A new documentary about the Kids in the Hall leads the Canadian slate of films heading to SXSW. The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks, directed by Reginald Harkema, is a two-part doc about the legendary Canuck comic troupe featuring Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. The doc, produced by Blue Ant Studios and streaming on Amazon Prime Video later this year, features new interviews with the cast and previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage.
Other Canadian docs in the SXSW line-up announced today include Self-Portrait from Joële Walinga, which explores aspects of humanity captured by surveillance cameras. Short docs screening in the SXSW competition line-up include Nuisance Bear, directed by Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden. The observational film about polar bear migration in Churchill, Manitoba received an honourable mention at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall. Jennie Williams’ Nalujuk Night, meanwhile, spotlights a Nunatsiavut tradition, while Belle River from directors Guillaume Fournier, Samuel Matteau, and Yannick Nolin observes the climate crisis in New Orleans.
The Canuck crop at SXSW also includes the drama Slash/Back. Directed by Nyla Innuksuk, the sci-fi drama makes its world premiere in Austin with a portrait of Inuit girls faced with an alien invasion. Renuka Jeyapalan’s narrative feature Stay the Night, meanwhile, observes a down-and-out athlete angling for a comeback. Short dramas by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, Farhad Pakdel, Milos Mitrovic, Fabian Velasco, and Zacharias Kunuk also represent the maple leaf at SXSW 2022.
