Discover Movies

Ice-skating and gender. A pornographic collage of figure-skating footage.

Chronicling the Halifax Central Library event to launch Jen Powley’s book entitled Just Jen: Thriving with Multiple Sclerosis, about Jen’s resilience, humanity and sense of humour despite her disease.

A contemplative documentary on the life of bees and the repercussions of the climate crisis on their existence.

Documentary about the Barbie doll, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.

A town fights to survive being virtually cut off from the world for 2.5 years. While most communities reopen after covid lockdowns, Skagway, AK is stuck as cruise ships, the town’s only economy, do not sail and Canada locks its borders—trapping the town’s 1,000 locals and throwing their lives into chaos. After years of building the town as a northern paradise, families who’ve staked it all must decide if they’ll stay or go and what will be left behind—if there’s anything left at all.

A few years prior to the COVID pandemic, Hui Wang returned to Wuhan, China, to reconnect with her aging grandparents, who were her childhood caregivers. Now that they are in their late 80s, the pace of life in their modest home has slowed considerably, but they remain as active as possible in their quiet but rapidly transforming neighbourhood. Navigating various maladies, their humorous domestic bickering is loving evidence of a codependent couple’s deep bonds developed after spending the better part of a century together. Reflecting on both the joyful and difficult times and clearly rejuvenated by their granddaughter’s company, they recount China’s history through personal experiences during Japanese occupation during World War II and the subsequent Cultural Revolution.

A documentary showcasing the traditional Filipino way of eating, through a foreign, outdated lens.

This documentary film is an exploration of Québec’s feature film industry. The film takes a look at the people who have succeeded in this unique milieu (Geneviève Bujold is one) or failed; at its movies, which run the gamut from hard-core skinflicks to such highly acclaimed films as Mon Oncle Antoine, and at its audiences, which number in the millions.

This short film portrays the NFB's itinerant projectionists during the '40s and early '50s who travelled throughout Canada, bringing films and discussions to rural communities. The film uses a mix of dramatic re-enactments with archival footage and interviews with veterans of the movie circuit to shed light on an important period in Canadian film history.

Pro Skier Danger Dave and pal Sven Wolfeshlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff travel to the hill for the fun day of hitting the slopes, and some big jumps!

Queer Coolie-tudes is a creative essay documentary and queer ethnography which traces the intergenerational lives, histories, identities, familial relations and sexualities of a diverse range of subjects (academics, artists, and activists) from the Indo-Caribbean diaspora in Canada. Some are mixed race, including: dougla (Indian-African mixture), callaloo (creole mixtures)), genderqueer, disabled, aids activist, and perform drag identity.

The film follows Sam, a falconer and naturalist living on the North Mountain of the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. Through performance and documentary, Tetrault conducted interviews with Sam on the relationship a falconer has with a bird of prey, and the possibility for over-identification and projection onto the bird.

A young designer, Selma Bryant-Fournier, starts her career in a large clothing manufacturing firm in Montreal. She hopes to design clothes for mass production that are beautiful, functional and affordable by everyone.

A Toronto filmmaker returns to his declining hometown to reconnect with his father and grandfather, the two men who have shaped his life. Beautifully shot in black and white, this tender film captures a rural town and family in flux.

“Background actors” silently inhabit the roles of pedestrians or passersby. Like an exercise in walking meditation, the pedestrians trace a path that is unstable, full of distractions, thoughts, and emotions, crises of identity, anxiety, and restlessness. —Julia Feyrer

The history of Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax, and the modern day controversy surrounding his statue.

This documentary is a record of the role played by Spitfires in defeating the Axis during World War II. The film, which shows these planes in action during the Battle of Britain, in Italy, and on D-Day, also depicts the work of aeronautical engineers and ground crews who kept the Spitfires in the air.

The film follows Peter Oliver, ex-pat South African and one of Canada's most successful restaurateurs, as he travels to South Africa on behalf of The Stephen Leacock Foundation, an organization he founded. In the process, he finds himself on a collision course with reality (http://www.cbc.ca/revenuegroup/affiliates/pure-intentions.html).

A short POV documentary about a young black Drag King.

A video diary of the things a Vancouver household had to do dealing with bed bugs.

Born from scattered conversations, gleaned memories, and the whims of a season, Cold Calls traverses the moods of the white world: storms in Whistler, Japanese powder, Norwegian vastness, rare sunny spells in Alaska. Each call becomes a story, funny, serious, or simply human. In the end, nothing was really planned, but everything seems to fall into place. In doing so, it questions the reasons that drive us to act this way and reveals the inexplicable joy that skiing brings.

When a group of Quebec farmers organizes to travel halfway around the world to spend time with peasants and farm workers in the Philippines, strong ties of international solidarity and mutual understanding result.

