|
In a downtown Toronto loft, Stephanie, a single, pregnant performance artist, invites family, friends, lovers, ex-lovers and neighbours to witness and participate in the home birth of her first child. Despite their complex and diverse relationships, this group of people laughs, hopes, cries and confides in each other as they support Stephanie during the birthing process. Throughout the next 24 hours, dramatic events surrounding the birth unfold. Tension, humour, egos, and relationship challenges abound. Through it all, everyone is forced to come to terms with the past, the pregnancy, each other and the fact that their lives will never be quite the same again.
|
The “grande dame” of Quebec
comedy, Denise Filiatrault first achieved fame during her extraordinary career as a stage, screen and television actress. She has also, over the years, proved to be an exceptional theatre director. Denise Filiatrault brought her directing and writing talents to the big screen with her debut feature, C’t’à ton tour, Laura Cadieux, based on the play by Michel Tremblay. She followed this with the sequel Laura Cadieux… la suite, writing new stories for the characters originally created by Tremblay. Both films were major box-office hits in Quebec. 
(514) 272-5505
(514) 272-9841
Atom Egoyan has written and
directed eight feature films, including Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter and Felicia's Journey. He has directed major opera productions, including Salome, Dr. Ox's Experiment (world premiere) and Elsewhereless (also writing the libretto). He has received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix and International Critics'Award at Cannes, five Genies, and two major Academy Award nominations. He is
an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France, and a recipient of the Anahid Literary Award from the Armenian Center at Columbia University. 
Born in Seoul, Korea, Helen Lee
emigrated to Canada with her family at the age of four. After graduating with a Master's Degree in Cinema Studies from New York University, Helen worked at the feminist film distributor, Women Make Movies. Upon returning to Toronto, she completed her film training at the Canadian Film Centre, participating in the 1994 Director Resident Program. Helen has made several acclaimed short films, including Subrosa (2000), Prey (1995), My Niagara (1992),
and Sally's Beauty Spot (1990), all of which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Art of Woo, her feature film debut, received its world premiere at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival. 
Jeannine Gagné has been working as a film producer and director for 15 years. Among her major films are the children's short Fais semblant que tu m'aimes (2000); L'insoumise (1998; based on a novel by Marie-Claire Blais), which won first prize at the 2001 International Film and Video, Cinema and Literature Festival in Famalicao, Portugal; Aube Urbaine (1995), which won the Prix Vision du Réel in Nyon and the award for best short film at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in Montréal; Bébé Bonheur (1995); and Drôle de fille (1987). 
Chris Delaporte was a painter before he started getting involved in the production of video games. Among his projects, he was responsible for the graphic concept of Heart of Darkness, a landmark video-game title. Together with Patrick Daher, Chris Delaporte subsequently created Gaïna, and then co-scripted and co-directed Axis. 
Before directing and co-writing
The Bay of Love and Sorrows, his
feature-film directorial debut, Tim Southam made several highly acclaimed short dramas and films. These include the television drama The Tale of Teeka, based on the celebrated play L'Histoire de l'oie by Michel Marc Bouchard. The film won the Banff Rockie and Telefilm Canada awards, three Prix Gémeaux Awards, including Best Dramatic Program and Best Director, and the Golden Spire Award for Best Television Drama at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Southam also wrote and directed the drama/performance film Satie and Suzanne, which received
a Grammy nomination for Best Long-Form Video, and the Genie-nominated documentary Drowning in Dreams. 
Director, writer, and producer Wendy Ord has worked in the Canadian film industry for more than 20 years. She has directed series television for CBC, Global and Vision TV. Her short film Torrents (1990), starring Eric McCormack of Will & Grace, premiered at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. Black Swan was chosen as an official selection of the Atlantic Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival and the Marco Island Film Festival. 
Toronto-based writer, director and producer Deepa Mehta's feature films include Sam & Me (1990), winner of a Golden Camera - Special Mention at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, Camilla (1993), which starred Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda, and the films Fire (1996) and Earth (1998), the first two parts of a projected trilogy. Deepa Mehta was forced to abandon the shooting of Water, the third part of her trilogy, when controversy surrounding the film erupted in India in 2000. Her television credits include directing installments of the series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992 and 1994). Bollywood/Hollywood, which was shot in Toronto with Indian and Canadian actors, is Deepa Mehta's latest feature film. 
