Film

Keely awakens to find herself captive in a cabin in Northern Ontario. Alone with Du, who has been assigned to be her guard and caregiver, she will be forced to bring her pregnancy to term by an extremist anti-choice faction. Their only connection to the outside world is Robert, the mastermind of the operation. Once Keely discovers there is no escape, she begins to adapt to the reality of her situation, while resisting the faith-based indoctrination of her captors.

Dames Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright, and Maggie Smith get together for tea to reminisce and discuss their acting careers. “What happens when four living stage legends sit down to tea? In Roger Michell’s charming documentary, they gossip, argue and admit that they don’t remember everything… … it’s ultimately big fun having tea with these Dames.” -Susan G. Cole ‘NOW Toronto’

After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him. "In “Capernaum,” the heartache of the underprivileged is on such interminable display that you feel the physical hurt in your bones. But the manner in which the filmmaker renders these pains somehow doesn’t feel exploitative or gratuitous—there is a nuanced matter-of-factness even in Labaki’s empathy that prevents it to ever become pity. If anything, the co-writer/director seems to know and care about the exact kind of kid she follows in “Capernaum,” a fighter who has no option but to remain independent, resourceful and tireless at the end of each exhausting day the sun sets on, with no promise of a brighter tomorrow." -Tomris Laffly 'rogerebert.com'

In the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France. "An aching film on such exquisite pains of impossible love, Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” concurrently swells your heart and breaks it, just like the sore memory of a lover that drifted away from your life, or an intensely craved kiss that never was. It’s a tale with the makings of legendary sagas, following the union and break-up (and union and break-up again and again) of Wiktor and Zula, a classically gorgeous couple from the opposite sides of the tracks. They first meet deep in the dilapidated countryside of the post-World War II Poland. They exchange suggestive glances and embark on a stormy affair that disastrously evolves over two isolating decades and numerous unsympathetic locales across Europe.” -Tomris Laffly 'rogerebert.com'

A family of small-time crooks take in a child they find outside in the cold. “In “Shoplifters,” a beautifully felt family drama, the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda dives into the mess with a story about a household on the ragged edge. From father to son, the family presents an unusual domestic portrait, though what you notice is that its struggles don’t ennoble it. The mother and father work, but there’s slyness here and hardness. And the family steals — food, toiletries, whatever — thieving to live but also as a way of life.” -Mnohla Dargis ‘New York Times’

In the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France. "An aching film on such exquisite pains of impossible love, Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” concurrently swells your heart and breaks it, just like the sore memory of a lover that drifted away from your life, or an intensely craved kiss that never was. It’s a tale with the makings of legendary sagas, following the union and break-up (and union and break-up again and again) of Wiktor and Zula, a classically gorgeous couple from the opposite sides of the tracks. They first meet deep in the dilapidated countryside of the post-World War II Poland. They exchange suggestive glances and embark on a stormy affair that disastrously evolves over two isolating decades and numerous unsympathetic locales across Europe.” -Tomris Laffly 'rogerebert.com'

A teenage boy must deal with his mother's complicated response after his father temporarily abandons them to take a menial and dangerous job. "This is an accomplished, moving piece of filmmaking, one that cares about its characters and trusts its performers. It comes from a relatively old school of dramatic storytelling but connects emotionally because of Paul Dano’s tender, confident work and what he’s able to draw from two of the best performers of their generation." -Brian Tallerico 'rogerebert.com'

Celeste is a 13-year-old music prodigy who survives a horrific school shooting in Staten Island, N.Y., in 1999. Her talent shines through during the memorial service when she sings a song that touches the hearts of the mourners. Guided by her sister and a talent manager, the young phenom transforms into a rising pop star with a promising future. Eighteen years later, Celeste now finds herself on the comeback trail when a scandal, personal struggles and the pitfalls of fame threaten her career. "'Vox Lux' gripped me from its first sequence and didn't let go until the end. I was left drained, but also feeling a little bit empty. This is not a complaint. The hollowed-out sensation 'Vox Lux' gave me, especially its final sequence, was far more interesting to me than something clearly laid-out, with a message or a resolution. "I don't want people to think too much. I just want them to feel good," says 15-year-old Celeste. It occurs to me that the effect of 'Vox Lux' was exactly the opposite." -Sheila O'Malley 'rogerebert.com'

Follow Alex Honnold as he becomes the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000 ft high El Capitan wall. With no ropes or safety gear, he completed arguably the greatest feat in rock climbing history. "I did not suffer too much vertigo while watching 'Free Solo,' a gripping documentary about Alex Honnold, a celebrated climber who rather frequently goes up cliff faces thousands of feet high without any climbing equipment. It’s just him, his hands and feet, and a little pouch hanging from his belt, which contains powder that dries his hands to enable him to grasp on to the rock face better. While the high vistas shot by filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi are indeed potentially dizzying, I spent less time looking at those than I did looking at Honnold, hanging on an entirely vertical surface, and saying, perhaps a bit too loudly in the screening room, “Will you get off of there … ”" -Glenn Kenny 'rogerebert.com'

In 1956, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees and seven years before Dian Fossey left to work with mountain gorillas, in fact, before anyone, man or woman had made such a trip, 23-year old Canadian biologist, Anne Innis Dagg, made an unprecedented solo journey to South Africa to become the first person in the world to study animal behavior in the wild on that continent. When she returned home a year later armed with ground-breaking research, the insurmountable barriers she faced as a female scientist proved much harder to overcome. In 1972, having published 20 research papers as an assistant professor of zoology at University of Guelph, the Dean of the university, denied her tenure. She couldn't apply to the University of Waterloo because the Dean there told Anne that he would never give tenure to a married woman. This was the catalyst that transformed Anne into a feminist activist. For three decades, Anne Innis Dagg was absent from the giraffe world until 2010 when she was sought out by giraffologists and not just brought back to into the fold, but finally celebrated for her work.