Discover Movies

Wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer and his wife, environmentalist Leanne Allison follow a herd of 120,000 caribou on foot across 1500 km of Arctic tundra, hoping to raise awareness of the threats to the caribou's survival. Along this journey, they brave torrid conditions, dangerous wildlife and treacherous terrain all in the hopes of learning the truth about this epic migration.

Best known for his work in video, Richard Fung has made the politics of gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation his central focus. Orientations (1984) deald explicitly with gay issues, sn ambitious study considering racism and cultural self-assertion through art, coupled with stories of individual experiences,

A richly illustrated cartoon film that enlarges on man's capacity to foul his own nest, and to ignore it. Made by a joint team of Canadian and Yugoslav animation artists, the film transmits its warning with unflagging humor, imagination, movement and design. In between animated sequences Dr. Fred H. Knelman, Professor of Science and Human Affairs at Concordia University in Montréal, comments on the import of what is shown and on what lies in store if more responsibility is not taken on a global scale to conserve what is left of our vital resources and usable environment.

A region’s beauty gradually reveals an oppressive visual and auditory human presence and the scars inflicted by destructive exploitation. What if this reality wasn't the end?

A bus pulls into a university campus bus stop.

The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein is a 1992 short animated documentary directed by Joyce Borenstein about her father, the Canadian painter Sam Borenstein. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. In Canada, it was named best short documentary at the 12th Genie Awards.

Remote Control War is a one hour documentary produced by Zoot Pictures. The documentary focuses on the rise of robotics in the military. It will be broadcast on CBC in Canada as part of the Doc Zone series, with a first air date of February 24, 2011. The production team shot in Europe, Israel and across North America, going from the Pentagon to production facilities and research laboratories to find the latest technology, trends and the issues that arise when robots are used to kill humans.

CRANKY follows three teams competing to be local champions in an open sea race like no other in North America. It is also a poignant look at an island way of life and a seafaring culture that has changed little over the centuries.

Documentary

The injustice of the Japanese internment is explored through the story of Kyuichi Nomoto, one of the first Japanese Canadians to graduate from UBC, who suffered a breakdown deep in the BC Interior.

As much as hair is directly linked to appearance, displaying personality and belonging to a group, it is also intimately linked to being. How many spiritual rites, practiced here as elsewhere, testify to this. The being and the appearance...we are faced with a troubling duality when we know that the hair can affirm, with as much intensity, one as the other. "...it is precisely this duality that I want to illustrate, by cutting of course "Les cheveux en quatre", to evoke as with Les seins dans la tête, fanfasms, obsessions and beliefs related to these parts of the body..." says the director.

Isidro meanders through the rainforest as he recounts his various encounters with death.

A moving journey through a process of birth and death, Sea of Time tells the story of Gaulke’s attempts to become pregnant through artificial insemination during a period of time while a dear friend was dying of AIDS. Written in collaboration with her life partner, Sue Maberry, it raises issues about gay and lesbian people creating family. The footage includes a trip to Bali and is offset by an evocative score by composer Miriam Cutler. Sea of Time was originally created for the exhibition In Terms of Time curated by Ruth Weisberg and Rabbi Laura Geller at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, January 1994.

Scrolling excerpts from the diary of George Wallace's would-be assassin Arthur Bremer at screen bottom, Hank Aaron cards and ephemera from his entire career up top, and alternating audio clips of popular songs and highlights from the news throughout Aaron's career.

All soldiers belong to the same profession, no matter what country they serve, and it makes them different from everybody else. They have to be different, for their job is ultimately about killing and dying, and those things are not a natural vocation for any human being. Yet all soldiers are born civilians. The method for turning young men into soldiers-people who kill other people and expose themselves to death-is basic training.

After a near-death experience, retired machinist Lorne Collie started making whimsical stringed instruments. His DIY inventiveness transformed lawn rakes, stop signs, and bent pitchforks into fully playable banjos, fiddles and violins.

