The Best Comedy Films on the Planet!

Local Boy Comes Home to Premiere His Award-Winning Film
 
Montreal, Thursday, June 16, 2011– We have done it again!  After months of travels, sleepless nights, drinks, dance and hard work (in that order), we bring you the best comedy films, documentaries and shorts from around the world. The 15th edition of the JUST FOR LAUGHS FILM FESTIVALruns from July 24-30 at the Cinéma du Parc. Tickets are on sale now at www.hahaha.com/film or, if you’re scared of the internet, by calling 1-888-244-3155.
 
Undoubtedly, the hottest ticket at this year’s edition will before the Canadian Premiere of Fred & Vinnie. Winner of The Christopher Wetzel Award for Independent Film Comedy in Chicago and Best Feature Film at the Beverly Hills Film, TV& New Media Festival, this great film now comes to Canada. Local boy Angelo Tsarouchas, co-star Fred Stroller and director Steve Skrovan will present the film on Friday, July 29 at 9:00PM.
 
On Thursday, July 28 at 9:00PM don’t miss the World Premiere of Servitude (Maple Pictures). Directed by Warren P. Sonoda, written by Michael Sparaga and starring Dave Foley along with Margot Kidder, this all-Canadian affair is the first film to be produced from the Telefilm Canada Features Comedy Lab, a CFC Film program, in collaboration with Just For Laughs.
 
Before there was Jackass…before there was Tom Green…there was Ralph Zavaldil. The Canadian documentaryBEAUTY DAY (FilmsWeLike) tells the remarkable tale of Ralph Zavadil. His cable access television show in the early 90’s in southern Ontario, The Cap'n Video Show, showcased Ralph performing a series of idiotic and occasionally dangerous stunts. The advent of the Internet and reality television still years away, his unique brand of gross-out stunt comedy was truly ahead of its time.  Tuesday, July 26 at 7:00 PM
 
After making a stop at TIFF, A Beginner's Guide To Endings, a the tale of an unusual family reunion starring Harvey Keitel and Scott Caan, comes to Just For Laughs on Wednesday, July 27 at 7:00 PM.
 
Festival favorite, Eat My Shorts, returns with a selection of the best comedy shorts from around the world and beyond including Oscar winner The Lost Thing (Australia), Sundance Honorable Mentions’ Protoparticles (Spain) and The External World (Germany). Plus, catch Bad Dads with Michael Cera and Cheat: A Man’s Guide to Infidelity starring Joe DeRosa, Bill Burr and Robert Kelly. Eat My Shorts 1 & 2 will screen on July 27 at 9:00PM and July 30 at 7:00PM.
 
 
PLUS MORE GREAT FILMS:
 
• PUNCHING THE CLOWN, winner of the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, is an uproarious and smart comedy that tells the story of Henry Phillips, a hapless modern day troubadour. Thursday, July 28 at 7:00 PM
 
• PHUNNY BUSINESS: A BLACK COMEDY chronicles the rise and fall of ALL JOKES ASIDE. An all-star cast of comedians appear in this documentary including:Jamie Foxx, Bernie Mac, Mike Epps, JB Smoove, Dave Chappelle, Cedric The Entertainer, Mo’Nique, Craig Robinson, Sheryl Underwood, Chris Rock, D.L. Hughley and more.Friday, July 29 at 7:00 PM
 
• TELL YOUR FRIENDS! THE CONCERT FILM! Reggie Watts, Kristen Schaal & Kurt Braunohler, Liam McEneaney, and Christian Finnegan are among the performers in this comedy documentary that does for the current indie comedy scene what "The Last Waltz" or "Woodstock" did for Baby Boomer rock. Saturday, July 30 at 9:00 PM
 
And for all you Jerry Lewis lovers, MORE HILARIOUS FILMS in French:
 
• RIRE EXTRÊME follows Laughologist and director Albert Nerenberg on a mission to find Quebec's best laughter. Sunday, July 24 at 7:00 PM
 
• LE MISSIONNAIRE (Filmoption International) – Jean-Marie Bigard, France's top stand-up comedian writes and stars in this snappy comedy about an ex-convict on an offbeat road to redemption. Come and meet Jean-Marie Bigard live on Sunday, July 24 at 9:00 PM.
 
