Crying Out (2010)

SUMMIT CIRCLE is the second film (on the heels of THE NOVENA) in director Bernard Emond’s trilogy of tranquility and numbness. In it, Rejeanne and Gilles are a married couple whose devastating setbacks--she is laid off from her job and he suffers a debilitating stroke--only begin to fester in the face of corporate greed and personal struggles when they attempt to start over in a new neighborhood.

The year is 1952, in Quebec City. Rachel (16), unmarried and pregnant, works in the church. Filled with shame, she unburdens her guilt to a young priest, under the confidentiality of the confessional. In the present year of 1989, Pierre Lamontagne has returned to Quebec to attend his father's funeral. He meets up with his adopted brother, Marc, who has begun questioning his identity and has embarked on a quest for his roots that would lead them to the Quebec of the 1950s. Past and present converge in a complex web of intrigue where the answer to the mystery lies.

This poignant human drama is phrased as a "small sonata" in three movements -- a novel approach by director and writer Micheline Lactôt to tell the story of two teenage girls. In the first movement, Chantal (Pascale Bussieres) rides the same bus every day and slowly develops an infatuation with the bus driver. Their interactions are expressed through gestures and glances and facial expressions, but not words. Just as Chantal is getting old enough, and maybe courageous enough to actually say something to the driver, fate steps in and she loses her chance. In the second movement, Louisette (Marcia Pilote) hides out on a fishing boat and is discovered by a Bulgarian fisherman who treats her with kindness and consideration and they spend a special evening together -- without being able to speak a word in the other's language. In the third movement, Chantal and Louisette become friends, and as kindred spirits they share a sense of loss and hopelessness.

An unexpected heroine is plunged into a world of forged identities, corporate intrigue and organized crime.

Two women and a transvestite gay man cross paths in this French Canadian drama. The transvestite is preparing for a drag-queen beauty pageant, and has decided to present himself as Cleopatra. Of the two women, one was just fired from her waitressing job and seeks to go back to work at the nightclub where the beauty pageant is to be held. The other woman's mother has just won one million food stamps.

Benoit and Maryse are a brother and sister leading seemingly normal lives. Everything is changed by a series of coincidences and the arrival of a man claiming to come from the future.

Jean-Marc Phaneuf, an unmarried electrical engineer, travels to Burundi as a volunteer for the NGO Radio du Monde. He finds a country ruined by grinding poverty, famine, war, disease and appalling social inequality. At the same time, he meets a joyful, brave people hungry for happiness, knowledge and human dignity. The camera that becomes his personal diary also helps Jean-Marc expose the shaky, ineffective workings of NGOs. His investigations turn up a few praiseworthy examples of international cooperation, but on the whole he finds himself drawn to a terrible, inescapable conclusion: humanitarian aid is a utopian mirage. After falling victim to an attack and losing whatever ideals he still had, Jean-Marc becomes entangled in an impossible relationship. He is ultimately forced to leave Africa in disgrace.

Long-time friends Yan, Simon, Roxanne, Maxime and his sister Lily are in their early 20s, the age when anything is possible. They are just embarking on their careers. Then one fine summer day, Yan is involved in a fatal car accident. The young man is killed instantly and the rest of the gang is thrown into turmoil.

A documentary about direct-cinema from its very beginnings (Nanook of the North) to the fake-direct-cinema of the Blair Witch Project. All the important direct-cinema filmmakers are portrayed and/or interviewed: Leacock, Wiseman, Maysles, Pennebaker, Reisz and others.

Depuis une sérieuse dispute avec son frère Fred, qui lui servait de modèle, Viviane, photographe professionnelle, a mis en veilleuse ses ambitions artistiques. Or, le hasard lui fait rencontrer Guillaume, un jeune mécanicien dont la photogénie naturelle l'inspire. Réticent, ce dernier se laisse convaincre de poser pour Viviane qui, retrouvant son énergie créatrice, fait de lui le sujet d'un projet d'exposition. Bientôt, l'artiste constate que le jeune homme, qui vit toujours chez ses parents, porte les stigmates d'un douloureuse expérience familiale, qui le rend asocial et autodestructeur. Tout en cherchant à percer le mystère de Guillaume, Viviane tente un rapprochement avec son frère.

A Montreal man imagines a mermaid in place of the writer whose picture appears on a novel.

With an enthralling central performance by Gilbert Sicotte, this masterful debut feature examines the life of the top car salesman in a fading Quebec town as events challenge the 67-year-old’s sense of identity and the meaning of life at the most profound level.

As the new millennium approaches, God considers pulling the plug on the planet unless St. John the Baptist finds a reason to spare humanity. John travels to the Newfoundland city that bears his name where he becomes entangled in the lives of talk-show host Marietta, her husband Rick. (Toronto International Film Festival)

In 1838, Francois-Xavier Bouchard (Francis Reddy) fights beside his Quebec countrymen and the English minority.

A young man and his girlfriend visit his parents at their lake house for the weekend. While there, the couple meets an eccentric artist who comes between them.

A 30-year old man is forced out of his inert and absent-minded existence when it's complicated by the three women in his life.

Two geeky teenage boys follow the story of a superhero who doesn't really do much.

A young quebecer descends into alienation and depression.

In this Canadian made oddball mix of music and drama, an actress (Carole Laure) in a traveling musical revue is involved with the show's director until she meets and falls for an aging ecological activist. He too is drawn to her, and together they try to stop a factory from being built over an old-growth forest.