Discover Movies

Since signing up for a paragliding course 14 years ago, Benjamin Jordan had dreamt of completing an unpowered aerial journey, straight up the spine of the Canadian Rockies. He imagined soaring over glaciers, landing high in the alpine, bathing in turquoise waters, then flying on as he made his way over 1200 km, from Montana to Prince George, BC But there was a catch. Nobody had ever done it before, and for one, very good, reason. Join this unprecedented, Aerial and Mountain Adventure as you soar across British Columbia & Alberta's most impressive mountains. And brace yourself for the darkness, as Jordan reveals the inner struggle, mindset and motivation, required to push forward in the face of such risk.

This documentary from 1945 explains The Veteran's Land Act, which provided for low-cost loans to veterans who wished to purchase properties and re-establish themselves in Canada after the war. The loans were for properties ranging from town lots to full-scale farms. The Act also provided aid in purchasing farm machinery, fishing boats, building materials and livestock. Produced by the NFB for the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs.

In Peru, the national gastronomy, regarded as one of the largest in the world, is at the heart of a movement of identity renewal. Charming because of its authenticity, despite its variety of influences, it is a true national pride as shown by the cultural and identity claims linked to it. Through various characters, we will trace the history, the mixed origins, the dishes and the favourite ingredients of this cooking style.

An exploration of the unique culture of Newfoundland's outports, the film revisits the PR coup that launched the animal rights movement onto the international stage: the 1977 Newfoundland visit, orchestrated by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, of French actress turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot to protest the area's ancestral sealing activities. Soon, inhabitants of the island's northern outports we're being introduced to the world as the epitome of brutality.

Three intrepid women battle for Indigenous women's treaty rights.

With moving stories from a range of characters from her Kahnawake Reserve, Mohawk filmmaker, Tracey Deer, reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy to expose the lingering "blood quantum" ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community.

By using film as a means of communication, the people of Fogo Island, Newfoundland, voice some of their daily concerns. In this film, some of the problems discussed are the lack of fish and the inability to market any species but cod.

In the ice-gripped environment of Alaska's Admiralty Island, summer offers the briefest of respites. Year-round residents such as bears and seals turn to the salmon-filled waterways for sustenance. Meanwhile, migrants descend in droves, from humpback whales to over 140 million seabirds--almost half the birds in the Northern Hemisphere.

Giovanni, Francesco and Salvatore have passed the age of 80 and are proud to still consider themselves communist or socialist comrades. All three left their impoverished villages in southern Italy during the post-war years and, once settled in Montreal, maintained close links with parties of the Italian left, while militating in progressive Canadian unions and parties.

Travel along with the Voyager spacecrafts as they traverse the solar system on their planetary expedition spanning over three decades.

Canadian author, humorist and storyteller W.O. Mitchell talks about his career as a writer and performer. Known for his witty radio and television appearances, Mitchell shows a more serious side as he reveals his personal views on writing and on the meaning of life and death.

A year in the life of a French speaking family and the obstacles they face as a linguistic minority in Nova Scotia.

The Mercer family discusses the pressures that force the young people to leave Fogo Island and their families.

American academic Norman Finkelstein discusses foreign policy toward Israel and the Middle East.

Reflection of the director on criminality and the links that united him since childhood to the Hell’s Angels, more particularly to Mom Boucher and her son Francis.

Making of documentary filmed over months of rehearsal and experimentation between director André Brassard and the cast to flesh out Michel Tremblay's "Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d’été".

This documentary focuses on boom-and-bust economic cycles, most notably that of Alberta oil during the '70s and early '80s. When the bust hit after a drop in world oil prices, those business people who knew how to "ride a tornado" cut their losses and moved on, while others were left devastated. When Newfoundland was faced with a possible oil boom of its own in the mid-'80s, it took the lessons of Alberta to heart. Part 3 of the series, Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada.

This film covers the transitional political period between the election of the Parti Québécois on November 15, 1976, and the Canadian federal election that brought Joe Clark to power. Featuring some of our most colourful politicians, historians, journalists, artists and citizens, this film highlights in parallel the convictions of each on the national political question, on the eve of the first Quebec referendum. Montage of newsreels shot between the election of the Parti Québécois on November 15, 1976, and the federal election of 1979.

Ready or not, society is in a process of redefinition. What goes through people’s minds in a situation like a toilet paper shortage? The term COVID-19 stands for something invisible, stoking fears strong enough to cause stock markets to melt like snow in springtime. As filmmaker Georges Hannan’s 91-year-old mother puts it, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” It has prompted him to embark on a gradual reflection over time, in a part of the world like any other: Atlantic Canada. Call it a fishing expedition with camera and microphone, into the unknown.

