CINEMORATA

01/31/2025

“It’s a celebration of a 40-year career with a wealth of great songs, great singing and great performances.”

We chat with filmmaker Dale Heslip and musician and songwriter Jim Cuddy about music, friendship and reliving the history of one of Canada’s most iconic country rock bands in their new documentary Blue Rodeo: Lost Together.

Read here https://www.cinemorata.com/blue-rodeo-lost-together-jim-cuddy-dale-heslip/

11/01/2024

“It’s a love letter to q***r individuals, but at its core, it’s a universal story. I want viewers to see the lighter side of our experiences; a hopeful representation of our community that goes beyond trauma and comedic elements. Our everyday lives can be captivating stories, too.”

Auganic puts a contemporary spin on the fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs, with the story of Kailan (played by Matt Dejanovic) and Nick (Kenny Brain), a cash-strapped couple faced with the possibility of selling their farm. When Kailan unexpectedly discovers he has the power to magically produce gold, however, the prospect of untold riches could save or destroy their relationship.

We talk with writer-director Krit Komkrichwarakool about his latest Oscar-qualified short.

Click here to read the full interview: https://www.cinemorata.com/auganic-krit-komkrichwarakool/

09/11/2024

“There’s a spiritual connection to these objects that were taken away and put in museums, and it’s important for people to know what happened. It’s not just native history, it’s settler history, too, and people deserve to have these objects returned because they’re part of their being.”

An intercontinental quest traces the path of lost Indigenous art from the Arctic to the Surrealist studios and collections of New York and Paris in So Surreal: Behind the Masks.

We talk with directors Neil Diamond and Joanne Robertson about their newest doc at TIFF 2024.

Read here: https://www.cinemorata.com/so-surreal-behind-the-masks-neil-diamond-joanne-robertson-tiff-2024/

An intercontinental quest traces the path of lost Indigenous art from the Arctic to the Surrealist studios and collections of New York and Paris in So Surreal: Behind the Masks. We talk with directors Neil Diamond and Joanne Robertson about their newest doc at TIFF 2024.

07/05/2024

“When it comes to love, you’ll always be settling or compromising – that’s just inherent to its nature. So, I guess you could say, I’m making a case against the existence of a perfect match.”

A romance-obsessed rug shop employee tries to make a sale to a highly-conflicted couple in Rug Burn. We talk with filmmaker Devin Gillis about producing her latest short and the inherent nature of love.

Click here to read our interview: https://www.cinemorata.com/rug-burn-devin-gillis/

A romance-obsessed rug shop employee tries to make a sale to a highly-conflicted couple in Rug Burn. We talk with filmmaker Devin Gillis about producing her latest short and the inherent nature of love.

05/21/2024

"It's about the connection between planetary health and human health, and how the threat of plastic pollution in the global environment is now being internalized. The garbage that we're throwing out into the world is the garbage that we're now finding inside our blood vessels and our organs."

The human impact of plastic pollution is uncovered in Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics. We talk with science journalist Ziya Tong about one of the biggest threats facing our world and our bodies today.

Read the full interview here: https://www.cinemorata.com/plastic-people-the-hidden-crisis-of-microplastics-ziya-tong/

The human impact of plastic pollution is uncovered in Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics. We talk with science journalist Ziya Tong about one of the biggest threats facing our world and our bodies today.

05/11/2024

“I wanted it to drip with genre.”

A trio of travelling hippies find themselves in an uneasy stand-off with a group of rural locals over where to set up their roadside food stand in the grindhouse horror-inspired short Please Eat Organic.

We talk with writer-director Jacob Thompson and producer Joe Craib about vintage cars, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the importance of having a clear creative vision.

Click here to read: https://www.cinemorata.com/please-eat-organic-jacob-thompson/

An encounter between a trio of hippies and a group of religious locals leads to some horrifying consequences in Please Eat Organic. We talk with writer-director Jacob Thompson and producer Joe Craib about their new grindhouse-inspired short.

