Sharon McGowan Movies
- 2006
Meet "The Retreads" - one of the only major all women's basketball teams whose members each have the distinction of being over 50. (The median age of the players is 72). The age factor and the health conditions engendered by it pose a unique set of hindrances for these participants, and make team competition - particularly competition against teams with younger, faster, more svelte female players - doubly challenging. Sharon McGowan's 48-minute documentary The Oldest Basketball Team in the World takes a compassionate, heartfelt and inspirational look at these girls as they train for the intimidating World Masters Games. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Ten-year-old Nikki Best (Kyley Statham) is a beautiful, intelligent and precocious child. She also suffers from Rett Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder which prohibits her from speaking more than a few words without assistance. Unable or unwilling to understand Nikki's ailment, the doctors and the school authorities are willing to write her off as just another mentally handicapped youngster. But Nikki's courageous mother, Terri (Jessica Steen), is not about to let this happen, embarking on a fierce and ferocious campaign to fight for her daughter's basic rights. In the end, both mother and daughter must put up a united front against the powers that be in order to face the most daunting challenge of Nikki's young life. Based on a true story, Society's Child made its Canadian TV debut over the CBC network on February 2, 2002, and was subsequently aired in the U.S. by the Lifetime cable channel on November 21 of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Written and directed by Terrance Odette, Saint Monica centers on a young girl named Monica (Genevieve Buechner), whose fervent desire is to return to the Toronto church with which she grew up. Determined to play an angel in its annual Christmas procession, Monica steals a pair of wings and prepares to join the rest of the cast. Complications arise when an eccentric old woman (Clare Coulter) steals them back. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
Office workers existing in varying states of disgruntlement/insanity, Tom, Sandra, Randy, and Curt bet a month's salary to see who can stay indoors the longest. Since their office is located in a downtown area, where almost all of the buildings are connected by a system of glass-enclosed bridges, this doesn't seem like such a difficult proposition. However, the longer they stay indoors, the stranger things get. Waydowntown, which was screened at the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival, was directed and co-written by noted Canadian filmmaker Gary Burns, and features celebrated actor and filmmaker Don McKellar in a role as a cubicle drone.
~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fab Filippo, Don McKellar, (more)
Better Than Chocolate is a lesbian love story. Walking home from an evening at the lesbian club 'Cat's Ass,' Maggie is confronted by a gang of skinheads. Suddenly a minibus comes to a screeching halt and out jumps Kim. The skins move on, and Maggie thanks Kim, who watches her go. This is their first meeting. Maggie has recently dropped out of law school and now works in a women's shop. To avoid a confrontation with her mother, she makes up a success story and tells her that she's living in a beautiful apartment. As her mother is having her difficulties with her second husband, she decides to take her young son and come to live with Maggie for a while. Meanwhile, Maggie is housesitting the apartment of a female performer on tour. As fate might have it, she runs across Kim again and they find themselves at the new apartment making love in the shower -- at which moment Maggie's mother and little brother step in. The film was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wendy Crewson, Karyn Dwyer, (more)
