75 El Camino - Sami Khan

In Sarnia’s Chemical Valley, a red-hot Chevy El Camino is the last treasured possession that Travis and Marianne have hung on to after losing everything, including their house. Should they sell this reminder of more prosperous days or take off on the open road, a dream they’ve been chasing all their lives? As this close-knit couple tries to decide, life offers some unexpected twists.

The Translator - Sonya Di Rienzo

Is it “je t’aime” or “I don’t love you”? A translator of French films finds that her work has become her life. While on the subway with her boyfriend, she looks around and imagines the inner thoughts of the people surrounding her as she makes up her mind about her own feelings.

Out in that Deep Blue Sea - Kazik Radwanski

Kazik Radwanski and Daniel Montgomery, the director-producer team behind last year’s award-winning Princess Margaret Blvd., bring you the final film of their trilogy. Presented as the middle section of a three-part storyline, the film focuses on a disillusioned middle-aged man who goes door to door, drumming up business for his real estate agency. As he attempts to balance his work with his personal life, he finds that he is unable to do a good job at either one.

Night Mayor - Guy Maddin

The filmmaker whose cinematic style inspired the term “Maddinesque” delivers a fantastical film about the night mayor of Winnipeg, an inventor of Bosnian descent who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to transmit distinctly Canadian images across the Great White North. Guy Maddin’s imaginative allegory for our cinematic history blends his signature humour with subversive social commentary.

Volta - Ryan Mullins

In an era of generic multiplexes, it’s difficult to imagine a place where theatres have disappeared altogether. Guided by the former projectionist, Ryan Mullins explores a derelict theatre in rural Ghana that retains shadows of its former purpose while serving as a makeshift school. This exquisitely photographed documentary reveals the importance of local cinemas as gathering places that can expose remote areas to the larger world.

De Mouvement - Richard Kerr

As an extension of his INDUSTRIE/INDUSTRY project, Richard Kerr furthers his appropriation of feature film trailers, formally reconstructing their cinematic language. Monochromatic French film trailers from a bygone era provide the source material, and here the actions of the actors are secondary to the physical movement of celluloid. A brilliant formalist montage of wipes creates an awareness of film motion and rhythm.

Snow Hides the Shade of Fig Trees - Samer Najari

Salim, a recent immigrant to Canada, recounts this contemplative story about six men piled in the back of a van delivering flyers in Montreal on the day they are joined by a curious newcomer from Russia, Sacha. Though the men hail from different parts of the world, they all share a sense of nostalgia for their homelands. Melding poetic and magic realism, this lyrically melancholic drama ponders the immigrant experience, comradeship and the snow.