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Canadian writer Carol Shields wrote numerous novels, short stories, and plays throughout her lifetime. She won many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for her 1993 novel “The Stone Diaries.” Now, her final novel “Unless” has been adapted into a film starring Catherine Keener. Written and directed by Alan Gilsenan, the film follows Reta (Keener), a successful writer who struggles with her daughter Norah’s (Hannah Gross) decision to drop out of college and live on the streets as a mute in some form of protest. “Unless” also stars Brendan Coyle (“Downton Abbey”), Matt Craven (“X-Men: First Class”), Chloe Rose (“The Lesser Blessed”), Hanna Schygulla (“Berlin Alexanderplatz”), and more. Watch the trailer for the film below.

Read More: Catherine Keener To Fight to Keep Her Home in Little Pink House

Catherine Keener has appeared in a wide variety of films throughout her career that have garnered critical acclaim. She’s been nominated...

Word has just come across our desks that Pontypool director Bruce McDonald has a new feature coming our way, and we have all of the first available details for you right here. Dig it!

From the Press Release

Whizbang Films and Storyteller Pictures are thrilled to announce that principal photography got under way this week on their Halloween horror thriller Hellions.

Penned by Pascal Trottier (The Colony), Hellions is directed by veteran cult helmer Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo), whose psychological zombie thriller Pontypool made it onto several 'Best Zombie Movies of All Time' lists including a top 25 published by Entertainment Weekly.com in 2010.

McDonald and producers Frank Siracusa (Hobo With a Shotgun) and Paul Lenart have tapped newcomer Chloe Rose ("Degrassi: The Next Generation"), whose recent turn in The Lesser Blessed grabbed industry attention, as their lead.

Rose plays Dora Vogel, a pregnant teen faced with a...

DVD, Digital, VOD Release Date: June 25, 2013

Price: DVD $26.95

Studio: Monterey

Joel Nathan Evans takes it day by day in The Lesser Blessed.

The 2012 independent film drama The Lesser Blessed examines what it’s like to be a vulnerable teenager in today’s modern world.

Larry (Joel Nathan Evans) is a teenager living in a small, remote community in Canada whose life is full of too many parties, too much drinking, and not enough responsibility or independence. Seeking to belong without belonging, Larry and his friend try to absorb life’s lessons when it comes to love, racial tensions and the overall recklessness of youth. Larry tries to do this while his world remains clouded by a dark mystery from his past.

Written and directed by Anita Doron from the novel by Richard Van Camp, the R-rated film stars Chloe Rose, Kiowa Gordon and Benjamin Bratt (La Mission).

The Lesser Blessed...

Six herds of bison (carrying the expression of a barfly at the end of a very long night), three foxes, two black bears and one wolf with a rabbit in his mouth. This is the account of all animals we saw on our 552-kilometer road trip across the Northwest Territories, looking for Larry Sole. Who is Larry Sole?

To answer that question I must take you back to the late eighties, to a time when Iron Maiden and Van Halen ruled, when the greatness of a man was measured by the vertical feathery grandness of his hair, and seizure-inducing magenta was the colour of everything. In this questionable moment in history, a gorgeous man named Richard Van Camp -- in the minus inhumane cold of Canada's north -- picked up a pen and started writing a novel about a skinny, self-deprecating headbanger named Larry Sole. It became an ode to the burning,...

Six herds of bison (carrying the expression of a barfly at the end of a very long night), three foxes, two black bears and one wolf with a rabbit in his mouth. This is the account of all animals we saw on our 552-kilometer road trip across the Northwest Territories, looking for Larry Sole. Who is Larry Sole?

To answer that question I must take you back to the late eighties, to a time when Iron Maiden and Van Halen ruled, when the greatness of a man was measured by the vertical feathery grandness of his hair, and seizure-inducing magenta was the colour of everything. In this questionable moment in history, a gorgeous man named Richard Van Camp -- in the minus inhumane cold of Canada's north -- picked up a pen and started writing a novel about a skinny, self-deprecating headbanger named Larry Sole. It became an ode to the burning,...

Monterey Media has acquired all U.S. rights from Entertainment One Film International for the coming-of-age drama "The Lesser Blessed," starring Benjamin Bratt, Kiowa Gordon ("The Twilight Saga") and Chloe Rose (TV's "Degrassi: The Next Generation). The film was written and directed by Anita Doron ("The End of Silence"), and world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival late last year. Here's the synopsis, per Monterey: "Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Richard Van Camp, 'The Lesser Blessed' is an eye-opening depiction of what it is like to be a vulnerable teenager in today’s modern world. Through the eyes of Larry Sole, a Native-American teenager filled with bravado and angst, comes the story of three unlikely friends isolated in a small rural town discovering what they can of life and love amid racial tensions and the recklessness of youth, in a world clouded by a dark mystery from his.

Canadian Screen Awards 2013 nominations: War Witch rules The Genie Awards are dead, long live the Canadian Screen Awards! Well, in truth, the Genie Awards aren’t exactly dead; they’ve just been transmogrified, along with Canadian television’s Gemini Awards, into the aforementioned Canadian Screen Awards, organized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. But Genie or Canadian Screen, once again a Québécois production dominates the nominations roster. (Photo: Rachel Mwanza in Kim Nguyen’s War Witch.) Kim Nguyen’s Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominee Rebelle / War Witch, the story of a (very) young African rebel fighter, received a total of 12 Canadian Screen Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Berlin Film Festival’s Best Actress Rachel Mwanza), Best Supporting Actor (Serge Kanyinda), and Best Original Screenplay (Nguyen). War Witch follows in the heels of recent Quebec-made Genie Award powerhouses and eventual Best Picture winners such...

The Lesser Blessed is described as a powerful coming-of-age story about a Native teenager balancing his romantic heart with a dark past that threatens to unravel his life. The movie is actually an adaptation of Richard Van Camp‘s novel of the same name, and comes from director Anita Doron. Today, we’re here to share the official trailer and some pretty cool images from the whole thing, hope you’ll like it!

The Lesser Blessed features a largely Canadian cast including Joel Evans, Chloe Rose, Kiowa Gordon, and Benjamin Bratt, and tells the story of Larry Sole – a teenage metalhead living on a First Nations reserve in the Northwest Territories who grapples with the challenges of adolescence.

Larry is a Tlicho Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, hallucinations and fantasies are hotter than the centre of the sun. At sixteen, he loves heavy metal music,...

The Lesser Blessed Trailer. Anita Doron‘s The Lesser Blessed (2012) movie trailer stars Benjamin Bratt, Krista Bridges, Kiowa Gordon, Adam Butcher, and Chloe Rose. The Lesser Blessed‘s plot synopsis: “ An adaptation of Richard Van Camp’s acclaimed novel, it’s the story of Larry, a Native teen with a troubled past [...]

Continue reading: The Lesser Blessed (2012) Movie Trailer: Anita Doron, Benjamin Bratt...

One Canadian title that premiered at Tiff with relatively little fanfare is Anita Doron's The Lesser Blessed. An adaptation of Richard Van Camp's acclaimed novel, it's the story of Larry, a Native teen with a troubled past which includes family tragedy, abuse and gasoline sniffing that now results in the occasional blackout. Larry also has "a quick tongue, hallucinations, an appreciation for Iron Maiden, and hot fantasies about Juliet Hope, the school tramp." His life takes a turn for the better when me befriends Johnny, a teen from another Nation, who helps him get past the bad times and see a possibly happy future. [Continued ...]...

This year’s Toronto was competing in my psyche with the recent loss of my mother. My focus was less on finding the greatest of films this year. I hear from others that the festival offered a good mix, if not the most outstanding, selection of films. Personally, I am discovering that a new community has opened its arms to me and the films that are standing out most for me are by women and about women. My community, those women who have lost their mothers, is sharing a unique and profound rite of passage whose meaning continuously unfolds.

In Toronto I was hyper aware of the women and their position in this corner of the world I inhabit. Canadian women, Helga Stephenson, Director Emerita of the Toronto Film Festival, predecessor to Piers Handling; Michele Maheux, Executive Director and COO of Tiff ever since I've known her which has been a long time; Linda Beath who headed United Artists when I was beginning my career and who has since moved to Europe where she teaches at Eave (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs), Kay Armitrage, programmer of the festival for 24 years and professor at University of Toronto, are all women to helped me envisage myself as a professional in the film business, and they are still as vibrant and active as when we met more than 25 years ago. Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada’s Executive Director continues Canada’s female lineage as does Karen Thorne-Stone, the President and CEO of Ontario Media Development Corporation.

18 films currently are in a large part attributable to Omdc; they include Nisha Pahuja’s doc The World Before Her (contact Cinetic) (Best Doc Feature of 2012 Tribeca Ff), Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (Isa: TF1), Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Isa: FilmNation), Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, (Isa: EOne) Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Isa: Myriad), Alison Rose’s doc, Following the Wise Men.

Tiff’s new program for year-round support of mid-level Canadian filmmakers, Studio, under the directorship of Hayet Benkara is bringing industry mentorship to 16 filmmakers with experience, shorts in the festival circuit, features in development. Exactly half of these filmmakers are women. This was a conscious move on Hayet’s part. She said there is always such a predominance of males without thinking about it that she decided to bring balance.

Then a look at some more of the Canadian talent here brings me to the Birks Diamonds celebration of seven Canadian women: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Manon Briand, Anita Doron, Deepa Mehta (Midnight’s Children), Kate Melville, and Ruba Nadda which honored each with a Birks diamond pendant in a reception hosted by Shangri-La Hotel and Telefilm Canada where 300 guests mingled and caught up with each other. The pre-eminence of women was again made so apparent to me.

Talking to publicist Jim Dobson at Indie PR at the reception of Jordanian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir whose film When I Saw You was so evocative of the 60s, a time of worldwide freedom and even optimism among the fedayeem in Jordan looking to resist the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Palestine; he said that all five of his clients here are women directors, “I had When I Saw You, (Isa: The Match Factory), Satellite Boy (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmare), Hannah Arendt (The Match Factory), Inch'allah (Isa: eOne), English Vinglish (Isa: Eros Int')."

Of the 289 features here at Tiff, Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood is trying to zero in on the women directors, so watch her blogs More Women-Directed Films Nab Deals out of Tiff, Tiff Preview: Women Directors to Watch and Tiff Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.

Add to this the upcoming Sundance initiative on women directors that Keri Putnam is heading up (more on that later!) and I am feeling heartened by the consciousness of women, directors and otherwise, out there. That is saying a lot since last season in Cannes with the pathetic number of women directors showing up in the festival and sidebars this past spring.

Here is the Female Factor for Tiff 12 which scores an A in my book:

Gala Presentations - 6 out of 20 = c. 30% which is way above the usual 13% which has been the average up until Cannes upended that with its paltry 2%..2 of these were opening night films.

Mira Nair The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Also showed in Venice. Isa: K5. Picked up for U.S. and Canada by IFC. Shola Lynch Free Angela & All Political Prisoners. Isa: Elle Driver Deepa Mehta Midnight’s Children. Isa: FilmNation already sold to Roadshow for Australia/ N.Z., Unikorea for So. Korea, DeaPlaneta for Spain. Ruba Nadda Inescapable. Isa: Myriad. Canada: Alliance. Liz Garbus Love, Marilyn. Isa: StudioCanal. HBO picked up No. American TV rights. Madman has Australia. Gauri Shinde English Vinglish. Isa: Eros International.

Masters – 0 – Could we say that women directors have not been around that long or shown such longevity as the men? Lina Wertmiller was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she is still alive. Ida Lupino was an anomaly. Who else was there in those early days? Alice Guy-Blaché ?

Special Presentations - 13 out of 70 = 19%

Everybody Has A Plan - Argentina/ Germany/ Spain - Ana Piterbarg - Isa: Twentieth Century Fox International - U.S.: Ld Entertainment, U.K.: Metrodome Lines Of Wellington - Also in Venice, San Sebastian Ff - Portugal - Valeria Sarmiento - Isa: Alfama Films. Germany: Ksm Cloud Atlas--Germany - Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski - Isa: Focus Int'l. - U.S. and Canada: Warner Bros. , Brazil - Imagem, Finland - Future Film, Eastern Europe - Eeap, Germany X Verleih, Greece - Odeon, Iceland - Sensa, India - PVR, So. Korea - Bloomage, Benelux - Benelux Film Distributors, Inspire, Slovenia - Cenemania, Sweden - Noble, Switzerland - Ascot Elite, Taiwan - Long Shong, Turkey - Chantier Inch'allah – Canada - Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette - Isa and Canada: Entertainment One Films Hannah Arendt – Germany – Margarethe von Trotta – Isa: The Match Factory Imogine – U.S. – Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Isa: Voltage. U.S.: Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions acquired from UTA, Netherlands: Independent Ginger and Rosa – U.K. – Sally Potter – Isa: The Match Factory. U.S. contact Cinetic Love is All You Need – Also played in Venice) Denmark – Susanne Bier – Isa: TrustNordisk - U.S. : Sony Pictures Classics, Canada: Mongrel, Australia - Madman, Brazil - Art Films, Bulgaria - Pro Films, Colombia - Babilla Cine, Czech Republic - Aerofilms, Finland - Matila Rohr Nordisk, Germany - Prokino, Hungary - Cirko, Italy - Teodora, Japan - Longride, Poland - Gutek, Portugal - Pepperview Lore – Australia/ Germany/ U.K. – Cate Shortland – Isa: Memento. U.S.: Music Box, France: Memento, Germany - Piffl, Hong Hong - Encore Inlight, So. Korea - Line Tree, Benelux - ABC/ Cinemien, U.K., Artificial Eye Dreams for Sale – Japan – Miwa Nishkawa – Isa: Asmik Ace Stories We Tell – Canada – Sarah Polley - Isa: Nfb. U.K.: Artificial Eye Liverpool – Canada – Marion Briand - Isa: Max Films. Canada: Remstar Venus and Serena – U.S./ U.K. – Michelle Major, Maikin Baird. Producer's Rep: Cinetic

Mavericks - 3 out of 7 “Conversations With” were with women (43%)

Discovery 11 out of 27 = 40% which includes The-Hottest-Public Ticket for the Israeli Film directly below (a Major Buzz Film Among its Public)

Fill the Void by Rama Burshtein, a first-time-ever Hasidic woman director Kate Melville’s Picture Day Alice Winocour Augustine - Isa: Kinology 7 Cajas by Tana Schembori from Paraguay - Isa: Shoreline Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die from Sweden, Serbia and Croatia - Isa: Yellow Affair Oy Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded France’s Sylive Michel’s Our Little Differences Contact producer Pallas Film Russian censored film Clip from Serbia by Maja Milos - Isa: Wide sold to Kmbo for France, Maywin for Sweden, Artspoitation for U.S. Satellite Boy by Australian Catriona McKenzie - Isa: Celluloid Dreams/ Nightmares Ramaa Mosley’s The Brass Teapot - Isa: TF1 sold to Magnolia for U.S., Intercontinental for Hong Kong, Cien for Mexico, Vendetta for New Zealand Veteran Korean-American Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines.

Tiff Docs 7 out of 29 = 24% - Women traditionally have directed a greater portion of docs

Christine Cynn (codirector ) The Act of Killing - Isa: Cinephil Janet Tobias No Place on Earth - Isa: Global Screen Sarah Burns (codirector) The Central Park Five Isa: PBS sold to Sundance Select for U.S. Treva Wurmfeld Shepard & Dark - Contact Tangerine Entertainment Nina Davenport First Comes Love - Contact producer Marina Zenovich Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out - Isa: Films Distribution Halla Alabdalla As If We Were Catching a Cobra (Comme si nous attraptions un cobra) about the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria! Halla is Syrian herself, studied science and sociology in Syria and Paris - Isa: Wide

