Mary Walsh

Deaner '89

Party animal Dean Murdoch travels back in time to his college days of 1989.

Laughing All the Way

Aubri Callahan is an aspiring comedian and ghost writer for Bella Delmonico, acclaimed stand up comic and owner of the Vista Theater. Performing at the Vista is a key step on the way to stardom and despite her natural talent, Aubri patiently waits for her time to shine, writing jokes for Bella in the shadows of the comedic giants that came before her. When The Vista Theater Variety Show lands in Aubri’s lap she must plan the whole event and find a headliner all before Christmas eve, just three weeks away.

The Story of Faustus Bidgood

This is the story of The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, a surreal comedy about a lowly bureaucrat and his fantasies of becoming president of an independent Newfoundland, that was released in 1986. A cult classic in Canadian cinema, the film is well known for the marathon it took to even get made. Principal photography on the film began eight years earlier, in 1978. Written and directed by comedy legend Andy Jones and his brother, Mike Jones, the movie was made on a shoestring budget, is packed with familiar faces and helped pave the way for Newfoundland and Labrador's vibrant film industry. And it was the first film ever both filmed and produced, from start to finish, in Newfoundland.

Sweetland

The story of an endangered Newfoundland community and the struggles of one man determined to resist its extinction.

Party Pirate

When Tommy is fired twice in the same week and finds out his brilliant best friend and lifeline, Costa, is leaving the country for a better job, he seizes an opportunity to prove his worth by taking his friends on a trip - in a stolen boat.

Terror Train

Alana and a group of college seniors board a party train for a Halloween-themed bash, but their fun spirals into fear when a mysterious assailant begins killing the passengers one-by-one.

Mummering Legends

An elderly woman recounts the disturbing history of mummering in 1920s Newfoundland. Eve witnesses a murder; her only escape is into the woods as a darker truth comes to light.

Happy Place

"Welcome to the zoo," Samira is advised as she’s admitted to an in-patient care facility in the wake of a suicide attempt. As she slowly familiarizes herself with her fellow residents and their idiosyncratic traits, a makeshift community takes shape.

Radical

Deanne Foley profiles fellow Newfoundlander Mary Walsh, the Great Warrior Queen of Canadian comedy, musing on time wasted as an object of desire and time well spent as the fearless agent of her own destiny. A joyous call to action.

Hunting Pignut

Bernice, a 15 year old misfit runs away from her rural Newfoundland community in search of Pignut, a tormented and violent gutter punk, after he steals her father's ashes right out of his urn.

The River of My Dreams

Director Brigitte Berman profiles Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent, who left Newfoundland in the late 1940s to launch a storied, seven-decade career as one of the leading actors and most beloved figures in Canadian film and television.

Closet Monster

A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.

How To Be Deadly

In Newfoundland, an unemployed minibike rider enters a minibike competition to win back his girlfriend.

The Grand Seduction

A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor’s time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.

Imaginary Heroine

This short film pays tribute to actress and comedian Mary Walsh. Layering archival photographs of downtown St. John’s and evocative imagery, it tells the remarkable story of a little girl who grew up next door to her family. Inspired by Mary Walsh’s one woman play Dancing with Rage, the film reveals the heart of the unique characters created by Newfoundland’s grand dame of comedy. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada in co-operation with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation on the occasion of the 2012 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.

Poor No More

The documentary follows two Canadians during the late 2000s recession and examines alternative economic models.

In for a Penny

Prominent people from Newfoundland and Labrador discuss the province's history and their expectations for the future.

Crackie

Life on the Rock never seemed easy, but for Mitsy it is especially rough. The teenager has been abandoned by her mother, a particularly unfit parent prone to both the bottle and the sex trade. She is left to be brought up by her mercurial grandmother Bride, who is well-meaning but oppressively suffocating. Mitsy's dreams for the future hinge on her desire to be a hairdresser, but her current emotional well-being revolves around a wee dog named Sparky, an unwanted canine misfit to whom she becomes hopelessly attached. After Bride agrees to let Mitsy take the dog in as a pet, the teen tries desperately to create a happy, safe place for Sparky to thrive.

The One That Got Away

Joanna, recently divorced, decided to return with her daughter to the town where she was born. There, she confronts the memories of the past when he meets his former lover, now married.

Young Triffie's Been Made Away With

In 1947 Whitbourne, Newfoundland, Alan Hepditch, a by-the-books but squeamish and somewhat dimwitted criminologist is constantly being tormented by his fellow ranger candidates and his sergeant, Bill O'Mara. Before Hepditch can quit, O'Mara, as a sort of punishment, assigns him to his first posting at Swyer's Harbour, where five sheep mutilations have taken place over the past year. When he arrives in Swyer's Harbour, Hepditch has a more serious crime to investigate, that of the murder of a local, mentally slow woman named Tryphenia Maud Pottle, better known to the locals as Young Triffie.

The Wind in the Willows

Matt Lucas as a marvellous Toad, Mark Gatiss as a spiky rat, Lee Ingleby as a nervous Mole, and Bob Hoskins as a grumpy old Badger make a classy cast within yet another version of Kenneth Grahame's classic book.

Geraldine's Fortune

A grocery-store worker in a small Canadian town gets a chance to appear on a popular television game show.

Mambo Italiano

When an Italian man comes out of the closet, it affects both his life and his crazy family.

