The Book of Negroes

Director Clement Virgo
Year 2015
Run Time 265min
Genre Drama

This CBC mini-series is based on the internationally celebrated novel by Canadian author Lawrence Hill. A compelling tale of loss, courage, love and the triumph of the human spirit, it follows the extraordinary journey of Aminata Diallo (Ellis), an indomitable African woman.

In 1750, 11-year-old Aminata is kidnapped from her village in West Africa and begins a rich journey that takes her through the harrowing ordeal of slavery, to the turmoil of the American Revolution and ultimately to freedom in the British colony of Nova Scotia. Brilliant and determined, Aminata is a remarkable heroine whose unshakeable connection to her own African heritage guides her over unimaginable obstacles in her quest for freedom and ultimately allows her to assume the mantle of leadership for which she is destined.

Deeply moving and inspiring, The Book of Negroes explores painful historical realities through the unblinking eyes of a strong female protagonist whose story will stay with you long after the telling.

Director

Clement Virgo

Virgo rose to prominence with his first feature, Rude, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and garnered two Genie nominations. He has also directed the films Poor Boy’s Game and Lie With Me, and hit TV shows such as The Wire, Regenesis and The Listener. He recently produced the show Greenleaf and directed episodes of Empire and Billions. His most recent film, Brother, premiered at TIFF 2022. 

Writers

Lawrence Hill, Clement Virgo

Cast

Aunjanue Ellis, Lyriq Bent, Cuba Gooding, Jr, Ben Chaplin, Allan Hawco

Producers

Damon D'Oliveira, Clement Virgo

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, History, Literary Adaptation, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

Margaret’s Museum

Director Mort Ransen
Year 1995
Run Time 116min
Genre Drama
Adapted from Sheldo Currie’s novel The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, this poignant period drama looks at a small mining town in 1940s Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where Margaret (Bonham-Carter) grows to despise the mines in which both her brother and her father lost their lives.

As she mourns her losses, Margaret meets and falls in love with Neil (Russell), a bagpipe player who is just as disdainful of the local industry as she is. While Neil vows to find work outside of the mines, it proves tragically difficult for the couple to escape the realities of living in a mining community.

This critically acclaimed adaptation — featuring Genie Award–winning performances by Helena Bonham Carter, Kate Nelligan and Kenneth Welsh — is emotionally intense and deeply affecting.

Director

Mort Ransen

Writers

Sheldon Currie, Gerald Wexler, Mort Ransen

Cast

Helena Bonham Carter, Kate Nelligan, Clive Russell, Kenneth Welsh

Producers

Steve Clark-Hall, Mort Ransen, Christopher Zimmer, Claudio Luca

Genre

Drama

Interest

Literary Adaptation

Original Language

English

Goin’ Down the Road

Director Donald Shebib
Year 1970
Run Time 90min
Genre Drama

Joey (Bradley) and Peter (McGrath) are best friends from a small town in Nova Scotia. With their seasonal work becoming scarce, they decide to pack up their meagre belongings and head west to Toronto, where they’re convinced better luck awaits them. Finding work at a soda bottling plant, the duo try to adjust to the decidedly different pace of life in the big city.


A charming yet realistic portrait of a very Canadian experience, Goin’ Down the Road is known as one of Don Shebib’s finest films, and has landed on the Toronto International Film Festival’s Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time list for four decades in a row.

Director

Donald Shebib

Writers

William Fruet, Donald Shebib

Cast

Doug McGrath, Paul Bradley, Jayne Eastwood, Cayle Chernin

Producer

Donald Shebib

Genre

Drama

Interest

Classics

Original Language

English

The Hanging Garden

Director Thom Fitzgerald
Year 1997
Run Time 91min
Genre Drama
Growing up as a depressed, overweight gay teen in Nova Scotia was hard for young William, so he ran away at the age of 15 and never looked back. That is, until ten years later when he returns for his sister’s wedding, and must face the dysfunctional family and oppressive community he thought he had left behind.

A challenging, evocative and artful drama about coming to terms with one’s past, one’s family and one’s identity. The Hanging Garden explores how the choices we make can affect the future — for us, and for those whose lives we touch.

“The heart of the movie is its insight into the way families are haunted by their own history.” — Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

Director

Thom Fitzgerald

Writer

Thom Fitzgerald

Cast

Chris Leavins, Kerry Fox, Sarah Polley, Joan Orenstein, Seana McKenna

Producers

Thom Fitzgerald, Louise Garfield, Arnie Gelbart

Genre

Drama

Interest

LGBTQ2S+

Original Language

English

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire

Director Peter Raymont
Year 2004
Run Time 90min
Genre Documentary
Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire was in command of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission to Rwanda in 1994 when a bloody genocide erupted. Over the course of 100 days, more than 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutus, the rival tribe in their country.

Dallaire attempted to stop the killing by alerting the world through the United Nations and the international media. Though his attempts were unsuccessful, Dallaire emerged as a hero. Ten years later, Dallaire returns to Rwanda to personally commemorate the anniversary of that holocaust.

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.

“Dallaire is not only the protagonist of Shake Hands with the Devil, he is a compelling reason to see it.” — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Director

Peter Raymont

Raymont has produced and directed over 100 documentaries, which have earned more than 50 international awards. His producing credits include West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson, Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr and Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band. He recently directed the doc Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power, and produced Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, which premiered at TIFF 2022.

Writer

Roméo Dallaire

Producers

Linda Lee Tracey, Peter Raymont

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Biography, Discrimination, Global Experiences, History, Literary Adaptation, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

A misfit among his brainy family members, lovable bouncer Doug “The Thug” Glatt (Scott) has a righteous left hook. His fighting skills are so strong, in fact, that he unexpectedly lands a spot on a minor-league Canadian hockey team, where his role as “enforcer” has him dropping gloves with opposing players to put them “on ice.”

