Canadian Film Festival
The Royal Cinema, 608
College St. in Toronto’s Little Italy
The Canadian Film Festival running March 20 – 23 in Toronto highlights Canadian projects by Canadian
artists. Six films and 19 shorts run the
gamut of genres and daily panels cover a multitude of issues on creativity and
the industry. Parties, cinematic
comradeship and the buzz of Canadian talent run this boat. 
Warren Sonoda www.blogto.com
Warren Sonoda, maker of 160 music videos and 9 feature films
opens the festival at 10 am on the 20th leading a day long master class on
filmmaking. Sonoda and the Trailer Park
Boys recently launched Swearnet, a niche website predicated on the right to
swear featuring videos, comedy and every other damn thing. There may be some swearing in Sonoda’s master
class “Ten Things They Don’t Teach You in Film School”.
The Storm Within
Festival screenings begin at 7 that night with The Agreement,
a short from director Cody Campanale. It’s
followed by The Storm Within Aka Rouge Sang, a feature thriller by Martin
Doepner. Beautifully shot in the snowy
wilds of French Canada in 1799, a pregnant settler left to fend for her three children
while her husband goes to town allows British soldiers into her home. Things soon go wrong and she must man up even
if it means resorting to violence to keep her family safe. It stars Isabelle Guérard, Lothaire Bluteau
and Anthony Lemke. Plot twists will
leave the audience gasping.
On March 22, at 7 p.m., the uniquely chilling The
Disappeared, a tense story of six Canadian fishermen lost at sea with dwindling
food and water provides an eerie and meditative experience. Despair sets in as the days and nights roll
along, and tempers flare over the politics of leadership. Then the hallucinations begin. The Disappeared is a stark and deeply stirring
film that creeps under the skin; the open spaces, sun and the sea that the men
refer to as “she” is after them. Shandi Mitchell
wrote and directed the film starring Billy Campbell, Shawn Doyle, Brian Downey,
Ryan Doucette, Gary Levert and Neil Matheson.
Mr. Viral, a snappy dark satire on marketing and consumerism
closes the festival March 23rd at 7 p.m. Written and directed by Alex Boothby and starring
Jefferson Brown, Alex Appel, Christian Lloyd and Michael Ripley, Mr. Viral takes
place in a Toronto ad agency promoting children’s Bunny Beads and an adult diaper. While the drones ponder and play with the campaign,
the alpha male of the bunch secretly shoots pornographic films using the products
as toys, puts the videos online and causes a sensation. It’s witty and wicked, and beautifully
executed. A subplot about an ad agency
lesbian seeking revenge on her cheating partner feels like a screwball comedy
within the satire.
There’s a little something for all tastes. For information
on ticketing, screenings, film descriptions, parties, industry events and
panels, visit Canadian Film Festival 2013.
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