Canadian Front 2006
March 15–20, 2006

This third annual survey of new Canadian films presents seven strong, imaginative, and distinctive fiction features, made between 2004 and 2006, from across Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Quebec), and one documentary from Ontario. Many of these films were made with the support of government-funded agencies, whether regional, provincial, or federal. The recurrent theme is the drama of choosing and maintaining individuality in a world of shifting social identities, but the narrative strategies of the filmmakers are wide-ranging and diverse.

Of the eight filmmakers in Canadian Front 2006, three (David Christensen, Denis Côté, and Jean-Marc Vallée) are represented by debut features; four (Carl Bessai, Amnon Buchbinder, Denise Filiatrault, and Thom Fitzgerald) are being shown for the first time at MoMA; and one (documentary filmmaker Allan King) is now a MoMA veteran. All films are U.S. premieres (except for C.R.A.Z.Y. and memory for Max, Claire, Ida and company, both New York premieres).

C.R.A.Z.Y. 2005. Canada. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Screen-play by Vallée, François Boulay. With Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx. Take the first initials of the five sons of a Montreal family in reverse birth order—Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary, and Yvan—and you get C.R.A.Z.Y. This exuberant debut film focuses on Zach, the odd duckling of the boys, born Christmas 1960, and his relationship with his feisty family, for whom music plays a significant role. In French, English subtitles. 127 min. New York premiere.

Wednesday, March 15, 6:30; Saturday, March 18, 3:30. T1

Six Figures. 2005. Canada. Directed by David Christensen. Screenplay by Christensen, based on the novel by Fred Leebron. With JR Bourne, Caroline Cave, Deborah Grover. From Calgary comes a debut feature that is at once a tense domestic thriller and a jaundiced view of an ever-present social malaise: wanting more than you can afford. A couple with two small children look for a home in an overheated housing market, and experience a catastrophe. 108 min. U.S. premiere.
Wednesday, March 15, 9:00; Thursday, March 16, 6:00. T1

3 Needles. 2005. Canada. Written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald. With Lucy Liu, Chloë Sevigny, Sandra Oh, Stockard Channing, Sook-Yin Lee. An angry epic in three intense chapters—set in rural China, a South African oceanfront village, and downtown Montreal—about the knowing transmission of a disease. Fitzgerald, recognized for such films as The Hanging Garden (1997) and Beefcake (1999), fashions his most complex and resonant work to date. In English, French, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and Mandarin, English subtitles. 126 min. U.S. premiere.
Thursday, March 16, 8:30; Saturday, March 18, 8:30. T1

Unnatural and Accidental. 2006. Canada. Directed by Carl Bessai. Screenplay by Bessai, based on the play by Marie Clements. With Carmen Moore, Callum Keith Rennie, Tantoo Cardinal, Clements. In Vancouver, over several years, a large number of lonely and deracinated aboriginal women died in an "unnatural and accidental" way: from drinking too much alcohol offered by an all-too-kind killer. Bessai’s fifth feature tells of a daughter who tries to reach her missing alcoholic mother before she is reached by the "generous" murderer. 90 min. U.S. premiere.
Friday, March 17, 4:30; Saturday, March 18, 6:30. T1

Whole New Thing. 2005. Canada. Directed by Amnon Buchbinder. Screenplay by Buchbinder, Daniel MacIvor. With Aaron Weber, Rebecca Jenkins, Robert Joy, MacIvor. Buchbinder’s wise second feature is a coming-of-age story about Emerson, a writer mature beyond his thirteen years. Homeschooled by his "eco-hippie" parents, he is sent to improve his math at the local high school, where he develops an emotional attachment to his English teacher, much to the gay man’s discomfort. 92 min. U.S. premiere.
Friday, March 17, 6:30; Sunday, March 19, 3:00. T1

memory for Max, Claire, Ida and company. 2005. Canada. Directed by Allan King. King, the master documentary filmmaker of Warrendale (1967) and Dying at Grace (2003), and a highlight of Canadian Front two seasons ago, returns with narrationless observations, both candid and humane, on growing old, loss of memory, and emotional behavior. Several residents of a Jewish home for the aged at Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care, in Toronto, and their caregivers and visiting families agree to have their daily lives recorded. 112 min. New York premiere.
Friday, March 17, 8:30; Saturday, March 18, 1:00. T1

Les États nordiques (Drifting States). 2005. Canada. Directed by Denis Côté. Screenplay by Côté, Christian LeBlanc. With LeBlanc. This strong and contemplative debut film mixes a spare narrative with the richness of documentary observation. A Montrealer commits a crime of mercy and heads north to Radisson, the only non-Aboriginal settlement on James Bay, to find salvation. In French, English subtitles. 91 min. U.S. premiere.
Sunday, March 19, 1:00; Monday, March 20, 8:15. T1

Ma vie en cinémascope (My Life in Cinemascope/Bitter Memories). 2004. Canada. Written and directed by Denise Filiatrault. With Pascale Bussières, Serge Postigo, Denis Bernard. A film about the life of Alys Robi, the Céline Dion of the late forties, a Quebec singer who enjoyed enormous international popularity. In 1952 her family, thinking her unstable, forced her to have a lobotomy. This handsome, classically made biopic, directed by actress-turned-filmmaker Filiatrault, tells the twenty-year story of a woman not prepared for celebrity. In French, English subtitles. 105 min. U.S. premiere.
Sunday, March 19, 5:15; Monday, March 20, 6:00. T1

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