• OPÉRATION CASABLANCA – Mistaken for a dangerous terrorist, Saadi – a regular guy who happens to be an illegal Arab immigrant – sets out on the most dangerous day of his life. Monday, July 25 at 7:00 PM
 
  • TOUT COURT 1 & 2– A selection of the best comedy shorts from around the French world and beyond, Quebec’s finest in the spotlight! July 25 & 26 at 9:00PM
 
 
About the Just For Laughs Group
Founded in 1983 with the presentation of its first comedy festival in Montreal, the Just For Laughs Group is a world leader in comedy. It has four major business units:  Festivals (in Montreal, Toronto, Chicago and Sydney, AUS); television production (most notably Gags seen in 135 countries and on 95 airlines); live shows (Canadian tour dates for Jerry Seinfeld, , Louis C.K., Arturo Brachetti’s European Tour, the Capital One Just For Laughs Comedy Tour, North American dates for Family Guy Live!); and talent management. Its inaugural Festival is now the world's largest and most prestigious comedy event welcoming close to 2 million people each summer. The Group has offices in Montreal, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto, London and a rundown film office on Parc Ave.
 
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Contact: Talar Adam – (514) 833-0274 – talar@leisaleegroup.com

 
 
MORE INFO THAN YOU CAN HANDLE…
 
FILMS AT CINÉMA DU PARC (3575 AV DU PARC):
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ENDINGS– Wednesday, July 27 at 7 p.m.
  • Dir. Jonathan Sobol, Canada, 92 min.  Starring Harvey Keitel, Scott Caan, Paolo Costanzo, Wendy Crewson, Tricia Helfer, Jason Jones, and J.K. Simmons.
If DUKE WHITE hadn't thrown himself into Niagara Falls, someone would've pushed him.First, he subjects his three eldest boys – Nuts, Cal and Jacob – to drug tests which turn out to have lethal consequences.  Worse, he gambles the settlement money at the race track and loses it all.  Not knowing how much time they have left, the boys all decide to live the rest of their short lives to the fullest.  But making up for past mistakes and doing all the things in life that they should’ve isn’t nearly that simple for the brothers… but then again the White boys have never taken the easy way out.
 
PUNCHING THE CLOWN – Thursday, July 28 at 7 p.m.
  • Winner of the Audience Award (Best Narrative Feature) at the Slamdance Film Festival
  • Dir. Gregori Viens, USA, 90 min.  Starring Henry Ellen Ratner, Ellen Pinsky, Wade Kelley, Matt Walker, Audrey Siegel, Guilford Adams, Mik Scriba, Evan Arnold, Mark Cohen.
This uproarious and smart comedy tells the story of Henry Phillips, a hapless modern day troubadour who lives out of his car, who sees his luck change in  L.A. when he falls backwards into a string of packed gigs, a record deal and maybe even love.  Success proves fleeting, though, when an innocent miscommunication starts a vicious tabloid rumor about him.  He faces losing his reputation and his music.
 
SERVITUDE – Thursday, July 28 at 9 p.m.
  • World Premiere
  • Dir. Warren P. Sonoda, Canada, 85 min.  Starring Joe Dinicol, John Bregar, Linda Kash, Lauren Collins, Aaron Ashmore, Enrico Colantoni, Margot Kidder, and Dave Foley.
Just For Laughs presents the world premiere of Servitude (Maple Pictures), the first film to be produced from the Telefilm Canada Features Comedy Lab, a CFC Film program, in collaboration with Just For Laughs.A group of frustrated waiters band together and take over their restaurant for one glorious, revenge-filled night, after they discover that they are all about to be fired. 
 
PHUNNY BUSINESS: A BLACK COMEDY– Friday, July 29 at 7 p.m.
  • Director/writer John Davies and producer/writer Raymond Lambert will present the film.
    • Dir. John Davies, USA, 84 min.  Narrated by John Ridley with appearances by Steve Harvey, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, MoNique, Bernie Mac and many, many more.
Phunny Business: A Black Comedychronicles the rise and fall of ALL JOKES ASIDE, which for a decade, was the preeminent Black Comic showcase in America. This mostly unheralded “star factory” impacted American Pop Culture in a huge way, giving early exposure and early paychecks to major talent like Steve Harvey, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, MoNique, Bernie Mac and Tommy Davidson, to name just a few.
 
FRED AND VINNIE–Friday, July 29 at 9 p.m.
  • Q&A with Director Steve Skrovan and co-stars Angelo Tsarouchas & Fred Stoller.
    • Winner of the 2011 Christopher Wetzel Award for Independent Film Comedy at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago and Best Feature Film at the Beverly Hills Film, TV & New Media Festival.
    • Dir. Steve Skrovan, USA, 89 min.  Starring Fred Stoller, Angelo Tsarouchas.
Lonely guy Fred Stoller is thrilled when his good buddy, Vinnie D’Angelo, the world’s happiest agoraphobic and fattest vegetarian, comes to live with him, until Vinnie also proves to be the world’s most maddening roommate.
 
TELL YOUR FRIENDS! THE CONCERT FILM! –Saturday, July 30 at 9 p.m.
  • Q&A with Liam McEneaney, Victor Varnado, and Rob Paravonian.
    • Dir. Victor Varnado, USA, 83 min.  Starring Reggie Watts, Kristen Schaal, Kurt Braunohler, Liam McEneaney, Christian Finnegan
Reggie Watts, Kristen Schaal & Kurt Braunohler, Liam McEneaney, and Christian Finnegan are among the performers in this comedy documentary that does for the current indie comedy scene what The Last Waltz or Woodstock did for Baby Boomer rock.  It not only features performances from some of the best rising comedians in the country, but it gives a sense of the world from which these performers have risen, through interviews with such comedy luminaries as Janeane Garofalo, Jim Gaffigan, Colin Quinn, Marc Maron, Paul F. Tompkins, Wyatt Cenac, Kumail Nanjiani, Hannibal Buress, and more.
 
BEAUTY DAY – Tuesday, July 26 at 7:00PM
  • Dir. Jay Cheel, Canada, 90 min.  Starring Ralph Zavadil.
  • BEFORE THERE WAS JACKASS... BEFORE THERE WAS TOM GREEN... THERE WAS RALPH ZAVADIL. His cable access television show, The Cap'n Video Show, ran from 1990 to 1995, spawning a small but loyal cult following. Each week Ralph performed a series of idiotic and occasionally dangerous stunts, challenging the sensibilities of his small Southern Ontario audience.  With the advent of the internet and reality television still years away, his unique brand of gross-out stunt comedy was truly ahead of its time.  All it took was a broken neck for him to get noticed.
 
SHORT FILMS:
For its 15th edition, the Just for Laughs Film Festival brings to Montreal the best and most recent comedic short films from around the world.
 
EAT MY SHORTS 1– Wednesday, July 27 at 9 p.m.
A selection of the best comedy shorts from around the world and beyond!
• “A Certain Breed”– Dir. Scott Smith (USA) 12 min.
• “The External World” – Dir. David O’Reilly (Germany) 15 min.
• “A Guy Walks Into a Bar – Familiar Faces” – Created by Antonino Buzzone, Peter Vass & Brett Walkow (USA) 2 min.
• “Mi Otra Mitad (My Other Half)” – Dir. Beatriz Sanchis (Spain) 18 min.
• “Bout” – Dir. Malcolm Sutherland (Canada) 5 min.
• “Bottle” – Dir. Kirsten Lepore (USA) 5 min.
• “Inside Out” – Dir. Jim O’Doherty (USA) 24 min.
 
EAT MY SHORTS 2– Saturday, July 30 at 7 p.m.
A selection of the best comedy shorts from around the world and beyond!
“Protoparticles” Honorable mention at Sundance.  Big stars, short films: Michael Cera (“Bad Dads”).
• “The Adoption Agency” – Dir. Bridger Nielson (USA) 4 min.
• “Cheat” – Dir. Joe DeRosa (USA) 16 min.
• “The Wonder Hospital” – Dir. Beomsik Shimbe Shim (USA/South Korea) 11 min.
• “Boss of Me” – Dir. Brett Blackwell (Canada) 8 min.
• “Protoparticles” - Dir. Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain) 8 min.
• “How to Rid Your Lover of a Negative Emotion Caused by You!” – Dir. Nadia Litz (Canada) 15 min.
• “Fatum!” – Dir. Pablo Millan (Spain) 9 min.
• “Bad Dads” – Dir. Derek Westerman, with Michael Cera, Brian Berrebi & Maria Blasucci (USA) 14 min.
 
 
FRENCH FILMS:
 
RIRE EXTRÊME– Sunday, July 24 at 7 p.m.
  • Director Albert Nerenberg will be presenting the film
  • Special laughter fight presentation!
    • Dir. Albert Nerenberg, Canada, 45 min. 
When Laughologist Albert Nerenberg sees two angry cage fighters crack up before a fight he gets a crazy idea.  Instead of an ultimate fighting championship what if you held an ultimate laughter championship? So begins an unprecedented odyssey into the nature of violence, laughter and Quebec.  The goal to create the world's first laughter championship.  The Mission - find Quebec's best laugher.  While many consider the concept impossible and or idiotic, the Laughologist inadvertently stumbles on what may be an entirely new sport with revolutionary and hilarious results. 
 
LE MISSIONNAIRE– Sunday, July 24 at 9 p.m.
  • Star Jean-Marie Bigard will be presenting the film
    • Dir. Roger Delattre, France, 91 min.  Starring Jean-Marie Bigard, David Strajmayster and Thiam Aïssatou.
Jean-Marie Bigard, France's top stand-up comedian, writes and stars in this snappy comedy about an ex-convict on an offbeat road to redemption.  With the help of his brother, a priest, Mario the gangster becomes Father Mario to escape his former associates and is welcomed like the Messiah in a quiet village lost in the French countryside.  Of course, Mario's arrival soon livens the place up.  Comic Jean-Marie Bigard brings rugged credibility and impeccably deadpan comic timing to the role of Mario, while, as his saintly brother Patrick, Doudi Strajmayster (the cross-dressing star of hit TV series Samantha) hilariously falls foul of all kinds of delicious temptations.  Set in the beautiful Ardèche region of southern France, Le Missionnaire is a smart rural comedy with big-city panache.
 
OPÉRATION CASABLANCA – Monday, July 25 at 7 p.m.
  • Dir. Laurent Nègre, Switzerland/Canada/France, 89 min.  Starring Tarik Bakhari, Elodie Yung, Gilles Tschudi, Rachid Badouri, Emile Proulx-Cloutier
One day, Saadi finally snaps.  His boss has mistreated him one time too many.  But when the young dishwasher, a North African illegal immigrant dares to protest, he is summarily fired.  Leaving the rundown hotel in the outskirts of Geneva, on foot and with all his belongings in a shoulder bag, he becomes entangled in a terrorist group's attempt to kidnap the Secretary-General of the United Nations and is surrounded by a SWAT team battalion who has mistaken him for one of the Arab criminals.  With both the terrorists and the police gunning for him, desperate to keep from going under in this vortex of insanity, Saadi has no choice but to play along with the fundamentalists and try to find his own piece of heaven.
 
COURTS MÉTRAGES:
For its 15th edition, Just for Laughs Film brings to Montreal the best and most recent comedic short films from around the world.
 
TOUT COURT 1– Monday, July 25 at 9 p.m.
A selection of the best comedy shorts from around the world and beyond!
Quebec’s finest in the spotlight: Simon-Olivier Fecteau, Sophie Cadieux, Janine Sutto.
• “Cadets” – Dir. Eric Senecal (Canada) 5 min.
• “La vie est une comédie musicale” – Dir. Émilie Rosas (Canada) 8 min.
• “The Wonder Hospital” – Dir. Beomsik Shimbe Shim (USA/South Korea) 11 min.
• “Dog Sitting” – Dir. Sara Verhagen & Yannick Privat (USA) 8 min.
• “La queue du peloton” – Dir. Jean-François Robichaud (Canada) 5 min.
• “Custard” – Dir. Peter Millard (UK) 3 min.
• “Full Sentimental” – Dir. Yohann Gasse (Canada) 10 min.
• “Sarah Cloutier: Scripte” – Dir. Patrick Aubert w/ Isabelle Gaumont (Canada) 3 min.
• “La dame au manteau rouge” – Dir. Olivier Labonte (Canada) 12 min.
• “Casse Pipe” – Dir. Alex & Damien Jadin (Belgium) 15 min.
• “Good Vibes” – Dir. Alain Deslongchamps (Canada) 7 min.
 
TOUT COURT 2– Tuesday, July 26 at 9 p.m.
A selection of the best comedy shorts from around the world and beyond!
Quebec’s finest in the spotlight: Simon-Olivier Fecteau, Sophie Cadieux, Janine Sutto
• “Bottle” – Dir. Kirsten Lepore (USA) 5 min.
• “Coupable(s)” – Dir. David Tuil (France) 4 min.
• “Les bons termes selon Dewey” – Dir. Émilie Rosas (Canada) 6 min.
• “Débil Starz: Game Over Death” – Dir. Pierre Fernandez (France) 5 min.
• “Pierre LaPierre” – Dir. Francis Lachaine (Canada) 2 min.
• “Odette” – Dir. Nicolas Bacon (Canada) 9 min.
• “Protoparticles” - Dir. Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain) 8 min.
• “Umbra” – Dir. Malcolm Sutherland (Canada) 5 min.
• “Donde esta Kim Bassinger?” – Dir. Edouard Deluc (France) 30 min.
• “Banc public” – Dir. Martin Thibaudeau (Canada) 5 min. Go Back