Online cinema
The Lower Plateau
Liz Singh
A formerly successful Montreal musician trudges through the darkest days of winter, armed with a backpack full of weed and a repertoire of Alanis Morissette covers. Dogged by her ex-band mate’s new hit song, Jaine mourns the loss of her career, her band and her self respect. In the heart of the city’s independent music scene, the snow covered Plateau, Jaine encounters both allies and obstacles, including her best friend-slash-roommate Mari, her married ex-lover-slash-manager David, and her charming new customer-slash-potential love interest, Darren. When a glittering opportunity in the Emerald City of Toronto threatens to lure her into a shiny new life, Jaine struggles to sever old ties. Her ex wants her to move on, her mom wants her to move to Toronto, her best friend wants things to stay the same forever, and her clients just want weed, but Jaine has other plans.
De longue haleine
Tahani Rached
Chronicle of the daily life of an Egyptian family, during the post-revolutionary months. They try to analyze the events in order to understand their personal and collective impact. For Gamal, a chemistry teacher, it is an irreversible process. The enthusiasm of the young people transports and moves him, but it will take a long breath to get there.
Au Chic Resto Pop
Tahani Rached
This feature-length film about poverty in Montreal is set against a soundtrack that includes rap, blues, rock, and country and western music. The film deals with the universal themes of hunger, hope and love and is named after an actual Montreal restaurant that’s been serving those in need for over 25 years.
La phonie furieuse
Tahani Rached
A whimsical film about a fashionable “virus”: the Walkman, a portable cassette player with headphones, thanks to which we can now escape the limits of everyday life, “get carried away” with pleasure in a musical world and slide into the dance of our imagination… But, would this “furious phonics”, so popular, hide some inconveniences?
Voisins
Tahani Rached
Garden City, a small district of Cairo, is far from being without importance. In the early 19th century, it was the center of international political affairs in the Egyptian capital. The film takes us on a tour of these abandoned villas, huge reception halls, foreign embassies, endangered businesses and rooftop terraces. The houses become witnesses as they reveal the turmoil of history. These houses and their residents speak with one voice to describe hope, fall and survival. Far from the politically correct, a piece of truth appears, far from the clichés.
Urgence! Deuxième souffle
Tahani Rached
Emergency! A Critical Situation explores the reality of an evening shift in the emergency room of the Centre hospitalier Pierre-Boucher and reveals the daily lives of the nurses who work in this essential service to the population. The camera follows in the footsteps of these professionals and reveals what they have to endure in order to cope with the demands of their work, which is sometimes carried out under intense stress, at the limit of what is bearable. From the triage room to the shock room, from the patients lined up in the corridor to the waiting room, they run to put out fires, often with only one priority: the preservation of life. It is urgent, urgent to listen to these women who resist and succeed, despite the difficulties, in keeping human dignity at the center of their concerns.
Soraïda, une femme de Palestine
Tahani Rached
This feature-length film introduces viewers to Soraida, a Palestinian woman who lives in Ramallah. In her neighbourhood the women do not all wear veils, the men do not rattle off empty political slogans, the young people do not strap bombs to their belts, and the children play together like kids everywhere. Taking us into the daily existence of Soraida, her family and neighbours, the film compels us to ask fundamental questions about life in the Middle East.
À travers chants
Tahani Rached
This documentary opens the door to the magnificent world of choral music, a world inhabited by exceptional beings with the capacity to experience joy from a single musical note. They sing anywhere and everywhere: at the wheel, in the shower, even in the kitchen. But above all, they sing together, men and women of all ages and various backgrounds, transformed by the radiant glory of song and united under the banner of L’Ensemble vocal d’Outremont.
Bam Pay A! – Rends-moi mon pays!
Tahani Rached
In this feature documentary, a Haitian, exiled in Canada for twenty years, returns to his country after the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Through his encounters with former friends, professors and colleagues, the face of this newfound Haiti gradually takes shape… Shot in Haiti after the fall of the Duvalier regime, this film, beyond a simple observation, shares with us the hopes of the Haitian people as well as their fears and uncertainties regarding this country that has yet to be built.
Quatre femmes d’Égypte
Tahani Rached
How do we get along when we have everything to tear each other apart? This feature documentary attempts to answer this question through the friendship of four Egyptian women. Muslim, Christian or independent of any religious practice, their choices are at the antipodes. But these four friends refuse to demonize the other and to coexist in contempt; they listen to each other, they thwart each other without ever breaking the bond that unites them. And they laugh about it. Their confrontation redefines tolerance.
Les voleurs de job
Tahani Rached
A glimpse into the living conditions of many immigrant workers in Quebec who have to accept difficult and poorly paid jobs in order to make a living. With this first 16mm feature film, the only one made outside of the NFB, Rached establishes a new and committed look at immigration in Quebec. Shot mainly in Montreal, she gives voice to several characters who translate from the inside a real-life situation of workers inscribed in their bodies. It is worth noting the place given to song, which inaugurates a particular trait of Rached’s cinema when she lets it become a testimony and sociological data.
REI
Gina Haraszti
REI tells the story of a shut-in, a depressed young woman who cannot bring herself to leave her apartment. She gradually loses contact not just with the outside world, but with reality itself. Upcoming talent Amélie Robitaille gives an stunning performance as the young recluse. When somebody you really love dies, you also die in a way, not literally, but spiritually. The main character is so dependent on her parents, that she cannot continue her life after their death. She locks herself up in this memory bubble, the house, where she can pretend that her parents could come home any minute. She never touches her parents’ stuff, expecting their return. Not being able to continue with her own life, she starts a virtual one. She watches films and plays games all the time to avoid being alone with her thoughts. She tries to forget her whole existence to get rid of the pain, collapsing her identity into her inner world.