Behind the Red Door

Natalie, a gifted New York photographer, has a troubled past reflected in her art. When she struggles to make ends meet in the city, her agent, arranges an assignment in Boston for a considerable sum of money. Unable to turn it down in her dire straits, Natalie takes the job -- only to find that her estranged gay brother, Roy, is the employer. Roy wants to mend their broken past, but must convince her to stay long enough to do so.

Random Passage

This award winning miniseries traces the difficult passage of young Mary Keane (Aoife McMahon) from servitude in Ireland to the squalor of rough-and-tumble Newfoundland in the early 1800s. Escaping attempted rape and abuse, Mary moves on with her infant daughter to find shelter at a remote fishing station run by Thomas Hutchings (Colm Meaney). In a time and place where life and death are a hair's breadth apart, Mary joins the community's struggle for survival against sickness and starvation. All of the Cape's people are fugitives of one kind or another, but by pulling together through hardships and tragedies, they forge a new life of hope - and even love.

Bleacher Bums

They're known as the Bleacher Bums, a loud and proud group of fans who watch their team's games from the stadium's cheap seats. Most of them have been attending for years, tirelessly rooting for a team that never seems to win. They know each other, but that's no guarantee that they'll get along. As the game unfolds, the Bums argue, wager, cheer and boo... and discover they share more in common than they could ever have imagined.

Rare Birds

A down-and-out restaurateur and his neighbor hatch a plan to lure luminaries to their small Newfoundland town.

Tommy... A Family Portrait

A tribute to Canadian comedy icon Tommy Sexton (1957-1993). A founding member of the Newfoundland comedy troupe CODCO Tommy died of complications from AIDS on December 13, 1993.

Violet

It seems like everyone in Violet’s family dies at age 55. Her mother did, her father did, and as this movie opens Violet, played by Mary Walsh, learns that her brother, Leonard has also died. He too was 55, an age she is now fast approaching herself. His death causes Violet to begin an existential tailspin as her family gathers round. They are Andrew Younghusband who plays her son Carlos, a gay professor of languages who has returned from Montreal. Actor and director Barry Newhook plays Rex who is a musician and daughter Ramona is played by Susan Kent. As the movie unfolds it turns out that Violet has a lot to live for, including a romance with farm manager Rusty played by Peter MacNeill.

New Waterford Girl

A gifted teenager, dreaming of life beyond her small town, becomes inspired when a 15-year-old girl from New York moves in next door.

The Divine Ryans

When Draper Doyle’s father drops dead two days after his birthday, Draper realises that he his memories of visiting his father two days previously have vanished. With the help of Uncle Reg, he attempts to piece his memory back together.

Extraordinary Visitor

As the new millennium approaches, God considers pulling the plug on the planet unless St. John the Baptist finds a reason to spare humanity. John travels to the Newfoundland city that bears his name where he becomes entangled in the lives of talk-show host Marietta, her husband Rick. (Toronto International Film Festival)

Rain, Drizzle, and Fog

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, is North America's most easterly landfall. For half a millennium, its perfect harbour has provided a safe refuge in the middle of the treacherous North Atlantic. For 300 years of its history it was an actual crime to try and settle--Newfoundland was the private preserve of British fishing merchants. But people stayed, despite the colonial masters, despite the lack of law and order, despite hellish weather and raging seas. And the city grew--lurching through centuries of crisis, disaster, privation. For filmmaker Rosemary House, "This is still a hard rock land, a dirty old town at the back of beyond. And yet the St. John's townie is so proud, you'd swear we lived in Paris." In this documentary, she explores her city with the help of six locals, Mary Walsh, Andy Jones, Anita Best, Brian Hennessey, Ed Riche, Des Walsh, writers and performers all. (Source: National Film Board)

Major Crime

Undercover police work to bring a pedophile to justice.

The Elf

In this Christmas drama, a boy and his family discover he is an elf.

The Boys of St. Vincent: 15 Years Later

Fifteen years after the events of The Boys of St. Vincent took place, the various boys involved are brought in to testify against the brothers, now finally standing trial, who assaulted them when they were children.

Buried on Sunday

Angry island fishermen declare independence and use a Soviet nuclear submarine to get Ottawa's attention.

Secret Nation

A graduate history student returns to her native Newfoundland, searching for proof of a conspiracy surrounding the referendum that saw Newfoundland join Canada.

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood

Faustus is a clerk in St. John's at the Newfoundland Department of Education. He dreams of becoming ruler of Newfoundland and seceding from Canada. In the real world, Faustus' boss Eddie Peddle plans to indoctrinate the citizenry of Newfoundland with a cult-like geometric theory known as Total Education, but Peddle may be foiled by the revelation of a secret from his past career.

Sisters of the Silver Scalpel

A nature documentary about the wild Nuns of Newfoundland-- Originated as a "filmeo" to be performed live by Codco, but eventually overdubbed with audio and released as a short film.

Dolly Cake

A Codco documentary turned improvised drama about a woman named Dolly who, fed up with taking care of a group of ungrateful layabouts, runs away. The story is intercut with footage from another Codco project called "Borkin the Spineless Servant."

Dancing on the Elephant

Faced with a future of chair-xercise and spoon-fed pudding, nursing home friends Nora and Edna attempt to break out of the 'fox farm' and find a life worth sticking around for.