'Heroes of the demolition' is a short documentary that follows impassioned English and French demolition derby drivers and their extended families through a season of an intensely competitive derby circuit in rural Eastern Ontario.

The story of families whose kids are hospitalized at Sainte-Justine hospital. The film plunges us into the daily living of these parents ready for everything in order to help their kids recover health.

Transfixed tells the story of highly unconventional romance: Martine Stonehouse and John Gelmone are middle-aged underdogs, living with Asperger Syndrome - an autism spectrum disorder that makes communication with others extremely difficult. Despite their social limitations, both dream of getting married, but straight identifying John refuses to tie the knot until transsexual Martine gets a real vagina. The only problem: no doctor in Canada will perform operation because Martine's obesity makes her too great of a surgical risk. Will Martine and John find the happiness together that they deserve? Transfixed is a deeply human story about love, freedom, and self-actualization.

Filmmaker Mark Cousins, who was brought up in a Northern Irish war zone, travels to Goptapa, a Kurdish-Iraqi village of just seven hundred people on a tributary of the Tigris river, and tries to make a dream film about a place that is normally only portrayed in current affairs programmes. He gives the kids cameras, and they make their own little movies about war, love, a fish that goes to a magical place, and a chicken who debates justice.

Ghost Island follows a team of paranormal investigators to a desolate island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Amid eerie ruins and whispered legends, they uncover not just ghostly encounters, but the human stories behind the island’s folklore—a haunting journey where history and the supernatural meet.

Growing up in a blue-collar Hamilton neighbourhood filled with factory workers and nuclear families, Tom Wilson knew he was different. His dad George was a blind war veteran—stoic and reserved—and his mother Bunny a very private and protective housewife. Tom learned to express himself through music, successfully getting a record deal and achieving fame and its trappings with his 90s band Junkhouse and later Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. Through all his achievements, his parents kept a secret from their son, one he would not uncover until they both died. After years of hard living, revelations about his family led him on a path to connect with his true identity. Based on his memoir, Beautiful Scars shares Tom's remarkable gifts as an artist and storyteller as he learns about his Mohawk heritage and embarks on a healing journey that reflects on his past and present self.

An account of the building and bringing into operation of Canada's pioneer nuclear power plant - the Nuclear Power Demonstration Station (NPD), built in northern Ontario as a prototype for larger plants. The film explains the principle of nuclear fission. Produced by Crawley Films Ltd. for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Ontario Hydro and Canadian General Electric Company Limited.

A 17 year-old Ukrainian orphan with fiery red hair, bright blue eyes and an everlasting laugh is setting out into the world for the very first time, all alone. In her final year at a rural boarding school in Eastern Ukraine, she fights to maintain the bond with her 10 year-old sister, Arina, who was adopted by a family in Toronto in 2014 during the Ukrainian revolution. Vika hasn't seen Arina since she left Ukraine, but her ultimate goal is to one day reunite with her sister - the only family she has left - and start a life in Canada.

In this new production, Johanne is now facing a fourth cancer diagnostic. Despite having to fight this battle again, the 60-year-old wants to help others with workshops where she shares her doubts and thoughts. When she is asked how many times can you fight cancer, the warrior answers: “As many times as you can survive!”

Documentary on the growth of Toronto's gay community including positive developments as well as the infamous "Operation Soap" where the Toronto Police raided gay bath houses, and the subsequent protests.

Gerry Rogers' latest film features Leida and Ken, another Pleasant Street resident and cancer patient, on a journey that is by turns harrowing, funny, gut-wrenching and inspiring. "Pleasant Street" is not just a follow up to "My Left Breast" - it is a powerful depiction of a two people learning how to navigate the struggles of a terrible illness while witnessing first hand the powerful love of community.

A short film about the time-consuming process of fixing a clock.

Etlinisigu’niet (Bleed Down) is part of Souvenir, a four-film series addressing Indigenous identity and representation by reworking material in the NFB’s archives.

