TIFF's Canadian projects include Ellen Page doc, Jeff Barnaby thriller
Victoria Ahearn | The Canadian Press | Posted: July 31, 2019 2:30 PM | Last Updated: July 31, 2019
Works by David Cronenberg, Amy Jo Johnson and Zacharias Kunuk also to be shown at Sept. 5-15 film fest
An Ellen Page documentary on environmental racism in Nova Scotia and a Jeff Barnaby-directed zombie thriller centring on an Indigenous community are among the Canadian features headed for the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Organizers have announced all the homegrown films in the lineup for the September film fest. The list also includes a dark comedy directed by actress Amy Jo Johnson and starring Felicity Huffman, and an Albert Shin psychological thriller starring Toronto director David Cronenberg.
Other highlights include:
- A dramatic comedy starring Heather Graham and directed by Montreal-based Aisling Chin-Yee, AfterMeToo co-founder.
- A Joey Klein-directed opioid crisis drama starring Neve Campbell, from Guelph, Ont.
- New projects from veteran Indigenous filmmakers Alanis Obomsawin of Montreal and Zacharias Kunuk of Nunavut.
Page's There's Something in the Water, which she co-directed with fellow Emmy-nominated Gaycation co-host and executive producer Ian Daniel, will make its world premiere at the Sept. 5-15 festival in Toronto.
The Oscar-nominated, Halifax-born Juno star focuses the film on women at the forefront of some of Nova Scotia's most urgent environmental crises, as well as affected Indigenous and African Nova Scotian communities.
There's Something in the Water is also the name of a book by Nova Scotian author and activist Ingrid Waldron, which Page tweeted out a recommendation for last December.