Episode 9 of our podcast concludes our discussion on the best of 2018 Canadian Cinema, through the lens of Canada’s Top Ten Film List. In this episode, we discuss Genesis, Giant Little Ones, Mouthpiece, Roads in February, and What Walaa Wants.
Each year, the Toronto International Film Festival releases a list of Canada’s top ten best films. Using this list to guide discussion, Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and Contributing Writer Justine Smith discuss each film.
We have split our discussion into two episodes to cover each film with depth. On this episode, we discuss:
- Genèse (Genesis) (dir. Philippe Lesage)
- Giant Little Ones (dir. Keith Behrman)
- Mouthpiece (dir. Patricia Rozema)
- Roads in February (dir. Katherine Jerkovic)
- What Walaa Wants (dir. Cathy Garland)
We also discuss our favourite 2018 Canadian films not on the list.
Show notes and recommended reading:
Read the 2018 Canada’s top 10 list
Interview: A country is drowning in Anote’s Ark. Director Matthieu Rytz discusses how he got involved with making the film and how he approached embedding himself, and us, into the story of life in Kiribati.
Interview: Falls Around Her centres a complex, middle-aged, Indigenous woman. Writer-director Darlene Naponse on her unconventional protagonist, capturing the beauty of a landscape through both visuals and sound, and the respect and care required to film on reservation land.
Review: First Stripes depicts masculinity in training. Jean-François Caissy’s verité documentary takes us behind the curtain to follow a group of Québécois recruits to the Canadian armed forces through the 12-week basic training boot camp. The film reveals how training designed to equalize recruits is yet another machine that reproduces a conservative set of norms.
Interview: Paper Year director Rebecca Addelman discusses fictionalising her first marriage into her feature debut, which took years of rewrites, great casting, and generous collaboration.
We included Canadian films Falls Around Her, Giant Little Ones, The Great Darkened Days, and Splinters as among our top 20 acquistion titles at TIFF ’18.
Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney wrote a two part series on how Canadian cinema was the brightest star at TIFF18, but the festival should do more to bring these great films to critics and audiences.
This episode was edited by Edward von Aderkas.
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Discover more great Canadian films
The last year was one of the best for Canadian cinema in history. Discover these great films through conversations with the filmmakers, guided by the Seventh Row editors in our inaugural annual book, The 2019 Canadian Cinema Yearbook.
