Program
All film screenings, Q&As, and panels take place at the Arts Court Theatre (2nd floor, 2 Daly Avenue, Ottawa ON). Doors open 30 minutes prior to the screening time.
DISCLAIMER
Some films may contain graphic content, harsh language, or material that may trigger distress for audience members. Viewer discretion is advised.
Saturday, March 18th - 4:30pm
The Heart's Way:
Short Film Reflections on Love and Relationships
Greasy Heart
Drama | 2014 | Laramie Dennis | USA | 6 min.
The first ripples of the Free Love movement inspire a young married woman to break free from her husband.
Crocuses
Drama | 2016 | Wanda Nolan | Canada | 7 min.
On the final day of packing up her home, Rita can’t shake the regret she feels about her late husband, Bernard.
Reality Check
Comedy | 2016 | Annisa Belonogoff | Australia | 7 min.
Haunted by childhood memories of an eccentric artist, Ottawa filmmaker Dina Salha unburies a family secret after thirty years of silence and rescues treasured works of art that have long disappeared.
Elizabeth Dawson is a very single, high school English teacher. After a string of only ever first-time dates, she decides to try her luck at auditioning for a reality television show in her quest to find true love.
Gardening at Night
Drama | 2016 | Shayna Connelly | USA | 12 min.
The period between knowing death is near and death’s arrival forms an unbearable state of regret, sadness and anticipation for Samantha. She is powerless to help Anne, who on the eve of her death, has not come to terms with her fate and remains angry and afraid. Samantha recreates conversations between Elyse and Anne from the hospital in order to comprehend what Anne is facing and the enormity of her own impending loss. Waiting expands time to the point that it loses meaning. The world shrinks to encompass only her and her phone, which will ring soon with the news. That night she can no longer bear the stillness and despite the darkness, Samantha tries to put neglected garden in order. Caring for living things gives her a temporary sense of control. Afterwards she realizes how she can help Anne let go of her fear, which also gives her the chance to say a personal good-bye to her friend.
Beau Rivage
Drama | 2016 | Mathilde Fénétrier | France | 15 min.
French with English subtitles
In her oceanfront retirement home, Isabelle, a former dancer, has trouble accepting her decline. She clings to her octogenarian friend, Lampion, and to the unilateral correspondence she keeps up with the man she loved.
Lola Wants to See the Sea
Experimental | 2016 | Natalie MacMahon | Germany | 5 min.
This is a film about finding yourself while becoming a woman. Lola likes to get into cars with strangers- to get away, to take the risk and do something unexpected, dangerous and exciting. Every time Lola meets someone new, she makes up a story and identity, but most of the time, she calls herself “Lola” and tells them that she wants to see the sea. Hitchhiking has become her hobby and taking a risk her passion until one day someone makes her see herself in a different light.
Johnny on the Moon
Experimental | 2015 | Eva Irving | Canada | 32 min.
It is July, 1969. While man steps foot on the moon, two young men escape into their imaginations in the wilderness of Northern Ontario. Their love for one another is clear, when Johnny asks Max to never open the door in the floor of their cabin. Max complies, but with the passing of time, the lines between reality and make-believe blur together, and the boys are confronted with unspeakable memories of the Vietnam war, the possibility that they never left it, and what lies beneath the door the in the floor.