Cinefest Sudbury Announces Canadian Selections for 2011 Festival

August 24, 2011 filed under Canadian , Features and Special Presentations

Cinéfest Sudbury is pleased to announce a selection of Canadian feature films for the 23rd edition of the festival. The 2011 programme will include new works by Bruce McDonald, Guy Maddin and Émile Gaudreault and spotlight several up and coming filmmakers directing their first features.

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings [Jonathan Sobol, USA / Canada, 2010] If Duke White (Harvey Keitel) hadn’t thrown himself into Niagara Falls, someone would’ve pushed him. A full-time gambler and part-time dad, Duke enrolled his three eldest sons in a risky pharmaceutical test for a little extra dough. When the meds were discovered to be lethal, the drug company paid the Whites $300,000 in settlement money which Duke promptly lost at the race track. His boys Cal (Scott Caan), Nuts (Jason Jones), and Jacob (Paulo Costanzo) first learn all of these sordid details at the reading of Duke’s Last Will and Testament. Now with precious time left, these three working-class brothers must decide how to spend their last days. It won’t be easy to make up for a lifetime of bad habits and bad decisions, but then again, the White boys have never done anything the easy way. A Beginner’s Guide to Endings is distributed in Canada by Entertainment One.

Breakaway [Robert Lieberman, Canada, 2011] Rajveer Singh (Vinay Virmani) is a 21-year-old man dreaming of a professional hockey career. Unquestionably, he has the talent to be an accomplished player, but faces many hurdles, the biggest of which is himself. Raised as a traditional Sikh, Rajveer was forbidden as a boy to cut his hair and had to wear a turban. This stopped him from playing hockey, the game he loved. His goal was to succeed in a traditional white man’s sport, but this conflicted with his father’s wish that he’d devote his life to his religion and the family business. Unable to find a foothold in the game, Rajveer takes matters into his own hands by creating an all Indian hockey team “The Speedy Singhs,” finding a coach and then bringing on his uncle Sammy’s trucking company as the team sponsor — doing all this behind his father’s back. Breakaway is distributed in Canada by Alliance Films.

Hard Core Logo 2 [Bruce McDonald, Canada 2011] Bruce McDonald (played by McDonald himself) is the director of the infamous rock doc about the band Hard Core Logo, a film that ended in tragedy when the Hard Core’s lead, Joe Dick, killed himself on camera. Bruce has since lived with the guilt of immortalizing Joe’s death on film. Now Bruce is asked to interview Care Failure (played by Care Failure) of Canadian punk band Die Mannequin, who claims to be channelling the spirit of Joe. Joining the band at a recording studio in the backwoods of Saskatchewan, Bruce discovers Care’s manager has hired a musical legend named Bucky Haight (Julian Richings) to produce the album. Bruce is convinced Care is suffering from a genuine case of possession and stays to document the recording process. As bizarre events unfold, Bruce’s experiences revitalize him and cure him of his trauma about Joe. Hard Core Logo 2 is distributed in Canada by Alliance Films.

Keyhole [Guy Maddin, Canada, 2011] A gangster and deadbeat father, Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric), returns home after a long absence. He is toting two teenagers: a drowned girl, Denny, who has mysteriously returned to life; and a bound-and-gagged hostage, who is actually his own teenage son, Manners (David Wontner). Confused, Ulysses doesn’t recognize his own son, but he feels with increasing conviction he must make an indoor odyssey from the back door of his home all the way up, one room at a time, to the marriage bedroom where his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini) awaits. Keyhole is distributed in Canada by Entertainment One.

Marécages (Wetlands) [Guy Édoin, Canada, 2011] On a dairy farm in the Eastern Townships, in the middle of a drought and while the land is parching, a drama will disrupt the life of the Santerre family. Rooted to each other, they will have to learn to forgive. After his remarkable short-film trilogy (Le Pont, Les Eaux mortes, La Battue), Guy Edoin’s feature-length debut is a haunting faux coming-of-age story about personal longings and family obligations. Shot on Edoin’s family farm in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Marécages tells the story of the teenage son of struggling farmers, who has to cope with the death of his father and resentment of his mother. Marécages is distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.

The Odds [Simon Davidson, Canada, 2011] Set in the world of illegal teenage gambling, The Odds follows 17- year-old Desson Orr, played by rising star Tyler Johnston, who must find his best friend’s killer before the game is exposed. Desson’s life is thrown into chaos when he finds his best friend (Calum Worthy) dead of an apparent suicide. Compelled to uncover the truth, Desson comes face to face with the dark secrets of his own complicity in Barry’s death. Delving into a dark world cloaked by a middle-class neighbourhood, Davidson’s film casts an eye on the action surrounding an illegal gambling ring run by teenagers. The Odds is distributed in Canada by KinoSmith Inc.

Roméo Onze (Romeo Eleven) [Ivan Grbovic, Canada, 2011] Young Rami (Ali Ammar) aimlessly roams the malls and streets of the city when he should be attending courses to prep for business school, as desired by his stern immigrant father, Ziad (Joseph Bou Nassar). Too busy with his restaurant business and the upcoming wedding of his eldest daughter, Nada (Caline Habib), Ziad fails to notice that something’s not quite right with his only son, who has always had difficulties walking. At night, Rami finds some solace on the internet, where, as Romeo11, he chats with the mysterious beauty Malaury26. Repped by a handsome avatar picture with none of his awkward walking movements, Rami freely flirts with Malaury26, to whom he presents himself as a successful young businessman — perhaps not unlike the one his father would like him to become one day. But when Malaury26 suggests they meet, and Rami accepts, he must consolidate his real-life persona with that of his online avatar, and finally summon up the courage to show himself as he truly is. Roméo Onze is distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.

Le Vendeur (The Salesman) [Sébastien Pilote, Canada, 2011] Marcel Lévesque (Gilbert Sicotte), a quick-witted car salesman nearing retirement, lives to sell. He has been salesman of the month for the last 16 years at the dealership where he has spent his career, in a declining industrial town in Lac Saint-Jean, where it’s cold enough to scare away the tourists and buying a car sometimes seems completely absurd. There’s just one thing on his mind: getting his beloved Detroit rides off the lot. Marcel Lévesque is a salesman from a bygone era, a man who learned his trade by telling tales — “fibs dressed up with flowers” — and making his customers happy. But a tragedy will change everything for this peddler of dreams. Le Vendeur is distributed in Canada by Entertainment One.