Kay Meek Centre
The Swell Season – Jan 10, 2012 | 7:30 PM
90 min / English
The world fell in love with Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová when their songwriting collaboration in the film Once culminated in a jubilant Oscar win. But behind the scenes, where Glen and Markéta’s on-screen romance became reality, a grueling two-year world tour threatened to fracture their fated bond. This music-filled documentary is an intimate look at the exhilaration and turmoil created by both love and fame.
The First Grader – Tuesday, January 31, 2012 7:30PM
105 min / Rated PG13 / EnglishThe true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.
Set in a mountain village in Kenya the film tells the remarkable true and uplifting story of a proud old Mau Mau veteran who is determined to seize his last chance to learn to read and write – and so ends up joining a class alongside six year-olds. Together he and hisyoung teacher face fierce resistance, but ultimately they win through – andalso find a new way of overcoming the burdens of the colonial past.
Benda Bilili! – Tuesday, February 14, 2012 7:30PM
86 min / PG-13 / Lingala and French with English sub-titlesSummer 2009. Five paraplegics and a young able-bodied teenager light up the stage in front of an entranced audience of 8000 people…
In English “See Beyond”, is the name of this Kinshasa band which has acquired a global following. Chances of success were slim at first for these homeless handicapped artists who struggled to survive on the streets of their dilapidated capital. “Benda Bilili” is not a music film, it’s the story of a dream that became reality. And a plunge into the streets of Kinshasa without a safety net.
The Guard – Tuesday, March 27, 2012 7:30PM
96 min / Rated R / EnglishAn unorthodox Irish policeman with a confrontational personality is teamed up with an uptight FBI agent to investigate an international drug-smuggling ring.
Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett to his door.
Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson – Tuesday, April 10, 2012 7:30PM
110 min / Rated pg 13 for violent images / EnglishECO-PIRATE: THE STORY OF PAUL WATSON is a feature-length documentary about a man on a mission to save the planet and its oceans. Part Captain Nemo and part Grizzly Man, the film follows Watson as he repeatedly flouts the law, so that he may apprehend what he sees as the more serious lawbreakers; the illegal poachers of the world.
One of the original founders of Greenpeace, who was forced to leave the protest fold for being “a loose cannon on deck,” Watson has always been the most enigmatic character in the seminal earth, wind and fire brigade.
Where other early green activists insisted on non-violence and civil disobedience to make their point and win over the public debate, Watson figured hanging a banner over blood-stained water just wasn’t enough.
He wanted to fight the good fight and actually engage with the enemy — in this case, the floating slaughterhouses harboured in Japan. The Japanese whaling fleet is the largest in the world, and, despite international moratoriums on killing cetaceans, the Japanese, and several Scandinavian countries, have violated the ban without consequence.
Le Havre – Tuesday, April 24, 2012 7:30PM
93 min / French with English sub-titlesWhen an African boy arrives by cargo ship in the port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and welcomes him into his home. Take a closer look at the immigrationquestion through a very different lens.
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