Geoff Manderscheid – SAPL Reader's Blog

Weekend Picks

100^th Post!

Oddly enough, I’m celebrating the hundredth post of Weekend Picks by making it the last one on SAPL Readers Blog!

The Readers Blog has been such a great place to connect with you all, especially during the pandemic when our doors were closed! But, we’ve found a smoother way for you to discover all of our favourite films, books, and authors! All you have to do is follow us (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) and we’ll link you to our absolute best and more, including Weekend Picks!

Lastly, I truly look forward to this weekly opportunity to share so many amazing and entertaining movies with you. So to celebrate 100 Weekend Picks and self indulge just a bit more, here are my top ten library films. Though they’re not in any particular order, they appear with some intention as they are on the DVD or Blu-Ray format, something that our collection is still very, very strong with!

Thank you and enjoy!

Geoffrey

… and many more.

Weekend Picks

Asian Heritage Month Picks Pt.II

You just go right on ahead and ease yourself into the long weekend with some classic picks for Asian Heritage Month!

Enjoy, everyone!

Funeral Parade of Roses

An electrifying journey into the nether-regions of the late-’60s Tokyo underworld.

Arab Blues

Selma, a psychoanalyst, deals with a cast of colorful new patients after returning home to Tunisia to open a practice.

Burning

Deliveryman Jongsu is out on a job when he runs into Haemi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he’d mind looking after her cat while she’s away on a trip to Africa. On her return she introduces to Jongsu an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. And one day Ben tells Jongsu about his most unusual hobby…

The Farewell

A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family’s decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.

Tokyo Sonata

Ryûhei Sasaki is keeping a secret from his wife, Megumi and his two teenage sons. Even though he leaves the house every day, he’s not really going to work. He’s going to an employment office. He recently lost his job due to outsourcing, but is determined to find another position, all while supporting an old friend who is also out of work. But when Megumi accidentally finds out Ryûhei’s secret and doesn’t tell him, her trust in him, and their marriage, suffers.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog

The little nomad girl, Nansal, finds a baby dog in the Mongolian veld, who becomes her best friend – against all rejections of her parents. A story about a Mongolian family of nomads – their traditional way of life and the rising call of the City.

Offbeat Book Club | Spring Meeting

Deacon King Kong
by James McBride

“McBride populates the Cause with characters who persevere with love and compassion for each other, unwavering faith in God and community, and lots of humor. Bighearted and sprawling, Deacon King Kong cements McBride as a master storyteller.” Shelf Awareness.

Watch & Listen

NPR| James McBride on the Kindness that Shaped Him

PBS | Social Justice and Deacon King Kong

Weekend Picks

Asian Heritage Month

This month we embrace the opportunity to celebrate Asian Heritage Month in Canada! You can join the celebration with these stunners on film!

Enjoy!

Norwegian Wood

Set in the 1960s, high school student Toru Watanabe loses his only friend Kizuki after he commits suicide. Toru, now looking for a new life, enters a university in Tokyo. By chance, Toru meets Kizuki’s ex-girlfriend Naoko in the university. They grow close because they both share the same loss.

Days

Kang lives alone in a big house, Non in a small apartment in town. They meet, and then part, their days flowing on as before.

The Insult

After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.

The Breadwinner

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

Weekend Picks

Mother’s Day Picks

To all the moms out there, with love.

The Library.

Mermaids

Fifteen-year-old Charlotte is tired of her wacky mom moving their family to a different town any time she feels it is necessary. When they move to a small Massachusetts town and Mrs. Flax begins dating a shopkeeper, Charlotte and her 9-year-old sister, Kate, hope that they can finally settle down.

Terms of Endearment

Aurora, a finicky woman, is in search of true love while her daughter faces marital issues. Together, they help each other deal with problems and find reasons to live a joyful life.

Freaky Friday

Mother and daughter bicker over everything – what Anna wears, whom she likes and what she wants to do when she’s older. In turn, Anna detests Tess’s fiancé. When a magical fortune cookie switches their personalities, they each get a peek at how the other person feels, thinks and lives.

Lady Bird

A California high school student plans to escape from her family and small town by going to college in New York, much to the disapproval of wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mother.

Little Women

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Weekend Picks

Coming Soon

Dog

An army ranger and his dog embark on a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway to attend a friend’s funeral.

The Batman

In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.

Cyrano

A man ahead of his time, Cyrano de Bergerac dazzles whether with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel. But, convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne, Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her—and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian.

Jackass Forever

Celebrating the joy of being back together with your best friends and a perfectly executed shot to the dingdong, the original jackass crew return for another round of hilarious, wildly absurd, and often dangerous displays of comedy with a little help from some exciting new cast. Johnny and the team push the envelope even further in Jackass Forever.

Weekend Picks

National Poetry Month Ed.

Celebrate poetry everywhere in Canada this month, this weekend through these captivating films, and the next two years with St. Albert’s new Poet Laureate, Lauren Seal!

Bright Star

In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.

Black Butterflies

Confronted by Apartheid and a father who was Minister of Censorship, Ingrid Jonker searched for a home, searched for love. With men like Jack Cope and André Brink she found much love, but no home. Later, in his first speech to the South African Parliament Nelson Mandela read her poem “The Dead Child of Nyanga” and addressed her as one of the finest poets of South Africa.

Howl

It’s San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society’s reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.

Weekend Picks

Get your holds on new titles that live up to the very definition of “Weekend Picks”: Fresh Films & Forgotten Finds.

Basic Instinct

A police detective is in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder, in which a beautiful and seductive woman could be involved.

Greyhound

A first-time captain leads a convoy of allied ships carrying thousands of soldiers across the treacherous waters of the “Black Pit” to the front lines of WW2. With no air cover protection for 5 days, the captain and his convoy must battle the surrounding enemy Nazi U-boats in order to give the allies a chance to win the war.

The Hurricane

The story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

The Night House

Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. Soon she begins to uncover her recently deceased husband’s disturbing secrets.

The Captain

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

Weekend Picks

Transgender Day of Visibility Ed.

March 31 was Transgender Day of Visibility! But you can enjoy some choice flicks this weekend!

Laurence Anyways

The story of an impossible love between a woman named Fred and a transgender woman named Laurence who reveals her inner desire to become her true self.

Una Mujer Fantástica/A Fantastic Woman

Marina’s life is thrown into turmoil following the death of her partner. Mourning the loss of the man she loved, she finds herself under intense scrutiny from those with no regard for her privacy.

Alice Júnior

This is the story of Alice Junior, a transgender girl full of life, who wants to give her first kiss, but first, she just wants to be who she really is.

Tangerine

It’s Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn’t been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the working girl and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity.

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens

A documentary on drag queens, kings, & transgender performers in Columbus, OH who tackle the complexities of gender expression, identity, sexuality, discrimination, family, & politics–all with humor, pathos, & duct tape.

Weekend Picks

Academy Awards Ed.

An Oscar or two might go to some of these momentous films this weekend, but you can grab them at the Library today! The rest of the nominees are sure to be added to the collection eventually, so stay tuned to see what is coming soon!

King Richard

Belfast

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Encanto

Luca