Sociological study of the Quebec family seen through two important life events, namely a marriage and a death.

When international sport governing bodies rule that 'identified' female athletes must medically alter their healthy bodies under the guise of fair play, four champion runners from the Global South fight back against racism, the policing of women's bodies in sport, and the violation of their human rights.

The film reflects Dewdney's conviction that the projector, not the camera, is the filmmaker's true medium. The form and content of the film are shown to derive directly from the mechanical operation of the projector - specifically the maltese cross movement's animation of the disk and the cross illustrates graphically (pun intended) the projector's essential parts and movements. It also alludes to a dialectic of continuous-discontinuous movements that pervades the apparatus, from its central mechanical operation to the spectator's perception of the film's images... (His) soundtrack demonstrates that what we hear is also built out of continuous-discontinuous 'sub-sets.' Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.

The lives of three young men from Taiwan who are loosely connected by geography and a common pursuit of the attention of Jane, collide in a film that purposefully obscures the boundary between narrative fiction and documentary film.

Why Are You Making All That Noise? is a story of contemporaries who in 1965 formed the Nihilist Spasm Band. Their story encompasses thirty five years of art and performance. Don Alexander introduces a video style that reflects the band's abandon of the disciplines of time and genre.

Long Live Chainsaw reveals the true story of the meteoric rise, untimely death and long-lasting legacy of Canadian downhill mountain bike legend, Stevie Smith. Born into poverty and raised by a devoted single mom, Stevie's unwavering belief not only propelled him to become the best in world, it inspired everyone he touched to believe in their own impossible dreams.

Inuit youth speak to what their culture means to them, in this portrait of life in Kugluktuk, Nunavut.

The story of raw organic milk in Canada and the consumer’s right to choose It is illegal to distribute raw milk in Canada. In November 2006, twenty-five armed officers raided Michael Schmidt’s Glencolton Farms as he drove up the lane in his old Blue Bus on the way to deliver raw milk to his cow-share members in Toronto. Officials confiscated raw milk, cheese-making equipment, computers, and files. This film follows a year in the life of a Canadian activist farmer as he struggles to provide his “farm fresh milk” while battling authorities. Schmidt prepares for his trial and attempts to find a political solution to legally provide raw (unpasteurized) organic milk in Canada.

Produced in 1988, this feature documentary presents a living history of Quebec's last 40 years as seen through the eyes of one couple. Pauline Julien and Gérald Godin, two Quebec artists, share their perspectives on the events that have marked Quebec's evolution. Julien, a singer, and Godin, a poet, express their love and passion for the province (and each other) while providing a unique take on the Quebec nationalist movement.

Part two of the nine-part compilation feature Imitations of Life (2003).

While life expectancy is increasing in Western countries, cases of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cancer are increasing, and the use of medication has exploded. Does this mean that in order to live to a ripe age we are condemned to swallow more and more drugs? What if there was another way? For half a century, in Russia, Germany and the U.S., doctors and biologists have been exploring a different therapeutic approach: fasting. The results are amazing. Soviet researchers have provided a body of clinical studies of exceptional health…only published in Russian, and thus unknown in the West. Young biologists from the University of Los Angeles have overturned conventional wisdom and used molecular biology to demonstrate the powerful effects of fasting. This research suggests a wide-ranging potential, which could include treatments for the disease of the century, cancer. If these scientists are right, maybe our approach to disease and treatment will need a rethink.

The world’s oldest living siblings who survived the Holocaust are the charming and inspiring subjects of this remarkable short documentary.

The filmmakers' 21-year-old daughter journeys from locked-down psych wards and diagnostic labels toward expansive worlds of creativity, connection, and greater meaning. Featuring insights from trauma experts and others, the film challenges the widespread idea that mental illness should be understood purely in biological terms, revealing the myriad ways that madness has meaning beyond brain chemistry.

