Hot Docs 2009

This evocative, slyly subversive tour of McMahon's hometown of Niagara Falls established his poetic, lyrical approach to the essay film, as well as his penchant for exploring Canadian culture from a playfully intellectual perspective. The "Canadian capital of kitsch" has many eccentricities and contradictions beneath its tacky tourist exterior. A member of a family of daredevils recounts the number of people who have perished over the falls, including his own brother. A resident of the notoriously polluted Love Canal tells of the twisted trees lining her street and the birth defects suffered by her daughter. The Falls deconstructs frames of reference to explore the connections and disparities between nature and environment, culture and commerce, legend and fact.