Toronto Feature Films
Toronto Feature Films
BLOOD & DONUTS, Holly Dale, 88', ON
This first dramatic feature by noted documentarian Holly Dale is a dark
comedy about a thirst for life, friendship, and blood. Set in the decaying
back streets of Toronto, a vampire is rudely awakened by a vagrant golf
ball. Uneasy and embarrassed with his vampire needs, his awkwardness proves
to be both endearing and comic. Having been out of circulation for a few
decades, he tries to fit in with current society, and finds his best bet
to be society's misfits. Malofilm Distribution.
THE CHAMPAGNE SAFARI, George Ungar, 100',
QUE
Director George Ungar has dedicated the last 16 years of his life to uncovering
the sensational story of Charles Bedaux, prototypical self-made man, Nazi
collaborator, and pioneering architect of industrial labour relations and
efficiency processes. A vain publicity hound and adventurer, Bedaux embarked
on a "Champagne Safari" through the Canadian north and hired Floyd
Crosby (HIGH NOON) to film what turned out to be the most extravagant home
movie ever made. National Film Board of Canada
CURTIS'S CHARM, John L'Écuyer, 75', ON
Jim (Callum Rennie, of DOUBLE HAPPINESS and FRANK'S COCK) is a recovered
heroin addict who runs into an old friend from his rehab days. Curtis (played
with maniacal charm by Maurice Dean Wint, of RUDE) is still a crack addict,
in over his head, hallucinating, and desperate for Jim's help. To protect
Curtis, Jim scratches out a makeshift lucky charm and restores Curtis's
faith in his own invincibility. CURTIS'S CHARM is the most audacious feature
debut of the year.
L'ENFANT D'EAU, Robert Ménard, 103', QUE
In his newest work, Ménard (CRUISING BAR) turns to the theme of sexual
relationships unconstrained by society's moral conventions. The only survivors
of a plane crash in the Bahamas, 12-year-old Sandrine and êmile, 20-something
with a mental age of five, are washed ashore. Their relationship, at first
strained, grows as time and hope of rescue pass. Sandrine's focus on survival
turns to the future and she ultimately makes an advance towards êmile,
terrifying him. A gripping, evocative drama, L'ENFANT D'EAU confronts society's
censure of young love in a touching and sensitive way.
HOUSE, Laurie Lynd, 85', ON
This much-anticipated feature debut is based on the Chalmers Award-winning
play "House," directed by Daniel Brooks and written by Daniel
MacIvor. Victor (MacIvor), fresh out of group therapy, stages his desperate
need for acceptance to a group of perfect strangers. In an intense, fiercely
paced monologue, Victor spews out a paranoid version of his life, sparing
no one and revelling in his power to shock. The audience fidgets as their
messiah-for-an-hour recounts, one by one, intimate moments from their own
lives.
HOUSE OF PAIN, Mike Hoolboom, 80', ON
Mike Hoolboom follows up last year's award-winning film FRANK'S COCK with
HOUSE OF PAIN -- a feature movie in four parts: PRECIOUS, SCUM, KISSES and
SHITEATER. The film explores a culture increasingly obsessed with, yet alienated
from, the body as an intense site of signification. As a whole the film
is less a reclamation of the body than a regression to a seemingly infantile
preoccupation with the body's tissues, fluids and organs. Provocative and
engaging, HOUSE OF PAIN is an exploration of this temple we call the body.
IF ONLY I WERE AN INDIAN, John Paskievich, 80',
MB
In his feature directorial debut, John Paskievich has crafted a humorous,
destabilizing and complex journey across continents, cultures and history.
In 1992, Joseph Young and his wife Irene, Cree from northern Manitoba, and
Barbara Daniels, an Ojibwa from Winnipeg, flew to the former Czechoslovakia.
There they met the 'White Wampum' tribe, a group of Czechs and Slovaks living
in teepees and dressed in loincloths, feathers and moccasins. Joseph, Irene
and Barbara are left incredulous and wary, not knowing whether to laugh,
cry or be angry. National Film Board of Canada.
LISTE NOIRE, Jean-Marc Vallée, 90', QUE
Power, corruption, and sexual promiscuity mix dangerously in this taut new
thriller. Newly-appointed Quebec Supreme Court judge Jacques Savard has
to deal with a case involving a colleague caught with a prostitute, her
client list of other judges, lawyers, and a minister with portfolio. He
is hounded by both press and colleagues trying to cover their tracks, and
the circle tightens around him until finally, someone is murdered. With
a masterful script by Sylvain Guy the film is fast-paced, suspenseful and
full of intrigue -- enough to keep you guessing. Astral Films.
LIVE BAIT, Bruce Sweeney, 84', BC
Spinning his caustic Gen-X tale with an informal yet elegant naturalism,
first-time feature director Bruce Sweeney immerses us in a dysfunctional
and dissatisfying suburban world. Trevor MacIntosh is a recently graduated
university student who moves out of his parents' home into a room with a
scrawny boxer-in-training. Still a virgin at 23, Trevor is confounded by
sex, despite the fact that his boyish cuteness and disarming manner draw
women to him like flies to honey. The mist surrounding Trevor's perception
of himself begins to lift when he takes a job as an assistant to Charlotte
Peacock, a vibrant, irrepressible and seductive 65-year-old installation
artist.
MARGARET'S MUSEUM, Mort Ransen, 118', BC/NS
The Cape Breton coal mines have already killed Margaret's (Helena Bonham
Carter) father and one of her brothers. Moody and friendless, she vows never
to marry a miner. When she meets Neil Currie (Clive Russell), who also despises
mining, they fall in love and marry. But few people live happily ever after
in the Cape of the forties, and Neil is forced to return to the mine. It
isn't long before tragedy strikes. Maddened by grief, Margaret sets out
to build a macabre museum in honour of fallen miners. Sometimes whimsical,
other times solemn, always deeply moving, this is a profoundly stirring
film, a touching testament to one woman's indomitable will. Malofilm Distribution.
