Sat May 26 | 9:30 pm | PC

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Director: Patricia Tassinari, Canada, 2006, 71 minutes

Director in attendance.

“I used to be afraid of Satan –  scared of the red, scaly bifurcated-tongued Satan… Now I’m scared of the followers.” –  Cousin Boone

Two women, 40 cans of Canadian maple syrup, and an old blue Volvo hit the road through the dark, lush Southern USA. After the death of her progressive Southern Democrat mother, US-expatriate-turned-Canadian Laura Mitchell decided to return “home” to reconnect with her sprawling, deeply religious, mostly right-wing Southern clan. She needs to see what remains of her mother’s ideals of justice and compassion in the land of hard-core Bush supporters.

Using her family as a road map, Laura and her friend Patricia criss-cross seven bible belt states, armed only with a video camera and maple syrup to give as gifts. They seek out the eccentric members of Laura’s family –  including Christian militants, philosophical cowboys, a Rapture-crazed pastor, and an ex-Fundamentalist-turned-Buddhist drag queen. This wry and surprising portrayal of the American South skillfully captures the natural beauty of the landscape as well as the complex relationships Southerners have with religion and politics.

At a time when religion occupies a central and ominous position in American politics, the film offers a powerful and personal look at the changing face of life in the USA.

Preceded by:

Land of the Pines

Director: Dan Sokolowski, Canada, 2006, 5 minutes
Sit back and enjoy this amusing journey through the real and imagined ideas of that quintessential Canadian tree: the pine. Land of the Pine explores things that are pine, things that are named pine and things that think they are pine.

Saskatchewan, Part 3

Director: Brian Stockton, Canada, 2006, 10 minutes
A humourous look at the filmmaker’s family tree, and how it is that his grandparents ended up in Saskatchewan in the early 20th century; this charming animated short ably mixes personal history with
Saskatchewan lore.

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