Victoria Day

With the long Victoria Day weekend signaling the end of school, and the Stanley Cup playoffs afoot, the summer of 1988 arrives in Toronto. Ben Spector, a smart, sensitive kid from a Russian immigrant family, hits the Bob Dylan show with his buddies and runs into Jordan Chapman, the class prick and Ben's tormentor on the ice-hockey rink. Jordan is five dollars shy of a nice bag of drugs, and Ben begrudgingly spots him the dough. But the next day, Jordan fails to show up at school or hockey practice. With days passing and Jordan's whereabouts a mystery, Ben finds himself in an uncomfortable predicament, especially when a romance with Jordan's sister tentatively blooms in the midst of the ordeal. First-time director David Bezmozgis, a celebrated prose writer, imbues seemingly spartan interactions with emotional complexity. There's a palpable tenuousness lurking beneath scenes as Ben becomes preoccupied with Jordan's disappearance in a more existentially unsettling way than he can fully grasp. As his friends play Hacky Sack and set off fireworks, he's entering that unfamiliar, liminal state between adolescence and adulthood, where consciousness of human vulnerability begins to surface. Bezmozgis' ability to capture that disorientation, along with Ben's awkwardly emerging sexual desire, in such a vivid, subtle, and moving way is the mark of a masterful storyteller, whether wielding pen or camera.
CAST
Mark Rendall, Sergiy Kotelenets, Nataliya Alyexeyenko, Holly Deveaux, John Mavro, Scott Beaudin

David Bezmozgis - David Bezmozgis is a writer and documentary filmmaker. Born in Riga, Latvia, he came to Canada with his family when he was six. He earned his BA in English literature from McGill University. He then attended USC's School of Cinematic Arts and received an MFA. He is the author of Natasha and Other Stories, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's and Zoetrope All-Story. Victoria Day is his first feature film.

Screenings:

Sat. Jan 17 6:00 p.m. - VICTO17EE Egyptian Theatre, Park City
Sun. Jan 18 noon - VICTO18BD Broadway Centre Cinemas VI, SLC
Tue. Jan 20 9:15 p.m. - VICTO204N Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Wed. Jan 21 3:00 p.m. - VICTO21SA Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Fri. Jan 23 9:00 a.m. - VICTO23EM Egyptian Theatre, Park City