Bringing you Part 2 In The City series as part of my birthday-celebration of life week. This personally curated list of includes film screenings around Toronto, as well as, films you can screen from the comfort of home.
As always, hope you find some new favourites.
Cinema Screenings
Revue Cinema
January 29, 2024
Y tu mamá también
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón (2001)
In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.
February 7, 2024
Love & Basketball
Dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood (2000)
Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) are two childhood friends who both aspire to be professional basketball players. Over the years, the two begin to fall for each other, but their separate paths to basketball stardom threaten to pull them apart.
February 5-6, 2024
Fallen Leaves
Dir. Aki Kaurismäki (2023)
In modern-day Helsinki, Ansa and Holappa, two lonely souls in search of their first love, meet by chance in a local karaoke bar. However, the pair’s path to happiness is beset by numerous obstacles—from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.
TIFF Bell Light Box
Various Dates
Godzilla Minus One / Minus Color
Takashi Yamazaki (2023)
Devastated after the Second World War, Japan faces a new threat: Godzilla. How can the country confront such an impossible situation?
Various Dates
The Settlers
Felipe Gálvez Haberle (2023)
The film captures a remarkable ensemble of performances through the perspective of seven-year-old Sol, whose family is celebrating the birthday of her terminally-ill father.
Various Dates
Tótem
Lila Avilés (2023)
The film captures a remarkable ensemble of performances through the perspective of seven-year-old Sol, whose family is celebrating the birthday of her terminally-ill father.
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
February 4, 2024 | 4:00 PM
MENUS-Plaisirs Les Troisgrois (2023)
Legendary director Frederick Wiseman embeds inside a French restaurant that has held three Michelin stars for more than 50 years in this immersive and mouth-watering film feast. An immersive experience, showing the great artistry, ingenuity, imagination, and hard work of the restaurant staff in creating, preparing, and presenting meals of the highest quality.
The Myth is Reality: A Survey of Docs by Werner Herzog
February 3, 2024 | 12:30 PM
Theatre of Thought (2022)
Herzog casts his gaze on the human brain, looking for clues as to why a piece of tissue can produce deep thoughts and feelings, while also considering the philosophical, ethical and social implications.
February 4, 2024 | 1:30 PM
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Werner Herzog examines the world of Fini Straubinger, a woman who uses her blindness and deafness to call attention to others who are similarly afflicted in this stunning and essential treatise on what it means to be human.
February 11, 2024 | 1:30 PM
My Best Fiend (1999)
The simultaneously touching and damning tribute to the volatile friendship and creative partnership between two towering larger-than-life figures of film: director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski.
Streaming
Shudder
Destroy All Neighbors
Dir. Josh Forbes (2024)
William Brown (Jonah Ray Rodrigues), a neurotic, self-absorbed musician determined to finish his prog-rock magnum opus, faces a creative roadblock in the form of a noisy and grotesque neighbor named Vlad (Alex Winter). Finally working up the nerve to demand that Vlad keep it down, William inadvertently decapitates him. But, while attempting to cover up one murder, William’s accidental reign of terror causes victims to pile up and become undead corpses who torment and create more bloody detours on his road to prog-rock Valhalla. This is a twisted splatter-comedy about a deranged journey of self-discovery full of goopy practical FX, a well-known ensemble cast, and lots of blood.
Dario Argento Panico
Dir. Simone Scafidi (2023)
In the secluded ambiance of hotel rooms, Dario Argento crafted his greatest cinematic creations, seeking solace from the outside world to delve into his nightmares. Now, he finds himself in a hotel room to return to the very setting that ignited his creative fervor to conclude his latest script and participate in an intimate interview, all while being followed by a film crew documenting his life for a movie about his illustrious career.
OVID TV
Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said
OVID Exclusive | Dir. Sato Makoto (2006)
Borrowing its title from the author’s 2000 memoir, Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said traces the life and work of Edward Said (1935-2003), the Palestinian-born intellectual who wrote widely on history, literature, music, philosophy, and politics. Filmed in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, and the U.S., this feature-length documentary traces Said’s childhood influences and celebrates his intellectual legacy, the importance of his work in literary criticism and postcolonial studies, and his role as an independent member of the Palestinian National Council.
In My Blood It Runs
OVID Exclusive | Dir. Maya Newell (2020)
Dujuan is a 10-year-old Arrernte boy from Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in Australia. Full of life and exuberance, he learns, with the support of his family, to hunt, speak two Indigenous languages, and become a healer. Within the Westernized school system, his strength and intellect goes unnoticed. At the time of filming, 100% of the youth in Alice Springs detention centers were Aboriginal. This powerful film is an emotional journey through the educational schism between traditional culture and colonial ideas to solidify a future for Indigenous youth.
MUBI Canada
La Bête dans la Jungle (The Beast in the Jungle)
Dir. Patric Chiha (2023)
Over twenty-five years, in a huge nightclub, a man and woman wait for a mysterious event to take place. While they hold out in silence, everything around them is loud and in motion. From 1979 to 2004, from disco to techno, years pass as the duo wait and watch the world from the sidelines.
Yuki no Taiyou | ユキの太陽 (Yuki’s Sun)
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki (1972)
Left on an orphanage’s doorstep as a baby, young Yuki leads a happy, free-spirited life in the beautiful countryside of Hokkaido. But, one day, she gets adopted, and everything changes.
Netflix
El Conde
Dir. Pablo Larrain (2023)
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is a two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old vampire. Now tired of his life, he wants to die at last after the disgrace and family crises he has caused.
Peacock / Crave
Dr. Death Season 2
Bbased on the hit Wondery podcast, follows “Miracle Man” Paolo Macchiarini (Edgar Ramírez), a charming surgeon renowned for his innovative operations. When investigative journalist Benita Alexander (Mandy Moore) approaches him for a story, the line between personal and professional begins to blur, changing her life forever. As she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets, a group of doctors halfway across the world make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything about Paolo into question.
