[Montreal] Sunday: Two Movies i STRONGLY Recommend!

Today i saw Songbirds (about women in prison, singing) and Cottonland (about Oxycontin, or “hillbilly heroine” in Cape Breton Island), two excellent movies at the documentary film festival, the RIDM.

i want to write about both these movies, but don’t have time now. So instead, on the off chance that some of you in Montreal are reading this tonight or tomorrow, i want to encourage everyone who can to go see them tomorrow night (Sunday Nov 19th) at the Cinemateque Quebecoise (335 de Maisonneuve East, mero Berri UQAM) at 5pm.

Cottonland is a respectful and smart look at prescription drug addiction in a working class community when the major industries decide its time to lay everyone off and go elsewhere for profits. It’s not an analysis of drug addiction under capitalism – but it at times comes close. Certainly providing more context than a lot of crap one might see on the subject.

Songbirds is… hard to describe. It’s about women’s resistance to and victimization by patriarchy. It’s about women in prison. It’s about women outside of prison not being free either. Not only is it largely in the women’s own words (extensive interviews with women prisoners in England), but it’s then put to verse. I had no idea what to expect, but this musical documentary about women in prison really works. And it’s incredible.

Really, if you’re in Montreal tomorrow – see these movies!