This incredible story of drug trafficking, dirty cops and all around betrayal is one of the most intriguing of FIN 2019. When the Phillipines Government and SWAT-led police execute a raid in the drug-infested slums of Manilla, they call it a victory. And yet, questions are raised about the killings of some suspects on the…

I knew absolutely nothing about the band Swans going into this feature, and now, I feel like I’ve known front-man Michael Gira my entire life. This visually stunning, bass-booming tale of Swans’ work as a post-punk band, their successes and failures, and their ultimate legacy is nothing short of enthralling. With in-depth, honest interviews, the…

This intense, dynamic documentary from Alfred Peabody tackles the idea that poverty, corporate greed and other ills have made way for Trump to become president. As political type presidents before him broke promises and became more untrustworthy, something had to give. With blue collar workers disenfranchised and disillusioned with the Clintons, a “man of the…

La Belle Époque is the type of film that only comes along once every few years. A resplendent mix of Charlie Kaufman humour and reminiscent of Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris, this French film will transport you. Victor is a cartoonist past his prime. Ransacked from his newspaper job, publishing himself with not much success,…

As Atom Egoyan walked into Cinema 8 at Park Lane Cineplex last night, I steeled myself. I promised myself after the screening, I’d shake the hand of the man whose works have meant to much to me over the years. Egoyan is a Canadian director who has endured for decades, serving us the Oscar-nominated classic…

Writer-director Melanie Oates knows how to push the exasperation and desperation of her characters into the ultimate tone of the film. This is one of the most unsettling films of the festival — not in the sense that it’s psychologically taxing — but in the sense that the emotional dread and the inability of the…

Shadow In The Mirror is a frustrating picture. The cast, crew, writer and director are some Nova Scotian treasures. So it’s difficult to say this, but I had hoped this film would be much better. I’ve now watch it twice — once before it’s Eastlink premiere and once prior to FIN — but the same…

The demonization of Patient Zero — known as flight attendant Gaetan Dugas — has dominated gay culture for decades. Dugas, who was based in Halifax, was known as the man who brought the world AIDS, but to say he was the first to spread the virus so immensely is disingenuous. In a time after the…

This moving documentary starts with a government struggle over what level should pay for the care Jordan River Anderson needs. The young boy, born in 1999 with multiple disabilities, was the victim of a funding dispute in the months before his death. He died at five years old, before the feds and province could agree…

To bring a Nova Scotia-shot film home to Halifax is important for co-director Ariella Pahlke, but to spark some real conversation is the main goal. Filmmakers Pahlke, Nance Akerman and Teresa MacInnes came together for this project, to present about a topic close to them. “We wanted to take on something big, and we always…