hey, canadians

[Eric P]

any of this worth seeing?

Canadian Front 2009
March 18–23, 2009

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This sixth edition of Canadian Front, MoMA's annual showcase of new Canadian cinema, presents eight features that offer fresh, robust interpretations of familiar movie themes, from the undead (The Death of Alice Blue; Pontypool) to unexpected love (Nurse.Fighter.Boy; The Necessities of Life), shopping (Malls R Us), parental abandonment (It's Not Me, I Swear!; Mommy's at the Hairdresser), and the joy of feeding friends and strangers (Well Done). Three of the eight filmmakers—Park Bench, Charles Officer, and Guillaume Sylvestre—are represented by their debut features, while Philippe Falardeau, Helene Klodawsky, Bruce McDonald, Benoit Pilon, and Léa Pool have each been featured in past editions of Canadian Front or New Directors/New Films. All of this year's filmmakers have made films that touch the heart, ignite the mind, and defy expectations.

Organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film, and presented in association with Telefilm Canada. Special thanks to Brigitte Hubmann, International Festivals Specialist, Montreal. Canadian Front 2009 is presented with the support of the Canadian Consulate General in New York.

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Ce qu'il faut pour vivre (The Necessities of Life). 2008. Canada. Directed by Benoit Pilon. Written by Bernard Émond. With Natar Ungalaaq, Eveline Gélinas, Vincent-Guillaume Otis. Canada's official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category at this year's Academy Awards is a poignant, lump-in-the-throat melodrama about displacement. Ungalaaq, the Inuit star of The Fast Runner, plays a man wrenched from his family and community when he is diagnosed with tuberculosis in the mid 1950s. The former hunter must convalesce in a strange land where seasons are as foreign to him as the French spoken in the sanatorium. Both director and writer are Canadian Front veterans, Pilon with his documentary Roger Toupin, and Émond with two dramas, Summit Circle and 20h17 rue Darling. Courtesy of IFC Films. In French, Inuktitut; English subtitles. 102 min.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 7:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)
Sunday, March 22, 2009, 1:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2 (East Coast premiere)

Pontypool. 2008. Canada. Directed by Bruce McDonald. Screenplay by Tony Burgess, from his novel Pontypool Changes Everything. With Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly. Maverick filmmaker Bruce McDonald, whose The Tracey Fragments was a highlight of last year's Canadian Front, is back in full force with Pontypool, a taut, smart chamber horror story in which a virus, spread by language, turns listeners into flesh-eating zombies. The action takes place in a radio station whose broadcasts may be a big part of the problem. Courtesy of IFC Films. 96 min.
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 6:15 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)
Saturday, March 21, 2009, 8:45 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)

Maman est chez le coiffeur (Mommy's at the Hairdresser). 2008. Canada. Directed by Léa Pool. Screenplay by Isabelle Hébert. With Marianne Fortier, Céline Bonnier, Laurent Lucas, Gabriel Arcand. Pool, who has earned an international following with such films as Anne Trister (1986) and Set Me Free (1999), has crafted an astringent, unsentimental tale about a pubescent girl whose world crumbles, one summer in the 1960s, with her parents' separation. Sustained by the beauty of the Quebec countryside and the grudging friendship of a strange man, she attempts to keep her shell-shocked father and brothers from complete social retreat—but her admirable gumption is severely tested. In French; English subtitles. 99 min.
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 8:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)
Sunday, March 22, 2009, 2:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)

Nurse.Fighter.Boy. 2008. Canada. Written and directed by Charles Officer. With Karen LeBlanc, Clark Johnson, Daniel J. Gordon, Walter Borden. A young boy lives in multicultural Toronto with his single mother, a nurse with a health problem of her own. When a boxer who has seen better days comes into their lives, "wondrously the boy's incantations conjure a potent love for his mother, and a protector for himself" (Officer). Nurse.Fighter.Boy is a song of survival and the magic of faith. 93 min.
Friday, March 20, 2009, 6:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (U.S. premiere)
Saturday, March 21, 2009, 2:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2 (U.S. premiere)

The Death of Alice Blue. 2008. Canada. Written and directed by Park Bench. With Bench, Alex Appel, Kristen Holden-Reid. A young woman goes to work for an advertising agency and finds that her new job is a dead end in more ways than one. Why is she not surprised? This punkish, hyperreal spin on the vampire-beside-you genre is a clever reminder that there is still young blood in this old story. Hypnotic music, bone-dry performances, and a darkly comic take on the business of doing business meld into a truly captivating whole. 87 min.
Friday, March 20, 2009, 8:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (World premiere)
Sunday, March 22, 2009, 3:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2 (World premiere)

C'est pas moi, je le jure! (It's Not Me, I Swear!). 2008. Canada. Written and directed by Philippe Falardeau. Based on novels by Bruno Hébert. With Antoine L'Écuyer, Suzanne Clément, Daniel Briére, Catherine Faucher. The filmmaker who so impressed New Yorkers with Congorama in New Directors/New Films 2007 returns with a fast-moving, boisterous account of Léon, a young boy in 1960s suburban Montreal who seems to practice, with some cheer, serial attempts at suicide. His mother has always intervened, but eventually even she gets fed up with her harried existence. Soon Léon's wild behavior—and his relationship with the girl next door—head in truly unexpected directions. In French; English subtitles. 110 min.
Saturday, March 21, 2009, 2:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)
Monday, March 23, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)

Durs à cuire (Well Done). 2008. Canada. Directed by Guillaume Sylvestre. This rollicking documentary examines two famed Montreal restaurants, Toque and Au Pied de Cochon; the friendship between their chef owners, Norman Laprise and Martin Picard; and the extreme-sport attitude they take toward their profession. When they aren't busy pleasing customers and creating signature dishes, the restaurateurs keep the filmmaker breathless on their trail as they travel worldwide promoting the local produce of Quebec. In French; English subtitles. 102 min.
Saturday, March 21, 2009, 4:15 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (U.S. premiere)
Sunday, March 22, 2009, 4:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (U.S. premiere)

Malls R Us. 2008. Canada. Directed by Helene Klodawsky. Klodawsky and producer Ina Fichman, the team behind Canadian Front 2008 highlight Family Motel, return with a spirited, genuinely surprising documentary about the global phenomenon of urban and suburban shopping centers. The filmmakers traveled from North America, where the shopping mall originated, to recent examples in Poland, Japan, India, and Dubai. Along the way they encounter "dead mall" bloggers and anti-mall activists, as well as proponents like legendary sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, who sees the mall as the modern Main Street of small-town America. 78 min.
Saturday, March 21, 2009, 6:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (U.S. premiere)
Monday, March 23, 2009, 8:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (U.S. premiere)

[Flannel Boy]

if you're under the impression that Canadians watch Canadian films, you are very wrong.

[Madrun Badrun]

or that anyone watched Canadian films for that matter. 

[Eric P]

once more you all are worthless to me.

[Eric P]

and America.

after we did you the courtesy of severely devaluing our currency for you last year.

for shame

for shame

[Mr. Gundam]

That documentary about malls sounds awesome.

[Ganhyun]

and America.

after we did you the courtesy of severely devaluing our currency for you last year.

for shame

for shame

Hey, I'm thinking of visiting on vacation to spend money in the Canadian economy. Does that help?

[Eric P]

That documentary about malls sounds awesome.

yeah a few of them sound pretty grand.

i get in to see them for free, so i think i'll roll up to a few