Category Archives: Atlantic

The Atlantic Film Festival 2014: Heartbeat

As I mentioned yesterday, the one feature I've seen at this year's AFF is Andrea Dorfman's Heartbeat. I found it to be a sweet little Halifax movie, every location and most of the cast plucked from the local creative scene—actors and musicians filling the frame around Tanya Davis. Our city's former poet laureate plays Justine,…Read More

The Atlantic Film Festival 2014

Someone asked me the other day how long I've been covering the Atlantic Film Festival, and I couldn't give them exact information. I know I've attended since the first year I lived in Halifax. My favourite movies of 2003 were Lost In Translation and Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself. I think I started writing about…Read More

The Grand Seduction review

Directed by Don McKellar, written by Michael Dowse and Ken Scott. I saw this movie when it opened the 2013 Atlantic Film Festival. It was much beloved by the audience, and it's easy to understand why. The movie is a charming, slightly sassy tale of good people living in a Newfoundland fishing village who are…Read More

Hold Fast review

Directed by Justin SimmsWritten by Rosemary House, based on the book by Kevin MajorHold Fast is a sweet little coming-of-age movie based on a beloved Newfoundland novel. Simms—who made a far grittier film from Joel Thomas Hynes' Down To The Dirt—updates the 1970s novel to the present day: 14-year-old Michael (Avery Ash) is a tough outport kid…Read More

Zoo Revolution review

Written and directed by Geoff D'Eon"We only protect what we love. And we only love what we know." So says German zookeeper Jörg Junhold in the CBC DocZone documentary Zoo Revolution, airing on Thursday, October 3. It also showed at the Atlantic Film Festival.It's a concise and clever look at the conundrum of modern zoos,…Read More