Jennifer Kawaja
An aspiring medical student whose drug-addicted sister has recently died and who may be forced to relocate from her posh private school to the crime-infested neighborhood in which she was raised enters a step-dancing competition in hope of securing the funds needed to continue her education. Unable to afford the tuition needed to fund her private-school education, ambitious teen Raya returns to her family home in the city and is reluctantly forced to reevaluate her future. Upon learning that the top prize for an upcoming step-dancing competition is 50,000 dollars, Raya uses her impressive moves to earn a coveted slot in her good friend Bishop's predominately male JSJ crew. Isolated from the local females due to jealousy and separated from her fellow dancers by gender, the ambitious dancer is subsequently kicked off the team for showing off during a preliminary competition. Now, if Raya has any hope of realizing her medical-school dreams, she will have to either earn back Bishop's trust or organize her own dance crew and start over from scratch. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutina Wesley, Tracey 'Tre' Armstrong, (more)
Canadian writer/director Ian Iqbal Rashid makes his feature film debut with the romantic comedy Touch of Pink. Jimi Mistry plays Alim, an young gay Ismali-Canadian living in a fashionable section of London. He has an active fantasy life involving Kyle MacLachlan, who appears as the charming ghost of Cary Grant. Alim also has an active social life in the real world with his actual boyfriend Giles (Kristen Holden-Ried). His life of leisure is interrupted when his mother Nuru (Suleka Mathew) arrives in town unexpectedly from Toronto. She also has a secret plan to take him back with her to Canada so he can settle down and find a nice Muslim girl to marry. Touch of Pink premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimi Mistry, Kyle MacLachlan, (more)
Thee adult sisters are forced to face the scars of their past as they wait at their mother's deathbed in this drama written by noted Canadian actor Daniel MacIvor. Agnes (Molly Parker) grew up in Sydney, a small town in Nova Scotia; hoping to get away from memories of an unhappy childhood, Agnes moved to Toronto, where she found more than her share of disappointments. When Agnes receives word that her mother Rose (Marguerite McNeil) is in failing health, she returns to Sydney for the first time in years, where she's met by her sisters, Theresa (Rebecca Jenkins), who has been turned bitter by a bad divorce, and Louise (Stacy Smith), who prefers withdrawing into herself to dealing with the outside world. As the four women attempt to make peace with one another, Agnes decides it's time they faced several unpleasant truths, including the abuse they faced at the hands of her father. The first directorial effort from Wiebke Von Carolsfeld, Marion Bridge was screened in competition at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival as part of the "Perspective Canada" series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Molly Parker, Rebecca Jenkins, (more)
- 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
Mile Zero, director Andrew Currie's feature debut, focuses on the emotional journey of a distraught father, Derek (Michael Riley), who feels his estranged wife, Allison (Sabrina Grdevich), and his young son, Will (Connor Widdows of the Agent Cody Banks movies), slipping away from him. He surprises Will after school one day, taking him on a long journey through British Columbia to a remote spot in the Canadian Rockies. The movie jumps back and forth between the tense journey that Derek and Will are making, and home videos and flashbacks of happier times, and the gradual dissolution of the marriage. Derek doesn't cope well with their separation, even going so far as to surreptitiously install a video monitor in his son's room so he can watch Will sleep. When Allison starts seeing someone new, Derek's fantasies of reconciliation collapse, sending him down a desperate path that ends up endangering more than just his fragile relationship with Will. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Riley, Sabrina Grdevich, (more)
- 1999
Black hair can be styled in a number of ways, although among earlier generations, the subject was divided into two camps: natural or straightened. For many, the straight-hair look was a symbol of conformity and professionalism, while the natural style was adapted by the more adventurous. In contemporary times, all looks are acceptable, and some people vary their hair's appearance from day to day. Several women appear in Black, Bold and Beautiful: Black Women's Hair to discuss their choice of hairstyles and how much influence fashion exerts on their decisions. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
While imagining the childhood of Andy Warhol, Lou Reed once wrote, "There's only one good thing about a small town: you hate it, and you know you have to leave." A similar notion seems to have occurred to Mooney Pottie (Liane Balaban), a 15-year-old Canadian girl growing up in a village deep in the rugged coal mining area of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Mooney wants to be an artist and feels out of place among the rough-hewn villagers and her unsophisticated family. When her art teacher, Cecil Sweeney (Andrew McCarthy), tells her that he could arrange for her to attend an art institute in Manhattan, her parents refuse to allow her to go. Stranded in a place she hates, Mooney finally discovers a kindred spirit when new girl Lou (Tara Spencer Nairn) moves into the neighborhood. Lou's father was a boxer from Brooklyn, and she's inherited his talent for fisticuffs; Lou has a way with a sucker punch that soon has all the girls in town begging her to knock out their boyfriends when they get out of line. Mooney and Lou soon team up on a plan that will allow them to move on to bigger and better things. Canadian filmmaker Allan Moyle returned home for this comedy set in the mid-1970s, which features a soundtrack of classic Canadian rock, including vintage tracks by April Wine and The Stampeders. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liane Balaban, Tara Spencer-Nairn, (more)
