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The Negotiator

This candid documentary opens the door on the riskiest labour negotiations in the history of the Canadian Auto Workers (now UNIFOR), Canada's largest private sector union. For veteran negotiator Buzz Hargrove, president of the union, the de Havilland/Bombardier talks turn out to be the toughest of his career. Hargrove finds himself doing battle not only with the company, but with his own union locals. Everything goes wrong. Hargrove has to choose between solidarity with his workers or saving thousands of jobs. His decision, the battle that led up to it, and the outcome make for high drama in this no-holds-barred portrait of organized labour in the 1990s. Played on the shifting ground of a globalized economy, "The Negotiator" is a revealing look at democracy, leadership and its price in a high stakes fight for jobs and power.

The Negotiator

8.0 1995
No Address

Far from home and cut off from family and friends, Montreal’s Indigenous homeless population is the focus of No Address. Dreams of a better life in the big city can be met with harsh realities, as the individuals in this documentary recount. Often trying to flee circumstances created by colonialism and the effects of assimilation, the First Nations and Inuit people in this work share frank stories about their lives and the paths that took them to the streets of Montreal. Alanis Obomsawin presents an honest, stark portrayal of endemic homelessness while giving voice to those so often overlooked or made invisible on the streets of every city in Canada.

No Address

8.5 1988
Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying

Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying is a short meditation on love, grief, and imagination. The hand-drawn animated documentary was created through a collaboration between mother, elder and narrator Edith Almadi and filmmakers Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies. This poetic piece celebrates life and the transformative ability of art to elevate and transcend us. Through vivid drawings and Edith’s simple yet magical words, the film explores our enduring bond with loved ones who have passed. In honouring her son’s life within the cosmos, Edith’s artworks embody colours, shapes and metaphors that remind us of the timeless power of love, gravity, and grace until our final breaths.

Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying

NR 2024
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin

The rise of National Socialism in Germany and Hitler’s anti-semitic policies and advocation of the superiority of the Aryan race resulted in several calls for a boycott of the games. Against this political backdrop, Jesse Owens’ haul of four gold medals is all the more significant. For a black athlete to demonstrate clearly his superior athleticism and so convincingly outperform his white counterparts was a massive slap in the face for Hitler and made a mockery of his racist theories during his Nazi showpiece games. Standing in the box at the Olympiastadion where Hitler sat to watch the games, Jesse Owens tells with pride that the flag of the US team was the only one not to be dipped as the athletes passed the Führer. (andberlin.com)

Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin

7.1 1966
Layering

This short experimental diary film reveals my struggles with mental illness in my adolescence and queer adulthood while simultaneously reflecting upon my joyous childhood experiences. I investigate when and how my depression began and explain that my relationships with the people I love have supported me through my harder times. The film incorporates footage shot over May and June 2023 and archival home videos. Overall, I aim to resolve my "growing pains" through the medium of diary film and by reconnecting with my younger self.

Layering

NR 2023
The Invisible Machine

On a calm Sunday morning in 1978 residents of Bell Island, Newfoundland hear an odd, high-pitched hum, immediately followed by a sudden and terrifying blast resounding for hundreds of miles. Outbuildings are destroyed, livestock electrocuted, televisions explode and power lines vaporize. The Invisible Machine unravels the mystery of the Bell Island "boom" and in doing so takes a chilling look at the U.S. military's experimentation with electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons.

The Invisible Machine

NR 2004
Empire Valley

Empire Valley contemplates cinema’s ability to transmit a confluence of times through landscape—whether that time be geological, personal or political. Situated within Tsilhqot'in territory in central British Columbia, the film addresses the way in which a landscape is carved out and altered in order to suit particular economic conditions. Further than solely contemplating the environmental, economic and social implications of this site’s history, this film is an attempt to grapple with the aesthetics imposed on the landscape by agricultural practices, erosion, and the traces of colonial ideologies.

Empire Valley

NR 2019
Sosuke the Duck

A girl learns about caring for a duck with special needs during her first year on the farm. An animated documentary rendered in plant based inks about a little runner duck who couldn't. Director’s Statement: Sosuke was one of the first ducks on our farm. Created over the course of seven years, this animated short tells his story. The animation was created using digital rotoscoping (where the animator traces each frame of live action footage to create hand drawn scenes) and then printed onto over 2,400 pieces of printer paper and coloured in inks made by hand from flowers, nuts, vegetables and berries cultivated and foraged on our farm. This is a story about becoming more connected to ecology, about learning to farm, and what animals can teach us. It is told with colours from the landscape, including acorn, black walnut, goldenrod, sunflower, haskap berry, purple cabbage, sumac and more.

Sosuke the Duck

NR 2025
Herbicide Trials

In 1983, fifteen Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, landowners went to court to stop the spraying of herbicides by the local subsidiary of a Swedish multinational on forests adjacent to their properties. They found that the testimony of scientists and the support of public opinion, both here and abroad, were not enough to win their case. The film shows their ordeal and the landmark Sydney trial. Concerns raised included potential conflict-of-interest situations where a government must protect citizens' health while supporting certain kinds of industry; the relative value of the political and judicial processes in mediating social problems; and the need for a public forum for debating environmental issues. The film contains outstanding footage from chemical-industry films of the 1950s and recent material about Vietnam veterans affected by Agent Orange.

