a Marvel film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Liu has been through a whirlwind of screen test and casting just before Comic-Con in San Diego.
"I feel like I was kind of this social experiment," Liu said at Comic-Con. "Let's just take this guy, an ordinary guy, living in Toronto. Let's tell him he's going to be in the next Marvel movie and give him four days to prep for it.
Most of Liu's experience has been TV and Canadian television such as Orphan Black, Taken, and Blood and Water. While he did do a recent episode of the U.S. TV show Fresh Off the Boat, the impact Liu has made outside Canada was Kim's Convenience.
Mena Massoud is a Canadian actor who was selected to be play the title role lead in the live adaption of Aladdin, released by Disney earlier this year. Massoud was born in Cairo, Egypt and grew up in Markham, ON. Liu left China at the age of 5 and was raised in Mississauga, ON.
The immigrant experience is above and beyond the leads in major motion pictures, but this does speak to the immigrant experience in Canada as a place to come where dreams can come true.
Would love to see Andrea Bang, who plays Janet, the sister of Liu's character Jung on Kim's Convenience, get parts in large films. Bang had a small role in an absolutely delightful Canadian film Adventures in Public School.
More than a few English Canadians have noted that a person living in a major city in the United States has an easier time seeing le cinema du Quebec than English Canada.
Toronto-based distribution company Game Theory Films created Quebec On Screen to help out English Canadians find more and watch Quebec films. The process has involved theatre screenings and iTunes availability.
A few of the best picture nominees from the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards are in the Quebec On Screen pipeline: A Colony | Une colonie; Genesis | Genèse; and The Great Darkened Days | La grande noirceur.
All 3 of those films haven't shown up in my world either and were largely unknown when the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards nominations were released. Felix and Meira, from the same director as The Great Darkened Days | La grande noirceur, was a lot easier to find.
Since we hadn't heard much about them before or since, we will be highly curious to find out whether these films live up to the hype. I've seen more Quebec films than most Canadians and enjoy most of them. I hope these films continue that tradition and people find out for themselves.
TIFF announced its Film Circuit People’s Choice Award for Best Canadian Film from the 158 Film Circuit groups. Meditation Park from Mina Shum won the prestigious honour.
The TIFF Film Circuit is the organisation's film outreach programme, bringing the best of Canadian and international film to Canadians.
Shum did a brilliant job telling that story. I remember seeing the film and having to collect myself before seeing the next film. I did cry in watching the film.
Speaking of TIFF, for the first time since 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival will open with a Canadian film. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band will be the Opening Night Gala Presentation on September 5. This is the first Canadian documentary ever to open the festival.
The film is inspired by Robertson’s 2016 memoir, Testimony. The film will feature interviews from Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Taj Mahal, Dominique Robertson, and Ronnie Hawkins. The documentary will stream exclusively on Crave later this year in Canada.
The last Canadian film to open TIFF: Score: A Hockey Musical (2010). We saw that years ago and there is a reason why hockey and musicals don't go together. That said, a young Noah Reid (Schitt's Creek) and Allie MacDonald (Belinda McKay on Young Drunk Punk) are delightful in the film.
We will have a lot more in the next few weeks on the Canadian film lineup at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival, running September 5-15.
Mouthpiece — from famed director Patricia Rozema — briefly played in the United States but only in New York City and Los Angeles.
Firecrackers — from first-time full-length film director Jasmin Mozaffari — played this past week in Park Ridge, IL, a Chicago suburb outside, among other places.
Whatever logic is used in those decisions is a mystery to your humble narrator. Hopefully both films will appear within easy access of U.S. and Canadian audiences. Firecrackers is available for rent for $6.99 with Amazon Prime.
The folks behind the unnamed American propaganda movie did get a distribution deal in Canada. We were early in the cycle on this story. We talk about award-winning French-Canadian films getting little to no distribution outside Quebec while American propaganda can get a good deal in Canada. The term "ugly American" definitely applies here for a few reasons.