The documentary tells the story of how a young British-Canadian archaeologist went to Iran in 1962, largely on an adventure. There, he became fascinated by Iranian culture, and began to study the country’s history in earnest, specialising in the pre-Islamic Sasanian era. In 1964, Edward Keall explored the ruins of the so-called Yazdegerd’s Castle, which local legends attributed to the last of the Sasanian king of kings. After he had secured a job in 1972 as a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum (Canada), Keall’s proposal to re-activate his old exploration of the castle of King Yazdegerd was endorsed by the Iranian archaeological authorities. The first Canadian expedition was mounted in 1965; the last one was terminated abruptly in February 1979 when the Shah of Iran was toppled by the supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The film documents the events of these times.

Bosom Friends is a 1934 American short film produced by E. W. Hammons. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 7th Academy Awards in 1934 for Best Short Subject (Novelty). Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2013.

The arrival of the mining company Osisko creates a lot of excitement in Malartic, a small community of 3600 souls in Quebec, Canada. Faced with the implacable Mining Act, which prioritizes the right to exploit subsoil resources rather than the right to property, many families and seniors need to write off certain elements of their heritage plus a part of their lifestyle to make room for the largest open-pit gold mine in Canada. The characters in Others' Gold experience in their own way this major change that will affect their lives and urban environment.

A portrait of the Canadian architect Luc Durand (1929 – 2018), who, after studying with Eugène Beaudoin in Switzerland, began his career in India. This period would be decisive for his career and would influence many of the projects he designed in Quebec, including the Quebec Pavilion at Expo 67, Place Dupuis, and the Olympic Village for the 1976 Olympic Games. Durand then decided to return to his roots in 2012, traveling from Montreal to Geneva, from New Delhi to Chandigarh. A portrait of an eminent figure in Quebec architecture.

A strong point of view on the deforestation of Quebec's boreal forest in Canada.

When 74-year-old Robert Tilley agreed to take photographer Ting Ting Chen on a road trip across Newfoundland, neither could have predicted the deep, cross-generational friendship that would blossom between them, nor how Robert's role in Ting Ting's art would challenge traditional ideas of the artist-muse relationship. This touching short film explores the concepts of aging, memory and identity while demonstrating the power of creative connection.

A poetic meditation by a man and a woman whose teenage son has threatened to end his life. What drives someone to that terrible extreme? In an effort to understand and demystify the phenomenon of suicide, the two parents search for answers within themselves. Their personal reflection is intercut with dramatic sequences, archival footage, animation, interviews and first-person accounts that look at suicide from an emotional, rational, cultural, social or medical perspective.

A look at the current global climate crisis and how we're adapting to these changes.

The history of changes experienced by Inuit people in the last sixty years is contained in the stories of Vivi Kunuk. Abandoned by her father, a White RCMP officer, Vivi Kunuk was adopted by the Inuk family of her mother who raised her as a boy. This is but one remarkable chapter in her life. With her husband Enuki, she raised eight children living most of the year on the land. Surrounded by her grandchildren, she recounts stories about the land she knows intimately and her life's destiny on Baffin Island.

Dylan Fulford, Landon Avramovic, Tom O’Reilly, Tremaine Glasgow, Ryan Witt, Snarf.

December the 31th, 2003. Lucie decides to write a letter to the man who abused her from the age of 8 to 12 years old and resolves herself to bring it to him in person, wherever he may be.

Since 1980, Lucille Côté has lived in Laterrière, surrounded by more than 250 animals. With a silver mane and candid demeanor, Lucille practices a craft that has long been the exclusive domain of men: Taxidermy. Through various contemplative and country-flavoured tableaux, we meet a particular breed of taxidermist, living outside of the digital age, with enough skills to get by in the woods without a compass or a frying pan.

A 15 minute documentary utilizing archival Super 8 film footage and original animation about a father fulfilling his dream of reconnecting his 5 small children to the steps of his own father when he fought for the Canadian military in WW2 through a trip to Europe in 1973.

The video documentary "A Struggle to Remember: Fighting for Our Families" puts faces and narratives to the story of the struggle for family leave in Canada. The 20-minute film shows how it became accepted that women be able to return to their jobs after maternity leave and how men and women gained real and enforceable work-life balance provisions.

A team of firemen spend time together at the station while waiting for calls.

This documentary from Min Sook Lee follows a poverty-stricken father from Central Mexico, along with several of his countrymen, as they make their annual migration to southern Ontario to pick tomatoes. For 8 months a year, the town's population absorbs 4,000 migrant workers who toil under conditions, and for wages, that no local would accept. Yet despite a fear of repercussions, the workers voice their desire for dignity and respect.