Alice is the daughter, the ‘oriental pearl’, of filmmaker Nicole Giguère. ‘Big Noses’ is the familiar Chinese term for Westerners such as Nicole. In the late 1980s, Quebec led the way in adopting children from The People’s Republic of China. Since then, over 5,000 Chinese children, mostly girls, have found a home in Quebec. This documentary follows Alice over a span of ten years, as she and many of her friends face the challenges of growing up in a white world. The one hour program presents Big Nosed parents and their Chinese daughters, sharing their love, concerns and expectations as they learn to adopt each other. Members of Quebec’s long established Chinese community also express their views on this emotional and sometimes controversial issue. The film is a portrait of an ever-changing world, and shows how the presence of so many new Quebecers with almond-shaped eyes can contribute to the evolution of our society.

Around the world, the fisheries are in trouble. Among the new, suggested solutions is co-management: a system in which gorvernments devolve some of the authority for managing fish stocks to local communities. One of the best-known and most successful examples of co-management is found in Norway's Lofoten Islands, where a tradition of self-regulation is backed up by a national commitment to supporting scientific fisheries research. What lessons can be drawn from the Lofoten experience? This film will encourage fishing communities to see that there are alternatives, however imperfect, to the current global fisheries crisis.

HIV-positive bodies stage a reverse-arranging of flowers, stitched together with personal accounts of living with stigmatised illness.

Five years after Soleils noirs, Julien Elie returns with a rigorously researched work, asserting itself as a genuine cinematic piece. This time, he turns the spotlight on the regime of terror and violence forged by transnational companies, in collaboration with the Mexican government and organized crime allowing them to appropriate land and exploit resources. With respect and careful attention to detail, the film uncovers the courage and dignity of resistance to this new kind of colonialism that is both destructive and murderous in nature and reigns with utter impunity. The camera hones in on the faces of those who have dared to speak out, and on their daily lives, which have been turned upside down. It magnifies a land of great beauty and richness marked by physical and psychological scars.

An original video diary documenting the director's efforts to have artificial insemination. Cuthand describes his desire to have children of his own and the difficult journey he must take to have them, a journey that is also closely tied to his membership in Canada's First Nations and thus to the question of preserving his indigenous culture.

Kathleen is a hairdresser who uses her talents in the most tender and gentle of ways: she primps and pampers people in palliative care, committed to creating small moments of normalcy and joy in their lives.

"Field of Vision" moves between the real and the imagined, the built and natural worlds, and explores how we see with both our eyes and our minds. It weaves together layers of images and sounds with police blotter reports and descriptions of visual and auditory hallucinations.

Using anonymous home movie footage of Expo '67 in Montreal, the artist sets out to recreate a memory that perhaps never existed. Celluloid manipulation and sound decay techniques coalesce to transform a mythic landscape into a sublime expanse of disintegrated memory

A man makes a career change into the fashion industry.

stop motion photography in y/d square, toronto. flickered and transformed using processing. produced song from chopped samples made in fl studio. title: rainway (extended interlude).

Few people in the climbing world know Emilie Pellerin, yet the Canadian climber has made a big name for herself in onsight climbing in recent years. This type of climbing involves ascending a route completely on the first attempt—without stopping and, of course, without a single fall. With La Zébrée, a 5.14-rated overhanging crack climb in Quebec, she takes on her biggest onsight challenge yet.

Sitting Tall: The Patrick Anderson Story examines the background and career of Patrick Anderson, arguably the greatest wheelchair basketball player of all time, as he prepares for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Portrait of gay filmmaker and Parkinson's sufferer Tom Chomont.

Since his death in 2007, the renown of Canadian painter E.J. Hughes has only continued to grow. For decades, his extraordinary works highlighting the landscapes of British Columbia have captivated the public, but his personal life is less well known. A solitary man dedicated to his art, Hughes led a fascinating life, struggling to make ends meet until a discovery of his work led to its acclaim. Having attempted to work as a fisherman during the Depression, he became a war artist during the Second World War and never gave up his passion for painting, even when devotedly caring for his ailing wife.

Does the quality of life still concern us?

The Klabona Keepers is an intimate portrait of the dynamic Indigenous community that succeeded in protecting the Sacred Headwaters, known as the Klabona, from industrial activities. Spanning 15 years of matriarch-led resistance, a small group of determined elders in the village of Iskut heal from the wounds of colonization to push back against law enforcement, government, and some of the world’s largest multinational companies. Nestled between scenes of stand-offs and blockades, land defenders reflect on how their history of forced displacement, residential schools, and trauma strengthened their resolve to protect the very land that was so essential to their healing journey.

A hand-processed film that blurs the false duality of gender roles and the dubious distinctions between femininity and masculinity.