04/24/2024

“The film is a meditation on the impact of losing one’s physical and emotional home. It follows a character who is suddenly displaced and has to find their sense of belonging in an urban setting.”

A group of mountain villagers are swept away from their home by the winds of progress and forced to adapt to life in the big city in The Shepherds.

We chat with filmmaker, animator and visual artist Woody Ray about the making of their hand-drawn animated short.

Rural villagers struggle to adapt to life in an urban metropolis in The Shepherds. We chat with filmmaker Woody Ray about the making of their hand-drawn animated short.

04/14/2024

“It’s a musing on love, but it’s not a love story or a romance as we’ve been conditioned to understand them in normal cinema. Instead, it’s asking questions about love more generally and more conceptually. It deals with romantic love, but it also deals with familial love, friendship love and the love that we have for the world.”

A romantic dreamer rips her heart out for the man she loves only to find he has other ideas when she decides she wants it back in With Love and a Major Organ. We talk with actress Anna Maguire about love, life and pushing the boundaries of her craft.

Read the full interview here: https://www.cinemorata.com/with-love-and-a-major-organ-anna-maguire/

A romantic dreamer rips her heart out for the man she loves only to find he has other ideas when she decides she wants it back in With Love and a Major Organ. We talk with actress Anna Maguire about love, life and pushing the boundaries of her craft.

04/05/2024

“The film is an ode to girlhood, family and the friendships that we form, as well as the loneliness that we can feel when we’re growing up.”

Three young friends struggle to navigate the challenges and complexities of growing up in a working-class Scarborough neighborhood in Hard Falls. Writer-director Alina Vita Kulesh discusses revisiting her childhood community and the inspiration for her new dramatic short.

Click here to read our interview: https://www.cinemorata.com/hard-falls-alina-vita-kulesh/

Three young friends struggle to navigate the challenges of growing up in Hard Falls. Writer-director Alina Vita Kulesh discusses revisiting her childhood community and the inspiration for her new dramatic short.

03/29/2024

“On the surface, it’s a story about a husband faking cancer, but underneath it’s about how to maintain power in a dysfunctional relationship and how far someone will go to do that.”

A romantic dinner goes awry when a wealthy woman accuses her husband of faking his cancer diagnosis in A Very Sick Man. We talk with writer-director Bronwen Spolsky about crafting a memorably dysfunctional marriage for the screen.

Read the interview here: https://www.cinemorata.com/a-very-sick-man-bronwen-spolsky/

A wife accuses her husband of pretending to have cancer in A Very Sick Man. Writer-director Bronwen Spolsky talks crafting a memorably dysfunctional marriage for the screen.

03/17/2024

“All women have had the experience of being in uncomfortable situations and being in places they don’t want to be, so for people who are survivors, I hope they feel I’ve done the story justice. I also hope it starts that conversation over what consent looks like and how it isn’t a given. It’s a lofty goal, I realize, but it’s important.”

A college student who can turn back time tries to erase the memory of a sexual assault in Erase & Rewind. We catch up with director Lauren Grant ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Canadian Film Festival later this month.

Click here to read: https://www.cinemorata.com/erase-and-rewind-lauren-grant/

A young woman turns back time to delete the memory of an unwanted sexual encounter in Erase & Rewind. We catch up with director Lauren Grant ahead of the film’s world premiere at this year’s Canadian Film Festival.

02/27/2024

“I’ve always been fascinated with why some artists are able to get there art out there, but others aren’t. It’s hard not to compare yourself to other people, when you’re trying to create art. When you look at other filmmakers and ask, ‘Why are that person’s films more successful than mine?’, but then you realize that other people have those inner struggles as well.”

A group of artists are artists drawn to a wintery forest in search of inspiration, only to become trapped by an unseen force in Showpiece. Director Mathew Ouzounis takes us behind the scenes on his bizarre experimental short.

A group of artists are drawn into an unexplained nightmare in Showpiece. Director Mathew Ouzounis takes us behind the scenes on his bizarre experimental short.