Herbicide Trials

7.0 1984
Made with Pride

Filmmaker Tammy Jones follows her brother Martin and his partner of 10 years Maxim in their journey to become parents. Maxim, 36, grew up in Russia and Martin, 41, grew up in a small northern Ontario town. They now live in Ottawa. Martin and Maxim have succeeded against all the odds. They welcomed Sasha and Lucas home in January 2012 after years of research, planning, surgery, waiting, expenses, and miscarriages. These brave young men set off on a road less traveled. They are paving the road for other gay couples and LGBTQ people as our society changes and our laws rush to catch up with societal changes.

Made with Pride

NR 2013
1999

In the late 1990s, Moncton's Acadian community was forever marked when death struck an high school. In a sweet impressionist film, Samara returns to the city she fled as a teenager to immerse herself in memories that are still buried there, in various places and in dusty boxes containing diaries, photos and VHS tapes. 1999 is not a ghost story, although it is populated by ghosts. The snow-covered streets, corridors and locker rooms of the school are intact, as in a dream, but the absence left by the wave of teenage suicides still resonates with unanswered questions, trauma and regret. Samara meets inspiring people who carry with them great pain and who, 16 years later, can finally comfort each other by breaking a long silence. In the end, the film interweaves different voices and gives rise to a collective reflection on the internalization of mourning and the need to learn to affirm one's desire to survive.

1999

5.0 2017
The Street

Every day, on the streets of Canada's cities, we pass them on our way to work or school. Bums, beggars, winos, bag people we call them. But who is the person at the end of that outstretched arm? What is life on the street really like? Is there a way off the street? For six years, director Daniel Cross followed the lives of three homeless men who spent much of their time in and around a Montreal subway station. Filmed in a cinema verité style, the film is unique: it humanizes the homeless, breaking down the barrier between us and them, neither moralizing nor offering easy answers. This is a gritty, compelling look at life on the streets that moves beyond the media stereotypes to show both the humanity of the homeless and the street-toughened aspects of their existence.

The Street

9.0 1996
Colleen Stan: The Girl in the Box

In the first hour of the two-part back-to-back special, Colleen Stan: The Girl in the Box, kidnapping survivor Colleen Stan tells the story of her seven-year ordeal. Abducted by a sadistic predator and his wife, she was brainwashed, tortured, and largely confined to a coffin-size box. From the very spot where she was first picked up, Colleen provides a riveting first-hand account. She explains how a slavery contract prevented her from running, and how mind control prevented her from going to police even once she was free. In the second hour learn how Colleen embraces freedom, but no matter how much she wants to move on, the past won't go away. When she eventually took the stand at her abductor's trial, she found herself portrayed as a willing participant. Evil may cast a long shadow, but faith and family ultimately allowed Colleen to reclaim her identity and find her mission.

Colleen Stan: The Girl in the Box

6.0 2016
In the Gutter and Other Good Places

In the gutter and other good places The award winning film documentary In the gutter and other good places by Christine Richey is a multi-spectral view of three Calgary dumpster diving bottle pickers. The film traverses the ordinarily drawn stereotype of the homeless "pickers" of Calgary, and provides another compassionate standpoint on the choices and circumstances that have embodied their current predicament. Richey selects three very different street people for her story all with their unique backgrounds. Challenging assumptions about street people and their image to society, we are introduced first of all

In the Gutter and Other Good Places

8.0 1993
The Moody Brood

A documentary unlike any other, The Moody Brood explodes the myth of the idealized, normal family-a popular and pervasive post-WWII notion. The film examines issues universal to all families: the effects of community and religion, the influence of siblings, and the moral standards imposed by parents. Award-winning filmmaker Lulu Keating traces the lives of her 10 siblings from their childhood in the 1940s to present day, from a small Catholic community to the world stage. Along the way, she asks some difficult questions: Can we, as adults, shed past experiences? Or do they shape our whole lives?

The Moody Brood

NR 2000
Don't Give Up The Fight

The television footage of a wrestling match is employed here as a metaphor for Quebec society. Using voice-over narration, Falardeau presents a compelling analysis of the structure of wrestling and its rituals. The good guy against the evil antagonist, the forces of order and the desires of the crowd. The audience becomes part of the spectacle in this powerful show where wrestlers confront one another under the watchful eye of the referee. It is a ritual of catharsis. The documentary begins with the words, images and sounds of Quebec's political struggle, "SOS F.L.Q. Continuons le combat". Produced right after the October Crisis in 1970, a crucial moment in Quebec's struggle to become a sovereign state, independent of Canada, the tape is charged with the bitter experience and political aspirations of the period. We recognize in this tape, the "Falardeau style" evident through a very strong narration that supports the images till the end, when the video abruptly closes.

Don't Give Up The Fight

9.3 1971
Kathy and Teresa

Two young girls are drifting in the water of a public swimming pool. The film adopts this drifting attitude as it follows them through nocturnal Montreal and their daily life. Sometimes the two speak English, sometimes Inuktitut. Kathy and Teresa come from a small Inuit settlement in northern Canada. They show each other smartphone pictures of seals and bears they killed themselves. They read about the special relationship between the Inuit and their sledge dogs, which has lost its importance today. Home assignments are done in a park – the scent of the trees reminds them a little of home. They close their eyes. With great tenderness, the camera captures the deep bond between the two best friends who share the same heritage and language. Kathy has written a moving song in Inuktitut. In simple, clear words, she sings of the feelings and yearnings of a young Indigenous woman.

Kathy and Teresa

NR 2023