Greetings from the Calgary airport, where I’m waiting on a connecting flight after spending the weekend at the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival! They were kind enough to invite me to do a panel, I spent a couple of days talking to very nice people and even sat on a short-film jury. (We gave our prize to Alexander Farah’s One Day This Kid, which you should see at the earliest opportunity.)

But I do other stuff, so here’s this week’s episode of Someone Else’s Movie, in which I welcome the actor and filmmaker Ben Petrie as his first feature The Heirloom rolls into its Toronto theatrical release this week. I’ve been acquainted with Ben for a while now, through his work with his real-life partner Grace Glowicki (herself a friend of the show), and I’m delighted to have him on, especially since he’s the first person in almost ten years to pick a Charlie Chaplin movie.

Specifically,  City Lights, Chaplin’s 1931 masterpiece — and perhaps the biggest gamble of his career, since he chose to make a silent film three years after The Jazz Singer rendered them obsolete almost overnight. He knew what he was doing, though, and the result is one for the ages — literally. It’s almost a century old, and that final shot still brought me to tears. If you’ve never seen the film, consider this your motivation; it’s on the Criterion Channel, and the Criterion BD looks as good as a 35mm print. And if you have seen it, enjoy the conversation. It’s warm and comforting.

You know how this works: Subscribe to the show at Apple, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or on your podcatcher of choice, or download the episode directly from the web and listen to it while you dodge the punches of your opponent in the ring. And then go see The Heirloom! Ben and Grace will be at the Lightbox on Thursday night for a Q&A with Kaz Radwanski — also a friend of the show — and they’ll be making other appearances at the Revue Cinema when the film moves there on Friday. But the TIFF screening will be the best one, I just know it.

After you’ve secured your ticket, please catch up to the latest editions of Shiny Things. Last week I wrote about Severin Film’s massive second volume of the folk-horror anthology All the Haunts Be Ours and the 4K anniversary editions of Seven Samurai (Criterion) and North by Northwest, Blazing Saddles and The Terminator (Warner). Plenty more to come, so subscribe right now so you don’t miss anything. If you’re reading this, you probably already have, but … well, just in case.