Canuck content
TIFF unveils its Canadian lineup,
Director April Mullen’s “bold, uninhibited” lesbian love story Below Her Mouth, shot last fall in Toronto using an all-female crew, will have its world premiere at TIFF in September.
Written by Stephanie Fabrizi, the drama stars Canadian actress Natalie Krill as Jasmine and Swedish gender-bending model Erika Linder as Dallas in the story of two Toronto women caught up in a passionate love affair that changes both their lives.
“We think the world is ready for this love story,” said producer Melissa Coghlan, who describes the drama as “a mainstream film where the two characters falling in love just happen to be women.”
The film also pays homage to Toronto by showcasing the city, Coghlan said, adding the TIFF premiere slot was “our dream” for the filmmakers. Below Her Mouth will be in theatres around Valentine’s Day. On Wednesday, TIFF announced its slate of Canadian films, screening in a variety of programs at the Sept. 8 to 18 festival.
Also making its world debut is Deepa Mehta’s drama Anatomy of Violence, based on the 2012 fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus.
Matt Johnson’s and Jay McCarrol’s nirvana the band the show, which screens in the return of the festival’s TV-based Primetime program and Bruce McDonald’s 1976-set blackand-white Weirdos, about a teen runaway and his girlfriend hitting the road in Nova Scotia, will have world premieres at TIFF.
Festivalgoers will also be able to see the North American premieres of Xavier Dolan’s Cannes Grand Prix winner It’s Only the End of the World, as well as Nathan Morlando’s Mean Dreams and Kim Nguyen’s Two Lovers and a Bear.
Also in the Canadian lineup are documentaries about legendary actor Gordon Pinsent ( The River of My Dreams, directed by Brigitte Berman), government manipulation of the Internet ( Black Code, directed by Nicholas de Pencier), basketball dreams in Africa (Hubert Davis’s Giants of Africa) and the unlikely journey of Sunny Leone, raised in a strict Sikh home in Sarnia, who went from adult films to Bollywood success ( Mostly Sunny directed by Dilip Mehta).
Fred Peabody’s doc All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I.F. Stone explores how investigative journalists like Glenn Greenwald are changing the news business by breaking global stories outside mainstream media.
Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary about the court challenge over the quality of child and family welfare services for First Nations children, We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice, has its world premiere in the Masters program.
TIFF also announced this year’s Rising Stars actors: Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki, Mylène Mackay and Sophie Nélisse. New this year, International Rising Stars will be announced later this month.
Go to tiff.net for tickets and information.