Cara Gee

Canada’s Night to Shine: The 2014 Canadian Screen Awards Preview

Tomorrow night the best and brightest in Canadian movies and television get celebrated with the Canadian Screen Awards (airing on CBC at 8:00pm, hosted by Martin Short). Our Film and Performing Arts editor looks at this year's nominees, makes a couple of predictions, and wonders aloud why only technically three of the Best Feature nominees have actually been released in theatres.

Empire of Dirt Review

Peter Stebbings’ Empire of Dirt is something special. It’s the rare example of a Canadian film that’s able to balance universally relatable human problems while maintaining a cultural identity that makes it patently unique.

Interview: Jennifer Podemski and Cara Gee

We talk to actress and producer Jennifer Podemski and actress Cara Gee about their work on the First Nations family drama Empire of Dirt, applying the film's themes more broadly to a picture of small town living, the film’s sometimes subtle humour, why Peter Stebbings was chosen for such a project despite being a white male, and how the film fits into a current renaissance for First Nations cinema in Canada.

TIFF 2013: Empire of Dirt Review

Empire of Dirt Contemporary World Cinema Director: Peter Stebbings Set in motion when First Nations Mother, Lena (Cara Gee), learns her thirteen year old daughter (Shay Eyre) has overdosed, this very Canadian indie film unfolds to reveal an authentic, albeit typical, drama. Fleeing the prying eyes of social services, Lena returns to her estranged mother’s home in rural Ontario. For added discomfort, the reformed addict Lena is faced with addressing her past and facing the mother […]