Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Juliane is a retired astrologer in her 70s who lives in a Paris apartment in the 18^th arrondissement, in Montmartre. She believes her personal presentation – hair, makeup, clothes, and shoes – must always be impeccable. Her life should be full of delicious food, lovely colours and fast friends. And her apartment, part of Haussmanns original design, should be a veritable “house of happiness”.

Maison du Bonheur is a wonderful new documentary that follows Juliane over the course of a month by a Canadian filmmaker who comes to stay with her. It records the mundane, yet fascinating, details of the everyday life of a classic parisienne, even as it subtly reveals her — and the filmmaker’s — unspoken secret histories. The film was directed, shot and edited on a microbudget by Toronto-based Sofia Bohdanowicz. Winner of the Jay Scott Prize, the Emerging Canadian Directors award (at VIFF) and many more, this is Sofia’s second film.

Maison du Bonheur opens tonight at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto.

I spoke with Sofia at CIUT 89.5 FM.