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Canadian Front: New Films
The Museum of Modern Art, in partnership with Telefilm Canada, holds second annual showcase in New York City

Montreal, February 22, 2005 – Telefilm Canada is proud to announce that the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in collaboration with Telefilm, will be holding Canadian Front: New Films 2005, the second annual showcase of new cinema from Canada in New York City from March 16 to 23, 2005.

The nine-film program, featuring an eclectic selection of Canada’s brightest filmmaking talent, was curated by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator of the Department of Film and Media at MoMA. The films will be screening at the Museum of Modern Art.

The Canadian films to be screened at Canadian Front: New Films 2005 are: Ruba Nadda’s Sabah (opening film), Carole Laure’s CQ2 (Seek You Too), Caroline Martel’s Le Fantôme de l’opératrice (The Phantom of the Operator), Cameron Bailey’s Hotel Saudade, Bruce McDonald’s The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, Daniel Roby’s La Peau Blanche (White Skin), Rob Stefaniuk’s Phil the Alien, Benoit Pilon’s Roger Toupin, épicier variété and Noam Gonick’s Stryker.

This event is made possible with the support of Foreign Affairs Canada, the Canadian Consulate General in New York City and the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Trade Routes Program.

Sabah, CQ2 (Seek You Too), The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, La Peau Blanche (White Skin), Phil the Alien, Roger Toupin, épicier variété and Stryker were made possible with the financial participation of Telefilm Canada.

“Telefilm Canada is proud to be a part of the organization of the second-annual Canadian Front: New Films. The success of the inaugural edition, and its return invitation for 2005, demonstrates that Canadian film has made a name for itself on the international scene,” said Wayne Clarkson, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director. “This prestigious event raises the U.S. visibility of some of Canada’s most creative talent, providing their highly original works with an opportunity to connect with new audiences.”

Laurence Kardish added: “A certain wildness, not usually associated with Canada, is a feature of this year’s edition of new narrative works from up north. Behaviour is not circumspect but virtually out-of-control in fascinating ways, from the shape-shifting creature from outer space who lands in backwoods Ontario in Rob Stefaniuk’s comedy, Phil the Alien, and the life-devouring redhead in Daniel Roby’s supernatural thriller, La Peau Blanche (White Skin), to the eager juror who has an affair with an accused in Bruce McDonald's The Love Crimes Of Gillian Guess and the Aboriginal pyromaniac in Noam Gonick’s Winnipeg gang movie, Stryker.

“The spinster in Ruba Nadda’s Sabah resists but cannot help falling in love outside her closed Toronto community, and the young angry daughter at the beginning of Carole Laure’s CQ2 (Seek You Too) takes to the street rather than living at home. Performances are strong, bold and brave. The Department of Film and Media is grateful to Telefilm Canada for its collaboration in presenting the exciting New York premieres that constitute Canadian Front.”

Connecting with the industry
This year, Canadian Front will also feature industry networking events in addition to the film premieres. The spotlighted Canadian directors and producers will participate in meetings with buyers and information sessions with key members of the independent film community in New York City. This initiative has been made possible in collaboration with the IFP/New York.

Sabah, directed by Ruba Nadda; produced by T.L. Boulton Productions; Canadian distribution by Mongrel Media; international distribution by Celluloid Dreams
Sheltered by obligations to her colourful yet insular family in Toronto, middle-aged conservative Arab Muslim Sabah (luminously played by prominent Canadian actress Arsinée Khanjian) falls for a white carpenter with no particular religious beliefs in this engaging cross-cultural dramatic comedy from fiercely independent filmmaker Ruba Nadda.

CQ2 (Seek You Too) directed by Carole Laure; produced by Cité-Amérique/Les Productions Laure and Toloda; Canadian distribution by Film Tonic inc.; international distribution by Films Distribution
A troubled teen finds joy in physical expression under the tutelage of an ex-con dance instructor and the colourful characters of her world in CQ2 (Seek You Too), the second directorial effort from acclaimed Montreal-born French-Canadian actress Carole Laure and the first to star her real-life daughter, Clara Furey.

Le Fantôme de l’opératrice (The Phantom of the Operator) directed by Caroline Martel; produced and distributed in Canada by artifact productions; U.S. distribution by Women Make Movies
The ephemeral is eternal in producer-director Caroline Martel’s remarkable The Phantom of the Operator, which stitches together snippets from some 150 French- and English-language industrial films to chart the history of female telephone operators – “A Voice with a Smile” – and the technology that rendered them obsolete.

Hotel Saudade, directed and produced by Cameron Bailey
Set in Brazil but filmed in a dozen locations, from Berlin to Barbados, Toronto and Ouagadougou, critic-turned-filmmaker Cameron Bailey’s Hotel Saudade is a short, seductive meditation on a lost relationship built around his search for the metaphorical and untranslatable title lodging.

The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, directed by Bruce McDonald; produced by Force Four Entertainment; Canadian and international distribution by Force Four Entertainment
Based on the sensational true story of the voluptuous juror whose mid-trial affair with an accused killer preceded an acquittal, social satire The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess is a flashy, irreverent pop-culture riot from maverick movie-maker Bruce McDonald that features the bravura lead performance of Joely Collins (daughter of singer Phil).

La Peau Blanche (White Skin) directed by Daniel Roby; produced by Zone Films; Canadian and international distribution by Films Séville
Judged one of Canada’s top ten films of 2004 by the blue-ribbon Toronto International Film Festival group, Daniel Roby’s slyly unsettling La Peau Blanche (White Skin) leavens its horror roots with elements of race and sex in the story of a bookish grad student who falls for an anaemic beauty despite her dark secret.

Phil the Alien, directed Rob Stefaniuk; produced by Black Walk; Canadian distribution by Lions Gate Films; U.S. distribution by Decade Distribution
A hilarious compendium of Canadian clichés, Phil the Alien follows a space-borne shape shifter (played with spastic glee by writer-director Rob Stefaniuk) as he befriends a talking beaver, thwarts the leader of a top-secret UFO base under Niagara Falls, and becomes the front man for a religious rock’n’roll band.

Roger Toupin, épicier variété, directed by Benoit Pilon; produced and distributed in Canada by Amazone Film; international distribution by Filmoption International
As leisurely as the way of life vanishing in front of the lens, gentrification has a poignantly human face in director Benoit Pilon’s thoughtful documentary about the final days of a grocery-variety store, owned and operated by Roger Toupin, épicier variété, in Montreal’s newly trendy Plateau Mont-Royal district.

Stryker, directed by Noam Gonick; produced by Wild Boars of Manitoba; Canadian and international distribution by Wild Boars of Manitoba
From the wilds of Winnipeg comes Stryker, a stylized saga of gang warfare and sexual ambiguity from filmmaker Noam Gonick, whose links to the visionary worldview of John Waters and Guy Maddin is underscored by the lush photography of indie stalwart Ed Lachman (The Virgin Suicides, Ken Park, Far from Heaven).

Film notes provided by Maryland-based film critic Eddie Cockrell.

Telefilm Canada, a cultural investor in film, television, new media and music
Telefilm Canada is a federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian film, television, new media and music industries. With the objective of building larger audiences for Canadian cultural products, the Corporation acts as a partner to the private sector through investments in diverse productions with wide appeal.

Information:
Jeanine Basile, Communications and Public Affairs Manager
(514) 283-6363 or 1-800-567-0890, basilej@telefilm.gc.ca
Stephen Lan, Publicist
(416) 923-6327, stephen.lan@sympatico.ca