Friday, March 15 / 6:30 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: Donna, Chuck Chuck Baby
Reception: 8:30 PM

This program is presented in partnership with the British High Commission and the Welsh Government.

Feature presentation \

love \ music \ chickens

Writer-director Janis Pugh’s latest is a moving, spirited, often hilarious tale about one woman’s overcoming the considerable obstacles in her life in an industrial town in northern Wales. Working nights at a local chicken processing plant, the timid, reserved Helen wonders where her dismal life is going. Living with her ex-husband, his girlfriend, and their new noisy baby, Helen’s only escapes are her love of music and her caring for her beloved elderly former mother-in-law. All this changes with the arrival of the feisty and glamorous Joanne, a former neighbour (and Helen’s secret childhood crush) who has returned after her father’s death. Faced with small-town disapproving gossip about her time away and seemingly posh liberated lifestyle, Joanne is bold, defiant, and very funny. She is also attracted to Helen’s caring, naïve character, while Helen is utterly captivated by Joanne’s joie de vivre. Their fast friendship quickly evolves into something more serious and soon they face profound choices of how to live their lives: together or apart? Entertaining and endearing, Chuck Chuck Baby is a marvellous comedy of empowerment.

- Tom McSorley

Short film \

Donna

2023 / 18 minutes / Ottawa
Director: Keenan MacWilliam
Language: English

Keenan prepares to “meet” her biological mother who gave her up for adoption, and reflects on her childhood and the different forms that family can take.

Intimate and carefully composed, Donna navigates the complexities of identity and growing up adopted, as MacWilliam constructs a performance of meeting with the mother she continues to seek.

This program is presented in partnership with the British High Commission and the Welsh Government.