INCH’ALLAH

Canada | Dir: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette | Official Website

Director Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and the producers of Incendies and Monsieur Lazar take on the extremely sensitive emotional and political landscape known variously as Israel, Palestine or the Holy Land. Évelyne Brochu as Chloé captures the torment of deeply conflicted sympathies and loyalties as we follow her vertiginous moral thrill ride.

LAURENCE ANYWAYS

Canada/France | Dir: Xavier Dolan | View Trailer

Director Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, VIFF 09) delivers a stunning love story set in 90’s Montreal. Over a decade, transsexual Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) and his girlfriend Fred (Suzanne Clément) struggle to hold on to each other. Rendered with Dolan’s irresistible panache, this is an epic tale about love and identity.

BLACKBIRD

Canada | Dir: Jason Buxton

Related Links: Official Website | View Trailer

Jason Buxton’s film concerns a troubled teen, Sean Randall, who is falsely accused of planning a Columbine shooting scenario. Sean’s only hope is to overcome his dark image and prove his innocence to both his unlikely love and to his community.

ANTIVIRAL

Canada/USA | Dir: Brandon Cronenberg | View Trailer

Brandon Cronenberg’s (yes, son of that Cronenberg) debut is set in a dystopian near future in which obsession with celebrity has reached such neurotic levels that fans get themselves injected with viruses and diseases that once lived inside their idols… Amazingly controlled and confident for a first film, Antiviral marks Cronenberg the younger as one to watch.

CRIMES OF MIKE RECKET

Canada | Dir: Bruce Sweeney

Bruce Sweeney’s (Dirty) moody mystery is a rich, moving thriller in which character psychology and suspense are seamlessly merged. Watch for very strong performances from Vancouver’s Gabrielle Rose and Nicholas Lea.

RANDOM ACTS OF ROMANCE

Canada | Dir: Katrin Bowen | Official Website

World Premiere

Katrin Bowen (Amazon Falls, VIFF 2010) returns with a feature comedy about the crazy and obsessive behaviours that spring from that thing called love. The story is punctuated by moments of uncomfortably illuminating hilarity, as characters confront the brittleness of relationships.

CAMERA SHY

Canada | Dir: Mark Sawers | Official Website

World Premiere

A skewed reflection on public and private life, Mark Sawers’ black comedy features a corrupt Vancouver city councillor, the rare psychological disorder he’s been diagnosed with, and a mysterious cameraman who won’t leave him alone.

BECOMING REDWOOD

Canada | Dir: Jesse James Miller | Official Website | View Trailer

In this light-hearted tale set in the 60s, Jesse James Miller (Uganda Rising, VIFF ’06) introduces us to the tumultuous world of 11-year-old Redwood, who is only one shot away from defeating Jack Nicklaus at the Masters, freeing his father from jail and reuniting his parents forever. Or so he thinks.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

Canada | Dir: Terry Miles, Kristine Cofsky

World Premiere

Suspended in post-adolescence, twenty-something Sarah alternates between hedonism and ennui. Urged on by her newlywed sister, Sarah awakens to the possibility that life could be different. Directors Terry Miles (A Night For Dying Tigers, VIFF 10) and Kristine Cofsky achieve a pitch-perfect portrait of a quarter-life crisis.

LUNARCY!

Canada | Dir: Simon Ennis

What do you see when you look at the Moon? A man? A woman? A business opportunity? An outpost for future space exploration? Or the portent of all that’s sinister? Simon Ennis documents humanity’s always fascinating, and often bizarre and hilarious, obsession with our lunar neighbour.

THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT

Canada | Dir: Paul Saltzman

In 1965, Paul Saltzman drove to Mississippi and, after joining the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as a civil rights worker, was assaulted by a young KKK member. In this film, director Saltzman returns to find the Klansman and assess the state of the integrated South.

HIGH FIVE: AN ADOPTION SAGA

Canada | Dir: Julia Ivanova

World Premiere

After their plans to adopt a baby are thwarted, Cathy and Martin decide to adopt five Ukrainian siblings—at any cost. The real journey begins when, after several years, they succeed. Director Julia Ivanova confronts the complicated aftermath of an international adoption in this moving documentary.

THE END OF TIME

Canada/Switzerland | Dir: Peter Mettler | View Trailer

In the years since the transcendental epic Gambling, Gods and LSD (2002), Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler has once again travelled the world amassing mind-blowing images and sensations, which take form in this meditation on a subject we experience daily but rarely take the time to ponder: time itself.

OCCUPY LOVE

Canada | Dir: Velcrow Ripper | Official Website

World Premiere

In early 2011, inspired by the massive demonstration in New York City, people the world over came together to demand an inclusive redistribution of social and economic power. Going straight to the heart of the Occupy movement, Velcrow Ripper’s hopeful documentary chronicles this global paradigm shift.

THE CARBON RUSH

Canada | Dir: Amy Miller | Official Website | View Trailer

Director Amy Miller investigates threatened ways of life in Panama, India and Honduras, exposing projects that claim to be sustainable and purport to offer innovative solutions to climate change, but seem to create more problems than they solve.

The Canadian Images Program is supported by:

The Canadian Images Opening Film is sponsored by: