January 15, 2020 If you’re reading this you are probably a person who really enjoys film. And in that case, this doc about movie making is for you. It’s by famed French film director Agnès Varda, and takes the form of an illustrated lecture intended to explain some of her work and, in the process,…

January 22, 2020 Here’s a film that must have really challenged the 30 second elevator sell – a curmudgeonly cartoonist hires a virtual reality company to help save his marriage. How hard could that be when his wife Margot (Doria Tillier), in one of their ‘discussions’, says “I think you’ve been alive too long”? Deciding…

January 29, 2020 Antonio Banderas plays a celebrated filmmaker, Salvador Mallo, who has not made a film in decades. Salvador’s body is falling apart: terrible back pain, horrible migraines, and terrifying panic attacks that make him choke. The source of this pain is unclear, but the medicine to ease it seems to be found in…

February 5, 2020 In Carl Hunter’s debut feature, Bill Nighy shines as Alan, an eccentric, retired tailor with a uniquely keen talent for Scrabble — and for hustling strangers in games. However, the pleasure he takes in Scrabble is tainted by the memory of his long-lost son, who stormed out while playing one night and…

February 12, 2020 For decades Zacharias Kunuk has been one of the most exciting, dynamic, and innovative filmmakers in Canada. His movies ( Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and Maliglatit ) combine myth, history, and folklore, elements that are present in this movie. Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, re-acts an actual 1961 encounter on…

February 19, 2020 In this his fifth feature, which won a Jury Special Mention at Cannes 2019 and is Palestine’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film, director Elia Suleiman, a famed figure in Palestinian cinema, explores the world with his trademark, wide-eyed wonder—one that belies an incisive critique of nationalism and identity. Suleiman stars…

February 26, 2020 Manele Labidi Labbe’s debut feature film tackles the themes of independence, community, traditional culture, and new beginnings. It is a comedy with a bit of a bite. After 10 years in Paris, Selma returns to Tunis to open a psychotherapy service on the roof of her extended family’s apartment building. In a…

March 4, 2020 Conceived by Canadian filmmakers Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (who also plays one of the leads), “The Body Remembers” centers on the spontaneous connection between two women, both of indigenous descent but hailing from very different social classes, who meet by chance at an East Vancouver bus stop. Prim and professionally dressed,…

March 11, 2020 The subject, as the title points out, is a documentary about Merce Cunningham, the revolutionary American choreographer whose decades of work changed the very nature of dance before he died a decade ago at age 90. His mid-20th century collaborations with composer John Cage (his lifelong partner) and visual artist Robert Rauschenberg…