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The newsletter will cover the best films to watch in the coming month on streaming/VOD/virtual cinemas, primarily in Canada, the US, and the UK — though it's a great resource for what to watch out for if you live in other places.

This month, some of our favourite Cannes 2022 films are finally finding their way to your television screens! Catch the French anti-rom-com Everybody Loves Jeanne on Mubi on July 27 and the Chilean political thriller Chile '76 on VOD on July 11 in Canada/US (already available in the UK).

The Canadian documentary miniseries Lac-Mégantic: This is Not an Accident, which we featured on our Creative Nonfiction Podcast Season, is now streaming free in Canada on CBC Gem (or internationally with a good VPN hack!). Also streaming free on CBC Gem in Canada is Sonia Boileau's 2022 miniseries (now available for the first time with English subtitles) Pour Toi Flora exploring inter-generational trauma of an Indigenous family caused by residential "schools". It's a remarkable piece of filmmaking and storytelling, and a must-see for every Canadian.

If you're in the US, you can catch Sundance favourites Bigger on the Inside and Fancy Dance at virtual OutFest while we wait for the films to get picked up for distribution.

Finally, you can catch up with Alice Winocour's first feature Augustine, which covers some of the same ground as Portrait of a Lady on Fire only seven years earlier! It's been unavailable to stream for YEARS and is finally accessible in multiple countries! Winocour's latest feature, Revoir Paris, will also be hitting US VOD on July 25 (other territories are still TBA). If you've yet to catch up with my interview with Alice on Revoir Paris, you can do so here.

In a recent edition of the newsletter, I recommended catching up with Yann Demange's '71, which is on Mubi Canada and hits Mubi US on July 16.

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Everybody Loves Jeanne - July 27 🇨🇦🇺🇸 Mubi (likely also in the UK & more territories but I'm not sure where yet!) Céline Devaux’s feature debut, Everybody Loves Jeanne, is a wild, hilarious, sweet, and chaotic anti-rom-com about a fortysomething woman and her animated avatar. I've been waiting for this 2022 Cannes Critics Week feature debut from Céline Dévaux to get picked up for over a year, and Mubi just announced it will be dropping later this month! I don't know how long it will be on the service (assume at least 30 days but don't bet on it being there longer), so catch this delightful film while you can!! Read my review​

Lac-Mégantic: This is Not an Accident - now streaming 🇨🇦 Free on CBC Gem 🌎 Free to stream on CBC Gem with a VPN set to Canada Philippe Falardeau's four-part doc miniseries about one of the deadliest rail disasters in Canadian history is a must-see for all Canadians. But it will also be of interest to international audiences who want to see great humanist work of creative nonfiction with a political bent. The film explores the way the Canadian government protected business interests over citizen safety, which allowed the disaster to happen — and has continued to allow disasters to happen in the decade since. The series was featured recently on the Creative Nonfiction Podcast Season via an interview with Falardeau. Listen to the podcast interview with Falardeau on Lac-Mégantic

Pour Toi Flora 🇨🇦 Free on CBC Gem 🌎 Free to stream on CBC Gem with a VPN set to Canada This new limited series from Mohawk filmmaker Sonia Boileau (who directed the fantastic Rustic Oracle) takes a look at the inter-generational trauma from residential schools in Quebec. It's a harrowing tale told through a meta-narrative used to explore how each person's story only belongs to them and the importance of facing trauma by sharing it with loved ones in community. Never exploitative, this harrowing series finds hope amidst the suffering and serves as an education for settlers on the widespread effects of colonialism. Théodore Pellerin has a supporting role as (you guessed it) a rapist priest. One of the best and most important works of television this year. It's an extremely well-written, directed, and acted work. Read my interview with Boileau on her film Rustic Oracle​

Chile '76 🇨🇦🇺🇸 VOD & DVD July 11 🇬🇧 Now on VOD & BFI Player Subscription We've been raving about Chile '76, which had only a limited release, since its 2022 Cannes Directors' Fortnight Premiere, and now you can watch it at home! In Manuela Martelli's chilling political thriller, a woman confronts her own privilege gained from her family's complicity in the Pinochet regime. Featuring a stunning lead performance by Aline Kuppenheim, this psychological portrait is about what happens when you stop pretending not to hear the whispers or see the covered-up atrocities. Read Lindsay Pugh's review​

Augustine (2012) - now streaming 🇨🇦🇺🇸 Hoopla, OVID 🇺🇸 Tubi, Kanopy, Plex, VOD 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿🇮🇪🇫🇷 VOD Alice Winocour's (Revoir Paris, Proxima) feature debut, Augustine, is FINALLY available to stream after YEARS of being inaccessible. This wonderful story of a woman diagnosed with hysteria and her relationship with the famous doctor Charcot charts her journey from an object/muse in his medical demonstrations to a subject. If you liked Portrait of a Lady on Fire, you'll like this...it's just seven years ahead of its time (though edited by the same editor!). It would also make for a great double feature with other films about hysteria like A Dangerous Mind or The Mad Woman's Ball. Watch our masterclass with Alice Winocour​​​

Fancy Dance & Bigger on the Inside

🇺🇸 Click here for Fancy Dance tickets 🇺🇸 Click here for Bigger on the Inside tickets in the US ​

If you're in the US, you can catch virtual screenings of two of our favourite festival films from the last year which have yet to secure distribution. They're streaming as part of LA's OutFest.

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One of the best films from Sundance 2023, Fancy Dance, is about a queer Indigenous woman (played by Lily Gladstone!) who goes on a road trip with her niece in search of her missing sister (her niece's mom) whom she worries may already be dead. The film is a thoughtful exploration of the massive problem of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and an ode to family while realistically looking at the way colonialism continues to harm Indigenous families.

​Listen to our discussion of Fancy Dance on the podcast.​

I'm hoping Fancy Dance will get picked up as Lily Gladstone becomes a star thanks to the new Scorsese film, but AFAIK, it's not yet been announced.

Angelo Madsen Minax’s (North by Current) Bigger on the Inside is a travelogue into the psyche of Minax — or perhaps the character of Minax, as the film is fully scripted — as well as a direct dialogue with the audience. The film is part photographic montage, YouTube video montage, text message exchanges, animation, text typed to the audience, and flights of fancy. It’s a film about loneliness, searching for identity, discomfort in identity, spending time in nature, going down rabbit holes on the internet, and looking to connect with others but being afraid or unsure to do so.

You might call it an essay film, but you feel like you’ve jumped into his head, John Malkovich style. Bigger on the Inside is densely packed with ideas and has some of the greatest laugh-out-loud moments. It’s also, at turns, sad, contemplative, and searching. You’ll want to watch it back immediately.

​Read my interview with Angelo Madsen Minax about Bigger on the Inside​

Minax told us he has no interest in putting the film up online (e.g. on Vimeo), though he may be open to a streaming deal with somewhere like Criterion or Mubi. That means this may be your only opportunity to see the film (unless it's coming to a festival in a city near you) for some time.

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Happy watching!

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Best,

Alex Heeney, Editor-in-Chief

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