THE MICHELLE APARTMENTS, John Pozer, 91',
BC
Director John Pozer (THE GROCER'S WIFE), returns with THE MICHELLE APARTMENTS.
Welcum is a small, corrupt wasteland of a town, owned by Turnbull Chemicals.
Enter Hartwell (Henry Czerny), a government auditor sent to investigate
the company's books. Hartwell takes up residence in the menacing Michelle
Apartments where he is drawn into a vortex of libidinous intrigue involving
the predatory, chain-smoking beauty Matty (Mary Elizabeth Rubens) and her
menacing greaseball boyfriend Dean (Daniel Kash). Cineplex Odeon Films.
ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, Philip Spink, 93', BC
Quirky and uproariously funny, Spink takes us on a vivid journey, seen through
the eyes of a child, in a story that will leave your sides aching. The year
is 1967. Born into a family "as broke as the Ten Commandments,"
Peter Piper inhabits a world of monsters, vampires and Martians, where young
boys can rocket to the moon. Peter and his foster brother, 10-year old native
Sam (Simon Baker), set out to silence the taunts of the tormenting Guilford
boys: they will build a rocket and make it fly. Following in the path of
such classics as Alice in Wonderland and THE WIZARD OF OZ, ONCE IN A BLUE
MOON is a children's story adults will adore.
SKIN DEEP, Midi Onodera, 85', ON
Midi Onodera's first feature depicts a film director obsessed with her latest
project: the pleasure-pain principle behind tattooing. In preparation for
the shoot, Alex Koyama (Natsuko Ohama) places an ad in a tattoo magazine,
and receives a letter describing the pleasures of the tattooer's needle.
The author, Chris (Keram Malicki-Sanchez), is a young woman cross-dressing
as a man, who becomes infatuated with Alex creating a situation that quickly
spirals out of control.
SOUL SURVIVOR, Stephen Williams, 89', ON
Writer-director Stephen Williams returns to the Festival with his feature
directorial debut, which garnered accolades from the foreign press at this
year's Cannes film festival where it premiered in the prestigious Critic's
Week. Set within Toronto's Jamaican community, the film centres on the dilemma
of Tyrone (Peter Williams) as he strives to define success on his own terms.
From its steamy, gyrating club opening the film is promisingly void of white
faces and places. The almost exclusively Black cast is complemented by a
soundtrack of driving reggae, dance hall and hip-hop beats and promises
to be a sure hit at the Festival. Norstar Releasing.
THE SUBURBANATORS, Gary Burns, 87', AB
Gary Burns' hip first feature film redefines youth boredom in the Burbs
and gives deadpan comedy new meaning. From trying to procure weed and women
to being locked out of an apartment, the film tracks a day in the life of
three sets of young men between the malls. Burns' keen ear for comedy and
insight into the inconsequential lives of his protagonists lies at the heart
of the film's success. THE SUBURBANATORS uncovers humanity where you least
expect it in a place where nothing ever happens and boredom is a worthy
pursuit.
VOICES OF CHANGE, Barbara Doran and Lyn Wright,
95', QUE
Despite the fact that it has been twenty years since International Women's
Year in 1975, this documentary shows how the need to affirm and fight for
women's rights continues. Filmed in several different countries, VOICES
OF CHANGE follows the struggles of five women from a cross-section of social,
economic, cultural and religious backgrounds. The film highlights how feminism
can take any form from grass-roots activism to government lobbying, as it
pursues the realities of women's lives. From the factory floor in Guatemala
to a women's prison in Pakistan, this film goes where few documentaries
have gone before. NFB.
THE WAR BETWEEN US, Anne Wheeler, 93', BC
The year is 1941. Japan has just bombed Pearl Harbour and Canada is at war.
More than 20,000 Japanese-Canadians living on the West coast are rounded
up and interned in the interior. Eventually relationships develop between
the newcomers and the residents of New Denver. Acclaimed director Anne Wheeler
has made a film that takes on a difficult chapter in Canadian history, exploring
how two women meet under extraordinary circumstances and overcome fear and
ignorance to form a binding friendship.
WHO'S COUNTING? MARILYN WARING ON SEX, LIES
AND GLOBAL ECONOMICS, Terre Nash, 94', QUE
Academy Award winner Terre Nash ( IF YOU LOVE THIS PLANET) is back with
a dynamic feature-length documentary portrait of New Zealand economist Marilyn
Waring. The youngest-ever female MP in the New Zealand parliament, she is
the author of the book If Women Counted. Waring addresses the invisibility
of women in the GNP accounting of most nations, and the absence of environmental
sustainability as a factor in national accounting. In this thoroughly engaging
and beautifully crafted portrait, Nash introduces us to a woman of both
words and action. Like Gloria Steinem or Betty Freidan, Waring leaves one
awestruck and energized. NFB.
ZIGRAIL, André Turpin, 78', QUE
AndrÇ is a 20-something guy trying to figure out his life. When his
girlfriend (who is in Turkey on a contract) tells him she's pregnant and
plans to abort, he sets out to change her mind. His journey takes him through
Europe on a voyage of self-discovery. As André moves from country
to country, there is increasingly less dialogue, and the meaning shifts
from word to image. This self-assured low-budget first feature, beautifully
shot in black and white, with a compelling John Zorn soundtrack, is a trip
not quickly forgotten. Alliance Releasing.
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