April Mullen

Director April Mullen’s Below Her Mouth arrived on Netflix this month, and the film has inspired a fanbase around the world for people who can’t get enough of the story, or stars Erika Linder and Natalie Krill.

I woke with a burning in my soul to scream, GO BE. To the women who have come before, those emerging now and those that will continue to create, I applaud you all with exuberance. This is not to say I overlook or disregard the enormous inequality in our daily lives; but it is time to say, GO BE. GO BE a part of the change you want to see on the screen and in society.

Each year, during the Toronto International Film Festival, I am fortunate to meet a lot of actors, directors, producers, writers, and other talent from film, and television. This year at TIFF 2016, I had the fortune of working with Toronto photographer Rick McGinnis to capture some of that talent in a series of special portrait sessions.

Capsule reviews from the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival: Denial starring Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall; American Honey with Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf; Below Her Mouth featuring Natalie Krill and Erika Linder; and Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut, American Pastoral.

Between the two Toronto International Film Festival press conferences each year, announcing all the excitement and the celebrities and the hoopla that comes with the action packed ten September days of the fest–this year from the 8th through the 18th–I always find the press conference devoted exclusively to the Canadian films and documentaries to be the most vibrant. That’s because a number of the filmmakers and actors and writers and producers are right there mingling with the crowd of press and publicists in the ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

What happens when you cross demons with zombies? Why, zemons, of course, and they’re coming to a screen near you tonight, and tonight only, at a select number of Cineplex theatres across Canada in director April Mullen’s latest, Dead Before Dawn 3D.