Feature

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In medicine, innovation can come from unexpected sources. An appliance repairman from Canada, an immunologist from Israel, and a transplant surgeon from England meet in a hospital in India. This might sound like the start of an elaborate joke, but it is actually a remarkable collaboration established in an effort to save the life of a young woman dying of liver cancer. As they invent and then carry out an experimental procedure, this unconventional team recognizes that what they are attempting could have broad implications for currently untreatable cancers.

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Five young adults. One syndrome. One last chance. My Tourette’s follows five individuals struggling with the outlandish symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome: ticks, jerks, and painful, uncontrollable bodily and verbal disruptions. For Isabella, Nick, Alex, Carysa, and Marc, Tourette’s has presented a life of isolation and prejudice, depriving them of their dreams and aspirations. Yet, hope is not lost. Researchers Nancy Salzman and Keith Raniere believe they might have a solution for Tourette’s. And though it requires a leap of faith, it might be their only chance.

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Introducing dangerous ideas to a saccharine world. In a world where Marvel comics are now a billion dollar plus industry, another form of cartoon is dying: the satirical editorial cartoon. Once a staple of influential print media, fewer and fewer opportunities for this spectacular medium exist. Within this landscape lives Mr. Fish, a radical genius cartoonist, who refuses to compromise his integrity. He is caught between the need to provide for his family and the desire to challenge and improve the world with his controversial art. With the ever-mounting pressure of financial debt, Mr.

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Is it worth living even if everyone believes you are dead? Imagine being forced to fight in a war you do not believe in nor want any part in. To what lengths would you go to escape? Based on true events, Joseph decides to hide in a hole for 21 years to avoid fighting in the Iraq and Iran wars. The everyday struggle his mother endures to keep this secret along with the mental torture Joseph suffers while being tucked away and forgotten makes for one intense roller coaster of a film. Is it worth being alive like this? – Racheal Geremew Sponsored by Applied Materials Foundation

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Uncovering answers to a question they wanted to forget. Alija is a hardworking miner sent to survey an old, defunct mine. With his job on the line, and the company facing financial difficulties in the crisis of 2009, he reluctantly agrees to dig the mine. He expects to find, at worst, poisonous gases, but what he actually finds there is unimaginably horrifying – piles upon piles of corpses, some of women and children. Risking both his livelihood and his life, he tries to dig up more answers to this massacre. Based on a true story, The Miner unravels a captivating mystery.

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She doesn’t even have the starring role in her own life. Marisa feels that she is the supporting actress in her own life, always there for other people. She’s the sole savior of her best friend, who is hysterical and bedridden after recently breaking up with the love of her life. As Marisa visits her other friends, they reveal to her their deepest personal problems. With the weight of others already on her shoulders, her dramatic writing troupe, her personal expression, drops her. Marisa can only find comfort in the city nightlife.

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You have one life, live it! Everyone can always count on kind-hearted Eva – her teenage niece, her tormented parents, her sister in the throes of a mid-life crisis, even her social service client Henri. But for her, to live her life and be happy, Eva will have to unlearn the childhood lessons of acceptance. While trying to single-handedly stabilize everyone’s out-of-control lives, Eva’s silent pain might unhinge her own. In Many Heavens, tender and heart-wrenching scenes slowly unfold many layers of love and complicated human relationships.

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In some cases, madness is an act. During the late 1800s, it was hard to tell who was more insane, the patients or their doctors. With experimental treatments constantly on the horizon, often what was best for the patient was left to the doctor’s imagination. Upon arriving at a women’s asylum, Dr. Benjamin Calhoun (Dominic Rains, Burn Country) aches to perform a study. Dr. Calhoun wants to cast his patients in a production of Moby Dick. He already sees star potential in one of his patients, Isabel Wallace (Camilla Belle, Practical Magic).

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Who can you trust? Luna is a smart, confident teenager living a typical teenager’s life. She goes out dancing with her friends, loves her family, and yet has the normal rebellious streak. An idyllic holiday in the woods soon changes all that as her life is thrown into utter chaos. On the run, Luna discovers the shocking truth about her father and his secret life. She finds refuge in the hands of her father’s best friend, but safety is the last thing on her mind. – Nina Zheng

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What a watershed year it has been for women! This was the year that saw women, their voices, their stories take center stage. Cinequest is proud to have collaborated with some of the most amazing women – artists, filmmakers, innovators, writers, entrepreneurs.