directed by Caroline Mailloux/ When an eight-year-old boy in a small Quebec town goes missing without a trace, a local woman begins to wonder if her young son might hold the key to the mystery. A tightly wound drama about social expectations and how kids and adults can be, on the inside, a million miles […]

directed by Santiago Menghini/ In the dark just before the dawn, a woman has died in her small suburban home, her death caused by some mysterious, intangible entity looming over the town — a presence that has only just begun to make itself felt. A chilling, brilliantly controlled evocation of the inexplicable forces that have […]

directed by Sarah Galea-Davis/ Middle-aged and unemployed, Paul is looking to restart his life — but as he is forced to move in with his brother and take a menial job, it becomes increasingly apparent that what he’s lost can’t be regained. A sensitive and honest depiction of fading middle-class dreams. Issue 16: Toronto International […]

directed by Andrew Cividino/ While spending a boring summer on Lake Superior, Adam falls in with two local boys and begins to fill his days attempting ever more hazardous stunts — but the arrival of pretty young Taylor could lead to the trio’s riskiest dare yet. Andrew Cividino captures boyhood growing pains with bracing authenticity. […]

directed by Torill Kove/ A seven-year-old girl longs for a bicycle so that she can be more like the other kids in her Norwegian town, but her embarrassingly unconventional, modernist architect parents see things differently. Academy Award-winning animator Torill Kove weaves memory and fantasy together in this droll and charming look at the pain of […]

directed by Amanda Strong/ Hand-crafted, stop-motion figures come to life in this dreamlike tale inspired by Native mythology, in which a confined woman is liberated by a grandmother spider while opaque memories are projected in an effort to restore her spirit as life nears its end. “Most of us put our inner child away somewhere […]

directed by Slater Jewell-Kemker/ In this psychological thriller with a sci-fi twist, a young couple takes a break from a road trip to walk through a wintery forest — where it soon becomes clear that their relationship is based on dangerously unbalanced power dynamics. “Why is it when we’re in love, we’re seemingly more willing […]

directed by Denis Poulin and Martine Époque/ An exploded take on the final minutes of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, this brilliant choreography for the digital age transforms a coda into the wellspring for a new aesthetic beginning. “We have been making films together for a long time, for about 40 years. We always wanted to […]

directed by Wayne Wapeemukwa/ A full-time mother and part-time sex worker goes missing on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside during the 2010 Winter Olympics. This narratively sophisticated and righteously angry commentary on social neglect is set against a backdrop of glib patriotism. “That was the formal inspiration behind the shots, but ironically, when you stare at something […]

directed by Jordan Tannahill/ When his father is electrocuted while illegally stripping copper in an abandoned factory, his young son must attempt to deal with the aftermath by himself. As the boy struggles to bring his father’s body out into the light of day, the factory’s foreboding environs double as both physical gauntlet and symbolic […]