For the months of January and February the DVD Club has chosen NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY, written and directed by Torontonian Charles Officer.

The film takes us into the lives of three people and explores their connections to each other: JUDE is a single mother and a nurse who works late nights at the City Hospital to provide for her twelve-year-old son, CIEL. She is also struggling with a hereditary disease, Sickle Cell Anemia. Worried for his mother's health, Ciel immerses himself in the world of magic, conjuring up spells in the hopes of healing and protecting her. One night Jude encounters SILENCE, a 'past his prime' fighter who fights underground to survive, while giving him stitches. Hoping to secure a protector for himself and his mother, Ciel casts a spell, designed to unite the warrior with the nurse, leading to a series of magical encounters between them...

Joining us online are director/writer Charles Officer and writer/producer Ingrid Veninger to answer all your questions! So rent or buy this movie, then join us on the online forum to discuss the film with other film fans across Canada and submit your questions for our guests. You'll also have a chance to win FREE movies from our partners Videomatica.ca and Itunes.ca - just for participating.

 

NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY on iTunes

First Weekend Club is excited to share this special offer with our members. Starting today, for the next 3 weeks, you can celebrate black history month with the DVD Club's pick, NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY, iTunes is offering a special discount on movie rentals and purchases:

You can buy the movie for only $4.99 (instead of $14.99) or rent it for just 99¢ (instead of $4.99).

Download the movie on

Joining us online are director/writer Charles Officer and writer/producer Ingrid Veninger to answer all your questions! So rent or buy this movie, then join us on the online forum to discuss the film with other film fans across Canada and submit your questions for our guests.

Also be sure to check out some of Canada's top musical talents on iTunes including Ndidi Onukwulu ("May Be The Last Time, I Don't Know"), K'naan ("Soobax") and Zaki Ibrahim whose music is featured on the movie's soundtrack.

 

Watch, Voice & Win

Guess what! Just by participating on the forum, you can win the gift of movies.  Just post your questions or comments on the forum and each post will count as an entry towards winning either a gift certificate  from Videomatica.ca allowing you to rent movies online for free for an entire  month or a $10 iTunes Canada gift card! The more you post, the more chances you have of winning.

Where to Rent/Buy

Why not try one of our partners: Both Videomatica & Black Dog Video have some great films in stock - including this one. The film can also be found at most major video rental outlets. So grab a copy!

Our Partners:

We would like to thank our partners for their support of the DVD Club:

Videomatica
1855 W. 4th Avenue, Vancouver
& at www.videomatica.ca across canada

Black Dog Video
986 Queen Street West, Toronto - (416) 530-0006
3451 Cambie Street, Vancouver - (604) 873 6958
1470 Commercial Drive, Vancouver - (604) 251 3305

Row Three
www.rowthree.com

Canadian Film Dose
www.CanadianFilmDose.com

Grandtoronto.ca
www.grandtoronto.com

----------------------------

Discover ReelWorld Film Festival & Monthly Mixers
ReelWorld Film Festival, April 7, 2010 - Sunday April 11, 2010, Toronto screens features, shorts, documentaries, animation, music videos from the Aboriginal, Asian, Black, Latino, Middle Eastern, South Asian and other multi-racial communities. This unique Canadian based film festival truly reflects the racially diverse cultures of the World around us.

Every 4th Wednesday of the month join ReelWorld for our Monthly Mixer at Harlem Restaurant!

In an effort to create an on-going community of talent connecting, ReelWorld hosts a Monthly-Mixer at Harlem Restaurant every 4th Wednesday. This is your opportunity to keep in the loop with the happenings of the entertainment industry.

Each month features a special guest, and gives you the opportunity to share any upcoming projects you’d like circulated. This is your chance to get the inside scoop on the issues and trends, while you mingle.

When: Next Monthly Mixer: January 27th.
Where: Harlem Restaurant, 67 Richmond Street East, Toronto

www.reelworld.ca

The DVD Club pick for November and December is the charmingly wacky comedy about a rampaging child menace, C'EST PAS MOI, JE LE JURE!/IT'S NOT ME, I SWEAR.  Philippe Falardeau's film has won awards from Quebec to Berlin, and it's the perfect holiday family movie -- albeit a quirky one!

Great news!  You can converse with Philippe Falardeau throughout the month of December!  Join the Forum now to win prizes too!

