Adapting Cea Sunrise Person’s beloved memoir for the big screen, Carly Stone (The New Romantic) brings both compassion and energy to this tale of a young woman’s bid to come of age while living with a mother experiencing arrested development.
Having spent her early years in a wilderness commune founded in the 1970s by her anti-establishment grandfather Dick (Robert Carlyle), Cea (initially River Price-Maenpaa, then Amanda Fix) is forced to shed her alternative upbringing and acclimatize to civilization when her mother, Michelle (Sarah Gadon), tires of Dick’s chauvinistic reign. Granted, this doesn’t keep Michelle from careening between bad romances as she and Cea carve out a nomadic existence.
Adorning every scene with enticing period details, Stone ensures that Gadon and Fix’s exceptional performances serve as her film’s foundation. Detailing the humour and heartbreak that come from family dysfunction, North of Normal derives engrossing drama from the difficult decisions these women must make to survive and thrive.
Q&A Oct 5
Presented by
Media Partner
Sarah Gadon, James D’Arcy, Amanda Fix, River Price-Maenpaa, Benedict Samuel, Robert Carlyle
Canada
2022
English
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Short Cuts
Altman's adaptation of Raymond Carver short stories, Short Cuts weaves between 8 or 9 overlapping storylines and 22 characters. it's a teeming, caustic and compassionate human comedy; a singularly astringent, often cynical view of America and Americana.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
A bona fide classic and arguably the greatest Canadian film of the 90s, Girard's dazzling deconstruction of the biopic gives us the mercurial pianist Glenn Gould as Picasso might have rendered him, a cubist portrait combining multimedia vignettes.
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
Free event.
Dazed and Confused
The last day of high school in May, 1976: seniors debate party politics while next term's freshmen run the gauntlet of brutal initiation rites, barely comforted by the knowledge that they'll wield the stick one day.
Credits
Executive Producer
Joel Reilly, Patrick Patterson, Sarah Gadon, Rob Connolly, Michael Risley, Adrian Love, Noah Segal, Berry Meyerowitz, Jeff Sackman
Producer
Kyle Mann, Jonathan Bronfman
Screenwriter
Alexandra Weir
Cinematography
David Jones
Editor
Orlee Buium
Production Design
Alexis DeBad
Original Music
Electric Youth
Director
Carly Stone
Carly Stone is a filmmaker from Toronto. She wrote and directed The New Romantic, which premiered in the Narrative Competition at SXSW 2018, where it won Special Jury Recognition for Best First Feature. She has also written on CBC’s award-winning comedy Kim’s Convenience. She graduated from the American Film Institute in 2014.
Filmography: The New Romantic (2018)


