Camelia Frieberg Movies

A precocious teenage genius is suddenly forced to adapt to the real world, while the real world around him is having some growing pains of its own in this independent comedy drama from Canada. Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber) is an exceptionally talented and intelligent 13-year-old who has been raised and educated by his free-thinking parents ,Rog (Robert Joy) and Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins). While Emerson is clever, witty, and has recently written his first novel, he doesn't seem to have very good socialization skills when he spends time with others, and as he enters adolescence, Rog and Kaya decide to enroll him in public school so he can learn how to function with others (as well as patching up some gaps in his education). While most of Emerson's teachers are happy to have him in class, his ambiguous sexuality and tart intellectualism make him an immediate target for bullies in his small Nova Scotia town. Emerson's English teacher, Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor), has a bigger problem than most with his new student -- Emerson becomes quite infatuated with Don, and isn't at all shy about expressing his attraction, while the closeted Don is torn between a desire to return his advances and the knowledge that he'd be throwing away his career in education if he even acknowledged them. Whole New Thing received its world premier at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The residents of Wilby, Nova Scotia, learn the importance a day can make as scandal weighs heavily on their conscience in the sophomore feature from Canadian playwright-turned-filmmaker Daniel MacIvor. Suicidal Dan Jarvis (James Allodi) is longing to find a reason to live, and as Buddy and Carol Franch's (Paul Gross and Sandra Oh) marriage falls to pieces, single mom Sandra Anderson (Rebecca Jenkins) seeks male companionship to relieve the strain of raising a child alone and unlucky painter Duck MacDonald (Callum Keith Rennie) struggles to overcome his own nagging problems. On the horizon, a shocking revelation threatens to change the way the residents of the small town view both themselves and their neighbors, but how will the people of Wilby deal with such a major problem when they can't even work out their own issues? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Five characters serve as metaphors for the five senses in this drama about human relationships from Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa. Ruth (Gabrielle Rose) works as a massage therapist; one day while giving a rubdown to Anna (Molly Parker), Ruth's teenage daughter Rachel (Nadia Litz) takes Anna's toddler daughter for a stroll in the park. However, Rachel loses track of the child and she's soon lost. While searching for her, Rachel meets Rupert (Brendan Fletcher), a voyeur who teaches her about the pleasures of observing others. Meanwhile, Robert (Daniel MacIvor) is a professional house cleaner with an unusually keen sense of smell. Convinced he can smell love, he starts to set up meetings with all of his former lovers to see if he can sniff out any feelings for him -- and, if not, find out why they stopped caring for him. Robert's friend Rona (Mary-Louise Parker) works as a baker but has no sense of taste, a severe occupational hazard. She also has romantic problems, thanks to the arrival of Roberto (Marco Leonardi), a man she met on a recent vacation in Italy. Finally, Richard (Philippe Volter) is an eye doctor who is losing his hearing. While this situation has left him horribly depressed, he meets a woman who helps him feel better about life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Atom Egoyan's haunting adaptation of the Russell Banks novel The Sweet Hereafter was the Canadian filmmaker's most successful film to date, taking home a Special Grand Jury Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and scoring a pair of Academy Award nominations, including Best Director. Restructured to fit Egoyan's signature mosaic narrative style, the story concerns the cultural aftershocks which tear apart a small British Columbia town in the wake of a school-bus accident which leaves a number of local children dead. Ian Holm stars as Mitchell Stephens, a big-city lawyer who arrives in the interest of uniting the survivors to initiate a lawsuit; his maneuvering only drives the community further apart, reopening old wounds and jeopardizing any hopes of emotional recovery. Like so many of Egoyan's features, The Sweet Hereafter is a serious and painfully honest exploration of family grief; no character is immune from the sense of utter devastation which grips the film, not even the attorney, whose interests are in part motivated by his own remorse over the fate of his daughter, an HIV-positive drug addict. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Desire, the fleeting pleasures of casual sex, and the difficulty involved with keeping passion alive are the focus of this unusual Canadian drama. The film, which was shot alternately in black and white, and color, is set in modern Toronto days before a solar eclipse is to occur. For his high school project, Angelo is filming a documentary on eclipse fever. His work is presented in color as he interviews people about the eclipse. Interspersed between Angelo's film is a series of sexual scenes, shot in black and white, involving gay and straight encounters between 10 friends, lovers, and acquaintances. What makes the film unique is that a connected progression occurs as one character from a preceding sexual encounter always appears in the subsequent one. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, The Adjuster is an examination of the sexual quirks of a married couple. Starring such Egoyan regulars as Elias Koteas, Arsinée Khanjian, Maury Chaykin, and Don McKellar, the film focuses on Noah Render (Koteas), an insurance adjuster who enjoys sleeping with his clients, and his wife, Hera (Khanjian), a film censor who finds excitement in making copies of the most explicit parts of the movies she's assigned to review. When they invite Bubba (Chaykin) into their house to make a movie, the Renders find their lives becoming even more complex. McKellar plays a young film censor who works with Hera. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide