Film Selection 2023-2024

SEPTEMBER: Le Tableau by Jean-François Laguionie
**Movie available online: XXXXX**

Age 10 & up
Themes : Painting/Art, Social classes, discrimination, stereotypes, quest/creation
In French with English subtitles

In this wryly inventive parable, a kingdom within a painting is divided into three castes: the impeccably colored Alldunns, the incomplete Halfies, and the barely outlined Sketchies who are treated as outcasts. Chastised for her forbidden love of the dashing Ramo, Claire runs away into the cursed forest. Ramo and his friends journey after her, crossing over the boundaries of the forest only to arrive at the very edge of the painting and discover, picture after picture, what the Painter has in mind for his creations. (Please note: the film shows a painted nude in the studio comes to life and becomes a talking)

OCTOBER: Les As de la jungle by David Alaux
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 8 & up
Themes : adoption, superheroes, martial arts, family relationships, assertiveness, adventure
In French with English subtitles

Maurice may look like a penguin – but he’s a real tiger inside! Raised by a tigress, he’s the clumsiest Kung-Fu master ever. Along with his friends, The Jungle Bunch, he intends to maintain order and justice in the jungle, as his mother did before him. But when Igor, an evil koala, decides to destroy the jungle once and for all with the help of his army of silly baboons, Maurice faces his biggest challenge yet!

Presented in partnership with Occitanie films and TAT Productions. The film director will answer students’ questions on Flip.

NOVEMBER: La Chouette en Toque by Arnaud Demuynck, Célia Tocco, Célia Tisserant, Frits Standaert, Pascale Hecquet
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 4 & up
Themes : Food chain, nutrition, baking, food, pop song, Japanese tale
In French

An amusing look at the food chain, how to make your own muffins and why some people overeat. An adaptation of a comical Japanese tale and a new take on an old French song. In addition to your five fruits and vegetables a day, here are five tales that our Cinema Owl has cooked up for you, with a pinch of that special magic that only animation can provide.

Presented in partnership with Wallonie-Bruxelles International aux Etats-Unis. The film director will answer students’ questions on Flip.

DECEMBER: La Course des Tuques by Benoît Godbout et François Brisson
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 7 & up
Themes : Friendship, rivalry, winter, competition, cheating, Québéc, winter activities
In French

La Course des Tuques is the sequel to the highly successful La Guerre des Tuques. It is a wild romp through the trials and tribulations, passionate joys, and little victories of childhood. A spectacular sled race through the village. Frankie-Four-Eyes and his team, including Sophie as the driver, take on the newcomers: the mysterious and conceited Zac and his athletic cousin Charlie.  

Presented in partnership with le Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie du Québec and Québec Cinéma.

JANUARY: Minuscule 2, les mandibules du bout du monde by Hélène Giraud et Thomas Szabo
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 6 & up
Themes : insects, Guadeloupe, family relationships, ecology, industrialization, travel
No dialogue

As the first snowflakes fall in the valley, it is high time to gather supplies for winter. Unfortunately, in the process a young ladybug is trapped in a parcel… that is shipped off to the Caribbean! There is only one way out: gather the dream team again! The ladybug, ant and spider join forces once more on the other side of the globe. A new world, new encounters and new dangers…will the rescue squad make it in time?

The film directors will answer students’ questions on Flip.

FEBRUARY: Swagger by Olivier Babinet
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 15 & up
Themes : teenage years, suburbs/projects, prejudice, discrimination, identity, documentary
In French with English subtitles

Swagger takes us into the minds of eleven children and adolescents with amazing personalities, who are growing up within some of France’s most underprivileged housing projects. The film shows us the world through their singular and unexpected gazes, their funny and incisive thoughts. By using a mosaic of encounters and by mixing genres, even musicals and science fiction, Swagger gives life to the words and fantasies of these kids from Aulnay and Sevran. Because, despite the difficulties of their lives, they have dreams and ambitions. And no one can take this away from them.

The film director will answer students’ questions on Flip.

MARCH: Dounia by Marya Zarif & André Kadi
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 9 & up
Themes : refugees, Syrian culture and traditions, grandparents, tolerance, war, helping each other
In French

Forced to leave their war-destroyed city, Dounia, her grandfather Jeddo Darwich and her grandmother Téta Mouné take the migrant’s route. But before leaving Aleppo and their house – once wonderful, now destroyed – Dounia takes some nigella seeds which she keeps preciously in her pocket. As she travels around the world in search of asylum, Dounia encounters many people and lives many great adventures. And when she encounters an obstacle that seems insurmountable, the wisdom of the ancient world comes to her rescue in the form of her grandmother’s nigella seeds.

Presented in partnership with le Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie du Québec.

APRIL: Océans, le mystère plastique by Vincent Perazio
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 12 & up
Themes : marine ecosystems, plastic pollution, oceans/seas, marine life, health, scientific research
In French

99% of the plastic that should be floating in the oceans is missing. Even accounting for the plastic that washes up on beaches or is trapped in arctic ice, millions of tonnes has simply disappeared. As most plastic never deteriorates, it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that are invisible to the human eye, what happens to this missing ocean plastic is a mystery. In this investigation, scientists embark in search of the micro-plastics. Small, mostly invisible, toxic, they are home to a new ecosystem: the plastisphere. But where are they? And what is the impact of them entering the food chain?

Presented in partnership with Fondation Tara Océan. Fondation Tara Océan’s team will answer students’ questions on Flip.

MAY: Chien Pourri, la Vie à Paris by Davy Durand, Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 4 & up
Themes : friendship, social classes, hygiene, poverty, tolerance, book adaptation
In French

Once upon a time there was a Parisian dog, naive and passionate, called Chien Pourri (rotten dog). With Chaplapla, his faithful gutter companion, Chien Pourri walks the streets of Paris, truffles blowing in the wind. No matter what disasters it causes, it always gets back on its feet! So much so that other dogs are starting to find it suspicious … A program of five short films to follow the crazy adventures of Chien Pourri and his friends and introduce the poetry of Paris to the little ones!

Illustrator Marc Boutavant will answer students’ questions on Flip.

MAY: Chien Pourri, la Vie à Paris by Davy Durand, Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier
**Movie available online: XXXX**

Age 4 & up
Themes : friendship, social classes, hygiene, poverty, tolerance, book adaptation
In French

Once upon a time there was a Parisian dog, naive and passionate, called Chien Pourri (rotten dog). With Chaplapla, his faithful gutter companion, Chien Pourri walks the streets of Paris, truffles blowing in the wind. No matter what disasters it causes, it always gets back on its feet! So much so that other dogs are starting to find it suspicious … A program of five short films to follow the crazy adventures of Chien Pourri and his friends and introduce the poetry of Paris to the little ones!

Illustrator Marc Boutavant will answer students’ questions on Flip.