In the summer of ’68, Leon Doré (Antoine L’Écuyer) comes close to hanging himself accidentally. His mother saves him at the last minute, just like last summer in the pool and like two years ago in the freezer. At ten, Leon has lots of problems and an overly fertile imagination. There is Mom (Suzanne Clément) and Dad (Daniel Brière) who are always fighting and those annoying neighbours who get to spend the summer at the beach. And then, there’s Lea (Catherine Faucher), the exasperating girl who’s always right about everything. When Mom decides to leave everything behind to start a new life in Greece, Léon is prepared to do anything to kill the pain – destroy the neighbours’ house, become a professional liar and even, why not, fall in love with Lea. Together, they will overcome the pain of growing up when you feel abandoned.

So rent or buy this movie, then join us on the online forum to discuss the film with director Philipe Falardeau, or post in our C'est Pas Moi, Je Le Jure community section for a chance to win FREE movies from our partners Videomatica.ca or iTunes.ca.

See you online!

-Katherine Brodsky
(the DVD Club moderator aka your "host")

 

Watch, Voice & Win

Guess what! Just by participating on the forum, you can win the gift of movies. Just post your questions or comments on the forum  and each post will count as an entry towards winning either a gift certificate from Videomatica.ca allowing you to rent movies online for free for an entire  month or a $10 iTunes Canada gift card! The more you post, the more chances you have of winning.

Where to Rent/Buy

Why not try one of our partners: Download from Itunes.ca, or both Videomatica (1855 W. 4th Avenue, Vancouver & online at  Videomatica.ca across Canada) & Black Dog Video (986 Queen Street West, Toronto, 3451 Cambie Street and 1470 Commercial Drive, Vancouver) have some great films in stock - including this one. The film can also be found  at most major video rental outlets. So grab a copy!

 

Our Partners

We would like to thank our partners for their support of the DVD Club:

 

Videomatica

1855 W. 4th Avenue, Vancouver
& at www.videomatica.ca across Canada

Black Dog Video
986 Queen Street West, Toronto - (416) 530-0006
3451 Cambie Street, Vancouver - (604) 873 6958
1470 Commercial Drive, Vancouver - (604) 251 3305

Row Three
www.rowthree.com

Canadian Film Dose
www.CanadianFilmDose.com

GrandToronto.ca
www.grandtoronto.ca

CHOQ-FM 105,1
http://choqfm.ca

Rendezvous du Cinema
Vancouver's French Film Festival
http://www.rendez-vousvancouver.com

Franco Queer
www.francoqueer.ca

Vancouver Francophone Cultural Centre
www.lecentreculturel.com

Theatre Francais du Toronto
www.theatrefrancais.com

Q&A with filmmaker Velcrow Ripper, producer Cher Hawrysh, activist/journalist Judy Rebick and activist/artist Carly Stasko

This month's DVD Club pick is more than just a movie. It is a spiritual journey. It is Velcrow Ripper's FIERCE LIGHT.

The 2006 murder of friend and fellow media-activist Brad Will in protest-torn Oaxaca, Mexico, is the impetus for Ripper's journey, which takes him to the flash points of spiritual activism around the world, including Montgomery, Alabama; Robben Island, South Africa; Andrah, India; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and South Central Los Angeles, where a months-long protest against the razing of a vital community garden provides a highly dramatic spine for the wide-ranging film. En route, Ripper encounters a number of eloquent icons, including American Civil Rights legend Congressman John Lewis, actor turned activist Daryl Hannah, Nobel prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Alice Walker, Buddhist peace activist monk Thich Nhat Hahn, famed tree sitter Julia Butterfly Hill, and dharma punk, Noah Levine. Ripper takes an insightful and inspirational look at change motivated by love. Called "soul force" by Gandhi and "love in action" by Martin Luther King, spiritual activism's roots are examined and illustrated by interviews and stories from around the globe.

Joining us on the online forum are filmmaker Velcrow Ripper("ScaredSacred") and producer Cher Hawrysh, plus Judy Rebick and Carly Stasko. So this is your chance to post your most burning questions for them on our online forum - you can also discuss spirituality, activism, documentry filmmaking and much more...

See you online!

-Katherine Brodsky
(the DVD Club moderator aka your "host")

About Special Guests

VELCROW RIPPER (filmmaker)
Velcrow Ripper is a Canadian Academy Award (Genie) winning filmmaker, writer, web artist, and sound designer. He has directed over thirty films (including the widely acclaimed "ScaredSacred") and videos, both fiction and issue-oriented documentary, often with an experimental edge. His films have won twenty awards, including a Genie, Best of the Festival, Special Jury Awards, and a Silver Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival. 

CHER HAWRYSH (producer)
Cher Hawrysh is committed to producing thought provoking films that entertain, educate and expand our sense of self and the world we live in. She has worked as a Producer, Editor, Writer, and Production Manager, playing a key role in the production of 100’s of hours of independent, studio, newsroom and network productions in Canada, U.S.A, Britain and Africa. In London, UK she helped create "To Free the Slaves"and the award-winning documentary “Mama June; A Different Perspective on Aids” on location in Tanzania, East Africa. Cher worked directly with Stephen King on “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital”, a dramatic mini-series produced with Sony Pictures Television for ABC. She has merged her interests in philosophy and spirituality with her passion for media by creating audio, video, and web content for philosopher Ken Wilber at The Integral Institute, and for Tami Simon of Sounds True Publications.

JUDY REBICK (journalist) NEW GUEST
Judy Rebick is a journalist, a political activist, and one of Canada's most prominent and respected left wing media figures. She is the founder of Canada's irreverent web magazine rabble.ca . She is a former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.

CARLY STASKO (activist/artist) NEW GUEST
Carly Stasko is a self-titled Imagitator who agitates imagination as a Toronto-based but globally inspired artist, writer, activist, producer and presenter at the UNESCO Earth Symposium.

 

Watch, Voice & Win

Guess what! Just by participating on the forum, you can win the gift of movies. Just post your questions or comments on the forum  and each post will count as an entry towards winning either a gift certificate from Videomatica.ca allowing you to rent movies online for free for an entire  month or a $10 iTunes Canada gift card! The more you post, the more chances you have of winning.

Where to Rent/Buy

Why not try one of our partners: Download from Itunes.ca, or both Videomatica (1855 W. 4th Avenue, Vancouver & online at  Videomatica.ca across Canada) & Black Dog Video (986 Queen Street West, Toronto, 3451 Cambie Street and 1470 Commercial Drive, Vancouver) have some great films in stock - including this one. The film can also be found  at most major video rental outlets. So grab a copy!

Necessities of Life
(Ce Qu'il Faut Pour Vivre)

This month's DVD selection has shared many honours.  Apart from being Canada's official Foreign Film Academy Award Submission for  2009, it had won multiple Genie Awards, Jutra Awards and many others. This  film is none other than Benoit Pilon's THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE (Ce Qu'il Faut  Pour Vivre). 

Natar Ungalaaq ("Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner")  stars in this film, which brilliantly personifies a difficult chapter in  Canadian history (circa 1952). Ungalaaq beautifully portrays Tivii, a  displaced Inuit suffering from tuberculosis. Far away from his loved ones,  unable to speak French, on the verge of death, and facing an completely alien world in a Quebec sanatorium, he is saved only by the love and caring of a  white Sister Nurse and a young orphan boy caught between the world of the  Inuit and that of the "White man". 

This month we were excited to have director Benoit Pilon join us LIVE on our online forum on August 27th. Check out Benoit Pilon's wonderful responses to our questions.  Get a great insight into this award-winning filmmaker's process.  A fantastic archive of this beautiful film and a resource for filmmakers everywhere! 


We'd  also like to invite you to join our current discussions: 

• Arctic  Environmental & Inuit Cultural Preservation
• The  Acting...
• Dreaming  of Oscar

 

About Benoit Pilon

Benoît Pilon (born July 27, 1962) is a French-language Canadian director and screenwriter particularly noted for his innovative films  and documentaries on the human condition. He is also the co-founder of "Les  Films de l’autre" productions, which produces, promotes and helps the  development of independent films throughout North America. He is the recipient  of numerous awards including the Genie and Jutra Awards.

Watch, Voice & Win

Guess what! Just by participating on the forum, you can win the gift of movies. Just post your questions or comments on the forum  and each post will count as an entry towards winning either a gift certificate from Videomatica.ca allowing you to rent movies online for free for an entire  month or a $10 iTunes Canada gift card! The more you post, the more chances you have of winning.

Where to Rent/Buy

Why not try one of our partners: Both Videomatica (1855 W. 4th Avenue, Vancouver & online at  Videomatica.ca across Canada) & Black Dog Video (986 Queen Street West, Toronto) have some great films in stock - including this one. The film can also be found  at most major video rental outlets. So grab a copy! 




***From Our Affiliate*** 

IT’S ALL GONE PETE TONG SCREENING and Q&A
Mark Monday, August 10th, on your calendars because The Canadian Cinema in Revue  series is presenting Michael Dowse’s hyperactive, IT'S ALL GONE PETE TONG at  7:00pm at the historic Revue Cinema in Toronto (400 Roncesvalles Ave). A Q&A with writer/director Michael Dowse will follow the screening. Tickets  for First Weekend Club members (that's YOU) are $8 ($10 for non-members). More details at RevueCinema.ca.