Don McKellar

As bass guitarist for a garage-rock band, Scott Pilgrim has never had trouble getting a girlfriend; usually, the problem is getting rid of them. But when Ramona Flowers skates into his heart, he finds she has the most troublesome baggage of all: an army of ex-boyfriends who will stop at nothing to eliminate him from her list of suitors.

A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.

When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.

With his partner Caprice, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. An investigator from the National Organ Registry obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed... Their mission — to use Tenser's notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.

300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.

A fictional documentary discusses the effects the Iraq war has had on soldiers and local people through interviews with members of an American military unit, the media, and local Iraqis.

Ex heroin junkie, Daniel Léger, gets involved in a drug deal with the wrong people for the wrong reasons. When the deal goes sour, Daniel gets thrown into a Thai prison and slapped with a 100-year sentence. While he tries to survive his Bangkok incarceration, the news of his conviction captures the attention of Globe and Mail journalist Victor Malarek, who decides to go after the shady undercover cops responsible for wrongly accusing Daniel.

An ambitious reporter probes the reasons behind the sudden split of a 1950s comedy team.

Frank Farrelli takes on the job as a middle man in the God-forsaken town of Karmack, USA, a community in a depression so deep that they need a middle man to professionally communicate more of the bad news.

Camille is a professor at a Protestant college and is in a long-term relationship with Martin, a respected minister and fellow professor. When Camille meets Petra, a bold and flamboyant performer in a circus troupe, she is inexplicably drawn. Pursuing Petra, Camille throws her whole conservative life into disarray.

A multi-dimensional interface between a comic book artist, a novelist, and a film director. Each lives in a separate reality but authors a story about one of the others.

Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.

Mica is born smelling of fish that soap and doctors can't remove. Problems increase starting school as no one'll be his friend. He sees a therapist. His life seems doomed until he meets Laura.

Author Ayn Rand becomes involved with a much younger and married man, to the dismay of those close to her.

After she ends up in prison and loses custody of her son, a woman struggles to assimilate outside her former life and remain clean long enough to regain custody of her son.

Shadowed by the death of her mother, Julie Kumagai's life with her widower father is marked by pained, turbulent exchanges. Indifferent to a break-up with her boyfriend and the lure of a long-planned trip, she finds some refuge in her workplace where she meets Tetsuro, a young Korean man newly emigrated from Japan who is obsessed with all things American. But together they discover no easy resolutions.

Nash The Slash was deliciously surreal, verging on demented. A mummy wrapped in surgical bandages, an invisible man in full formal white tuxedo and top hat buzz-sawing his violin through endless reams of electronics, melodies and distortion. His music and image were demanding. His life was rock fantasy. ‘NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN!’ uncovers the sinister Canadian electronic music innovator. A classically trained violinist and multi-instrumentalist, he created music that was an unlikely combination of prog-rock, punk-rock, classic-rock, psychedelic fused with techno and industrial before they had names. The end result is an unearthly life drenched in film history, enveloped in a wall of sound that would do Phil Spector justice. A career embodied in artistic integrity, courage and the price-tag that comes with it. ‘NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN!’ unwinds the bandages of a ground-breaking, mad musical scientist whose career decomposed before the world caught up.

In the Warsau ghetto of 1943, one man's struggle to keep his family together leads him to the ultimate crisis of faith and one final chance at redemption.

Josephine has her eye on Joe, a hot-headed, petty criminal who taps phones for a living. When she finally worms her way into his heart she realises it's not a nice place to be. But is it too late?

A devout community suffering from a plague is torn apart by a beautiful young woman and the forces of witchcraft, black magic, and possession.

A young Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian parents travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival.

The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.

Tortured by the memory of a childhood trauma, a woman returns after a decade to her family's fly-in hunting lodge to assist her siblings with their dying father, only to find herself stuck in a life threatening nightmare.

After being laid off and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity.

When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.

300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor’s time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.

Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.

Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.

The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.

A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.

An experimental filmmaker takes a job as a driver for a foul-mouthed child actor and his ambitious stage mother.

An experimental filmmaker takes a job as a driver for a foul-mouthed child actor and his ambitious stage mother.

Commissioned by the Toronto International Film Festival to mark the event's 25th anniversary in September 2000, the "Preludes" program consisted of ten short films by Canadian directors which were inspired in some way by the festival. Each film screened as a prelude to a feature film in the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival program. The full "Preludes" anthology was screened on the web in November 2000, and was given theatrical retrospectives at the TIFF Lightbox in the subsequent years.

A naive Canadian barber who knows US popular culture inside and out meets a flamboyant roadie who needs someone to drive her and her "brother's" corpse from Thunder Bay, Ontario to New Orleans. Chaos ensues after the barber agrees to drive her, the corpse, and the drugs stashed within all the way.

Explores the sensitive, and tense, relationship between life on an First Nations reservation and life in the outside world. When Native Canadian Silas Crow is forced to write a personal essay in order to get a much-desired job, he tells the story of the rape and murder of an Indian girl by a drunken thug. When the killer received a lenient two-year sentence for manslaughter, the First Nations community felt shock and anger—and tried desperately to deal with the after-effects of this lack of justice.

A music promoter sends a young woman on a road trip in search of a band who hasn't been showing up for their gigs.

A filmic love letter. One out of two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Festival Film in Paris

A filmic love letter. One out of two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Festival Film in Paris

Bruno wakes up in bed next to Caroline, his long time crush. But tomorrow she's off for school in France, and maybe she only granted this miracle as a parting gift for her long time friend. So tonight is Bruno's last chance. And tonight, as it happens, Broken Social Scene, her favourite band, is throwing a big outdoor bash. Maybe if Bruno, with the help of his best pal Blake, can score tickets and give Caroline a night to remember, he can keep this miracle alive.

Don McKellar’s autobiographical, wryly comic short looks at Toronto International Film Festival–goers’ fierce desire to get into a screening.

Don McKellar’s autobiographical, wryly comic short looks at Toronto International Film Festival–goers’ fierce desire to get into a screening.

Relationships can be an endless cycle of breakups.

Relationships can be an endless cycle of breakups.

A filmic love letter. One out of the two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Film Festival in Paris.

A filmic love letter. One out of the two. Premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival; Screened at the 2007 Pocket Film Festival in Paris.

Ever more bizarre criteria are used to eliminate couples from a secret dance event.