Only Harvey Keitel could play the father of the battling brothers we meet in this boisterous comedy, which KCFF is very happy to present as this year’s opening film. The iconic American actor stars as Duke White, an inveterate gambler and lifelong rogue who realizes that he went too far when he enrolled his three oldest sons in a drug trial without their knowledge (and with him collecting their pay). Now the three brothers – the womanizer Cal (Scott Caan), the meek Jacob (Paolo Costanzo) and Nuts (Jason Jones), a luckless would-be boxer – have learned that their respective life spans have been drastically reduced as a result. Being chips off the old block, they’re determined to make the most of the time they’ve got left. Writer-director Jonathan Sobol set his debut feature in Niagara Falls, the city where he was raised and obviously still loves – never before has a movie captured the ragged charm of the place’s not-so-natural attractions. No wonder the actors on screen – which also includes JUNO’s J.K. Simmons and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Tricia Helfer as you’ve never seen her before – have such a good time. Audiences will find that spirit infectious.

Pride Day celebrations provide cities in Canada and America with some of their biggest and wildest parties every year. But as this documentary by Vancouver’s Bob Christie demonstrates, the struggle to gain and defend the rights and freedoms for LGBT people can make Pride celebrations a far more serious and even dangerous affair in other parts of the world. BEYOND GAY sends viewers out on the road with Ken Coolen, an organizer for the Vancouver Pride Society who discovers that events in places like Moscow and Sri Lanka are very different than the extravaganzas back home. Lively and engaging, Christie’s film is a vital reminder that Pride’s not just about corporate sponsors and parade floats but an ongoing worldwide campaign for human rights in the face of bigotry and repression. This screening is presented in partnerships with the Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival.

The Kingston Canadian Film Festival and Prends ça court! present Quebec Gold 10, a selection of the most celebrated and award winning Quebecois short films from the past year. The program includes the critically acclaimed and multiple award winning Théodore Ushev’s LES JOURNAUX DE LIPSETT (TIFF '10, Sundance '11) which explores the tumultuous life of experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett,  Winner of the Best Canadian Short Film at this year's Toronto International Film Festival Vincent Biron’s LES FLEURS DE L'AGE is a poignant look at childhood and the lazy days of summer and the visually arresting Jean Malek's LES POISSONS, winner of the Best Canadian Short at the 2010 Worldwide Short Film Festival.

One of the country’s most prolific and most gifted young filmmakers, Montreal’s Denis Côté (CARCASSES, KCFF 10) makes a major advance with this spare, wry and sometimes surreal story about a small-town handyman and his withdrawn adolescent daughter. Played by the actual father-and-daughter team of Emmanuel and Philomène Bilodeau, Jean-François and Julyvonne live a very quiet life in a wintry corner of rural Quebec, a place where the local bowling alley provides the closest thing to excitement. But several unexpected events draw them out of their respective shells and into a world that’s nothing like they (or we) could have expected. Balancing an austere visual style with moments of grace, humour and sheer strangeness, Côté’s fifth feature in five years is his most accomplished and compelling to date.

No one can exactly say how the people in a picture-perfect community are being affected by the industrial fire burning at the edge of town. But chances are those chemicals have something to do with the strange behavior exhibited by the characters in this slyly satirical comedy-drama. Written and directed with great style and confidence by first-time feature maker Mike Goldbach, DAYDREAM NATION also serves as a vehicle for the considerable talents of Kat Dennings, the young American star who was so memorable in DEFENDOR (KCFF 10), another recent Canadian movie with an equally idiosyncratic sensibility. Here, she plays Caroline, a young newcomer whose decision to try life as a bad girl soon leads to an affair with her high-school English teacher (SWEET HOME ALABAMA’s Josh Lucas). Of course, Caroline’s not the only one in town making dangerous moves – thanks to the local serial killer, everyone is at risk. And though the situation grows ever more serious for the people on screen, Goldbach’s movie never loses its often devilish sense of humour or its smarts.

Returning to the improvisational tactics that spawned 2008’s MOTHERS&DAUGHTERS, Vancouver filmmaker Carl Bessai has teamed up with some of the West Coast’s best acting talent to create a richly varied and very enjoyable look at the ties that bind sons and fathers, as well as the struggles they have when trying to understand each other. Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of conflicts to be found in the film’s four different storylines, which range from a raucous vignette about brothers reuniting after their dad’s death to the tale of a conservative young man who’s embarrassed by his far more flamboyant father. Despite the many wild turns that the stories may take – viewers can expect both a drunken knife fight and a Bollywood dance number, though thankfully not at the same time – the movie’s take on family dynamics always retains the ring of truth. 

Canada’s official submission for Oscar consideration in the foreign film category and one of the past year’s most acclaimed movies, the latest by Montreal Genie-winner Denis Villeneuve (MAELSTOM, POLYTECHNIQUE) is an ambitious and audacious adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s prize-winning play. Acting on the last wishes of their late mother Nawal (Lubna Azabal), twin siblings Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) travel to Lebanon to discover the secret of their parentage and the truth about their mother’s life during the country’s decades of civil war. At once an epic story of political and religious strife in the Middle East and an intimate family drama with undertones of ancient myth, INCENDIES is a work of searing intensity, terrible beauty and great emotional power.

Some developers’ dreams of creating a “Nicaraguan Riviera” inevitably run into more than a few hitches in the land of the Sandinistas in this engrossing documentary by Toronto-based filmmaker and Queens University graduate Julian T. Pinder. When not providing evidence of the area’s stunning natural beauty, Pinder’s film introduces viewers to a bounty of colorful figures. Players in the drama that emerged during Pinder’s years-long shooting process range from big-talking would-be hoteliers to a hippie farmer to a one-eyed revolutionary poet. All prove to be subject to historical forces far beyond their control as we witness the latest weird chapter in Nicaragua’s long and tumultuous relationship with interlopers and profiteers from El Norte.

This sweet first feature by Dominic Desjardins would be remarkable even if it didn’t qualify as the first Franco-Ontarian fiction film to be made in two decades. Having worked in television in Quebec and Ontario for several years, the Montreal-born Desjardins sought to make a movie that touched on many issues faced by Francophones living in English Canada. He succeeds with this warm-hearted romantic comedy about Zoe (Melanie Leblanc), a young Acadian who decides to hitchhike from Vancouver to her home in Prince Edward Island after breaking up with her boyfriend. Before she leaves the West Coast, she meets Alex (Antoine Gratton, who also composed the musical score), a fellow Francophone who’s so smitten with Zoe, he joins her on the journey. Shot in three months in eight different cities, Desjardins’ effort is a truly Canadian road movie, one that makes a valuable effort to bridge our two solitudes with humour and insight.

Ingrid Veninger is proving to be a remarkably adept chronicler of the lives of youngsters, especially her own. Having already cast her son in ONLY, the 2008 film she co-directed, Veninger enlisted daughter Hallie Switzer to play the lead in her first solo directorial effort. Again, the decision was a good one because the resulting movie is irresistibly charming. Switzer plays Lina, a Toronto teen who impulsively asks Leco (Alexander Gammal), a shy suitor she barely knows, to accompany her on a trip to visit family in the Slovakian town for which the movie is named. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that the cast includes more of Veninger’s clan – her Slovakian relatives ensure that the local colour is plenty vibrant. But what makes MODRA the best kind of home movie is how well it conveys its two Canadian visitors’ moments of connection, conflict and good old-fashioned adolescent confusion.

