A Soft Touch

Donna has recently been convicted of “Driving While Impaired” and is ordered to perform community service at the local animal shelter. When an elderly dog is scheduled to be euthanized, Donna decides to take the dog home and quickly realizes his companionship can ease her loneliness. In a futile attempt to fill the emptiness she feels, Donna begins to take home more and more animals and she is soon in over her head.

There, There tells the parallel stories of Ruth, an elderly woman with dementia obsessed with feeding the neighbourhood birds, and Shannon, her young homecare worker who is pregnant and has been deserted by the baby’s father. The two women find comfort in one another at these very different stages in their lives.

A reticent young dairy farm employee struggles with the news of an unexpected pregnancy. A methodical cycle of calf births and milk extraction becomes an incisive meditation on the implications of reproduction and the anxiety of impending parenthood.

In this devastating portrait from Nova Scotia filmmaker Heather Young, a woman struggles with raising her three infant children while still clinging to a fading relationship.

When an older woman begins to experience anxiety and depression she isolates herself inside her small apartment. Embarrassed and alone, she relies on the constant companionship of her chihuahua for her comfort and social outlet.