Two professional Easter Bunnies cope with being laid off. A psychology student unwittingly awakens the ghost of a child killer. Two loners meet and develop a profound friendship.
You've likely never seen trailers for the films Hank and Mike, The Chair, or River, but they're part of the original and varied lineup at this year's Canadian Film Fest (CFF).
Festival director Bern Euler founded the event five years ago for one main reason, and that's because, in his words, "it's almost impossible to find a Canadian movie on a Canadian screen."
"A lot of (Canadian) movies don't have any marketing money at all. So they'll go into the theatres and last one week and then they're gone," he explains.
A screenwriter himself, Euler hoped the Canadian Film Fest would provide not only an opportunity for made-in-Canada films to be seen by larger audiences but also as a way of bringing people in the industry together to talk about their experiences and challenges making movies in this country. It's the only film festival in Toronto that screens exclusively Canadian content.
"Every single year I have people who are first-time film festival-goers or even first time Canadian movie watchers and they come out saying, 'I can't believe how good that movie was.' It's sad that we have to have a film festival just to show our movies. That's one of the things we're trying to help the filmmakers with is getting that exposure," Euler notes.
"A lot of people have the concept that Canadian movies are too artsy or too intellectual, or even crappy. There was a time when you could see a movie on TV and within two seconds you could tell that it was Canadian because it had that cheap video look. It's just not the case anymore. We have movies that are absolutely first-class production value-wise, the acting, the directing - we're good at what we do."
For Euler staging the festival is a full-time job and he does it without government backing. Last year he managed to pull it off for a scant $18,000. He works in conjunction with the Toronto International Film Festival, also a big backer of Canadian films, and screens hundreds of submissions before choosing the final lineup.
This year there are 22 shorts and 14 feature-length films on the schedule, far fewer than the number Euler would like to screen. He bemoans the fact that so many quality Canadian films are being made but not seen.
That may be changing however. Each year more and more people attend the festival, and last year nearly half the screenings were sold out.
"That speaks to the hunger the general population has for seeing Canadian movies," he enthuses.
The Canadian Film Fest runs Tuesday through Saturday at the Carlton and Varsity cinemas.
Canadian Film Fest lineup
How to buy tickets
Comment on the Canadian Film Fest at blogTO
Video shot and edited by Brian McKechnie
Image: A scene from the film
The Chair