The long-lasting traumas caused by war are the focus of this drama, which marks a strong directorial debut for Toronto’s Ryan Redford. An American actor familiar from roles in ER, DEADWOOD and the acclaimed new TV comedy RAISING HOPE, Garret Dillahunt stars as the title character, a veteran who arrives one day on the doorstep of Franklin (Donal Logue), the war buddy who once saved his life. Though Franklin still feels a responsibility to the brother in arms whose damage is all too clear, his wife Irene – played by the one and only Molly Parker, who can also be seen at this year’s KCFF in Bruce McDonald’s TRIGGER – is far more aware of the threat that this visitor poses to her family. Adapted from a short story by Rachel Ingalls and shot in and around North Bay, Redford’s film is a somber, beautifully acted parable about violence, guilt and healing. 

PERTE DE SIGNAL, a media arts research and development centre in Montreal, has been on the cutting edge of the presentation of digital artworks for over a decade now — from digital disk production to new media installations. RESILIENCES is a retrospective program of short video work produced by artist members of Perte de Signal between 1997 and 2010. At the forefront of development in new media-arts practices, both in Canada and internationally, the artists featured in this program engage with digital sound and moving images with an immediacy and familiarity that recalls the intimacy of painting or sculpture. Presented by Modern Fuel’s New Media Workspace, the video program will be followed by a discussion with members of Perte de Signal and focus on its endeavours, including artist representation, the production of artworks and events, equipment rental, curatorship, mentorship, networking, laboratories, residencies, publishing, advocacy for artists’ rights, and ancillary support for improving artists’ socioeconomic conditions and promoting media arts.

Though it may begin in the depths of despair, the road taken by the two men in the latest by Quebec’s Louis Bélanger (POST MORTEM, GAZ BAR BLUES) heads in some very surprising directions. Devastated by the loss of his young son, university professor Gilles (François Papineau) skips out on the funeral and heads to a bar in his old neighbourhood. There, he meets Bob (Alexis Martin), a childhood friend turned small-time crook. Unaware of Gilles’ recent tragedy, Bob cooks up a cockamamie scheme to head out into the countryside and rob a bank. Thus begins an odyssey that will have a profound effect on both men. The film’s combination of deep emotion and low-key charm ensures that viewers will get nearly as much out of the duo’s journey.

Bringing laughs and rock to this year’s festival is the musical comedy THE LEGEND OF BEAVER DAM (TIFF ’10, Sundance ‘11), which according to Fangoria Magazine "…will blow your brains and rock your world."  This popular comedy is not the only film in the 2011 Short Film Program ‘blowing minds', the program also includes; NEGATIVIPEG (TIFF ’10, Sundance ’11) Rory Lepine’s personal account of his fateful 1985 encounter with The Guess Who’s legendary lead singer, Burton Cummings, and Ann Marie Fleming’s I WAS A CHILD OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS (TIFF 10’, Sundance ’11), which uses animation to tell the poignant story of Bernice Eisenstein’s acclaimed illustrated memoir.

The mystery at the heart of this crime story has less to do with the victim than the tortured soul of the cop investigating the crime. Played by American character actor Peter Stormare, Walter is a man with deep roots in the Mennonite community in a sleepy Ontario town (the film was shot in and around Listowel). But despite Walter’s outward display of Christian faith and apparent devotion to wife Sam (Martha Plimpton), he also has a troubled past, one that may connect him with whoever killed a young woman discovered in a field by the highway. Making startling use of songs by the Bruce Peninsula, the landscapes of southwestern Ontario and great performances by his cast (including Jackie Burroughs in her final screen appearance), Toronto-based playwright turned filmmaker Ed Gass-Donnelly has crafted a stark slice of Canadian Gothic. 

Canada has produced an extraordinary number of great music documentaries in recent years but the latest by William D. MacGillivray may be the most remarkable of the lot. The veteran East Coast filmmaker pays a well-deserved tribute to Ron Hynes, an icon in Newfoundland’s music scene ever since the early 1970s. Yet this is not just a portrait of Hynes but of the “Man of 1,000 Songs,” the hard-living alter ego who Hynes sang about in one of his signature tunes and who represents the darker side of his personality. Indeed, the singer-songwriter is startlingly frank when discussing his family sorrows and problems with drug addiction. Together with the film’s terrific performance sequences, Hynes’ candidness in front of MacGillivray’s camera makes for an unforgettable look at the personal struggles and creative process of a Canadian music great.

