National film day celebrates Canadian stories with free screenings

A new documentary series on The Tragically Hip will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie performs during the first stop of the Man Machine Poem Tour at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria on Friday, July 22, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Wednesday is National Canadian Film Day and there are a few opportunities to check out homegrown cinema across the city.

CanFilmDay is a one-day, coast-to-coast celebration of Canadian cinema. It was launched in 2014 in order to celebrate Canadian stories.

The Central Library is screening Ru (3 p.m.), a 2023 drama directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud that tells the story of a family of Vietnamese refugees who settle in Montreal, and how they struggle to incorporate their new Canadian life with the trauma of their Vietnamese past.

At 7 p.m., The Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) is screening Crime Wave, a 40th anniversary free screening of the Winnipeg cult comedy written and directed and produced by John Paizs who will be in attendance.

At 8 p.m., cSPACE is offering a free screening of Long Time Running, a documentary that chronicles the 2016 tour the Tragically Hip undertook after frontman Gord Downie announced he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

At La Cite des Rocheuses (4800 Richard Road SW), they are screening a trio of French-language films, including Testament (8 p.m.), Denys Arcand’s comedy about an archivist living in a retirement home who gets involved in a protest that turns into a media spectacle.

At 6 p.m., they are screening Vous N’etes Pas Seuls (You are Not Alone), a comedy/drama/sci-fi fantasy by directors Philippe Lupien and Marie-Helene Viens, which tells the story of Leo, a lonely pizza delivery man who falls for Rita, a musician and how their lives get turned upside down by an alien.

At 7 p.m., they’re screening Bergers (Shepherds), by Sophie Deraspe, a drama about a Quebecois man who abandons his contemporary city life for the life of a shepherd in rural France. Shepherds won Best Canadian Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2024.

For a made-in-Alberta, watch-at-home alternative, check out Flashback, Calgary director Peter Hays’ exploration of the iconic 80s Edmonton dance club that was the epicentre of Edmonton’s cultural growth and queer cultural scene. It’s available on TELUS Optik along with FlashForward, a making-of documentary featuring filmmaker Hays and his brother Matthew, the screenwriter of Flashback.

For more information about CanFilmDay, go here.