Upcoming film nights
March Film - Blue Moon
Buy your ticket online here, at the box office, or at Cooks Jewellers.
Doors open at 6:30pm
Ethan Hawke delivers a charming, lived-in performance as lyricist Lorenz Hart, holding court at Sardi’s on the historic night of his former collaborator Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) greatest triumph: the premiere of Oklahoma!
In Blue Moon, director Richard Linklater (Hit Man, TIFF ’23, and at this year’s Festival with Nouvelle Vague) crafts a riveting chamber piece set in real time at Sardi’s on the historic night in 1943 of Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) greatest triumph: the premiere of Oklahoma! Ethan Hawke (also at the Festival in The Lowdown) delivers a charming, lived-in performance as Rodgers’ former collaborator, lyricist Lorenz Hart, an alcoholic and marginally closeted raconteur grappling with the fact that Rodgers’ biggest success now belongs to a new partnership with Oscar Hammerstein.
As flowers and accolades pour into the restaurant, heralding a new era of American musicals, Hart holds court at the bar, regaling a plainspoken bartender (Bobby Cannavale) and a young, aspiring composer and military officer with stories. His current fixation is a 20-year-old Yale student, Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), whom he reveres with a fervour that drifts between romantic longing and aesthetic worship.
Among the guests is essayist E. B. White (Patrick Kennedy), perched in a corner, making his presence known to offer le mot juste — “ineffable” — during one of Hart’s rhapsodic monologues about Elizabeth. The film imagines White, the author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, drawing creative inspiration from Hart as he contemplates a shift into children’s literature.
Hart and Rodgers affectionately spar throughout the night, working through the regrets in their partnership and promising to start anew. Ultimately, through Hart’s reflections on love, art, and legacy, the film becomes a bittersweet elegy for his overshadowed place in musical history — a graceful tribute to the man behind Pal Joey, A Connecticut Yankee, “My Funny Valentine,” and the titular “Blue Moon.”
January Film - Eleanor The Great
Rachel House’s heartfelt debut film follows a brave trio on the journey of a lifetime, where they learn the true meaning of friendship and the power of their cultural legacy. Executive produced by Taika Waititi.
In her vibrant debut feature film as director and co-writer, Rachel House — known for her many celebrated acting roles including Hunt for the Wilderpeople — shares a touching tale of three unlikely young friends on the adventure of a lifetime. Determined to beat the cancer she is fighting, Sam (Elizabeth Atkinson) escapes from the juvenile hospital ward to go on a potentially dangerous journey to climb Taranaki Maunga, the mountain that, as a Māori, she is culturally and personally connected with.
Meanwhile, precocious Bronco (Terence Daniel), a proudly confident Māori boy feeling neglected by his single father, meets Mallory (Reuben Francis), who struggles with loneliness following the recent death of his mother. The two boys soon cross paths with Sam and need little convincing to join her on the secret mission to reach Taranaki. They form a quick bond as their worried parents begin searching for the trio, concerned for their safety and health.
As they near their destination, Sam, Bronco, and Mallory face continuous obstacles as it becomes clear that Sam’s physical condition isn’t as great as she’s letting on. When they finally reach the mountain, truths are exposed, and the young friends learn unforgettable lessons.
Filled with charm, humour, and deep emotion, The Mountain is a highly entertaining family film that doesn’t shy away from life’s sometimes difficult realities. House trusts her young protagonists to convey the ways children can rise above any challenges they face, and to demonstrate the lasting power of acceptance, cultural legacy, and friendship.
December Film - The Mountain
Rachel House’s heartfelt debut film follows a brave trio on the journey of a lifetime, where they learn the true meaning of friendship and the power of their cultural legacy. Executive produced by Taika Waititi.
In her vibrant debut feature film as director and co-writer, Rachel House — known for her many celebrated acting roles including Hunt for the Wilderpeople — shares a touching tale of three unlikely young friends on the adventure of a lifetime. Determined to beat the cancer she is fighting, Sam (Elizabeth Atkinson) escapes from the juvenile hospital ward to go on a potentially dangerous journey to climb Taranaki Maunga, the mountain that, as a Māori, she is culturally and personally connected with.
Meanwhile, precocious Bronco (Terence Daniel), a proudly confident Māori boy feeling neglected by his single father, meets Mallory (Reuben Francis), who struggles with loneliness following the recent death of his mother. The two boys soon cross paths with Sam and need little convincing to join her on the secret mission to reach Taranaki. They form a quick bond as their worried parents begin searching for the trio, concerned for their safety and health.
As they near their destination, Sam, Bronco, and Mallory face continuous obstacles as it becomes clear that Sam’s physical condition isn’t as great as she’s letting on. When they finally reach the mountain, truths are exposed, and the young friends learn unforgettable lessons.
Filled with charm, humour, and deep emotion, The Mountain is a highly entertaining family film that doesn’t shy away from life’s sometimes difficult realities. House trusts her young protagonists to convey the ways children can rise above any challenges they face, and to demonstrate the lasting power of acceptance, cultural legacy, and friendship.
October Film - So Surreal
So Surreal: Behind the Masks unveils the fascinating connection between the work of famed Surrealist artists and Yupʼik and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw ceremonial masks, and the quest to bring some of the masks back home.
Illustrating a wildly fascinating connection between the work of some Surrealist artists and Indigenous ceremonial masks from the Yup’ik and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw nations, So Surreal: Behind the Masks goes on a journey from Turtle Island to Europe to find them.
Cree director Neil Diamond (Reel Injun, TIFF ’09), accompanied by a cadre of interested parties including cultural preservation workers and art experts, journeys across the ocean to try to locate the Raven Transformation Mask, an invaluable cultural item that the northwest coastal community has previously had no luck tracking down.
Using illustration and engaging storytelling, Diamond tells how masks like this left their homelands, through trade and sale but also through theft. The documentary traces them from one prolific collector to museums and an antique store in New York — into which the German Surrealist Max Ernst wandered. He subsequently introduced the masks to his artist friends who, like him, became inspired.
With dreamy Surrealist imagery interspersed with Yup’ik dancers in masks, interviews with current-day carvers and art experts, and one particularly arresting scene in the Louvre with Yup’ik artist, storyteller, and dancer Chuna McIntyre, this doc masterfully weaves together the threads of cultural and artistic histories.
Part detective story and part illuminating history, Behind the Masks is a must-see for anyone who loves art, culture, and entertaining docs.