A troubled First Nation woman struggles to rebuild her life in Aberdeen. Aberdeen (Gail Maurice) is a middle-aged woman from the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba, whose life has been reduced to sleeping on park benches in Winnipeg. While being arrested for public intoxication, Aberdeen loses her Indigenous identification and subsequently learns that her brother …
Discovery
A lonely Montreal man finds love right as he is targeted for abduction by aliens in You Are Not Alone. Since the end of his previous relationship, Léo (Pier-Luc Funk) has preferred being alone, working night shifts delivering pizzas from his family’s pizzeria. Things begin turning around when Léo meets Rita (Marianne Fortier), a sweet-natured …
A Mohawk social media influencer has to prevent her family’s supply of seeds from being stolen from an evil conglomerate in Seeds. Ziggy (Kaniehtiio Horn) is a budding influencer sharing social media videos of native legends and ghost stories. Just after signing a promotional deal with the seed company Nature’s Oath, she is asked by …
A Japanese-Canadian woman’s relationship with her family is forever changed while at an island self-development retreat in Seagrass. Judith (Ally Maki) travels with her husband Steve (Luke Roberts) and children Stephanie (Nyha Huang Breitkreuz) and Emmy (Remy Marthaller) to a self-development retreat on a remote island in the Pacific. While attending group therapy sessions on …
A group of troubled teenage friends squat in an old farmhouse in The Young Arsonists. Nicole Fergison (Maddy Martin) is a teenage girl who is still reeling from the recent death of her brother Shemus (Kyle Meagher). With her friend Veronica (Jenna Warren), the victim of frequent abuse by her father, Nicole begins squatting in …
A teenage cinephile works at his local video store to try and earn money to attend film school in I Like Movies. Lawrence Kweller (Isaiah Lehtinen) is a 17-year-old high school senior in Burlington who is steadfast about attending the NYU Tisch School of the Arts to learn filmmaking. Lawrence takes a part-time job at …
A young gay man joins the marines to gain acceptance from his estranged mother in The Inspection. Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) has been living on the streets since he was 16 due to his mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union) disowning him for being gay. To win back his mother’s love, French enlists in the marines and …
The inhabitants of a small Indian village begin to worship the motorcycle of a recently deceased man in Dug Dug. While riding his motorcycle through the Indian countryside, local drunk Thakur (Altaf Khan) crashes near a billboard for a magician and is promptly bisected by a passing truck. Thakur’s motorcycle is recovered by the three local …
A Pakistani Canadian teenager deals with family turmoil and heartbreak in Quickening. Sheila (Arooj Azeem) is a young woman from a Pakistani family, who has fallen in love with a white classmate at her university named Eden (Quinn Underwood). However, Sheila chooses not to reveal this information to her parents Aliya (Bushra Ashir Azeem) and Azeem …
A woman becomes concerned after her oldest daughter suddenly stops eating in A Banquet. Holly (Sienna Guillory) is a woman who lives along with her two teenage daughters Betsy (Jessica Alexander) and Isabelle (Ruby Stokes). After encountering a blood-red moon while at a party, Betsy suddenly loses her desire to eat and comes to believe that …
A young woman’s faith is challenged over the course of a tragic night in As In Heaven. Lise (Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl) is the oldest child living on a 19th-century farm, who is preparing to go away to school, a choice supported by Lise’s mother Anna (Ida Cæcilie Rasmussen), but not so much by her absentee …
A Syrian refugee is left in purgatory on a Scottish island in Limbo. Omar (Amir El-Masry) is a young Syrian man, who is left waiting around on an island in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, as he awaits a letter about whether or not he will be granted asylum. He is joined in this wait by Farhad …
According to the Q&A after the screening, the film Tower was not intentionally meant to be about Asperger’s Syndrome. However, as someone who has Asperger’s and was able to greatly relate with the main character of the film, I will say that I believe that Tower is probably the most genuine and unbiased cinematic portrayal of …