Sometimes in order to make some real changes, you’ve just got to change the rules of the ‘game’.
For one reason or another in the city of Toronto, outside of the occasional Cinefranco weekend fest or entry from Canada’s Top Ten that plays the TIFF Bell Lightbox for a week, cinephiles on this side of the Quebec/Ontario border have to put in the extra leg work if they want to see what our compatriots from the Belle Province are putting together, and in many instances it actually puts a good number of our English language productions to shame. The theory has always been that people in English Canada simply don’t want to see these films, but times have changed and so has the game of show business that we all play…at least we hope it has.
Game Theory Films is a boutique feature film distribution company based in Toronto, Ontario, established in 2018. Game Theory is committed to the strategic release of theatrical feature films within the Canadian marketplace. Their aim is to partner with diverse emerging new voices to ensure their work receives a targeted and dynamic release strategy. With a small passionate staff, they offer a personal touch, and are available to their partners throughout the life of their films from development through release.
Starting tonight at The Royal Cinema here in downtown Toronto, Game Theory Films is launching a very special ‘Quebec On Screen’ screening series this weekend with three critically acclaimed Quebecois Films that had more nominations and wins at the last edition of the Canadian Screen Awards then we can shake a stick at. Each of the films is daring, unique and impossible to look away from in some very distinct ways which makes you appreciate how well our national industry is doing. More and more we are starting to make films that get it right and are getting noticed on the world stage, with the province of Quebec leading the charge.
Une Colonie (A Colony) takes us to the story of Mylia (Emilie Bierre), a timid yet fierce 12-year-old is entering high school. Faced with a hostile new environment (home life for Mylia isn’t the best), she finds a life raft in Jimmy, an iconoclastic Aboriginal youth from the neighboring reserve. Mylia sets out to find her own place, sometimes awkwardly as she deals with the absurdity of adolescence – experiencing great discomfort but cherished victories as she tries to define herself as an individual with all the highs and the lows that come with it.
Making her feature directorial debut, Geneviève Dulude-De Celles is simply something special and needs to be watched. Here with Une Colonie we get a strong and empowered tale of young womanhood that isn’t afraid to make mistakes while it tries to carve out something of its very own. Star Emilie Bierre is a fierce presence on screen that isn’t afraid to show vulnerability at the same. Seeing these young people as characters who are fumbling their way through an existence where they are trying to define who they are is really something fascinating and special to watch.
Une Colonie screens tonight at 7PM and tomorrow July 6th at 8:15 PM and is one of those diamonds in the rough that makes me hold my head up hi and want to show it to the world as an example of Canadian Filmmaking (which I hide Corner Gas: The Movie from the world as best I can)
Une Colonie (A Colony): 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Genèse (Genesis) is the story of three teenagers who are at odds and shaken up by their first experiences with love. While enrolled at a private boy’s college; Guillaume (Théodore Pellerin) grapples with the realization that he’s in love with his best friend, his half-sister Charlotte (Noée Abita) is presented with the idea of being in more of an ‘open’ relationship while young Felix (Édouard Tremblay-Grenier) is in love with Beatrice at summer camp. During a time in their lives when conformity is expected, these young people do anything but.
If this one is familiar to you, you’d be right because it played here in Toronto as a part of the year long Canada’s Top Ten Initiative over at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and you can read our full piece right here. However to sum it up, Genèse has a real beautiful sense of fluidity to it and is meant to be something experiential which is why it translates so well no matter what your first spoken language is and with star Emilie Bierre also pulling double duty here, Genèse is a rare treat to see on the screens of Toronto.
Genèse screens at The Royal here in downtown Toronto tonight at 9:30PM and on Sunday Evening at 8:15 PM. We give it 4 out of 5 stars.
The Great Darkened Days (La Grande Noirceur) takes us to a bleak time as a world war rages, Philippe, a draft-dodger from Quebec, takes refuge in the American West, surviving by competing in Charlie Chaplin impersonation contests. As Philippe makes his long journey home, he encounters various characters under the sway of a destructive madness borne of the chaotic times. His voyage, both violent and fascinating, is a hallucinatory initiation to the darker side of the American dream.
From veteran writer/director Maxime Giroux who have us modern gems like Felix & Meira from back in 2014, we have something here that while moody and a little dark also has an unexpected sense of desperation and even anger to it as the narrative unfolds and is best described as a fable of sorts with the likes of Alejandro Jodoworsky or David Lynch at the helm. It’s kind of challenging and more than a little weird at times but The Great Darkened Days (La Grande Noirceur) is certainly one you’ll be talking about long after the credits roll.
The Great Darkened Days (La Grande Noirceur) is screening Saturday the 6th and Sunday the 7th at 6PM at the Royal here in downtown Toronto. We give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
‘Quebec on Screen’ screens through Sunday at the Royal here in downtown Toronto (visit here for details) and on the off chance you can’t make it down to any of the shows both The Great Darkened Days and Genesis will be available on iTunes starting this July 9th.
If you are anxious to support some Canadian content in any way possible, get yourself down to the Royal this weekend for ‘Quebec on Screen’ and see what ‘La Belle Province’ has to offer, because it is MORE then up to snuff with anything coming out of English speaking Canada.
