Red Rover opens Canadian Film Fest
by Staff
(March 11, 2019 – Toronto, ON) The Canadian Film Fest (CFF) has announced its 2019 lineup and the opening film will be the weird comedy Red Rover from writer-director-producer Shane Belcourt.
Costarring Kristian Bruun and Cara Gee the 100-minute comedy centres on a lonely geologist way down on his luck who decides his only salvation might be qualifying for a one-way mission to Mars. Then he has a close encounter of a strange kind with an offbeat musician who tyurns out to be just as lost as he is. Shane Belcourt is an award-winning and two-time Canadian Screen Award-nominated filmmaker known for his many Indigenous works including the award-winning 2018 CBC Firsthand documentary Indictment. Co-directed with Lisa Jackson it took the 2017 imagineNATIVE Best Documentary Award.
This is the 13th edition of the festival that concentrates on Canadian features and shorts. In fact this year the CFF adds a second Homegrown Shorts programme. In all, nine features and 28 shorts will screen over the five-day event including six World Premieres.
One of those World Premieres is Pond Life, from writer-director Gord Rand. It’s the story of a doctor, his wife and the pregnancy announcement party that goes down the tubes. The cast includes Jeanie Calleja, Ryan Blakely, Kerry Macpherson, Ryan McVittie and Peyton Kennedy, fresh off a continuing role in this season’s U.S. series Grey’s Anatomy.
Another World Premiere is the short, With You Always from director Angela Besharah. It’s a love story of a very different kind.
“This year’s lineup is one of the most entertaining programmes yet and we’re delighted that once again we can give Toronto audiences the opportunity to see them on the big screen,” said Bern Euler, Executive Director, Canadian Film 
Fest. “We are also honoured to welcome award-winning film producer Don Carmody to our first Producing Masterclass, inspiring and supporting a network of Canadian artists.”
Closing the festival is the Toronto Premiere of This is North Preston. It’s a documentary from
Jaren Hayman about the largest black community in the country, which started as a safe-haven for escaped slaves but recently has been labeled as one of the biggest hubs of pimping and human trafficking in the nation. The film illustrates how the town of 4,000 has dealt with generations of pimp culture, economic struggle, limited government resources, violence, and constant systemic racism through the eyes of community members, pimps, politicians, trafficking victims and police who have hope for a brighter future.
The 13th edition of CFF will take place March 19-23 at Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto. Tickets can now be purchased online. Click here for a link to the Canadian Film Fest and other March 2019 film festivals.