"Jaffa Gate Is Ours!" screamed the headlines in 2005. Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos was accused of selling church property to Jewish settlers. He denied all the accusations. But for the first time in the church's 2000-year history, its leader was ousted. For 11 long years, Irineos was imprisoned in his chambers. In this first-person account, filmmaker Danae Elon unravels what really happened to the former Patriarch. With unprecedented access to the inner workings of the church, a riveting, mysterious, disturbing, and often humorous story is revealed about an unknown world within the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.

A missionary attempts to repatriate a man claiming to be a Vietnam veteran who is thought to be dead.

While investigating the day bank robbers stormed her grandmother’s home and held her hostage, the filmmaker retraces events and speaks with those involved, uncovering a shocking revelation that casts the incident in a completely new light—challenging family memories and revealing hidden truths about a moment that has long haunted them.

They are an Indian people who have suffered for many years. They were forced to live in unimaginable squalor. Houses not much better than cardboard boxes. No running water, no sewage disposal. Human waste tossed into the streets where children played in it and dogs ate it. As their sense of worth disintegrated, they engaged in a process of self-destruction. 90% of the community became alcoholic. Many of their children sniffed gas. Many more suffered from chronic disease. Stripped of culture, meaning, and hope, they killed themselves at a rate among the world's highest. But their tragedies did not occur in a third world country. They happened in a country with a reputation as one of the world's best places to live-Canada. They are the Innu. For thousands of years they roamed strong and free.

Daniel, an HIV-positive man, weaves his new identity in his Acadian village. Documentary about an Acadian weaver and AIDS survivor who, despite fatigue and dexterity difficulties, retreats to his loom as a form of therapy — and as a new identity. ~~ Nominations & awards ~~ Image + Nation Festival, Montreal, 2023, Best Short Film Award ~~ Image + Nation Festival, Montreal, 2023, Emerging Voices Award ~~ Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie, Moncton, N.B., 2023, Best Short Acadian Film Award ~~ Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, France, 2024, Telefilm Canada Selection

Banana Split takes the viewer on a journey that begins with the hustle and bustle of a fruit market in Thunder Bay, and ends up with an examination of the daily challenges of life in Honduras. In addition to being a popular fruit in Canada, bananas are used as a staple food in more than 100 tropical and sub-tropical countries.

Fishing the treacherous North Atlantic is everything a modern job tries not to be: it's brutal, dangerous and gruelling. Family and friends are left behind for weeks at a time. In The Voyage of the 7 Girls filmmaker John Brett joins skippers Wes and Marty Henneberry on four voyages aboard their 32-metre longliner - the 7 Girls - for an up-close look at the extreme demands of a job that tests body and soul.

In appreciation of the eponymous stream, this poem is a love letter to the beauty found in nature. Written and spoken in English and Anishinaabemowin.

In Quebec, the lakes we love and take for granted are quickly perishing, as highlighted by the proliferation of aquatic plants and algae in our water bodies. With images of lakes and dozens of interviews, the documentary points the finger at those responsible for this decline.

The video Quest for History, is a quest for self knowledge. This presentation is a sampler of a much larger story which opens avenues for further research. It brings together personal stories, interviews, history, and memories. These fragments of interwoven conversations of aunts, uncles, sisters and cousins reveal their common link to two brothers who, in the 19th century, went in search of a transition from slave legacy to effectuate self-sufficiency. Through capturing the oral stories and weaving them together with her personal experience of life and travel the video expresses the tapestry of identity of one person and yet this work transfers to the viewer, a shared experience.

A refreshingly earnest and comedic documentary that tells the story of a family who have dedicated the last 20 years of their lives to sharing their vision of wild creativity through interactive film projects. Disheartened that the transformative power of the camera has been eclipsed by screen scrolling, they embark on a final journey to meet their heroes and bring their own creative visions to life.

Rome, a palimpsest: monuments, the Catholic church, the everyday life.

Laugh In the Dark takes us into the heart of “queer family values” with an odd little wagon train of “six fags, two dykes and an old lady” who pull into the dilapidated town of Crystal Beach, Ontario in the early l980s. The “boys” dream of restoring this former resort town to its earlier glory, with a twist. They open a B&B, and stage lavish cabarets, complete with lip synching drag queens, to raise money for early AIDS awareness.

In the town of Saint-Hyacinthe in Quebec, far from the halls of concert, the men share their lives between their profession of harmonist in the factory of Casavant organs and their participation in the activities of the company local philharmonic.

A fishing wharf serves as the runway for a sexy, male fashion show, and childhood fantasies are brought to life in this nostalgic and surreal video about growing up gay in a small Newfoundland town. Auto Biography is a world where lesbian mothers dote over their gay sons and old men reminisce about long-ago boyfriends. In Day's humourous inversion of societal values (shot clandestinely in his parent's house), memory is colourfully reconstructed, and dinner dates and pyjama parties take on a whole new meaning.