Anna Pafomow

Jenny, a clever script assistant, lives with Geoff, recently returned to Toronto from Hollywood to direct a televised lottery show. Jenny comes up with a scheme for beating the lottery, which involves the seduction of Byron, an accountant who was hired to keep the lottery honest after the previous accountant dropped dead during the show. As the scheme proceeds, difficulties arise. A cleaning man, originally from India, is suspicious when he sees the lottery - supposedly live - being pre-taped; and the person chosen to buy the winning ticket is pursued by a loan shark. As the scheme unwinds, more and more people in Toronto - and India - learn the winning numbers of the upcoming draw. Meanwhile, Jenny and the accountant start falling in love. Her determined efforts ultimately turn an imminent disaster into a financial and romantic success.

Small Pleasures is a feature film in 35 mm colour about two young women who have recently come to Toronto from China in the fateful spring of 1989. SALLY and ZHAO have different approaches to life in the West. Sally has always dreamt of coming to the west …

Centering on L'Ecuyer's identity as a gay man, the film unfolds as a series of vignettes depicting various key moments in his life.

"Breathtaking in its techniques, rhapsodic in its passion, and encyclopedic in its scope, the film traces the long fall from paradise into modern barbarism." - Art Gallery of Ontario

American television programming dominates around the world at the expense of regional cultural voices.