Telefilm Canada launches Canada Cool, an annual film tour in the U.S.
Series spotlights Canadian comedies; premiere of the documentary Being Canadian in New York at the Cinema Village and in Los Angeles at the Crest/Westwood, September 18–25
Montreal, July 23, 2015—Telefilm Canada presents the Canada Cool comedy tour, a curated selection of critically acclaimed and award-winning films coming to U.S. theaters in the fall. The film series presents 10 new comedies not yet in American distribution and two true classics of the genre. The films have been selected by MoMA’s former Senior Curator of Film, Laurence Kardish.
The selected films in this first Canada Cool series are being offered to the art house circuit in the U.S. on a pick-and-choose model with marketing support provided by Telefilm. Canada Cool will open in New York and Los Angeles before travelling to additional U.S. markets.
“We’re thrilled to be presenting this exciting new series of the best of Canadian comedies to U.S. audiences,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “Canada Cool aims to create a networked exhibition space for yet undistributed or unreleased Canadian films by building a collaborative programming model that will increase the exhibition and appreciation of Canadian films with an audience that represents a vitally important portion of the film-going public in the U.S.”
Laurence Kardish, curator of the Canada Cool series, added: “Being aware that Canadian humor has contributed to American film, from Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops to the shenanigans of Seth Rogen, I was delighted to organize a series of recent Canadian comedies alerting Americans that a new cultural front was imminent. This initiative highlights clever, lively and mischievous filmmakers from all regions of Canada who believe laughter helps us see more clearly, and whose irreverence both delights and instructs. Half are first features made by men, women, and one self-described gender queer, and for variety’s sake, there is a documentary, a mockumentary, and a crowdfunded animated feature. The films themselves may be wild or gentle, broad or subtle, but they all share ambitious originality.”
Distribution, marketing and publicity will be handled by industry veterans MJ Peckos and Steven Raphael of required viewing.
The Canada Cool lineup includes the following films:
Being Canadian (opening night In New York)
Director: Robert Cohen
English, 90 min.
Hilarious, insightful journey full of true patriot love from Canadian-turned-Hollywood comedy writing guru Cohen (The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, The Ben Stiller Show). Opening in theaters and on VOD September 18, 2015. The film had its world premiere at Hot Docs 2015.
Animal Project
Director: Ingrid Veninger
English, 90 min.
A refreshing and engaging description of an acting school exercise that goes terribly wrong and horribly right by Ingrid Veninger, the prolific and passionate indie filmmaker. The film is simultaneously as touching as it is hilarious.
Asphalt Watches
Directors: Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver
English, 94 min.
A raunchy, crude and wholly inventive animated feature computer drawn by two visual artists describing the aborted cross-Canada road trip attempted by two creatures of amorphous and demented shape. The film won Best Canadian First Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival and was also was part of TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, both in 2013.
Bang Bang Baby
Director: Jeffrey St. Jules
English, 90 min.
Maybe the most eccentric musical ever to come out of well, anywhere. A bang-up melodious mash-up of 50’s horror movies, teenage angst, and young love, this genre-defying comedy won the Best Canadian First Feature at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Fathers and Guns (De père en flic)
Director: Émile Gaudreault
French with English subtitles, 107 min.
From the whizz-bang opening credits to the happily satisfying ending this Quebec box-office phenomenon about Montreal mobsters, sleazy lawyers, cops in hot pursuit, and dads with angry lads is a delightful firecracker of a comedy.
Henri Henri
Director: Martin Talbot
French with English subtitles, 100 min.
In a convent sold for development a young man, the building’s light bulb changer, suddenly and unexpectedly appears. How Henri Henri adapts to life outside is the charming subject of Martin Talbot’s original debut film inflected with the magical whimsy of a Wes Anderson film.
Relative Happiness
Director: Deanne Foley
English, 94 min.
Happiness may be relative to an otherwise confident but oversized young woman (Melissa Bergland, Best Actress Award, 2014 L.A. Comedy Festival) with two beautiful sisters, but when she becomes infatuated with one of her studly B&B guests trouble follows in the paradise seaside setting of this winning romantic comedy.
Songs She Wrote About People She Knows
Director: Kris Elgstrand
English, 80 min.
Carol, already on medication, not only writes nasty songs about people she knows but she sings them over the people’s answering machines. Wrong move, especially when her boss, Asshole Dave, reacts in an unexpected way. Not a romantic comedy, but a stunningly fresh look at how art affects life. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize, New Directors Competition, Nashville Film Festival 2015.
Sunflower Hour
Director: Aaron Houston
English, 90 min.
An award-winning ribald ‘mockumentary’, about puppeteers auditioning for a children’s television program produced by a lapsed pornographer, is a biting satire about the business of making of ‘reality’ shows in this “cheerfully non-PC mockumentary” (Variety).
Two 4 One
Director: Maureen Bradley
English, 77 min.
A smart first—a perky, positive and delightful West Coast transgender romantic comedy about a most inconvenient pregnancy. A Telefilm Canada Micro-Budget Production Program project.
Classics Selection
Crime Wave
Director: John Paizs
1985, English, 80 minutes
Fellow Winnipeger Guy Maddin, before making his own films, was a buddy of, and appeared in some of John Paizs’ shorts. Audiences of the new restoration of Paizs’ undistributed but weird, wonderful and totally wacky 1985 feature, Crime Wave, may or may not see his influence on Maddin but they will certainly enjoy one of the most original films ever made about writer’s block. Restored print of Crime Wave, which was a TIFF Cinematheque presentation at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, courtesy of Library and Archives Canada and Entertainment One.
The Decline Of The American Empire (Le Déclin de l’empire américain)
Director: Denys Arcand
1986, French with English subtitles, 101 min.
The celebrated and witty prequel (by 17 years!) of Canada’s only Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, The Barbarian Invasions, imagines a day and night in the country spent by a group of academics and one motorcyclist who cook for, argue with and go to bed with one another, some sequentially, as they discuss briefly their neighbor to the south. The film had its world premiere at Cannes 1986 in the Directors’ Fortnight, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1987, and was ranked twice by the Toronto International Film Festival as one of the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time (1993 & 2004).
For more information on the films, please visit http://www2.telefilm.gc.ca/email/canada-cool-2015/index-en.php.
About Telefilm Canada—Inspired by talent. Viewed everywhere
Created in 1967, Telefilm is dedicated to the cultural, commercial and industrial success of Canada’s audiovisual industry. Through its various funding and promotion programs, Telefilm supports dynamic companies and creative talent here at home and around the world. Telefilm also makes recommendations regarding the certification of audiovisual treaty co-productions to the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, and administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund and the Talent Fund, a private donation initiative. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/telefilm_canada and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/telefilmcanada.
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Source: Telefilm Canada
Media enquiries:
Steven Raphael, required viewing
(212) 206-0118 or sterapha@aol.com
