Gallery Night at the Movies

 Past Movies

Set in 1967, THE MIRACLE CLUB is a heartwarming film that follows the story of three generations of close friends, Lily (Maggie Smith), Eileen (Kathy Bates), and Dolly (Agnes O'Casey) of Ballygar, a hard-knocks community in Dublin, who have one tantalizing dream: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes, that place of miracles that draws millions of visitors each year. When the chance to win presents itself, the women seize it. However, just before their trip, their old friend Chrissie (Laura Linney) arrives in Ballygar for her mother's funeral, dampening their good mood and well-laid plans. The women secure tickets and set out on the journey that they hope will change their lives, with Chrissie, a skeptical traveler, joining in place of her mother. The glamor and sophistication of Chrissie, who has just returned from a nearly 40-year exile in the United States, are not her only distancing traits: Old wounds are reopened along the way, forcing the women to confront their pasts even as they travel in search of a miracle. Their shared traumas can only be healed by the curative power of love and friendship. 91 minutes.

Marie Clements’ historical epic about the life of Cree matriarch Aline Spears is a powerful indictment of the abuse of Indigenous peoples and a stirring story of extraordinary resilience and resistance. Born in the 1920s into a large, happy family, Aline Spears (played at different ages by Summer Testawich, Grace Dove, and Carla Rae) and her siblings are forcibly removed from their home — through threats and extortion by the church and local authorities — and sent to residential schools, where they are subjected to cruelties at the hands of the priests and nuns in charge. As Clements’ film vividly illustrates, this psychological and physical abuse, and attempt at cultural erasure, was the result of official government policy.

During World War II, Aline enlists in the military, wherein a case of historical irony that’s still not widely known — her contribution is highly valuable - precisely because she remains fluent in Cree, one of the languages the residential schools strove to eradicate. After the war, Aline returns to Canada to raise her children. Still haunted by the crimes committed against her and her family, she endures years of anguish before she finally has the chance to confront her abusers.

Fearless in its denunciation of centuries of oppression by Canadian governments and institutions, Bones of Crows is also a memorable paean to the determination of residential school survivors — especially those who, like Aline, sought to bring these genocidal crimes to light. 127 minutes

Content advisory: content relating to residential schools; child abuse, sexual and psychological abuse

This film contains scenes that may distress some viewers, especially those who have experienced harm, abuse, violence, and/or intergenerational trauma due to colonial practices. Support is available 24 hours a day for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools and for those who may be triggered by content dealing with residential schools, child abuse, emotional trauma, and racism. The National Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available at 1-866-925-4419.

Based on Cea Sunrise Person’s 2014 memoir, North of Normal depicts Cea’s unusual childhood in the wilderness and her attempts to adapt to modern city life with her counterculture mother.

In the 1970s, Cea’s hippie grandparents (Robert Carlyle and Janet Porter) flee the United States for the wilderness of Alberta and British Columbia, with baby Cea and her teenage mother in tow. Living out of a tipi, Cea’s first years are spent among adults who’ve rejected traditional conventions and expectations — she routinely witnesses to their copious pot smoking and indiscrete sexual encounters. With no alternative reference, Cea’s childhood feels normal, natural, and maybe even idyllic. That’s until her mother Michelle (Sarah Gadon) tires of her father’s criticism and decides to remove herself and Cea from the community to be a “real” family with her boyfriend Karl. As time flashes forward, a teenage Cea reunites with her mother after what seems like several years — it is evident that their attempt at a new life went awry due to a lack of stability and Michelle’s chaotic, sometimes dangerous romantic dramas.

Both tender and dark, honest and idealistic, North of Normal beautifully captures the joys and warmth, as well as the devastating failings, of an extraordinary family dynamic — a family bound by genuine love and affection, but challenged by ideology, selfishness, insecurity, and baked-in psychological damage. 90 minutes

Two deeply connected childhood friends, Nora and Hae Sung, fatefully reunite in New York City after being wrested apart 20 years ago, in this decades-spanning romance from writer-director Celine Song.

The story begins in South Korea, where 12-year-old Nora is preparing to emigrate with her family to Canada. But she is leaving someone dear behind: Hae Sung, her closest friend. Twelve years later, Nora (Greta Lee) has relocated from Toronto to New York to pursue her dreams of being a playwright. Eventually, with the help of the internet, Nora finds Hae Sung and rekindles their friendship over Skype. But with 6,000 miles persistently separating them, they lose their connection again, as they once did as children. More time passes, and the two friends — now in their 30s — reunite in person in New York. By this time, Nora is married to a writer named Arthur (John Magaro) and Hae Sung is newly out of a long-term relationship. Nora shows Hae Sung the city as they elegantly dance around their past and the fated nature of their relationship.

The ties between two people over the course of their lives is expressed beautifully and succinctly in a single Korean word: in-yeon. Past Lives is a delicately layered triptych that confronts destiny, love, and the choices that shape a life. Song’s graceful romance is about the acceptance of loss that becomes a defining part of adulthood. 106 minutes