Genres: narrative

  • Why I Hate Bees

    WHY I HATE BEES is a comedic journey into a young girl’s memories of near death, based on the short story by Canadian writer Nancy Jo Cullen. Awards: Best Canadian Lesbian Short, Inside Out Festival, Toronto, 1998; Grand Prize, Cabbagetown Film Festival, Toronto, 1999; Honourable Mention, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2000. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: When I discovered Nancy Jo Cullen’s short story “Why I Hate Bees” in the Saskatchewan quarterly literary magazine, Grain, it had just won an honourable mention in the publication’s writing contest. Nancy lives in Calgary, Alberta. The complete text of her story serves as the narration for…

  • Why I’ll Never Trust You (In 200 Words or Less)

    Late afternoon on a hot summer’s day. Two women lie together in a post-coital languor, talking and laughing. Then one makes a phone call – a call which reveals that everything is not as it seems. “One of the very best films of the festival; it straddles conventional narrative and experimental lyricism with much grace and sensuality.” – Jerry White, Point of View Magazine

  • Wild About Ari

    “Wild About Ari” concerns Sophie, a young Greek woman, who rejects her family through an academic appreciation of Aristotle, while Tom, a young white romantic, pursues his desire to become black. The Toronto Festival of Festival programmers described the film as a “bent, witty drama… that answers all the big questions” on ethnic identity and cultural appropriation. “Scripted with the style and directed with precision”… “Wild about Ari” hopes to win audiences with its fresh insight, humour and eccentric characters. NOW Magazine cites: “Demas’ deft dialogue, which tweaks cultural stereotypes, makes this movie a treat.”

  • Winter Kept Us Warm

    “Winter Kept Us Warm” is English Canada’s first gay film. The story of a campus friendship between two young men that grows into something more, this film played to festival acclaim around the world in 1965. “‘Winter Kept Us Warm’ was made on a shoestring at the University of Toronto by Secter, [then] a 22- year-old English major from Winnipeg. It wasn’t easy. After Student Council money launched the filming of Secter’s script of an ‘ambiguous’ (as they used to say in the sixties) male friendship in a campus residence, finishing grants were predictably refused by the Canada Council, the…

  • You Are Not Alone

    “You Are Not Alone” is a detective story about the search for a missing person, told mostly from the point of view of the missing person. It’s also about homesickness. The missing person, named Price, has absconded with a lot of money and fled somewhere warmer. His wife hires a detective to find him. Continually on the move, Price gives a lift to a drifter named Robin after she’s left at a truck stop. The clues he sends back such as tape recordings and photographs as if he actually wanted to be found, draw investigator Politzer, who say he’s never…

  • Cowgirl’s Revenge, A

    When David tells Catherine he’s breaking up with her because he doesn’t find her that attractive, she is devastated. When her best friend hears what David has said, she convinces Catherine to get revenge – but who’s “doing” who here? Things aren’t always as they seem when it comes to affairs of the heart – especially in the 90s.

  • Ballad of Don Quinn, The

    What do you do when you wake up one morning and find your leather jacket doesn’t quite fit anymore and your spiky green hair has gone grey? Get your band back together of course. “The Ballad of Don Quinn” tells the story of southern Saskatchewan’s original punk rocker and his attempts to resurrect his band a decade after their scarcely noticed demise. Years ahead of the Sex Pistols and Hard Core Logo. “One of the top ten Canadian short films of the 1990s.” – Cinémascope magazine “A landmark film.” – Brian Stockton: The Best of Western Canadian Comedy

  • Mother Daughter Love

    A mother and her look-alike young daughter have died and are wandering their home-town looking for a way to come back to life. A young man who doesn’t realize they are dead agrees to show them around town. As the tour progresses, he remembers and notices progressively strange things about them, and becomes caught between his desire to help and his fear. Little does he know, they face a time limit, as do we all. This is a creepy yet beautiful tale of regeneration and rebirth.

  • Belly, Femur. Femur, Belly

    A chance meeting between the supercool, worldly wise Belly and the awkward, heart-broken Femur becomes an afternoon roam around the city. Their day culminates into what would seem to be a simple gesture to most but proves pivotal for these two. Written and directed by Laura Cowell, who plays both roles. An homage to the “Parent Trap”? Or taking the notion of random crushes to a more complicated level?

  • Spent

    This film takes the viewer into the depths of the film noir world with black-and-white shadowy images. The film, however, is distinctly modern, unsettling and mysterious. Eric is a secret agent whose double identity and dangerous missions are completely hidden from the people closest to him. As his lies and betrayal come to the forefront due to reckless behaviour, his relationships crumble and his secret life becomes all-consuming.