Do not miss "Village Keeper" at the Cinema du Parc of Montreal

"Village Keeper" explores a family's struggle with hidden domestic abuse and unresolved anger that silently persists across generations. Having premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, "Village Keeper" will be featured as an official selection and honorable mention at the Montreal Independent Film Festival. It will be screened at the Cinema du Parc in Montreal on May 25th, alongside short film finalists, from 5 to 7 PM.

Following a devastating tragedy, Jean relocates her children to the community housing project where she grew up, seeking refuge with their grandmother. Haunted by secrets and scars, she struggles to shield her teenagers from the harsh realities of their environment.

When a citywide gun violence spree strikes close to home, Jean is propelled into action. She cleans her community of the remnants of violence, a symbolic act that reshapes her understanding of her past, her family's hidden truths, and her own resilience.

After a life-shattering tragedy, Jean moves her children back into the decaying community housing project with their grandmother, where she grew up. She goes through the motions in a haunted, cautious limbo, trying unsuccessfully to shield her two teenagers,Tristin and Tamika from the world. But when a violent gun spree brings violence to her doorstep, she’s jolted out of stagnation. Finding courage, she secretly cleans the lingering traces of blood, left in abandoned crime scenes in her community. It’s an act that transforms her relationship with where she lives, her family, and herself. With the weight of the world on her shoulders, she must learn to save herself and break the cycle of generational chains, while protecting her children against a system designed to swallow them whole.

With her first dramatic feature, writer-director Karen Chapman creates an emotional and authentic study of a single mother trying to hold herself together.

Jean is the provider and (over)protector of her two teen children, Tamika and Tristin, and begrudgingly lives with her mother in a crowded Lawrence Heights apartment complex. Despite the kids learning to become more self-sufficient, Jean’s vision is too clouded by the past to see that they're growing. She is haunted by violence in both their past and their present, and must help her children cope. Expertly using sound and flashbacks to construct a layered and full portrait of this woman's life, Chapman reveals the trials and tribulations that women in Jean’s family carry with them.