Over the  past half-decade, Canadian independent filmmaking has experienced a  resurgence. Working outside traditional funding channels, a  constellation of new directors from across the country have emerged with  unique styles and sensibilities, distinct in their regional  specificities while standing firmly at the vanguard of new cinematic  storytelling possibilities.

Two of  the most notable names to have arisen from this movement, Toronto's  Kazik Radwanski and Nova Scotia's Ashley McKenzie, have each recently  produced films that have earned an uncommon amount of international  attention. Upon its premiere at TIFF, Radwanski's second feature, How Heavy This Hammer,  a modest portrait of a Bulgarian immigrant who one day decides to leave  his wife and explore the frontiers of middle-age dating and  single-parent living, instantly solidified the filmmaker as this new  generation's most gifted and empathetic curator of everyday domestic  travails.

No less attuned to the subtle gradations of the human condition, McKenzie, with her feature debut Werewolf––a  vividly realized romantic tragedy following two young addicts living on  the margins of New Waterford that has picked up numerous awards as its  traveled across North America and Europe––has announced herself as an  equally uncompromising chronicler of emotional and psychological trauma.  Together the work of these two young directors speaks not only to the  exciting developments in Canadian independent filmmaking, but to the  breadth of contemporary cinematic invention as a whole.

~ Join us for a reception following the screening!