Village of Idiots

Las de la vie quotidienne dans son village natal de Chelm, Shmendrik part en quête de connaissances, qui le mènent vers un nouveau Chelm, tellement identique au premier qu'il y retrouve même le caquètement familier des poules. Basé sur un conte folklorique juif adapté par John Lazarus, Le Village des idiots raconte la nouvelle vie de Shmendrik, si étrangement semblable à l'ancienne; le film illustre avec beaucoup de drôlerie notre tendance à fabuler sur ce que nous n'avons pas.

The time: New Year's Eve, late 1800s. The place: Gatineau Valley, Quebec. A group of loggers, working in an isolated winter camp, yearn to celebrate New Year's Eve with their loved ones. But the river is frozen, the sky is dark, and swirling snow makes travelling treacherous. If the men want to see their families, their only choice is to make a pact with the devil to ride in a flying canoe. While pacts with the devil are the stuff of legends from another time, the cautionary tale of The Flying Canoe has a resonance for modern life. Original music and bold animation preserve the spirit of this well-known Quebec legend derived from La Chasse-galerie, first published in 1891 by Honoré Beaugrand. Hand-drawn animation scanned and coloured on computer.

A Caribbean version of the old children's story of Hansel and Gretel. Two children disobey their mother and go into the forest where a "Cocoya" lives. The wicked witch invites them into her house because "little boys taste so nice." Based on the book by Lynette Comissiong.