When desperate times call for desperate measures, 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Officers are available to help with the complexities of childbirth and the delivery of babies.

Through a collage of found footage, reenactments, and digital manipulation, the intersection between queerness and age is explored through a reflection of youthful regrets.

The fourth thematic mini documentary about revolutionary filmmaker Norman McLaren.

This short film from 1958 compiles 3 short reportages on different ways kids are schooled in remote areas. To School by Boat follows children of isolated fishing hamlets along a stretch of British Columbia coastline as they travel to school by sea-going bus. In Classroom on Rails, we hop along a railway coach that brings school to children in a logging area of northern Ontario. Northern Schooldays introduces us to First Nations children educated in a residential school in Moose Factory.

This Is It is an exploration in finding truth within labour, creativity, and mortality. Written entirely on the job, Kyrstyn Kumor thrusts herself into the endless attempt at finding the answers. This Is It is a play inspired by Jordan Tannahill’s Declarations.

A disillusioned early adopter and internet evangelist, feels a sense of responsibility to engage with the problems the internet has created and wants to see where we went wrong. 'The Internet of Everything' is a documentary that examines the hype and hubris hurtling towards the next frontier in the Internet's evolution.

For Every Apricot drifts through the shifting terrain of memory, illustrating a grandmother’s journey in search of a “miracle drug” to cure her father’s illness. What begins as a simple family story, unfurls into a meditation on aging, fragility, and the circinate patterns that shape life. Through live-action interview, 16mm and 8mm archival footage, and a tapestry of handcrafted animation, the film moves between what is remembered, what is imagined, and what time has eroded. As she reflects on her father’s illness alongside her own, For Every Apricot becomes a deeply personal family portrait.

AnOther Love Story was produced to dispel the myths around HIV & AIDS for women in general, lesbians in particular. The video illustrates how relationships are affected when one or both partners must begin to grapple with the possiblity of HIV infection. It also educates women on safer sex practices in an entertaining, non-threatening way.

The life and times of Leilani Muir, the first person to file a lawsuit against the Alberta provincial government for wrongful sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta.

On July 10, 1978, Eric Wilson - a 19-year from Ottawa and student at Tufts University - left home to drive to a summer college course in Colorado. When he went missing four days afterward in Nebraska, his family tried to persuade local and U.S. police that he wasn't simply a runaway and hadn't simply forgotten to call home. The program examines the lengths to which they had to go to find out what happened to Eric, and the byzantine nature of the legal system which seemed less interested in pursuing justice than in avoiding the expenses involved in the investigation and potential trials. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in 2007.

In the early 1990s, a group of misfit teenagers clashed with the vision skiers had for their mountains—they ended up revolutionizing snowboarding through the highly-controversial WHISKEY videos. Their story is one of excess, irreverence and rebellion—with a wake of triumphs and tragedies that put snowboarding on the map of the mainstream. They revolutionized winter sports as a whole, with a cultural impact so massive that it ultimately helped spawn the creation of Jackass. But that's not the real story here. In the present day, as these iconic teenagers are now nearing their 60s, they have the benefit of hindsight and years of introspection. What made them turn to a lifestyle that is so self-destructive? What formed this bond they all share that's lasted through 30+ years of friendship? The truth of it is a revelation—what starts as a documentary about modern snowboarding's creation turns to a treatise on how childhood shapes and follows us into adulthood.

Portrait-documentary about William, 12 years old and passionate about mechanics. Throughout this short-film, he brings us into his own world and share his latest creation.

A young woman goes on an anonymous journey to her late husband's hometown Leshan, a small city in Sichuan province. There, she meets an old friend, a local theatre actress preparing for an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan (Sichuan). In a home-place unfamiliar, the traveling woman meets the imaginary. Ghosted by Shen Te the protagonist of the play, the actress loses the self at the intersection between fiction and reality. Unprepared, the filmmaker loses control of her camera. Together, they drift into a polyrhythmic experience of stasis.