corktown common
Thursday, July 9, 2026

wildhood

With the short films Anyway, I Piss Sitting Down and 6 minutes per kilometer

TOPS has selected bretten hannam, a Etuijijaqmijuinu (Two-Spirit) L’nu (Mi'kmaw) filmmaker based in Kespukwitk, L’nuekati (Nova Scotia), as this year’s Spotlight Filmmaker, an annual TOPS tradition that allows the festival to highlight emerging artists whose work inspires our programme selections. 

Hannam’s sophomore feature Wildhood is a heartfelt 2S coming-of-age road movie that follows two brothers, Link (Phillip Lewitski) and Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony), running away from their abusive father on a journey to find their mother. Along the way, the boys meet Pasmay (Joshua Odjick, in a Canadian Screen Award-winning role), a powwow dancer, who offers to help the boys along their adventure. While Link initially rebuffs Pasmay’s romantic advances, a frosty Heated Rivalry-esque will-they-won’t-they eventually gives way to a tender (yet steamy) moment of sexual discovery for Link. Shot on location around Windsor (Pesaquid), Nova Scotia, Wildhood swept the top awards at the Atlantic Film Festival and has quickly cemented itself as a new Canadian classic.

Trans Quebecois filmmaker Zak Slattery’s Anyway, I Piss Sitting Down is a portrait of three friends who embark on a journey back to their hometown, following some major personal changes. While Sasha, recovering from his gender-affirming surgery, hopes to swim shirtless at his childhood beach, he remains nervous that his return home will reopen old wounds. Slattery’s film is a poignant meditation on belonging, childhood and memory. In 6 minutes per kilometer, the rhythm of filmmaker Catherine Boivin’s footsteps and her voiceover poetry reconnect her with her Atikamekw ancestors. Simple yet hypnotic, Boivin immerses us in the dreamlike universe of her morning runs.