The Comox Valley Art Gallery Film Series is a selection of titles from the Toronto International Film Festival Circuit. A total of 8 films will be presented during the winter/spring 2023 Series, with each film screening twice.
Films screen at 5PM on Sundays + Wednesdays at Landmark Cinemas — 2655 Cliffe Ave, Courtenay.
ROSIE
This film will screen on Sunday, February 19 + Wednesday, February 22.
Director: Gail Maurice
Starring: Keris Hope Hill, Mélanie Bray, Constant Bernard, Alex Trahan
Language: English, French, Cree with English subtitles
Length: 92 mins
Country: Canada
Year: 2022
Métis writer-director-actor Gail Maurice’s feature film debut tells the story of a suddenly orphaned Indigenous girl and her newly chosen family in Montreal in the 1980s.
Rosie (Keris Hope Hill) is a visibly Indigenous, English-speaking, sweet, and headstrong little girl and her mother has just died. A children’s services agent brings her to her only living relative, her Francophone aunt Frédèrique (Mélanie Bray). “Fred” doesn’t have a solid foundation on which to raise a child. She is unprepared — she’s working at an adult entertainment shop and threatened with eviction — and is at first unwilling to take on caring for her adopted sister’s young daughter.
From images of people working on the street to a scene involving sleeping rough in a car in a junkyard, Rosie captures an uncomfortable reality understood through innocent eyes. Seeing things from the girl’s viewpoint explains why Fred’s gender-bending friends — from the Cree perspective of being genderless — Flo (Constant Bernard) and Mo (Alex Trahan) appear in various forms of drag, and why the night in the car is seen as a fun camping experience. The film focuses on characters living on the fringes of society, including a homeless Cree man (Brandon Oakes), and how united and transformed they become through the eponymous character’s vibrant presence.
Touching on the Sixties Scoop and disconnection from Indigenous identity, Rosie is an ode to finding your chosen family when your blood relations have been removed from the picture.
Tickets + Passes Available at CVAG:
Tickets are $14 for CVAG Members, $15 for Non-Members.
Season passes for all 8 films are $98 for CVAG Members, $105 for Non-Members.
Tickets are for the day specified on ticket only.
Tickets/passes are available for purchase at CVAG’s SHOP:MADE or over the phone at 250.338.6211. We are open Wednesdays – Saturdays, 10AM – 5PM.
Note: We recommend that you purchase tickets in advance. The films often sell out, and there may not be tickets available at Landmark Cinemas on the day of the screening. All seating is first come, first served. Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the start of the film; there is no seating after 5PM.
Click here for the full schedule of screenings for the CVAG Film Series – Winter/Spring 2023.