Bryan Hennessey

This is the story of The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, a surreal comedy about a lowly bureaucrat and his fantasies of becoming president of an independent Newfoundland, that was released in 1986. A cult classic in Canadian cinema, the film is well known for the marathon it took to even get made. Principal photography on the film began eight years earlier, in 1978. Written and directed by comedy legend Andy Jones and his brother, Mike Jones, the movie was made on a shoestring budget, is packed with familiar faces and helped pave the way for Newfoundland and Labrador's vibrant film industry. And it was the first film ever both filmed and produced, from start to finish, in Newfoundland.

54 Hours is a remarkably vivid account of the 1914 tragedy in which 132 men were stranded on the ice during a severe snowstorm off the coast of Newfoundland. Seventy-eight men froze to death on the ice pack.

When a troubled woman arrives in the city to start her life anew, she must navigate the complex landscape of her past when she comes face to face with a younger woman threatening down the same path.

An exploration of music in the life, and writing, of James Joyce. Two Newfoundland actors, a Toronto opera singer and a New York Joycean scholar travel to Dublin and join forces with a group of Irish musicians to tell the story of music in the life, and writing, of the great Irish writer James Joyce.

A down-and-out restaurateur and his neighbor hatch a plan to lure bird watchers to their small Newfoundland town and increase tourism by announcing the presence of a rare duck.

A woman (Lois Brown) who thinks money will solve her problems enlists the help of a homeless friend (Barry Newhook) to rob a bingo hall.

It seems like everyone in Violet’s family dies at age 55. Her mother did, her father did, and as this movie opens Violet, played by Mary Walsh, learns that her brother, Leonard has also died. He too was 55, an age she is now fast approaching herself. His death causes Violet to begin an existential tailspin as her family gathers round. They are Andrew Younghusband who plays her son Carlos, a gay professor of languages who has returned from Montreal. Actor and director Barry Newhook plays Rex who is a musician and daughter Ramona is played by Susan Kent. As the movie unfolds it turns out that Violet has a lot to live for, including a romance with farm manager Rusty played by Peter MacNeill.

The Untold Story of the Suffragists of Newfoundland (1999) is a docu-drama celebrating the thirty year struggle by the women of Newfoundland to win the right to vote.

When Draper Doyle’s father drops dead two days after his birthday, Draper realises that he his memories of visiting his father two days previously have vanished. With the help of Uncle Reg, he attempts to piece his memory back together.

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, is North America's most easterly landfall. For half a millennium, its perfect harbour has provided a safe refuge in the middle of the treacherous North Atlantic. For 300 years of its history it was an actual crime to try and settle--Newfoundland was the private preserve of British fishing merchants. But people stayed, despite the colonial masters, despite the lack of law and order, despite hellish weather and raging seas. And the city grew--lurching through centuries of crisis, disaster, privation. For filmmaker Rosemary House, "This is still a hard rock land, a dirty old town at the back of beyond. And yet the St. John's townie is so proud, you'd swear we lived in Paris." In this documentary, she explores her city with the help of six locals, Mary Walsh, Andy Jones, Anita Best, Brian Hennessey, Ed Riche, Des Walsh, writers and performers all. (Source: National Film Board)