FIVE MUST-SEE B.C. FILMS
Homegrown film, TV and digital media is feted every year during Canadian Screen Week. Running May 26 through June 1, the celebration includes the Canadian Screen Awards airing on CBC on May 31. To further celebrate Canadian content, Dana Gee put together a short list of contemporary B.C. films that are made here, set here or directed by a B.C. filmmaker, to add to your must-see viewing list. 1. Seagrass (2023) Director:
Meredith Hama-brown. Winner of multiple Vancouver Critic Circle Awards, Vancouver writer-director Meredith Hamabrown delivers a stunning family drama with Seagrass. Set on an island off of the B.C. coast at a couple's retreat, the film follows Judith (Ally Maki) and Steve (Luke Roberts), who are trying to save their struggling marriage while their two daughters run free on the island. The kids in this film — Vancouver's Nyha Breitkreuz and Victoria's Remy Marthaller, as 11-year-old Stephanie and six-year-old Emmy, respectively — are outstanding.
2. Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun (2023) Director:
Banchi Hanuse. Shot in Alberta by Bella Coola-based filmmaker Banchi Hanuse, this documentary follows Logan Red Crow, a young Siksika living on the plains of Blackfoot territory in Alberta, as she trains and competes in the dangerous world of Indian Relay bareback horse racing. From the moment you see Red Crow with her thoroughbreds, you buy into the deep connection between human and horse. Both serene and fierce, Red Crow is someone you will root for as she rides hard toward her dream of championship success in the male-dominated and very dangerous sport.
3. Satan Wants You (2023) Directors:
Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor. When the memoir Michelle Remembers came out in 1980, people were instantly captivated and shocked by Michelle Smith's story of early childhood abuse at the hands of a group of Satanists in Victoria. Co-written with her psychiatrist and eventual husband Lawrence Pazder, Smith's book was a huge bestseller and ground zero for what became known as Satanic Panic. This fascinating documentary from Vancouver-based filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams looks closely at Smith, her story and her crazy relationship with Pazder. Expect your jaw to drop a few times while viewing this interesting and disturbing film.
4. Riceboy Sleeps (2022) Director:
Anthony Shim. A multiple award winner, Riceboy Sleeps is a bittersweet story set in the 1990s that follows So-young (Choi Seung-yoon), a South Korean immigrant and single mom, as she raises her young son Donghyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang) in a Canadian suburb. As her son ages into a teen (played now by Ethan Hwang) So-young worries over his bad choices and the bad actors he is hanging around with. She tries to bring a positive male figure (played by Shim) into his life, but that plan is sidelined when a crisis sends the mother and son back to South Korea and family. Vancouver's Shim delivers a beautifully shot look at a determined mother trying to protect her son from a messy world.
5. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019) Directors:
Elle-máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn. During a chance encounter on a busy street, Áila (Tailfeathers) discovers Rosie (Violet Nelson), a young, pregnant Indigenous woman, standing in the rain barefoot and crying after escaping a violent attack by her boyfriend. Áila decides to bring Rosie home with her, and over the course of the evening, the pair, who have very different experiences of being Indigenous in Canada, face the aftermath of violent trauma. Delivered with a steady hand and sharp performances, this heavy film is packed with topical importance and humanity.