Thank you Air Canada!   Two recent Ottawa-Calgary and return flights allowed me to watch several highly anticipated movies yet to screen in Ottawa—from South Korea Burning , and from Quebec The Fireflies are Gone .   A small seatback screen to be sure, but welcome given the months of waiting since I missed both at last September’s Toronto film festival. First, however, a look at the latest nature story from Disneynature that I took my brother Roger to see a week ago Earth Day while in Saskatoon for a successful April 24 launch of my film book at the McNally Robinson store. Penguins ( https://nature.disney.com/penguins ) For over a decade Disney Nature has been releasing animal stories around Earth Day. This one, helmed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson, is the 13 th and focuses on the adventures of a pint-sized Adélie penguin it names “Steve”.   We can be amused by the typical two-footed penguin waddle on land and ice compared to their speedy ocean diving and...

BOOK LAUNCH!        April 24, 2019 was the official launch of  The Best of Screenings and Meanings:  A Journey Through Film  a t McNally Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon, SK

Early April Movies, Including Three Canadian  April 17 is “Canadian film day”, but in a previous post I lamented the few opportunities to see films nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards. So I’m happy to report that Stockholm is now getting a multiplex release (a year after premiering at the Tribeca festival), and I was able to see the first Canadian title reviewed below, Chien de garde (English title “Family First”) thanks to Crave TV (formerly The Movie Network).   This Quebec film was a somewhat surprising choice as Canada’s 2018 submission for the foreign-language Oscar category, ahead of, for example, Quebec master Denys Arcand’s latest The Fall of the American Empire (which has yet to screen in Ottawa), and Sebastien Pilote’s The Fireflies are Gone , awarded best Canadian feature at the Toronto film festival (also ignored by the Canadian Screen Awards).   Meanwhile, the first English-language feature from Quebec prodigy Xavier Dolan, The Life and Death of J...