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Monday, August 27--------With a local Quebec film opening the Festival this past weekend (BLUFF), the Montreal World Film Festival is serving as a launching pad and promotion platform for a group of diverse Canadian features (and short films) in the coming week. This brings high profile attention to local artists for visiting journalists, industryites and programmers. There is a strong Canadian presence in all sections of the Festival and this is an opportunity for the "home team" to shine.

Surviving My MotherWal-Mart NationLa Logique Du RemourdsThe Dog Walker

Canadian Features and Documentaries

CHEHREHA (Shahin Parhami)

In this multi-layered documentary by Iranian ex-pat Parhami, the focus is on Shahram Golchin, a professional actor from pre-Khomeini Iran who was trapped between world in the prime of his career. Unemployed, debilitated by a range of illnesses and a strong sense of exile, he is the window to nine other subjects in this poetic documentary exploring the life and work in exile of ten Iranian-Canadian artists as they represent themselves through art, performance and monologues.

CONFESSIONS OF AN INNOCENT MAN (David Paperny)

A year before 9/11, an engineer named William Sampson was imprisoned and tortured by the government of Saudi Arabia for a crime that he clearly did not commit. Forced to confess to a terrorist bombing and murder, he was summarily sentenced to death by beheading -- in a country that Western governments call an ally. During the 31-month ordeal that followed, Sampson believed that the Canadian government had abandoned him, and only his desperate behaviour kept him sane. This is the story of one man's struggle to survive injustice, brutality and the geo-politics that condone them.

FAMILY MOTEL (Helene Klodawsky)

A Somali immigrant who has spent five years struggling to build a life in the West has earned enough working two cleaning jobs to rent an inner-city apartment and raise her girls with a taste of western comfort. What little she had left over, she sent to her husband and two sons still struggling to get out of Africa. But when a family crisis overseas requires her to send more money, she falls behind on her rent.

FINN'S GIRL (Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert)

Dr. Finn Jefferies is a thoroughly modern lesbian -- far too feisty and happy ever to bother hiding her sexuality. Her family is pure 21st century: two mothers, two careers and a kid. Nothing had ever rocked Finn's life until the untimely death of her partner, Nancy. As she flounders in her grief, she takes risks that jeopardize her relationship with the only person she really loves, her daughter, rebellious 11-year-old Zelly Bean.

LA BRUNANTE (Fernand Dansereau)

Learning that she has Alzheimer's, 72-year-old Madeleine decides that she doesn't want to encumber on her family and friends. Too proud to bear her inevitable debilitation and wanting to ensure that her children will not have to endure the pain of watching her degenerate and bear the burden of taking care of her, Madeleine decides that she will commit suicide. Before doing so, however, she decides to revisit the landscapes that marked her life and she hires as her chauffeur Zoé, a 35-year-old musician whom she met by chance and who is herself going through a bad patch in her life.

LA LOQIGUE DU REMORDS (Martin Laroche)

When his 5-year-old daughter is raped and murdered, Marc, a 30-something intellectual, is faced with a moral choice. While he refuses to surrender to urges of personal revenge, Marc is nevertheless tormented by the idea that the murderer, Vincent, is about to get off scot free for lack of proof: it seems that he committed the crime wearing gloves and a condom. Marc's wife Annie isn't as reticent. She decides to kill Vincent at the entrance to the courthouse.

RIVER (Mark Wihak)

A lyrical evocation of those life-changing friendships of youth -- passionate, all consuming and as brief as summer. Stan and Roz live in a small city on the Canadian Prairies. Stan has just finished university and is working on a novel; Roz has a dead-end job and roams the city with her camera. When Stan and Roz meet, they help to nurture each other's artistic dreams and they discover what is possible, in friendship and in themselves.

SURVIVING MY MOTHER (Emile Gaudreault)

A dramatic comedy about the complex relationship between mothers and daughters. On her deathbed, Clara's mother tells her that she regrets that she never took the time to get to know her daughter. Clara swears to herself that she will not do to her daughter what her mother did to her: she will make it her life's work to get to really know her 21-year-old daughter Bianca.

THE CHAIR (Brett Sullivan)

After a recent psychotic episode, Danielle tries to rebuild her life when she sublets a century-old Victorian house. Unknowingly, she awakens an evil specter lurking in the dark recesses of her new home. To prove to her sister, Anna, that she isn't delusional again, Danielle begins to document the haunting with horrifying results.

THE DOGWALKER (Rosie Dransfeld)

 A remarkable cinéma-vérité portrait, the film charts one man's hard-fought battle to reconstruct a shattered identity, while offering an engaging riff on zen and the art of dogwalking

THE GREEN CHAIN (Mark Leiren-Young)

The battle between loggers and environmentalists is defining, dividing and destroying communities in Canada and around the world. THE GREEN CHAIN, a funny, thoughtful "documentary" on the subject, examines a community and a way of life through a series of riveting inter-linking monologues inspired by the true tales and personalities that define today's forests and the lengths to which some people will go to protect their personal visions.

TOI (François Delisle)

Michèle shares her life with Paul, her husband and colleague at work. She also has a lover, Thomas, a musician with whom she's been in love for some time. Attracted by Thomas' love of life and his nonconformity, Michèle decides to leave her husband, son and profession to live her passion to the fullest.

WALMART NATION (Andrew Munger)

A first-person journey through the controversial, occasionally humourous, always fascinating world of anti-Wal-Mart activism... Wal-Mart is the world's largest and arguably most influential corporation. Its business practices are reshaping the way the world works, shops and lives. No company in modern history has been so disliked.

Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal World FF Dailies Editor