The Reel Thing Film Series Presents -"Sean's Pick" Double Bill: The Rug & Paying For It
Watch Sean Cisterna's latest short film, The Rug, before catching our feature presentation, Sook-Yin Lee's Paying For It, a live-action adaptation of Chester Brown's best-selling graphic novel.
Special Post-Screening Q&A with Chester Brown
Hosted by
Dr. Alison Halsall
- specialist in the study of comics and graphic narratives from York University.
Ticket Price: $10
Contains mature content (violence, nudity, mature themes, sexually suggestive scenes, sexual language)
The Reel Thing Film Series, presented by Lexus of Richmond Hill
Chester Brown (born 1960) is a Toronto-based cartoonist known for his boundary-pushing work in alternative comics and graphic non-fiction. Emerging in the 1980s with the surreal Ed the Happy Clown, he later shifted to autobiographical. His historical-biographical graphic novel Louis Riel (2003) brought him mainstream recognition, while Paying for It (2011) and Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus (2016) explored controversial themes around sex work. In 2024, he designed a Louis Riel stamp for Canada Post.
Dr. Alison Halsall is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Children, Childhood, and Youth (CCY) Studies, known for her interdisciplinary expertise across literature, visual culture, and comics studies. She specializes in Victorian and modernist literatures with a focus on visual media, including film, illustration, and graphic novels. An award-winning educator, Dr. Halsall co-edited the Eisner Award–winning The LGBTQ+ Comics Studies Reader (2022) and is the author of Growing Up Graphic: The Comics of Children in Crisis (2023).
About Sean Cisterna
His latest film is the feature documentary, The Long Rider (2022), the expansive and inspiring story of Filipe Masetti Leite's journey from Canada to Brazil entirely on horseback, and filmed in 13 different countries. Cisterna found success with From the Vine (2020), an international co-production starring Emmy winner, Joe Pantoliano (the Matrix, Memento,The Sopranos), and distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Cisterna also directed the acclaimed cancer drama, Kiss and Cry (2017), which topped the Canadian box office, and is currently streaming on Netflix worldwide.
Short Film - The Rug
Edna, a senior aged woman, discovers that a discarded throw rug she has found will, for lack of a better word, digest anything left under it. The more it digests, the more it wants. After devouring her pesky landlord and a nosey cop, the rug has gotten so frisky that Edna finds herself trapped in her own home with no way out. Made with a crew of creative senior citizens, THE RUG was funded in part by the New Horizons for Seniors Program and the City of Richmond Hill.
| Year: | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Country of Origin: | Canada |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Original Language: | English |
| Director: | Sean Cisterna |
| Writer: Starring: Runtime: |
Sean Cisterna Jayne Eastwood, Tony Nardi, Zoe Belkin and Jonathan Kim 11 minutes |
| Date & Time: | Mon. April 14, 2025 - 7p.m. |
|---|---|
| Location: | Main Stage |
Main Feature - Paying For It
When an introverted cartoonist's girlfriend wants to redefine their relationship, he begins sleeping with sex workers and discovers a new kind of intimacy in the process. An adaptation of the Graphic Novel by Chester Brown.
| Year: | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Country of Origin: | Canada |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Original Language: | English |
| Director: | Sook-Yin Lee |
| Writer: Starring: Runtime: |
Sook-Yin Lee, Joanne Sarazen
Dan Beirne, Emily Lê
,
|
| Date & Time: | Mon. April 14, 2025 - 7p.m. |
|---|---|
| Location: | Main Stage |
