Now in its 14th year, Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival features some of the most electrifying and original Canadian films of the year. Organized by the Toronto International Film Festival, the series includes films from Quebec, Alberta, Nunavut and British Columbia and shorts from across the country – This program highlights the best independent shorts of the year.
Bihttoš ( Rebel) / Dir. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, 2014, Canada, 14 min
(English, Sámi w/ English subtitles)
Mixing archival footage, re-enactments and animation, Elle- Máijá Tailfeathers’ extraordinarily beautiful and poignant documentary Bihttoš (Finnish for “rebel”) explores how past injustices impacted the marriage of her mother, who is of Blackfoot descent, and her Sami father.
Bison / Dir. Kevan Funk, 2014, Canada, 12 min
After heading to a ranch for a guys’ weekend, a young man makes an unwelcome discovery. Kevan Funk returns to Canada’s Top Ten with this disquieting study of the
continued colonization of the West.
La Coupe (The Cut) / Dir. Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, 2014, Canada, 15 min
(French w/ English subtitles) A charming domestic moment between a father and his young daughter is disrupted by a phone call. Made with heartbreaking sensitivity, La Coupe is a poetic exploration of family and isolation.
Cutaway / Dir. Kazik Radwanski, 2014, Canada, 7 min
Told entirely through close-ups, this formally daring story, in which a handyman cuts himself and is confronted with a momentous development in his life, comes from the awardwinning filmmaking team behind Tower and Princess Margaret Blvd.
Day 40 / Dir. Sol Friedman, 2014, Canada, 6 min
The story of Noah’s Ark has rarely been told from the animals’ perspective. In this darkly comic, animated account, the assorted fauna reveal their decidedly unholy natures as the water rises.
Kajutaijuq: The Spirit That Comes / Dir. Scott Brachmayer, 2014, Canada, 15 min (Inuktitut w/ English subtitles) A hunter in the Arctic tries to live by the traditional skills his grandfather taught him—but these lessons are difficult for a modern man to apply, and the price of failure can be costly.
(Mynarski chute mortelle) Mynarski Death Plummet / Dir. Matthew Rankin, 2014, Canada, 8 min. The story of Winnipeg WWII hero Andrew Mynarski is told stunningly in this explosive, expressionistic and psychedelic envisioning of his final moments, paying homage to our collective past while transforming fact into brilliant celluloid fantasia.
Sleeping Giant / Dir. Andrew Cividino, 2014, Canada, 17 min
While spending a boring summer on Lake Superior, Adam falls in with two locals and begins attempting ever more hazardous stunts—but the arrival of pretty young Taylor
could spark the trio’s riskiest dare yet.
Still / Dir. Slater Jewell-Kemker, 2014, Canada, 16 min
In this psychological thriller with a sci-fi twist, a young couple takes a walk through a wintery forest—where it soon becomes clear that their relationship is based on
dangerously unbalanced power dynamics.
The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer/ Dir. Randall Lloyd Okita, 2014, Canada, 10 min
In this bold blend of live action and digital animation, two brothers with conflicting memories of their common past take very different paths. Randall Lloyd Okita bends the boundaries of cinema with spellbinding visuals.
Notes and initial selection by Magali Simard and Alex Rogalski
This screening has been generously sponsored by IATSE 856 and Radio-Canada Manitoba
