Movies

Parade

(THIS IS THE ONE THAT’S GRABBING MOST OF MY TYPING TIME RIGHT NOW)
It’s a story about three different groups of people from a small town in the prairies, Parade. Three eighty year-old men, five bored teenagers, and a husband and wife town council team. The old men decide that it’s time they left their mark, so they decide to organize a parade through their town, which, oddly enough has never had one despite its name. The old guys don’t waste any time getting to it, as they scour the region for sponsors, hold auditions for parade queens, organize floats, and debate about the parade route (there is only one street in town). The group of teenagers are typically dormant and confused until one of them takes the bullshit by the horns and rallies the group into an effort to make something – ANYTHING – of themselves. The Mayor and his wife have as much trouble running their own family, let alone the whole town, but they do end up bringing the old group and the young group together. Marijuana, a funeral, a parade, an election scandal, a county fair – it’s all there, and it’s a damn hoot.

It Goes On

Robert Frost once said that he could sum up everything he knew about life in just three words: it goes on. It Goes On is a movie about the LIFE of a funeral.
A lot of things can happen in the life of a person, and in the case of Will Latimer, a lot did. Loving, loved, happy and admired, Will lived a long and productive life that most people would have wagered for at the beginning of their own crazy ride on this planet. And when he dies, the fun is only beginning. If a man’s legacy is the life that he gives to his family, then it is what happens at Will’s funeral that solidifies his legacy.
Will’s daughter gives birth to twins – on his favourite chair; Will’s brother confesses to a 50 year old crush on his wife; Will’s priest wants to quit the cloth and marry his widow; and, his eldest grandson has his nose broken by a girlfriend - for actions un-befitting a boyfriend. All this before the sun of his funeral day has set.
A comedic look at how one man’s family spends the day of his funeral, It Goes On isn’t a story about one man’s significant life, it is a story about how even a significant life can’t stop anything from “going on”.

The Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Everybody trips up once in a while - a momentary lapse of reason, a misjudgement, or a mistake. It may be as simple as not seeing what everybody else sees, but it happens to everyone. When it has to do with how you see yourself, though, it takes a lot more than a pat on the back to get back on your feet. Conor Brady has always been a healthy, happy, popular guy. He just finished his first year of university, and, as he has for 20 years, is heading north for the summer, but somehow, things are different this year.
There’s a vacuum of faith – both in religion and himself; the confusion of a loss – of a close relative and a sense of purpose; and poetry – as a symptom and a cure. At a time in life when youthful energy should fuel the realisation of adulthood, Conor Brady is alone. In the most personal and (only) important sense – his own mind - he is alone.
The death of a close grandmother triggers a period of coming to grips with not only his age, but makes him question his whole being. He spends so much energy thinking about who he should be that he stops being who he already is. He loses touch with not only the religion that he was given, but also the faith that he has chosen. At a time in life when he should be putting “it” all together, he loses “it”. But a combination of the northern night sky, his beer drinking buddies, an 8 year old kid and a friend’s alcoholic mother help him get “it” back.
As the summer progresses, Conor helps and cares for people like he always has, and it is, finally their appreciation that help him realize how lucky he really is. He regains himself by giving himself to other people. Set under the open skies of Northern Ontario, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes is a story about love in a time of loss; friendship in a time of loneliness; and, direction in a time of confusion.

Rides

17 realities in 48 hours. Without drugs, it’s a lot of living in two days.
In between the Oyster Farms of Cortes Island and the young people’s Jehovah’s Witness convention at the Calgary bus depot, there are a lot of lives being lived. From the passenger seat of pick up trucks and lesbian driven Honda Civics, a journey is taken across two provinces and countless insights into the same world. Through the windshields of 17 different rides, a young man Kerouacs his way through 17 different realities, in 17 different voices. Each ride is chronicled in a style as different as the rides themselves - from poetry to long narratives on subjects ranging from planting trees to dubious government implants in every taxpaying citizen, Rides will take you for one.

12 Stories

Everybody thinks their life would make a good movie, right? What if it happened? A popular, fun, nice, kind guy inadvertently tells 12 funny stories to a movie producer while their both stuck at an airport bar. Flashbacks to great stories over 12 beers – the beers are lined up on the bar as the stories are poured. There are no epic stories – no bouts with cancer, no brushes with fame or fortune - just twelve fun, interesting stores from a good life lived. Storytelling the way it was in the old days meets storytelling today and its forty foot movie screens.
Stories: “Broom and Spurs”, “Paco on the Hill”, “Stoned Bunnies”, “The First Triathlon”, “Show your Cock at Hawk”, etc.

Dirty Girty

I went to the top of the CN tower with a helicopter leaf so I could watch it fly. My friend, Dirty Girty went to the top of a Halifax tower with TWO garbage bags of helicopter leaves so everyone could watch them fly. The difference between interest and passion is sometimes hard to see, unless you have someone like Girty leading the way. The funny thing is, almost everything else is hard to see for Girty. At the age of 23, he was told he would be blind within 5 years, but at 28, he is seeing more than he ever would have dreamed.

Cream

Being chased by a bear is good for your sanity. Not showering for two weeks is good for your ego. 3000 Calories and 4 joints a day are good for your diet. Campfires are a good place to pick up chicks. Hacky sack is an art. Sharing a hotel room with 10 other people is comfortable. Foremen are dicks. Treeplanting is about more than sticking yearlings in the ground, it’s about seeing life for the very first time. A few scratches, a little bit of lovin’, a whole lot of fighting, and a whole new perspective on life from the side of a logging road in Northern BC.