Michael Dowse’s brilliant comedy is big on character and bigger on heart, sure to appeal to both die-hard hockey fans and sports-phobic audiences alike.

Director

Michael Dowse

Dowse’s credits include the cult classics Fubar, Fubar II and It’s All Gone Pete Tong. His film Goon was a huge critical and box-office success. The F Word won the CSA for Best Adapted Screenplay. Dowse also directed episodes of Man Seeking Woman, starring Jay Baruchel, the feature film Stuber, 8 Bit Christmas, and Coffee and Kareem. He is currently set to direct the film adaptation of the video game Just Cause and is developing a series about the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Writers

Jay Baruchel, Evan Goldberg, Doug Smith, Adam Frattasio

Cast

Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill, Marc-André Grondin, Kim Coates

Producers

Jay Baruchel, Don Carmody, André Rouleau, Ian Dimerman, David Gross

Genres

Comedy, Drama

Interest

Sports

Original Language

English

There’s Something in the Water

Directors Elliot Page, Ian Daniel
Year 2019
Run Time 73min
Genre Documentary
The term “environmental racism” may be unfamiliar to many, but its meaning is fairly literal. It refers to the discrimination minorities face when they are subjected to toxic levels of pollution, often because factories or waste sites are placed near their communities. 

Elliot Page brings attention to these injustices in his home province of Nova Scotia in this urgent documentary about women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures.

Page travels to rural areas of the province that are plagued by toxic fallout from industrial development, discovering that these catastrophes have been precisely placed, all in remote, low income — and very often Indigenous or Black — communities. As the filmmakers observe, your postal code determines your health.
 

Directors

Elliot Page, Ian Daniel

Producers

Elliot Page, Ian Daniel, Julia Sanderson, Ingrid Waldron

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Environment, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

New Waterford Girl

Director Allan Moyle
Year 2000
Run Time 97min
Genre Comedy, Drama
Moonie Pottie (Balaban) is a 15-year-old misfit who will do anything to get out of dreary New Waterford, Nova Scotia. Lou Benzoa (Spencer-Nairn) is a tough girl from the Bronx who couldn’t be happier to be moving to the seaside hamlet.

Lou is as extroverted and impulsive as Moonie is shy and withdrawn, and soon their unlikely friendship starts turning the town upside down. Lou wins over the local girls by punishing their two-timing boyfriends, while Moonie plans a new life in NYC. Hilarious and exuberant, New Waterford Girl paints a touching picture of coming of age in a small town.

The film was nominated for seven Genie Awards.

Director

Allan Moyle

Director, screenwriter and actor Moyle wrote the seminal Canadian films Montreal Main and The Rubber Gun, and directed the latter. His film credits also include Times Square, Pump Up the Volume, Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story and Weirdsville. He most recently directed the documentary How Sweet It Is.

Writer

Tricia Fish

Cast

Liane Balaban, Andrew McCarthy, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Nicholas Campbell, Mary Walsh

Producers

Jennifer Kawaja, Julia Sereny

Genres

Comedy, Drama

Interests

ESL, Family Relationships, Sports, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Trailer Park Boys: The Movie

Director Mike Clattenburg
Year 2006
Run Time 95min
Genre Action/Adventure, Comedy
When pot-smoking petty criminals Julian (Tremblay) and Ricky (Wells) get caught breaking into an ATM, they’re both quickly sent to prison. Eighteen months later, the boys are released back into society, but the transition isn’t easy.

Ricky’s girlfriend, Lucy (Lucy Decoutere), has run off, and in between his efforts to win her back, he’s also planning the boys’ biggest heist yet: a haphazard plot that finds him enlisting the help of his nerdy friend Bubbles (Smith).

Following a television series beloved by millions on both sides of the border, Trailer Park Boys: The Movie dishes up more hilarity for fans and newcomers to Dartmouth alike.

Director

Mike Clattenburg

Writers

Mike Clattenburg, Robb Wells

Cast

Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith, Hugh Dilllon, Lucy DeCoutere

Producers

Mike Clattenburg, Barrie Dunn, Michael Volpe, Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock

Genres

Action/Adventure, Comedy

Original Language

English

Maudie is based on the true story of Nova Scotia painter Maud Lewis, who overcame the physical challenge of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis to become one of Canada's best known and most loved folk artists.

The fragile but determined Maudie (Sally Hawkins) yearns for independence from her over-protective family and dreams of creating art. When she answers an ad for a housekeeper placed by a reclusive fish seller (Ethan Hawke), she gains more than just the freedom she wanted, as the unlikely pair develops a relationship that is intensely intimate and just as challenging.

A touching and inspiring story about following one's dreams in spite of life's obstacles, Maudie is an absolute charmer.

"Maudie breaks your heart with its infectious positivity." - Tomris Laffly, Time Out

Director

Aisling Walsh

Walsh's previous projects include feature films The Daisy Chain and Song for a Raggy Boy, as well as directing over a dozen TV movies and shows, including Room at the Top, which won a BAFTA for Best Miniseries, and the TV movies A Poet in New York and An Inspector Calls. She most recently made the TV movie Elizabeth Is Missing. Next she will be directing Ethel's Orchestra and producing The Ballroom.

Writer

Sherry White

Cast

Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke

Producers

Mary Young Leckie, Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke

Genres

Drama, Romance

Interests

Arts and Culture, Biography, ESL, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, History, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English