Welcome to Stittsville Rotary International Film Series

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We are looking for a series sponsor. Please contact Sandra Burt sburt@uwaterloo.ca if you are interested.

Welcome Film Lovers!

The Stittsville Rotary International Film Series is thrilled to continue in-person film screenings to Landmark Theatre Kanata in the Winter of 2025 with a four-film series:

The film team at the Rotary Club of Ottawa-Stittsville has already been preparing for the SRIFS Winter Film Series and is pleased to announce the following  schedule at Landmark Cinemas in Kanata with two showings at 4:00pm and 7:00pm. For more details about the films and your purchasing options scroll down for the details below. The cost continues to be $60 for the four-film series.

 
  February 24 - So Surreal: Behind the Masks 
  March 31 - Thelma
  April 28 - Crossing
  May 26 - Small Things Like These
 
Passes are limited!  Contact using emails listed below:

If you are interested in buying these film passes, please contact:
 

Charles Mossman by e-mail at charcz@yahoo.com for 4:00 p.m. passes

OR

Sandra Burt by e-mail at sburt@uwaterloo.ca for 7:00 p.m. passes 


Each of these four films will be shown at two times, 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and the cost is $60 for each four-film pass.   

 

Stittsville Rotary International Film Series  
Film descriptions - Winter 2025
 

So Surreal: Behind the Masks (Canada, English, 88 min) February 24, 2025
René Magritte, André Breton, Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall. We are familiar with these names. Famous
painters who were major characters in the post WW II surrealist painting movement. We are less familiar
with the tragedy of their accumulation of west coast indigenous masks, that became an essential part of
their artistic output. Part detective story, part illuminating history, this documentary unveils the fascinating
connection of how the surrealists incorporated the Yup’ik and Kwakwaka’wake ceremonial masks into
their work.. The Cree co-director and lead actor, Neil Diamond, tells the story of the quest to bring some
of the masks back to their homes. The quest takes Diamond and the viewers, to New York, Alaska, BC,
and Paris. This documentary addresses issues of cultural appropriation, reconciliation, and repatriation.
Diamond and his interviewees talk about value and ownership in a film that is both entertaining and
informative.


Thelma (US, English 93 min) March 31, 2025
Have you ever been scammed? In this film, a 93-year-old old woman decides to fight back when she
learns that her attempt to help her grandson (a truly charming Danny) with $10,000, is part of a phone
scam. The film was inspired by director Josh Margolin’s real-life experience with his own grandmother.
The ensuing race/struggle is a reminder that age is just a number, and that goodness can prevail. This
film brings humour, pathos, and awareness of the limitations as well as the possibilities of aging to the big
screen. Thelma is easy to like, but the other characters in this film give us some amazing performances as
well. This film is humane, and timely. Not to be missed.

 
Crossing (Georgian/Turkish English subtitles, 105 min) April 28
“Istanbul is a place where people come to disappear.” Lia, a powerful woman who has crossed (hence the
title) from Georgia into Turkey to find her niece, takes us on a journey of discovery. Lia is a retired
school teacher who is looking for her missing niece, a trans woman (another reference to Crossing) called
Tekla. We don’t find Tekla in this film, but we do get a glimpse of the interior life of the Turkish trans
community, and we understand that the discovery journey is complex. This is an engaging film. Lia is a
superb lead actor. Her sidekick, Achi, is endearing. This film will leave you with some questions, and
few answers.

Small Things Like These (British/Irish, English, 98 min) May 26
Cillian Murphy, Oscar -winning actor fresh from Oppenheimer, plays Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant
who witnesses the abuses of the Magdalene Sisters in the laundry workhouses set up for young homeless
women in Ireland. Murphy, who is also the film’s producer, has noted the parallels with Canada’s
residential schools. The film is based on the narrative of Claire Keegan’s book of the same title, and
exposes the horrors of some of the nunneries in Ireland in the 1980s. But it also shows how Bill is able to
confront his own past, and the harsh realities of the present. The film’s cinematography, sound design, and
score, are striking, and the cast delivers stellar performances.