Canada at Slamdance 2009
SLAMDANCE 2009

Narrative Competition Features

ONLY
(detailed info)
2008, HDCAM, color, 73 min.
English

Directors: Ingrid Veninger and Simon Reynolds
Screenwriters: Ingrid Veninger and Simon Reynolds
Producers: Ingrid Veninger and Simon Reynolds, Punk Films (Toronto)

Festivals
2008 Toronto International Film Festival
2008 Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma
Audience Award, Possible Worlds Film Festival (Sydney, Australia)

Treasure Mountain Inn
Sunday, January 18, 12:30 pm
Wednesday, January 21, 6:00 pm

ONLY

Publicist:
Ingrid Veninger
M +1.416.737.9939
punkfilms@gmail.com

World sales:
Rob Straight, Horizon Motion Pictures
T +1.604.632.1707
rstraight@horizonmotionpictures.com

Talent attending:
Simon Reynolds, Director/Producer
Ingrid Veninger, Director/Producer

Daniel lives in a motel, managed by his parents, in northern Ontario. People come, people go, Daniel hardly notices. Until one day a girl arrives and changes his world. ONLY is a glimpse into the heightened impressions and dreams of two unlikely 12-year-olds. Over the course of a single day, they venture on a journey, exploring deep secrets, dark fears, and first love in a pure and powerful meeting of young hearts and minds.

Narrative Competition Features

U.S. premiere
You Might as Well Live
2008, 35 mm, color, 82 min.
English

Director: Simon Ennis
Screenwriters: Simon Ennis and Josh Peace
Producers: Ari Lantos, Serendipity Point Films (Toronto)
Jonas Bell Pasht, ABP Productions (Toronto)

Treasure Mountain Inn - Main
Sunday, January 18, 3:30 pm
Tuesday, January 20, 8:30 pm

YOU MIGHT AS WELL LIVE

Publicist:
Jim Dobson, Indie PR
jim@indie-pr.com

World sales
Charlotte Mickie, Maximum Films
M +1.416.931-8463
charlotte@maximumfilms.ca

Talent attending:
Simon Ennis, Director
Ari Lantos, Producer

Robert R. Mutt never had it easy. He’s failed at everything he’s ever tried to accomplish…including his own suicide. To make matters worse, he’s just been kicked out of the only place where he’s ever felt at home, the depression ward of the mental hospital… for being too happy. Despite all this, Robert is determined to prove that he’s “a real somebody,” and on the advice of his childhood hero (former local baseball hero Clinton Manitoba), he sets out to attain the three keys to success: money, a girlfriend, and a championship ring. This sets Robert on a madcap adventure involving a drug racket, a roller-skating transvestite, a bar-mitzvah and an air hockey tournament which leads to heartbreak and unexpected triumph.

Narrative Competition Features

World premiere
The Ante
2008, 35 mm, color, 82 min.
English

Director: Max Perrier
Producers: Max Perrier, Valérie Gagnon, Peter Proffit Pictures (Montréal)
Screenwriters: Danek S. Kaus, James Chancellor, Simon Perrier

Treasure Mountain Inn - Main
Friday, January 16, 10:00 am
Tuesday, January 20, 6:00 pm

THE ANTE

World sales:
Valérie Gagnon
Peter Proffit Pictures
Pangaea Pictures Inc.
peterproffit@gmail.com

When down-on-his-luck Sam Bailey takes a wrong turn on a remote country road, he ends up with more than a little dirt to wash off his shoes after a miserable farmwife’s hope for a better life becomes his worst nightmare. After Sam’s greedy Russian wife discovers his deadly secret, she ups the ante with her own crazy plot - playing with Sam's life to cover her bet. An offbeat dark comedy with overtones of film noir and western genres, The Ante tells the story of a man’s absurd gamble to save his innocence. Three desperate people who bet everything they have in a brainless high-stakes game of loser-loses-all.

Narrative Competition Features

Son of the Sunshine
(detailed info)
2008, Super 16mm, color, 95 min.
English

Director: Ryan Ward
Producer: Paul Fler, Pangaea Pictures Inc. (Toronto)
Screenwriters: Matthew Heiti and Ryan Ward

Treasure Mountain Inn - Main
Sunday, January 18, 10:00 am
Wednesday, January 21, 8:30 pm

SON OF THE SUNSHINE

World sales:
Paul Fler
Pangaea Pictures Inc.
info@sonofthesunshine.com

Immersed in the dingy world of low-income housing and diagnosed at age 11 with Coprolalia Tourette’s Syndrome, Sonny Johns cries out to a world that has left him by the wayside. Using money saved from years of government disability, he takes part in an experimental surgery promising to rid him of his violent outbursts. With his symptoms eradicated, Sonny feels he is finally experiencing life for the first time. But as his disorder begins to vanish so too does a divine ability of which only he and his sister Meryl are aware; an ability that saved his sister's life and upon which Sonny may need to call again.

Documentary Feature Competition

Second Sight
(detailed info)
2008, 16 mm and HD, color, 51 min.
English
Canada/Scotland

Treasure Mountain Inn - Main
Saturday, January 17, 10:00 am

Treasure Mountain Inn - Gallery
Monday, January 19, 3:00 pm

Director: Alison McAlpine
Producer: Alison McAlpine, Second Sight Pictures (Toronto)

SECOND SIGHT

World sales:
Alison McAlipine
Second Sight Pictures
secondsight@alisonmcalipine.com

This cinematic, non-fiction ghost story follows Donald Angus MacLean, one of the last of a generation raised with the Gaelic oral tradition rather than electricity and television. “Don Angie” is an old charmer, a man of the church who has listened with an open and curious mind to a lot of “terribly strange stories” throughout his long life. The camera roves with him through the rugged vermillion landscapes of Scotland’s remote Isle of Skye; from gorgeously shot craggy hillsides to the sites of spine-tingling stories of spectres, ghost cars, death foretold and the “second sight.” This softly painted portrait of a vanishing era spins an irresistible tale that becomes a moving study of life and mortality.

SHORTS AT SLAMDANCE

Narrative/Experimental Short Competition

City Girls
(detailed info)
Jon Rafman
2008, color, 10 min.
English

Screenplay and producer: Jon Rafman

Treasure Mountain Inn - Gallery
Saturday, January 17, 11:00 am
Wednesday, January 21, 1:00 pm

CITY GIRL

An anonymous narrator is tortured by the thought that he has encountered the different women he passes on the street earlier in his life.

Narrative/Experimental Short Competition

Princess Margaret Blvd.
(detailed info)
Kazik Radwanski
2008, 35mm, 14 min.
English

Screenplay: Kazik Radwanski
Producer: Daniel Montgomery

Treasure Mountain Inn - Gallery
Saturday, January 17, 11:00 am
Wednesday, January 21, 1:00 pm

PRINCESS MARGARET BLVD.

Subtly exploring the mindset of senior citizen Isabelle Rodarte, as she defiantly confronts the frustration, confusion, and loneliness that are the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

Animation

Seeking You
(detailed info)
Jean-Julien Pous
2008, color, 3 min.

Screenplay: Jean-Julien Pous
Producer: Vancouver Film School and Supinfocom

Treasure Mountain Inn - Gallery
Saturday, January 17, 1:00 pm
Tuesday, January 20, 11:00 am

SEEKING YOU

A man wanders through the night in Hong Kong.