16:00

Mon oncle Antoine

[My Uncle Antoine]

directed by Claude Jutras, original Frech version with English subtitles, 1971, 110 min.

Québec Cinema Program

Considered the masterpiece of Québec cinema, winner of numerous international prizes. The action takes place on Christmas Eve -- the one time of the year when the mine, in a small Québec town, closed its doors, and the store bustled with humanity. For a few hours the villagers could forget their poverty and converge on the store for gossip and revelry. For Jacques this night was to bring sudden initiation into some of the harsher, cruder realities of life, even acquaintance with tragedy and death.

Thanks to the National Film Board of Canada (Montréal, Québec) for this film.

18:00

Tales from the Gimli Hospital

directed by Guy Maddin, original English version, 1988, 68 min., introduced by Tinna Gretarsdóttir.

Icelandic Canadian Cinema Program

While their mother is dying in the modern Gimli, Manitoba hospital, two young children are told a story by their Icelandic grandmother about Einar the lonely and his friend Gunnar who live in Gimli we no longer know. During a smallpox epidemic in the village of Gimli, Einar and Gunnar who share what seems to be the hospital only room compete for the attention of the Gimli nurses by telling them stories which get progressively more complicated and bizarre as the rivalry between them escalates.

Thanks to Guy Maddin and Extra Largin Film Group (Winnipeg, Manitoba) for this film.