Filmmaker Jean Beaudin is known for creating intense characters who undergo significant psychological change. His most recent film, Souvenirs intimes, won the award for Best Canadian Feature at the 1999 Montréal World Film Festival as well as the Prix du public at both the Bratislava and Rouyn-Noranda film festivals. His feature Being at Home With Claude was in Official Competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Jean Beaudin's other major films include Le Matou (1985), Mario (1984) and Cordélia (1980). His film J.A. Martin photographe received the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, also earning its star, Monique Mercure, the award for Best Actress. 
In 1997, after graduating with a Master's degree in philosophy from the Université des Sciences humaines in Strasbourg, France, Sébastien Rose directed his first short, Vous n'avez pas votre place ici. He followed this in 1999 with a medium-length fiction film, Petits maîtres. He also worked as first assistant director on a number of TV commercials and, in 2000, as assistant to director Denis Chouinard during the shooting of the latter's feature film, `L'Ange de goudron. Comment ma mère accoucha de moi durant sa ménopause marks Sébastien Rose's feature-film directorial debut. 
Ranked by Variety as one of the
10 screenwriters to watch in 2001, Tricia Fish's feature screenwriting debut, New Waterford Girl, played
to sold-out audiences at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2000 Atlantic Film Festival, where it was awarded the prize for Best Canadian Feature. In its theatrical release, New Waterford Girl received rave reviews from CNN, Village Voice, IndieWire and Time Out NY. While writer-in-residence at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto (1996-1997), Tricia wrote two short films, Strand and Shift, which were produced and screened at festivals around the world. dragonwheel is Tricia Fish's directorial debut. 
Deborah Day was born in Toronto and grew up in Montréal. While studying theatre and creative arts in college, a flash flood changed her life. While working on a student play, she was forced to move off the stage and behind the scene to get the production mounted. She's never looked back. Following college she studied Communication Arts at Concordia University. From there she began her career in film and television. She has received critical acclaim and awards for her work and has directed the short films The Orange Seed Myth and Other Lies Mothers Tell (1997), Altarpiece (1998) and Blind (1999). Expecting is her first feature film. 
Keith Behrman began his career
as a filmmaker with the short film Thomas (1994), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, won the Judges' Prize at the Northwest Film and Video Festival and was broadcast on the CBC. His second short film, White Cloud, Blue Mountain (1997) also premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was broadcast on the CBC. His third short, Ernest (2000) premiered at the Vancouver Film Festival and was awarded Honourable Mention for Best Short Film at the Toronto Film Festival. Keith is an alumnus of the Director Resident Program of the Canadian Film Centre and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Simon Fraser University. Flower & Garnet is his first feature film. 
Over the last 20 years, Peter Mettler has consistently produced works which elude categorization. Melding intuitive processes with drama, essay, experiment or documentation, Mettler’s unique and startling vision merges the forms of cinema with other disciplines to move audiences beyond the material realm. His films, all of which have garnered prizes and been the subject of international retrospectives, include: a dramatic feature film, The Top of His Head (1989); Tectonic Plates (1992),
a feature-length adaptation of the play by Robert Lepage; the feature documentary, Picture of Light (1994); and the 30-minute lyrical diary, Balifilm. 
A native of Winnipeg, filmmaker and musician Sean Garrity studied film production and theory at York University in Toronto and the Instituto de Arte Cinematografico de Avellaneda in Buenos Aires. He has made a number of documentaries and short films, including Middle, which won awards at film festivals in Toronto and Vancouver; How Much for a Half Kilo?, which won the Best Film Award at the Calgary Independent Film Festival; and Buenos Aires Souvenir, which was an Official Selection at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. Inertia won the Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival. 
• Michel Jetté has earned renown
for the more than 100 television
documentaries and segments he has produced for such Quebec-made current affairs programs as Le Match de la vie, Monde et mystères and Enjeux. He has also shot a number of short films. In 1994, he directed his first
feature, Le Lac de la lune. In 1999, he wrote and directed the feature Hochelaga, which subsequently went on to become the second-largest grossing film in Quebec for the year 2000. In addition to writing and directing Inside, Michel Jetté also worked as a producer and editor on the film. 
Internationally acclaimed writer-director Agnieszka Holland is the author of numerous award-winning films. As a director, her films include The Third Miracle (1999), Washington Square (1997), Total Eclipse (1995), The Secret Garden, (1993), Olivier, Olivier (1992), Europa Europa (1990), To Kill a Priest (1988) and Angry Harvest (1986). As a screenwriter, her films include Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors: Blue (1994), and Andrzej Wajda’s A Love in Germany (1983) and Danton (1982). Agnieszka Holland has received numerous film festival awards, including Cannes, Gdansk, Berlin and Montréal. In addition, her films Angry Harvest and Europa Europa were both nominated for an Oscar. 
Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Asghar Massombagi emigrated to Canada in 1986, barely out of his teens. Settling in Vancouver, he attended Simon Fraser University,
graduating with a degree in film and computer science. After graduation he made two short films, Feel Like Chicken Tonight, a black comedy, and The Miracle, an award-winning short which follows an immigrant Iranian man as he roams the streets of Vancouver in search of a job. Asghar is currently working on a short drama, The Rose, and developing two new features. Khaled marks Asghar Massombagi’s feature film directorial debut. 
Writer/director Brad Fraser is
an award-winning, internationally renowned playwright with a reputation for being dark, witty, often shocking and always controversial. His international hit Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love (1989) has been produced worldwide and translated into seven languages. In 1994, the film version, directed by Denys Arcand, won Brad a Genie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Poor Super Man, the play on which Leaving Metropolis is based, was first produced by the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in 1994 and has enjoyed successful runs in Australia, Scotland, England, Canada and the United States. Leaving Metropolis marks Brad Fraser’s feature-film directorial debut. 
Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity is Vancouver-based writer/director Mina Shum’s third feature film. Her second feature, Drive, She Said, premiered at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival. Her first feature, Double Happiness, won the prize for Best First Feature at the 1995 Berlin Film Festival as well as the Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Feature Film at the 1994 Toronto International Film Festival. Shum has also directed seven short films: Picture Perfect; Shortchanged; Love In; Hunger; Thirsty; Me, Mom and Mona, which won Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Short at the 1993 Toronto International Film Festival; and You Are What You Eat. 
Since 1987, Nathalie Saint-Pierre
has devoted all her energies studying film directing and production, first
at university and then by working on movie sets. Her debut film, L’Abîme appelle l’abîme, was screened at
several festivals, including the 1997 Rendez-Vous du cinéma québécois, where it was nominated as Best
Short Film. She is a member of the independent film collective Les Films de l’Autre, with whom, in 2001,
she directed and produced the short Quand j’ai eu trente ans ou comment j’ai viré su’ l’top. Ma Voisine dans le ska is her first feature film. 
Since 1964, Jean Pierre Lefebvre has directed 26 feature films, including Le Révolutionnaire, Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça, La Chambre blanche, Les Maudits Sauvages, Les Dernières Fiançailles, L’Amour blessé, Le Vieux Pays où Rimbaud est mort, Les Fleurs sauvages, Le Fabuleux Voyage de l’Ange, Le Jour S and Aujourd’hui ou jamais. He has spent much of the last 12 years working in video, most notably on a five-part, 280-minute nonfiction work called L’Âge des images. 
After graduating with a Master’s degree in film studies from the Université de Montréal, Kim Nguyen produced and directed his first fiction film, La Route, in 1996; the film was co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada. A special-effects expert, he has created special effects for a number of movies and television shows. The short film Soleil glacé, which he produced and directed, was screened in official competition at the 2000 Festival international du film francophone de Namur. 
Before directing his first feature, Curtains, in 1981, Richard Ciupka
spent 10 years working as director of photography with several internationally renowned filmmakers, including Claude Chabrol (Les Liens de sang, Violette Nozière and Le Sang des autres), Louis Malle (Atlantic City)
and Boris Segal (Angela). In 1991, he directed the feature Coyote. As a television director, his work includes the Canadian segments of the series Mourir d’amour, as well as two installments of the 1995 drama 10-07 (L’Affaire Zeus and L’Affaire Kafka). In 1998, Richard Ciupka directed the feature Le Dernier Souffle. 
Robert Morin has been making a
significant contribution to Quebec
cinema for nearly 30 years with a series of very personal films, each one more striking and intimate than the last. A founding member of Coop Vidéo de Montréal, he has made some 30 short, medium-length and feature films during his career. Many of his works have received awards at festivals in Canada and around the world. His recent films include Opération Cobra (2002) and Quiconque meurt, meurt à douleur (1997). Robert Morin is currently writing three feature-length screenplays. 
Active in both film and theatre,
Cape Breton native Daniel MacIvor has earned praise as a writer, actor and director. His writing credits include the plays House and Here Lies Henry, both winners of the Chalmers New Canadian Play Award; the award-winning short film The Fairy Who Didn’t Want to
Be a Fairy Anymore; and Until I Hear From You (1998), a funny, heartfelt breakup story which wowed audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival. As an actor, MacIvor turned
in well-received performances in the features The Five Senses (1999; dir. Jeremy Podeswa) and Beefcake (1998; dir. Thom Fitzgerald). Daniel is also Artistic Director and co-founder of
the da da kamera theatre company. 
