Music Takes the Stage at Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Feb. 25 – March 1

ON SCREEN:

BIF NAKED – d. Pollyanna Hardwicke-Brown (Regional Premiere)
As an artist who’s experienced enough challenges and triumphs to fill several lifetimes, Bif Naked most definitely has a story worth sharing. In this hard-hitting documentary portrait, the Canadian singer is as frank and fearless on camera as she is in her songwriting. With its mix of new interviews and archival material — including plenty of footage from Bif’s characteristically fierce live performances — Hardwicke-Brown’s film offers a no-holds-barred account of its subject’s tumultuous journey over several decades in the music industry. 

With Bif Naked.

MIDDLE LIFE – d. Pavan Moondi (Provincial Premiere)
Alternately spiky and sweet, this relationship comedy by writer-director Pavan Moondi follows the increasingly intertwined lives of two thirty-somethings who first meet by chance. While Andie (July Talk’s Leah Fay Goldstein), a wedding planner and new mother, may seem like she’s got her act together, she’s really not so different from Ryan (July Talk’s Peter Dreimanis), a blue-collar guy with a looser, more cavalier approach to life. The growing connection between the two threatens to make things even messier for them both. 

With Moondi, Goldstein, Dreimanis and Luke Lalonde (Born Ruffians).

MILE END KICKS – d. Chandler Levack (Regional Premiere)
Making a very welcome return to the Festival with her follow-up to her much-loved feature debut I LIKE MOVIES (KCFF23), writer-director Chandler Levack revisits her own past as a music journalist for this semi-autobiographical tale set in the bustling and ultra-cool indie scene of early 2010s Montréal. Barbie Ferreira stars as Grace Pine, a Toronto scribe who heads to Québec in hopes of writing her first book. While out at a club, she develops an interest — both professional and romantic — in the band onstage, a development that sends her Montréal summer in a more complicated direction.

NIRVANNA: THE BAND – THE SHOW – THE MOVIE – d. Matt Johnson 
As celebrated as Matt Johnson has become thanks to movies like OPERATION AVALANCHE (People’s Choice Award winner at KCFF17) and BLACKBERRY, the actor, filmmaker, and all-round maverick always returns to his roots. In this case, those roots are characters he and Jay McCarrol created almost 20 years ago for a mockumentary web series about two aspiring musicians (conveniently named Matt and Jay) who are forever trying to land a gig at Toronto’s iconic Rivoli. Regardless of whether viewers know much about the duo’s misadventures so far, they’re in for a wildly entertaining ride as Matt and Jay mount their first big-screen quest for greatness in a time-travel comedy that’s two-parts BACK TO THE FUTURE and one-part pure anarchy.

SPACE CADET – d. Kid Koala (Regional Premiere)
With his captivating big-screen adaptation of his own graphic novel, Montréal DJ-turned-filmmaker Kid Koala invites viewers of all ages on an interstellar animated adventure. Conveying its story without dialogue but with a wealth of feeling, SPACE CADET celebrates the special bond between Celeste, a young cadet about to take her first space mission, and Robot, her devoted companion since childhood. When their trajectories diverge, both must face challenges on their own. Yet through their experiences, they each gain new understandings of what they treasure the most. Koala adds more sparkle scoring the music for the film as well, which also includes original songs by Karen O and Digable Planets’ Mariana “Ladybug” Vieira.

With Ginette Petit (producer) and Mylène Chollet (writer).

BEAUTY’S PRIDE – d. Jared Raab 
Directed by long-time Matt Johnson collaborator and cinematographer Jared Raab (BLACKBERRY, NIRVANNA: THE BAND – THE SHOW – THE MOVIE) and produced by July Talk’s Peter Dreimanis, BEAUTY’S PRIDE combines poetic visuals with philosophical reflection, following the band Born Ruffians as they navigate the evolving dynamics of artistry, identity and legacy. BEAUTY’S PRIDE mines Born Ruffians’ archival footage from recording music and being on the road together since 2008 to help execute the concept, which was conceived in collaboration with Raab, as well as Dreimanis and his July Talk bandmate Leah Fay Goldstein.

With Jared Raab and Born Ruffians.

KCFF26 TRAILER – d. Gavin Bellows
The most-watched video content at KCFF is always the festival trailer, which features a different Kingston musical artist every year. This year’s trailer is cut to the song “Sosie” by retro-pop band Good Fortune, a former participant in KCFF’s Slaight Music Video Showcase.