Porcupine Lake is a story of bravery and the secret life of girls set in Northern Ontario during a hot and hazy summertime when adulthood has not yet arrived, but childhood is quickly vanishing. Casting begins June 10th.
Raiders! Is a documentary about two friends’ lifelong journey to complete their childhood passion project: a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. An inspiring testament to the creative spirit and the powerful role of cinema, Raiders! was a bonafide hit at festivals such as SXSW, Hot Docs, DOC NYC, Fantasia International and more.
Known for her dynamic and fearless filmmaking in Attenberg (2010) which was selected as the Greek entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, Tsangari returns with Chevalier a buddy comedy that takes place in the middle of the Aegean Sea, on a luxury yacht.
Following 3 sold-out shows at Hot Docs and an unforgettable live performance by Bobby Rush at Toronto’s Silver Dollar Room, I Am The Blues, produced by EyeSteelFilm, directed and written by award-winning filmmaker Daniel Cross, is set to premiere June 3rd at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto, followed by a wide theatrical release across Canada.
Here Come The Videofreex, a documentary by filmmakers Jon Nealon & Jenny Raskin about the “Videofreex,” a radical 1960s media collective, and their vision of what television could become, is set to premiere April 6th at The Royal, Toronto, to be followed by a Canada-wide theatrical release.
Against the backdrop of the Louvre Museum’s history and artworks, Sokurov applies his unique personal vision onto staged re-enactments and archives for a fascinating portrait of real-life characters Jacques Jaujard and Count Franziskus Wolff-Metternich. Enemies who became collaborators, Jaujard and Wolff-Metternich’s alliance would be the driving force behind the preservation of museum treasures during the Nazi occupation of France.
“It’s because I’ve experienced my share of ups and downs in life that I wanted to make “Mountains May Depart”…..Buddhist thought sees four stages in the flow of life: birth, old age, sickness and death. I think the ultimate point of this film is to say: Whatever times we live through, none of us can avoid experiencing those stages, those difficult moments.” -Jia Zhang-Ke, Director, Screenwriter - “Mountains May Depart"
Familiar to audiences for his rapturous dreamlike films - such as Cannes Palm D’or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives (2002) - Cemetery of Splendour is set in a rural hospital where patients are being treated for a mysterious sleeping sickness. Magic, healing, romance and dreams are all part of a caregiver’s path towards deeper awareness and the world.
Since the time of Pakistan’s independence, the city of Lahore was world renowned for its music. Then with the Islamization of Pakistan in the 1970s, many of Lahore’s most accomplished and celebrated musicians struggled to continue their life’s work. “Song of Lahore” turns the spotlight on a group of brave musicians that kept on playing.
In this incendiary drama, four disgraced priests have their cozy exile disturbed when scandal arrives on their doorstep. In a secluded house in a small seaside town live four unrelated men and the woman who tends to the house and their needs. All former priests, they have been sent to this quiet exile to purge the sins of their pasts, the separation from their communities the worst form of punishment by the Church. They keep to a strict daily schedule devoid of all temptation and spontaneity, each moment a deliberate effort to atone for their wrongdoings.
Films We Like recently completed an all-new 4K restoration of Twist, director Ron Mann’s 1992 award-winning documentary about the 1960s dance craze. This new restoration, completed under the technical supervision of Sue Len Quon, will be released later this year by Films We Like’s new film preservation label Films We Liked.
In One Floor Below, Patrascu, after being the sole unfortunate witness to a domestic quarrel that ends up in a murder, now finds himself at odds with two very close neighbours: one is the murderer. The other is his very own conscience.
Following sold-out screenings at TIFF 2015, where it received 2nd Runner-up for the Grolsch People's Choice Documentary award, Al Purdy Was Here, Brian D Johnson’s portrait of the legendary Canadian poet, opens in Toronto at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on Friday, December 4, 2015 with special guests at post-screening Q & A’s.
A colourful character who was not only ahead of her time but helped to define it, Peggy Guggenheim was an heiress to her family fortune who became a central figure in the modern art movement. As she moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century, she collected not only art, but artists.
James White is a coming-of-age story about a young New Yorker struggling to take control of his reckless, self-destructive behavior in the face of momentous family challenges.
Diana Kennedy is a force of nature, and lives entirely in harmony with it. Along with cooking, she maintains an ecologically sustainable ranch where she has been recycling rainwater, using solar power, and growing her own coffee and corn since the 1970's. A staunch environmentalist with a collection of plastic bags she’s reused for a decade, she is famously prickly about being "green" at home and abroad.
