Marlboro City
Michael Brockington22:30 min. 1992
Katie Yu/Cheryl-Lee Fast
Massey Productions
9 min. 2004
Includes discussion guide
Also available on DVD
Matt is a ten-year-old computer kid who starts the day by shooting doom trogs and decapitating hell raiders, but doesn't cotton to the idea of visiting his elderly Chinese grandfather. He complains to preoccupied parents that the old man doesn't have a computer nor does he "talk proper English." But from the moment the groovy disco-dancing grandpa greets Matt with an unexpected "Yo, my main man, slide me some skin," their communication gap is far from typical.
Charming and hilarious, Just Smile and Nod turns the tables, and the turntable, on cultural stereotyping.
Subject(s): Children's films, Chinese-Canadians, Family, Humour, Identity
Ann Marie Fleming
45 min. 2000
Animator and experimental filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming blends narrative and unique visual treatment in this mystery fiction film. A lipless woman, out of work, becomes a private detective and is forced to grapple with her own vulnerability in the world. Shot as live action, with a single chip digital hand-held camera, the film was edited and converted to Photoshop files that were manipulated and animated, frame-by-frame.
Subject(s): Identity, Isolation, Women
Greg Liburd/Peter Alexander/Jennifer Jang/Cheryl-Lee Fast
Fast Productions
11 min. 2005
Includes discussion guide
Also available on DVD
Richard is a white guy who has it all figured out. He's a great golfer and a better boss. But when he takes his Asian employee, Francis, out for a round of golf, Richard's self-righteousness quickly becomes the nastiest hazard they encounter. The two cross paths and points of view with an obnoxious rich white kid who mistreats his black caddy to an outrageous degree. But what might just be most outrageous is how much trouble Richard lands in because of his white middle-class assumptions about race and power.
A short Making of Little Black Caddy follows the film. In it, director Greg Liburd explains that racism he encounters today is so much subtler, but still very much exists—a fact that motivated him to make this controversial short film. Behind-the-scenes discussions with the actors, co-director, producer and other key personnel are featured.
Mark Sawers/Leah Mallen
12:30 min. 2002
A lonely tow truck driver encounters the pleading gaze of a dog, locked in a car and seemingly mistreated by its owner. Joe decides to liberate man's best friend—but, as it so often is in life, everything is not as it would appear to be. Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Mark Sawers once again illustrates that dialogue is not always necessary in this short film about misinterpretation.
Subject(s): Animals, Communications, Humour, Isolation
Marlboro CityMichael Brockington22:30 min. 1992 |
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Lulu Keating
Red Snapper Film
5 min. 2004
In this dreamy, fractured drama, a woman recalls the recent death of her lover. The remembered rhythms of his last breaths build into the hurricane winds that pounded Nova Scotia in September 2003. The violent squall matches the turbulence of her life. Told in narrative fragments, layered with whispers, an emergency radio broadcast, the lonely whistles of wind and the savage crack of falling branches, My Hurricane becomes a tale of a woman overcome by storm, but in its lull, surfacing.
Subject(s): Film studies, Relationships, Women
Colleen Murphy/Cheryl Jack/Sarah Abbott
Ameoba Works
30:00 min.
2008
Available on DVD and VHS
On a night so cold it hurts to breathe, Soft as Snow and Cold as Ice meet Thomas, a young man in a drunken stupor who has been dumped at the side of the road on the outskirts of town. When Thomas suggests the two men should walk back to the city with him, Cold as Ice and Soft as Snow persuade him to stay the night. Each man has a different motive: Cold as Ice wants Thomas to die and join them; Soft as Snow wants Thomas to survive the night so he can return to the city and tell people their story.
This black-and-white drama is rich in metaphor, poignant, non-judgmental and even humorous. It was inspired by the freezing deaths of several First Nations men in Saskatoon, allegedly as a result of the non-sanctioned police practice of taking individuals to an isolated edge of town where they would be beaten or abandoned–a practice that earned Canada a place on the 2001 Amnesty International report of human rights abuses.
The production springs from the creative synergy between Sarah Abbott, a producer and film professor at the University of Regina; Colleen Murphy, a director and the 2006-2007 University of Regina Playwright-in-Residence; and Cheryl Jack, an actor and emerging writer based in Saskatoon. Their efforts and the contributions of actors Gordon Tootoosis, Erroll Kinistino and Mathew Strongeagle, a crew of film production students, First Nations youth and local film industry professionals have created a film that will stimulate discussion about the state of disregard and oppression faced by Indigenous people in Canada and around the world.
Subject(s): Ethics, Fantasy, Human rights, Indigenous people, Isolation, SaskatchewanSee also:
Fiction A through H
Fiction S through Z
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