Category Archives: Atlantic

#AIFF2025: Little Lorraine

September 13, 2025 flawintheiris

The idea of turning a song into a feature film is long overdue. I can think of a dozen candidates for future features, from artists like Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, and Rush. If this Cape Breton picture spawns more of this kind of thing, that will be a hell of a legacy. It is, indeed,…Read More

Do I Know You From Somewhere? review — Lovely, sad Maritime fantasy

June 4, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Arianna Martinez | Written by Martinez and Gordon Mihan | ▲▲▲ | At Park Lane Cinema in Halifax on June 7 A supernatural mystery/break-up drama from New Brunswick isn't something we get a chance to see every day. This first feature from filmmaker Martinez got into TIFF, and it's easy to see why.…Read More

The Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival is on now!

May 28, 2025 flawintheiris

As regular readers of FITI will know, I'm a programmer and artistic director at Carbon Arc Cinema in Halifax. We're going dark this week to give the cinema spotlight to the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival, happening until Sunday at the Bus Stop Theatre on Gottingen Street. I've had the opportunity to see a couple of…Read More

#AIFF24 Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Julie Keeps Quiet, Heartbeat

September 16, 2024 flawintheiris

Sunday started with a documentary at the Atlantic International Film Festival that drew cinephiles of all stripes. Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger is a more-than-two-hour-long deep dive into the work of the master British filmmaking team responsible for The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter Of Life And Death, Black…Read More

#AIFF24 All We Imagine As Light, When The Light Breaks, Sweet Angel Baby, and The Substance

September 15, 2024 flawintheiris

I'm just in from The Substance and my head is still spinning from the heavy dose. More on that below. My understanding of Indian art house movies pretty much starts and ends with Chaitanya Tamhane's Court and The Disciple, so it's a pleasure to encounter this one, All We Imagine As Light. It's told through the…Read More

Atlantic International Film Festival 2024 Preview #AIFF24

September 9, 2024 flawintheiris

2024 marks the 21st year I've attended the Atlantic International Film Festival, formerly FIN, formerly the Atlantic Film Festival, and almost 20 since I've been covering it as an arts journalist. I've seen it swell to a massive, 10 day festival with hundreds of movies and red carpet events attended by a constellation of stars,…Read More

#TIFF24: Meet The Barbarians, Sharp Corner

September 7, 2024 flawintheiris

You'll find me a longtime fan of Julie Delpy the actor, writer, and director — in the Before series, Three Colours: White, and Two Days in Paris. She's back with this quite broad, clever comedy called Meet The Barbarians, (in French, Les barbares) where a well-meaning group of village folk in a corner of Brittany…Read More

The Story of Summerhood

June 29, 2024 flawintheiris

Back in 2008, Nova Scotia writer-director Jacob Medjuck launched a promising career with a delightful summer camp comedy called Summerhood, starring Joe Flaherty, Christopher McDonald, and featuring the voice of John Cusack and a passel of talented child actors. It made quite a splash here at the Atlantic Film Festival and went on to be…Read More

The King Tide review — Chilling folk mystery evokes classic 1970s horror

April 25, 2024 flawintheiris

Directed by Christian Sparkes | Written by Kevin Coughlin, Ryan Grassby, Albert Shin, and William Woods | ▲▲▲▲△ | Crave, Hoopla I spoke with Newfoundland filmmaker Christian Sparkes when his fantastic first feature, Cast No Shadow, was released back in 2015. There was an element of folk magic in that picture that's shared here in…Read More

Queen Of My Dreams review — Fetching first feature crosses cultures

March 23, 2024 flawintheiris

An earlier version of this review appeared on FITI last September at #TIFF2023 Written and Directed by Fawzia Mirza | 97 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Crave I gather Cape Breton-raised filmmaker Fawzia Mirza brings a lot of autobiography to this light, charming film, the story of Azra (Amrit Kaur) is a queer woman living in…Read More