A founding partner of Rhombus Media Inc., Barbara Willis Sweete
has produced and directed more
than 25 films with Rhombus since
the company’s inception in 1979.
She is now considered to be one of Canada’s pre-eminent directors of dance and music films. Barbara has worked with such noted choreographers as Lar Lubovitch, James Kudelka and Mark Morris, and such musical stars as Kiri Te Kanawa, Dudley Moore, Christopher Hogwood and Yo-Yo Ma.
In 2000, she directed two one-hour specials, The Four Seasons, choreographed by James Kudelka, and Don Giovanni Unmasked. Perfect Pie marks her feature film directorial debut. 
An acclaimed writer, director, and film and television actress, Micheline Lanctôt directed her first feature, L’Homme
à tout faire, in 1980. The film was screened at several prestigious festivals, including the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and the San Sebastian Film Festival, where it won the Silver Medal in 1980. Her second feature, Sonatine, won a Silver Lion Award at the 1984 Venice Film Festival, while her third feature, Deux actrices (1993), won
the Prix Ouimet-Molson at the 1994 Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in Montréal. Also in 1994, her film La Vie d’un Héros was screened at several festivals in Canada, the United States and Europe. 
In 1996, Katie Tallo received a best director award from the Ottawa-Hull Film and Television Association for her debut short film, Split Shift, which was screened at festivals across Canada. She then went on to participate in the Banff Center for the Arts’ Women in the Director’s Chair program before making her next short film, See Through. By 2000, Tallo had written and directed the television movie, Juiced, as well
as the six-part series The Last Band on the Planet, for the Comedy Network, and the series Unearthed, consisting
of 10 short dramas, for Space. Posers is her first feature film. 
Men With Brooms marks Paul Gross's feature film directorial debut. An award-winning actor, writer and director, Paul is perhaps best known for his starring role in the television series Due South, airing in Canada and the United States and enjoying international success. Gross not only executive produced the third and final season, but also wrote many of the episodes, winning a Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Television Series. He has also written two television movies directed by the acclaimed Atom Egoyan, Gross Misconduct and In the Corner. In addition to his work in film and television, Paul has written for the theatre. He also starred in the Stratford Festival's 2000 production of Hamlet, which drew record audiences. 
After participating in the documentary travel series La Course Destination Monde in 1995, Ricardo Trogi began directing more than a dozen short films, including One Night, C’est arrivé près de chez nous and 2nd Chance. 2nd Chance was screened during the Longue Nuit du Court Métrage event at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Québec-Montréal, which he co-wrote with two longstanding partners, Patrice Robitaille and Jean-Philippe Pearson, is Ricardo Trogi’s first feature film. 
An actress as well as director, Maria Sigurdardóttir has performed both
on screen and on stage. In 1984, she earned a best actress award for her performance in a production of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. Since 1988, she has directed a number of plays and musical comedies, including several for the City Theatre in Reykjavik. In cinema, she has worked as first assistant
director on most of the films directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. Regina marks her feature-film directorial debut. 
Catherine Corsini launched her career with three short films: La Mésange, Ballade and Nuit de Chine. Since
then she has directed four features: Poker (1987), Les Amoureux (1993), Jeunesse sans dieu (1995) and La Nouvelle Ève (1998). Les Amoureux and Jeunesse sans dieu were both selected for the Cinéma en France showcase at the Cannes Film Festival. Catherine Corsini has also worked
in televison, directing the TV movies Fatale obsession (1989), Interdit d’amour (1991) and Denis (1997), among others. 
Gérard Pirès has been one of France’s leading filmmakers since the end of the 1960s. In 1968, his film Erotissimo, starring Annie Girardot, Francis Blanche and Jean Yanne, was a major hit. He followed this up with a series of successful features, including Elle court, elle court la banlieue, L’Agression and Rends-moi la clé. In 1982, he suffered a serious motorcycle accident and left filmmaking to focus on television commercials, becoming one of the most sought-after directors in the business. In 1998, at the request of Luc Besson, Gérard Pirès directed the feature Taxi, which shattered box-office records in France and the rest of Europe. 
