One of Canada's premier cinematic exports, Guy Maddin (b. 1956) is an award-winning filmmaker with a rising reputation. Known for his autobiographical tales---hidden deeply within comical, absurd, and surrealistic narratives---Maddin has earned international acclaim, including a lifetime achievement award at the Telluride Film Festival at the age of thirty-nine.

Possessing a deep knowledge of silent cinema, modernist artists, and novelists, Maddin's seemingly amateurish visual style and unusual subjects (patriphagia in The Dead Father, incest in Careful) obscure the...