Contemporary World Cinema 11 out of 61 = 18%

Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Sarajevo - Isa: Pyramide Baby Blues by Katarzyna Rostaniec, Poland. Contact producer The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan - Isa: Toei Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans (co-director), Belgium/ No. Korea. The first western financed film out of No. Korea Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France - Isa: Pyramide sold to Lumiere for Benelux, Pathe for Switzerland Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, U.S. - Contact Paradigm Talent Agency The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada - Isa: eOne Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/ France/ Germany- Isa: Visit Films Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, Netherlands - Isa: Media Luna When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine,/ Jordan/ Greece All that Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway- Isa: TrustNordisk

Tiff Kids 0 out of 5. Any meaning to this???

City To City – Mumbai 0 Out Of 10 Any meaning to this???

Vanguard 2 out of 15 = 13% (the average for most festivals)

90 Minutes– Norway – Eva Sorhaug - Isa: Level K Peaches Does Herself – Germany - Peaches. Contact producer. See Indiewire review.

Midnight Madness 0 out of 9 which is fine with me, thank you. This is a boy's genre or a date-night genre for girls and boys with a plan for the night.

Contemporary World Cinema in Toronto International Film Festival is screening the world premiere of The Lesser Blessed, directed by Anita Doron and starring Benjamin Bratt. High school is especially harsh for Larry Sole (Joel Nathan Evans), a teenaged metal-head living in a remote community in the Northwest Territories. Shy and ruminative, he’s taunted daily by his town’s golden boy and resident bully, Darcy (Adam Butcher). This is because of Larry’s tortured past, and his aboriginal roots: he, his mother Verna (Tamara Podemski) and her sometime boyfriend Jed (Benjamin Bratt) are all members of the Tlicho First Nation.

Director Anita Doron is remarkable in her own right. She was born in Transcarpathia, in the former Ussr, and later defected to Canada. Her first feature, The End of Silence (06) won the Best Feature Film award at the Canadian Filmmakers’ Festival. She was a co-director of the interactive feature Late Fragment (07), which played the Festival. Her other features include Europa, East (10), Mystico Fantástico! (11) and The Lesser Blessed (12).

In a brief roundtable discussion with Benjamin Bratt and three other reporters (from Berlin, Sydney and Budapest) and yours truly, Benjamin Bratt, looking as young as a teenager, spoke about his transition to pater familias in his own private life with Talisa Soto and thier two children as well as in his part in this film. He likes helping lead the way for the young who are ruderless, for the ones with no voice whose culture has been cut away unceremoniously from their lives by conquering civilizations.

He speaks for himself and his own Peruvian people (Qechua) when he begins to discuss the issue of disenfranchisement and how it affects the youth and how, as in this film, if they can be shown how to reconnect with their cultures then they can begin to open new pathways in their personal and social lives. His own mother, a native American activist, took her five children along when she was part of the Alcatraz prison takeover in 1970, so he has learned this from the cradle. When he saw the script to The Lesser Blessed, he immediately sent it to his brother Peter Bratt with a note saying that this is the sort of story he wishes he could make with his brother. He considers himself blessed for being able to sustain a television series which allows him to make the small independent features like The Lesser Blessed.

Above: Ernie Gehr's Auto-Collider Xv.

The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.

Galas

A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)

Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)

The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)

Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)

Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)

English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)

Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)

Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)

Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)

Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)

Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)

Looper (Rian Johnson,...

In the last major update for the Toronto International Film Festival 2012 slate, they’ve announced their Canadian features. The line-up includes Sarah Polley’s upcoming documentary Stories We Tell, coming off her Take This Waltz this summer (which also premiered at Tiff). The other major films include two we’ve seen at Cannes,one being Brandon Cronenberg‘s Antiviral, which premiered alongside his father’s Cosmopolis. We disliked it (full review), saying it came off as an “an amateurish, high-budget student film.” The other major title is Xavier Dolan‘s Laurence Anyways, which we loved (full review), calling it a major step forward for the filmmaker. Check out the rest of the titles below, which I’m sure will include many discoveries.

Antiviral Brandon Cronenberg, Canada/USA North American Premiere

Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans.