SITTING IN LIMBO
dir. John N. Smith, 1986
Canada. 96 min.
In English.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND – 5 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH – 10 PM 
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH – 7:30 PM

Join us this February at Spectacle to enjoy the 1986 film SITTING IN LIMBO, a heartfelt kitchen-sink drama about the lives of young parents struggling to make ends meet in Montreal’s West Indian community.

During the second half of the 20th century, The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) pioneered documentary filmmakers, helping to define both the cinéma vérité and direct cinema movements. By the 1980s, the NFB began producing “alternative dramas” — films that straddled the line between reality and fiction. Employing non-actors, on-location shooting, improvised dialogue, and documentary style storytelling, these films were ahead of their time and demonstrated an acute awareness of the power of the moving image to reflect and manipulate reality. One of the filmmakers who championed this approach was director John N. Smith. Set primarily to the reggae tunes of Jimmy Cliff, SITTING IN LIMBO is an empathetic portrait of the highs and lows of family, a time capsule of 80’s Montreal, and a timeless portrait of the human condition.