Canadians featured at film festivals
Toronto-based directors Matt Johnson and Jeremy LaLonde are among a group of Canadian filmmakers heading to the mountains of Utah this weekend to promote their latest features at the Sundance and Slamdance film festivals.
Johnson heads to Sundance this year with the much more ambitious conspiracy tale Operation Avalanche, a ’60s-set thriller that suggests the moon landing was faked by the CIA.
The 35-year-old LaLonde heads to the Slamdance festival with his sex comedy How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town. It’ll be part of a carefully curated section called Beyond, a sampling of just five emerging artists considered to be on the cusp of a breakthrough. Canadian filmmaker Stephane Gehami is also being highlighted with My Enemies.
Also heading to Slamdance is the Canadian film Myrtle Beach, from directors Neil Rough and Michael Fuller, in the documentary features competition. And writer/director Dusty Mancinelli brings his short Winter Hymns to the narrative shorts section.
In the Sundance Kids section, the animated Snowtime! is directed by Francois Brisson and Jean-Francois Pouliot.
Canada is especially well-represented with eight shorts in a competitive field of 72. They include Bacon & God’s Wrath, directed by Sol Friedman; The Chickening, directed by Nick DenBoer and Davy Force; and It’s Not You, directed by Don McKellar.
Add to that a selection of virtualreality works from the National Film Board of Canada and immersive projects from the Montreal-based Felix & Paul Studios.