Originally from South Korea, Soo Lyu holds a degree in political science from Ehwa University in Seoul, as well as a degree in film from Ryerson University in Toronto. She has written and directed several short films, including The Cure, which received awards for Best Cinematography and Long Experimental Film at TV Ontario Telefest, and Returning, which won the City of Toronto Award for Best Direction. Soo’s other short films are Falling, The Woodcutter
and his Bride and 23 Morrow, which were screened at numerous domestic and international film festivals. She was also selected for the Director’s Apprenticeship Program through the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Rub & Tug is Soo Lyu’s first feature film. 
Terrance Odette made his feature-film directing debut with the highly acclaimed Heater (1999). The film
was honoured with first prizes in
writing and directing at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and was also well received at the Sundance and London film festivals. Odette has also garnered many awards over the past decade for his work as a producer and director on more than 70 music videos and 45 music/documentary shorts. 
Since the release of his 1972 feature Les Colombes, Jean-Claude Lord has established himself as a leading Canadian filmmaker. Among his very successful films are Bingo (1974), Parlez-nous d’amour (1976) and Panique (1977). In 1981, he made his first English-language feature, Visiting Hours, which reached 10th place at the U.S. box office in its first week. La Grenouille et la baleine (1988) won several awards at major international film festivals. He subsequently directed several films in English: Mindfield (1988), Eddie Lives (1989) and Landslide (1990). Jean-Claude Lord has also directed several major television series, including the 1985 hit Lance et compte (He Shoots, He Scores), a turning point in the history of Quebec television. 
Scott Simpson entered the Halifax film industry shortly after university, working as everything from production assistant, to location manager, to assistant director on numerous local films, commercials, TV series and Hollywood blockbusters. His directorial debut, the 15-minute short Terminal Lunch (1997), won four awards, including Best Atlantic Short at the Atlantic Film Festival, as well as Best Cinematography at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival. He then
co-wrote, directed and co-produced December 1917 (1999), which won
a Chris Award at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival. Touch and Go is his first feature as director. 
Cleetche successfully pitched his first film project, a comedy series named Soloshye, to a local TV station in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario, when he was just 17. Cleetche moved to Vancouver in 1991 and briefly studied at UBC before enrolling into the Vancouver Film School. His body of work as a writer, producer and director includes In Next Man Country, a powerful documentary shot in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, and a promotional ‘trailer’ for his Praxis winning screenplay, Tribe of Joseph. Fourteen years in the making, Tribe of Joseph marks Cleetche’s directorial debut as his first feature film. 
Boris Mojsovski began his career as a photographer before moving into film. He has written and directed several award-winning shorts, including Stop, Why Let Him In, I Wanna Dance and Whose Hot Dog Is it Anyways. His films have won prizes at the TV Ontario Telefest Awards and have participated in festivals around the world. His most recent short film, Symphony, was in Official Competition at the 2001 Montréal World Film Festival and aired on The Movie Network. Three and a Half is Boris Mojsovski’s first feature. 
Manon Briand began her filmmaking career with a number of award-winning shorts, including Les Sauf-conduits (1991), which received several film festival prizes in Canada and abroad.
In 1996, she directed a segment of the feature Cosmos, which screened at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Prix de
la Confédération internationale des cinémas d’art et d’essai. In 1998, she directed her first feature, 2 Seconds, which won the award for Best Canadian Debut Feature at the Montréal World Film Festival and the award for Best Debut Screenplay at the Namur Film Festival. 2 Seconds was also screened at the Sundance Film Festival. 
Charles Binamé directed the hit
television drama Blanche, a sequel to the hugely popular historical miniseries Les Filles de Caleb. He followed this with two feature films, C’était le 12 du 12 et Chili avait les blues and Eldorado, the first installment in his urban trilogy. In 1996, he directed another historical miniseries, Marguerite Volant. In 1998, he directed the second feature in his series on the theme of urban loneliness, Le Cœur au poing (Street Heart). He completed the trilogy in 1999
with La Beauté de Pandore
(Pandora’s Beauty). 
Thom Fitzgerald’s highly acclaimed 1997 debut feature, The Hanging Garden, won more than 20 Canadian and international prizes, including four Genie Awards and the People’s Choice Award for Best Film at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was purchased for U.S. theatrical release by MGM. His docu-comedy homage to physique magazines of the 1950s, Beefcake (1998), premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and enjoyed a successful U.S. theatrical
run. His television film Wolf Girl,
starring Tim Curry, Grace Jones and Lesley Ann Warren, was broadcast in the U.S. in 2001. 