Bone Cage at FIN Atlantic International Film Festival Streaming online until Sep 27 $9.99/$19.99, finfestival.ca Jamie works operating a wood processor, clear-cutting for pulp. Jamie knows what it feels like to be killing the place you want to live in. Jamie worries what he’ll do for work once the last tree falls. Jamie wonders what […]
Film + TV
Posted inArts + Music
Climb aboard the Stage Mother ship
Big hair, big makeup, big attitudes: It became clear to screenwriter Brad Hennig one day, while perusing his social media, that the drag queens and church ladies on his friends list weren’t so different after all. That seed of mid-scroll discovery would sprout into Stage Mother, the new movie that is, as director Thom Fitzgerald […]
Posted inArts + Music
FIN Atlantic International Film Festival announces its 2020 lineup
Thank god for that bulk box of popcorn you impulse-bought in early quarantine: Today, FIN Atlantic International Film Festival announced the lineup for its virtual festival, slated for September 17-24. The 40th anniversary of the fest will be able to be watched directly from the fest’s own streaming platform, with tickets sold through an online […]
Posted inArts + Music
Susan Kent follows the lead
There’s this scene in Spinster—the new, north end-shot dramedy starring Chelsea Peretti—that will play on a loop in a quiet corner of your brain forever. Peretti, as Gaby, the film’s eye-rolling namesake, sits on her apartment couch next to her friend Amanda (played by Halifax’s Susan Kent). They’re having a sleepover, making stilted conversation over […]
Posted inArts + Music
Latesha Auger’s Journey is just beginning
How do we heal from a wound? If it’s an injury to our bodies, we can go to the doctor’s. We can take time off. We can rest. For our minds, we can practice healthy coping mechanisms—like meditation, consulting a therapist or building a support system of friends and family. But how do we heal […]
Posted inArts + Music
I Hear You: a medical drama that listens
I Hear You now streaming on ihearyouseries.com free The world doesn’t need another medical drama. If you’re looking for life-or-death plot lines and heroes (or hunks) in scrubs, you’ve been long-satiated thanks to Grey’s Anatomy, E.R and even the likes of The Mindy Project. Good thing, then, that the web series Halifax-based filmmakers Amy Trefry […]
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How Israel Ekanem rolls
Emerging Lens Film Festival 2020 June 10-14, 6:30-9pm themerginglens.com The edges of the word prolific aren’t enough of a border to contain Israel Ekanem’s volume of work. His is the sort of output that quickly overflows: He’s constantly making new short films; putting together a weekly radio show for CKDU FM; working on his podcast, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Women Making Waves comes ashore
Women Making Waves Mar 6-Mar 7 Hotel Halifax, 1990 Barrington Street $10-$150 see womenmakingwaves.ca for details To Lynn Matheson, the best part of Women Making Waves—the conference celebrating diversity in the film-and-television industry with lectures and networking events—isn’t the celebrity sightings or even the screenings. Instead, it’s the energy of fellow attendees that show her […]
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Review: Sweet as Honeyland
The documentary Honeyland tells a relatively minor story concerning a small group of individuals. Yet, the Oscar-nominated film manages to communicate so much about how human nature values the environment against its own interests. The movie is that special kind of documentary that is able to present a narrative in a similar manner to any […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Ice Breakers shatters your idea of hockey history
[Editor’s note, April 3, 2020: As of late March, the National Film Board has released Ice Breakers on its website—NFB.ca—for free streaming. Add it to your self-isolation watch list.] When filmmaker Sandi Rankaduwa saw the National Film Board’s call for a short film program called Re-Imagining My Nova Scotia, she thought back to a book […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Halifax Black Film Festival gets reel
Halifax Black Film Festival Feb 28-Mar 1 Cineplex Park Lane 5657 Spring Garden Road and Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road It may only be marking its fourth year, but the Halifax Black Film Festival has high expectations. “We show the Black reality from around the globe. It allows us to celebrate shared values,” […]
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Finding the Disappearance at Clifton Hill
There have been movies casting Niagara Falls as a central setting, but none have quite captured the split personality of the kitschy tourist town quite like Disappearance at Clifton Hill. “I have some personal history with the city,” says Falls-bred filmmaker Albert Shin recently about his latest feature, opening February 28 at Cineplex Park Lane. “It’s […]