If Sergio Leone had ever thought to stage a spaghetti western in the Yukon, chances are it would’ve had the same swagger as this tale of six-gun justice by Toronto filmmaker S. Wyeth Clarkson (DEADEND.COM KCFF '03, SK8LIFE, KCFF '07). Andrew W. Walker plays Wade Grayling, a Mountie as grizzled and laconic as any cowboy hero. When he discovers that a remote camp of Russian settlers is mixed up in a scheme to smuggle opium and gold, you can be sure there’ll be trouble. Along with Montreal’s Jessica Paré as a scar-faced damsel in distress, the cast includes a colourful array of familiar character actors, including HIGHWAY 61's Earl Pastko as a local priest with dubious motives. Of course, the Yukon itself gets a big starring role in Clarkson’s authentically rugged take on the classic movie western.

Bruce McDonald has been very busy these days. The Kingston-born and Toronto-based director released an astonishing total of four feature-length works in 2010. All bear signs of the raucous, rebellious sensibility he established two decades ago with his one-two punch of ROADKILL and HIGHWAY 61. But this drama – presented in a free screening on the KCFF’s closing night – reveals a seldom-seen side of emotional tenderness, too. That’s not so surprising given that it was created as a swansong for Tracy Wright, the well-loved Toronto actor who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. (She passed away last June but can also be seen at this year’s KCFF in YOU ARE HERE.) Wright gives a rich, moving and often very funny performance as a formerly famous rocker who has an emotionally volatile reunion with her former musical partner, played with equal aplomb by Molly Parker. Packed with cameos by other Toronto luminaries (including Sarah Polley and Wright’s husband Don McKellar) and deftly handled by McDonald, TRIGGER is a defiant expression of vitality in the face of pain and sorrow. It rocks pretty hard, too.

Devastated by the sudden death of her 22-year-old violinist daughter, the central character of this exquisite drama by Catherine Martin retreats from Montreal to her ancestral home in Kamouraska. The experience of Françoise (the excellent Guylaine Tremblay) amid that wintry landscape yields a profound meditation on motherhood, grief and the possibility of grace. François Papineau – also seen at KCFF this year in ROUTE 132, a similarly affecting story of a parent who’s lost a child – appears here as a reclusive painter who helps guide Françoise out of her pain, a journey that is rendered with great sensitivity and artistry by one of Quebec’s most gifted filmmakers. 

Canadians’ confidence in their dominion over this country’s internationally coveted fresh water supply will be shaken by this eye-opening documentary. Filmmaker Liz Marshall creates a compelling portrait of Maude Barlow as the seemingly tireless activist and author spends an eventful year as a senior advisor on water issues for the United Nations. Fighting to ensure that water remains a resource for all rather than an asset for private corporations, Barlow goes wherever the battle takes her, whether it’s a fact-finding excursion to the Alberta tar sands, community meetings over a proposed landfill in Simcoe County or the halls of the UN in New York. The gorgeous cinematography by Steve Cosens provides dramatic views of what’s exactly at stake.

One of the most inventive movies to emerge from anywhere in the globe in recent years, this mindbender marks a confident shift from video art to feature filmmaking for Toronto’s Daniel Cockburn. Describing the contents of YOU ARE HERE is most definitely a challenge but a method to its madness will soon be discerned by viewers who accept Cockburn’s challenge. Likewise, there’s a great sense of humour and warmth inside the film’s labyrinth of interconnected storylines, which depict a series of philosophical and psychological conundrums. The biggest reason why this brainy exercise has so much heart is the central performance by the late Tracy Wright (also seen at KCFF this year in TRIGGER). She plays one of many characters who end up trapped in social experiments of their own devising, a situation that viewers may find more relevant to their own lives than they initially suspect.