Throughout the course of the Haida basketball season, leaders of iconic rez ball team the Skidegate Saints compete for two titles - defending their All Native Basketball Championship, while also battling for title to their land and waters with the government that stole it from them with the Indian Act.

Social isolation affects millions of people, even Mars-bound astronauts. A savvy NASA psychologist is tasked with protecting these daring explorers.

This documentary profiles economist and writer Marilyn Waring. In extensive interviews, Waring details her feminist approach to finances and challenges commonly accepted truths about the global economy. The filmmakers detail Waring's early rise to political prominence and her successful protests against nuclear arms. Waring also speaks candidly about wartime economies, suggesting that government policies tend to marginalize the fiscal contributions of women.

Prohibited, abandoned, and unexplored sites are hidden and sealed in Montreal. Entering defies the law, danger, and death. The urbex community is an even better-kept secret. Enter into this universe at your peril.

A documentary covering the life and death of Jamaican reggae musician and cultural icon Peter Tosh. Drawn both from Tosh's "Red X" series of autobiographical tapes that he was recording at the time of his murder and from interviews with other figures in his life.

An introduction to Miryam Charles, a flourishing young artist in experimental cinema. Her voice and her film delineate the contours of her own history and that of her immigrant ancestors—a DIY poem that evolves from her words, spoken and sung. The film represents a unique new initiative aimed at highlighting filmmakers from Quebec’s immigrant community: for this first edition, the two laureates were Gabriela de Andrade and Alexandre Paskanoi.

This documentary chronicles the life and crimes of former gay porn star Luka Magnotta who was convicted of killing and dismembering a man and posting the video online.

During the fire season, look-out men keep constant vigilance for the first sign of smoke, scanning the territory for miles around. How they are trained for the work and how their efforts save many valuable stands of timber are illustrated at a fire tower in the Forestry Branch's Petawawa Forest Experiment Station in Ontario.

With his charisma, his energy, his integrity - but also his faults - René Lévesque left an indelible mark in the collective imagination of Quebecers: that of a hero of a people. But how can we measure his legacy, 35 years after his death and 100 years after his birth? From Montreal to New Carlisle, L'Actualité journalist Guillaume Bourgault-Côté crosses Quebec to meet certain relatives, colleagues, experts and artists who rubbed shoulders with the man, literally and figuratively. Together, they try to identify what remains of René Lévesque. By traveling through Quebec, we will better understand the legacy left by René Lévesque 100 years after his birth, 35 years after his death: his role in the sovereignist movement, the development of public and economic policies, but also the strength of his personality, which still today arouses a feeling of deep attachment among the Quebec population, regardless of political allegiances. (Translated from French.)

Filmed across the eastern half of North America in the 1970's, CARNIVALS is an homage to Speedy, Yak-Yak, Obie, Lobster Boy, and all the other carnies who lived and worked on Amusements of America. Theirs was a world within a world, traveling through the chaos of post-Viet Nam America as a community of freaks, strippers, clowns and bosses. To them, there world was sane; it was the rest of America that was crazy. In an era when Viet Nam madness was still tearing at the country the carnival was their refuge, their home.

The film is a portrait of Dave St-Pierre, a dancer and choreographer from Montreal who is urgently awaiting a lung transplant due to his lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis.

A documentary exploring the birth, death and resurrection of illustrated movie poster art. Through interviews with a number of key art personalities from the 70s and 80s, as well as many modern, alternative poster artists, “Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six” aims to answer the question: What happened to the illustrated movie poster? Where did it disappear to, and why? In the mid 2000s, filling the void left behind by Hollywood’s abandonment of illustrated movie posters, independent artists and galleries began selling limited edition, screenprinted posters — a movement that has quickly exploded into a booming industry with prints selling out online in seconds, inspiring Hollywood studios to take notice of illustration in movie posters once more.

Photographed through the windshield of a Vancouver city bus and edited according to the rhythms of the bus' windshield wiper, the film transforms the linear narrative of the bus ride into a temporal construction that can be described as cubist. The effect of the cutting strategy on the actual temporal organization of the film is as remarkable as its effect on our sense of time.

Each September, Bolot Tagaev and his family practice a centuries old tradition, harvesting walnuts in one of the oldest walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan. Over the course of a single season, director Zaheed Mawani gracefully captures delicate sequences such as a child interacting with a snake, or sacks of walnuts being laid gently across an attic bed. Stories attached to the forest are told and retold over the fire at night, adding a mythic dimension.

Through striking archival footage, reXistence exposes systemic violence and celebrates Black strength in Canada, reviving a buried memory to awaken our consciousness and remind us what we’re still fighting for.

Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless women and men walk, bike, climb and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labeled a "dream cause," becomes obfuscated by a shiny, pink story of success.