Saturday, March 21 / 6:30 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: L’Atelier Martineau, Where to Land
Guest: Hal Hartley (director of Where to Land)

Feature presentation \

American indie filmmaking legend Hal Hartley’s (Trust, Simple Men, Amateur, Henry Fool, The Girl From Monday,Fay Grim, Ned Rifle, et al.) latest is philosophically searching comedy about Joe Fulton, a successful director of romantic comedies. Now in his senior years, and while addressing the need to get some kind of Last Will and Testament done, Joe applies for a job as assistant groundskeeper in a local New York cemetery. After all those years making movies, he’d finally like to work outdoors with his hands. But his family, friends, and neighbors, meanwhile, misunderstand and assume he is dying. Soon enough, they’re crammed into his apartment to express their last farewells and to clumsily philosophize about the meaning of life. How can Joe convince them that he’s actually okay? The possible answers are both surprising and very funny. With its marvelous, articulate, and antic Robert Bresson-meets-Preston Sturges frisson, Hartley’s film’s ruminations on the big questions facing humanity are by turns concise, cogent, and hilarious. Featuring familiar Hartley cast regulars William Sage, Robert John Burke, and Edie Falco, Where To Land arrives as a balm of wit and intelligence in a chaotic, dumbed-down world. Winner of the Best Feature Film Award, Lisbon International Film Festival. Essential viewing.

Tom McSorley

Hal Hartley will attend the screening to introduce and discuss his film.

Short film \

L’Atelier Martineau

2025 / 9 minutes / Ontario (Ottawa)
Director: Conor DeVries
Language: French
Subtitles: English

A short documentary film telling the story of Lucille Martineau, a third generation carpenter who has been working out of the same workshop her grandfather built in 1911.