Andrée Lachapelle

A group of actors putting on an interpretive Passion Play in Montreal begin to experience a meshing of their characters and their private lives as the production takes form against the growing opposition of the Catholic church.

In Caro papá, Dino Risi is telling the story of the decadent lifestyle, and dysfunctional family, of a wealthy businessman (played to perfection by Risi's favorite leading man, Vittorio Gassman). Risi paints his portrait against a backdrop of an Italy where the new permissiveness has run rampant, traditional socio-cultural values have been usurped by consumerism, and the streets have become an open battleground for politically extremist groups (the '70s were dubbed "The Years of Lead" due to the great number of terrorist acts, and politically motivated assassinations).

Forty-something Pierre is serving a fourteen year prison sentence. His mother, who is approaching eighty, visits him every week. Suzanne, Pierre's current wife, has moved on since he was sent away. Each character gives us a frank account of a period in their lives that seems suspended in time by the fragile connection between life on the inside and the world outside. Their destinies are linked by crime, guilt and loneliness, and like casualties of love and desire, they are dying to stick their heads above the water and breathe the air of life.

The story of an imaginative boy who pretends he is the child of a sperm-laden Sicilian tomato upon which his mother accidentally fell.

A photographer sets off toward a mysterious forest to find Boychuk, witness and victim of the Great Fire that swept through Northern Ontario at the turn of the 20th century. But before she arrives, she learns that Boychuck has just perished. Survivors of the long-ago fire, Tom and Charlie, two elderly men who have chosen to live out their last days in the woods, are introduced to Marie Desneige, whose 60 year institutionalization has only fueled her passion for life. Meanwhile, the photographer is discovering that Boychuck had been a painter, whose life’s work had been entirely inspired by the Great Fire. The story immerses us in a historical drama while captivating us with the strange lives of these men of the forest. Three men who, in choosing freedom above all else, made a deal with death.

The nuns of a musical convent work hard in order to prevent the religious school from closing.

A woman learns secrets about her family while attending the funeral of her father.

Twenty-four year old Montréaler Caroline works as a sales representative for a telephone company. She's married to Claude, the two who have a young son. On their fourth wedding anniversary, about which Claude seems to have forgot or doesn't care, Caroline seems unhappy with her life, although she approaches it with a certain efficiency. When she was growing up, she, like any girl, had several ideas which changed all the time of what she wanted to do with her life when she grew up. But her life hasn't seemed to come close to any of those dreams. Can Claude or anyone else reassure Caroline about her life, especially on this milestone?

Two old friends and small-time crooks embark on a crime spree, but take an unexpected detour that could lead them down the road to redemption.

Alex has a deeply troubled mind. He also has a seriously dysfunctional - not to say incestuous - family. Why then, has he returned from his merchant seaman job to the rocky coasts of his home? Perhaps he couldn't cut manage to march in his father's footsteps in that job. His mother doesn't seem to mind, and lets him stay at her bed and breakfast hotel. His sister still seems to have the hots for him, just as she does for his (and her) old boyfriend Jean-Louis, who has just shown up. Even his mother seems to find him sexy. All these people appear eager to get their hands on his body, but he's too wrapped up in what's going on inside his head to notice.

The lives of a businessman and his family begin to spiral downward after he has an affair at an insurance convention.

The title of this French-Canadian film translates to In the Belly of the Dragon, but don't assume that it's just another kung fu epic. Rather, the film is a likeable mixture of science fiction and humor, centered around the money-making schemes of star David La Haye. Unable to make ends meet with his minimum-wage job, La Haye hires himself out as a guinea pig to genially loopy scientist Marie Tifo. It is the doctor's contention that a person's intelligence can be artificially increased. La Haye proves her right...up to a point, that is. Extremely popular in Canada, Dans le Ventre du Dragon has yet to receive proper distribution in the States.

This historical drama with music examines the life and times of Émile Nelligan, one of the major Canadian poets of the 19th century who struggled through a difficult childhood with the help of his loving mother, only to see his career cut short by tragic circumstances.

A woman attempts to resume her place in the family that she abandoned years earlier.

A young boy still recovering from his mother's recent death teams with his two best friends to turn a regular pooch into a stunt-performing super-dog in this affectionate comedy for the whole family. Losing a parent is never easy, but for 11 year old Daniel it's been especially hard; when his father dives into work in an attempt to keep his grief at bay, Daniel starts causing mischief around the neighborhood with his best friends William and Colin. When the kids catch wind of a canine.

Built up on a structure of an international noir thriller, Echo starts as from a devastating terrorist assault on the Paris subway. The event shakes all of France as a nation and is a start to an obsessive personal hunt across the oceans that leads spectators to the mountains on the Canadian-USA borders. On one hand, on the run, is the mysterious mercenary Orpheus. On the other, hard on his trail, is the charismatic chief-investigator of the anti-terrorism division in France. The police officer is tireless and feels he is close to his objective when he meets an extremely beautiful French widow, keeper of an obscure secret from World War II.

A misfit desperately looking for the murderer who has just killed his wife.

An engineer from Paris flies to Montreal, partly on business, partly in search of parents displaced by World War II, and partly because of the prevailing restlessness of the age.

Christmas approaches and the Lévesque family has once again gathered for their traditional celebration. But this time there is a mixture of emotions running through each person. The patriarch of the family suffers from a combination of Parkinson’s Disease and heart failure. His life reduced in every way, the end approaches and there are unhappy memories of his once violent and authoritarian past. But his wife, ten children and many grandchildren try to maintain a semblance of the Christmas season.

Pierre is a Montreal photojournalist who returns from Nicaragua to find that his ten-year menage a trois is over. Haunted by his mid-life crisis, he becomes obsessed with trying to find out why his two lovers, Sarah and David, have left him.

A woman in love with a musician has a change of heart on her 18th birthday.

A dance-off where stars learn, prepare and present dance routines that they must show to a select panel of judges.

The lives of three families are forever changed by an unexpected death.

"Les étoiles filantes" is the story of two friends in their late thirties whose lives have taken very different paths. Twenty years after their band broke up and all dreams of that elusive recording contract had faded away, the two men meet up once again. They now live in very different worlds, worlds that are destined to clash from the moment that the incorrigible, free-spirited Daniel turns up on Jacques the math teacher’s doorstep. Daniel calmly tells his old friend that he has only six months left to live. The nomad parks his trailer in Jacques’ yard and proceeds to carve himself a place in the household’s well organized routine. However, he mischievously makes the most of every opportunity to shake up the family’s tidy world. This series tells a tale of friendship – albeit a frequently strained one – where values of stability and freedom humorously polarize and keep us smiling throughout.