"THE TALK" TRUE STORIES ABOUT THE BIRDS AND THE BEES / DOS ISLAS / THE ORIGIN OF TROUBLE

How awkward was your first “birds and bees” conversation? This wildly entertaining animation brings to life eight men’s memories about the sex talk they had with their mom or dad. From confusing metaphors to serious sit-downs, to way too much graphic information, their anecdotes reveal all of the embarrassing ways parents attempt to discuss love and sexuality to kids. Now adults, they reflect on whether they could do it any better with their own children, only to understand, it’s actually quite hard to have The Talk! (SM)

Elvira is 102 years old and wonderfully radiant and elegant. And yet her life has been punctuated by suffering. Her Spanish parents brought her to Cuba as a child, and she has never been back to her native El Hierro, in the Canary Islands. But, she says, she needs only step over a bowl of water to cross the Atlantic. Her granddaughter, filmmaker Adriana F. Castellanos, tries to reconstruct the old woman’s memories, down to the shadowy parts of her painful and complex life. Through tender and painful conversations with Elvira in Cuba and a visit to El Hierro, Castellanos fills in the details of the wrenching story of her most unforgettable grandmother.

A young woman whose father was absent during her childhood starts asking questions. Some of the father’s answers are disconcerting. The mother’s answers are often contradictory. And the stepfather doesn’t always remember things the same way as the parents. Filmmaker Tessa Louise Pope is determined to unpack this tangled relationship. Alternating between interviews (with two or more subjects at a time) and home movies, the director uses a simple process to tell a deeply complex story. Armed with strong opinions, humour and emotions, Pope investigates and confronts the father she never really knew, but whose absence affected her every day. The very apparatus of cinema allowsher to piece together her past and, ultimately, rediscover filial love.