FILMS WE LIKE PRESENTS
HEART OF A DOG
A film by LAURIE ANDERSON
Opens in Toronto at TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday, October 30, 2015
Also Opening:
Regina Public Film Library on Nov 12th
Vancouver @ Vancity on December 11th
Ottawa @ Bytowne on November 20th
Laurie Anderson's first feature film in nearly 30 years is a goofy, lyrical paean to puppy love and an inimitable meditation on love, memory and language. – Justin Chang, Variety
The purpose of death is the release of life - Laurie Anderson, ‘Heart of a Dog’
Films We Like are pleased to announce that Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog will open theatrically in Canada starting with Toronto on October 30th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
"Hello, little bonehead. I'll love you forever." So begins HEART OF A DOG, creative pioneer Laurie Anderson's wryly humourous, wondrous and unforgettable cinematic journey through love, death and language.
Centering on Anderson's beloved rat terrier Lolabelle, who died in 2011, HEART OF A DOG is a personal essay that weaves together childhood memories, video diaries, philosophical musings on data collection, surveillance culture and the Buddhist conception of the afterlife, and heartfelt tributes to the artists, writers, musicians and thinkers who inspire her.
Fusing her own witty, inquisitive narration with original violin compositions, hand-drawn animation, 8mm home movies and artwork culled from exhibitions past and present, Anderson creates a hypnotic, collage-like visual language out of the raw materials of her life and art, examining how stories are constructed and told — and how we use them to make sense of our lives.
With Heart of a Dog, Anderson bursts open the conventions of the documentary format and the essay film in her first feature since the 1986 concert movie Home of the Brave.
LAURIE ANDERSON
Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned — and daring — creative pioneers. She is best known for her multimedia presentations and innovative use of technology. As writer, director, visual artist and vocalist she has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater and experimental music.
Her recording career, launched by “O Superman” in 1981, includes the soundtrack to her feature film HOME OF THE BRAVE and “Life on a String” (2001). Anderson's live shows range from simple spoken word to elaborate multi-media stage performances such as “Songs and Stories for Moby Dick” (1999). Anderson has published seven books and her visual work has been presented in major museums around the world.
In 2002, Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA which culminated in her 2004 touring solo performance “The End of the Moon”. Recent projects include a series of audio-visual installations and a high-definition film, “Hidden Inside Mountains,” created for World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. In 2007 she received the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for her outstanding contribution to the arts. In 2008 she completed a two-year worldwide tour of her performance piece, “Homeland,” which was released as an album on Nonesuch Records in June 2010. Anderson’s solo performance “Delusion” debuted at the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad in February 2010. In October 2010 a retrospective of her visual and installation work opened in Sao Paulo, Brazil and later traveled to Rio de Janiero. In 2011 her exhibition of new visual work titled “Forty-Nine Days In the Bardo” opened in Philadelphia, and “Boat,” her first exhibition of paintings, curated by Vito Schnabel in New York.
FILMS WE LIKE
Founded by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential, Altman) Films We Like is a boutique distributor of documentary, independent and international films in Canada. Recent releases include Force Majeure, Finding Vivian Maier, and the Academy Award-winner Ida.
Running time: 75 min.
More information, download press notes, hi-res images, trailer
Media Contact:
Virginia Kelly, Meghan Parnell
V Kelly & Associates
In this radically reimagined American Western set towards the end of the Civil War, Southerner Augusta (Brit Marling, Arbitrage, The East) encounters two renegade, drunken soldiers (Sam Worthington, Avatar and Kyle Soller, BBC’s “Poldark”) who are on a mission of pillage and violence. After escaping an attempted assault, Augusta races back to the isolated farmhouse that she shares with her sister Louise (Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, Pitch Perfect 2) and their female slave Mad (newcomer Muna Otaru.) When the pair of soldiers track Augusta down to exact revenge, the trio of women are forced to take up arms to fend off their assailants, finding ways to resourcefully defend their home––and themselves––as the escalating attacks become more unpredictable and relentless.
After a standing ovation at the World Premiere screening at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and at Hot Docs 2015 where it had its Canadian Premiere, Toronto based distributor Films We Like announces that director Jessica Edwards’ MAVIS! will open in theatres in Canada starting Friday, November 13 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema.
PARADISE IS THERE Canadian Premiere with special guest Natalie Merchant at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
Q has called Natalie Merchant "among the most compelling and distinctive voices of the last decade," while Vogue has said she is "one of the most successful and enduring alternative artists to emerge from the Eighties intact and uncompromised." Her career began in 1981 when, as a college student, she joined the seminal alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs, which signed to Elektra Records in 1984. As lead vocalist, lyricist, and sometimes pianist, Merchant released six critically acclaimed studio albums with the band, including the platinum-certified In My Tribe (1987), Blind Man's Zoo (1989), Our Time in Eden (1992), and MTV Unplugged (1993).