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Stronger Than Before: A Video About Women's Resistance

This documentary examines the meanings of peace movements, from a socialist-feminist perspective. Beginning with civil disobedience actions at Litton Systems Canada in Toronto, supplier of parts for cruise missiles, and expanding into just wars in Latin America, major feminist organizers in Toronto like Mariana Valverde and Carmencita Hernandez ponder the rise in militarism in the Mulroney-Reagan era. The film tries to make connections between Canadian and U.S. participation in the arms race, and liberation struggles in the global south.

Stronger Than Before: A Video About Women's Resistance

NR 1984
Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies

From ancient cave paintings to Twitter feeds and deep fakes, propaganda's rapid progression hasn't compromised its potency. Tracing its effective use by religious figures, politicians and marketers, director Larry Weinstein crafts a persuasive study of the mechanics behind propaganda. This fascinating investigation confronts us with timely questions: If we grow up surrounded by propaganda, how do we know what is true? What risks are inherited by a society tricked into their perceptions? Freedom of speech is critical to a democracy's survival, yet demagogues have consistently exploited that freedom to coerce willing supporters. Contemporary artists, including Kent Monkman, Shepard Fairey and Ai Weiwei, analyze their politically motivated work, creatively co-opting the conventions of disinformation that have permeated their respective cultures. As our platforms for spreading ideas continue to expand in a digital age, dangerous lies have never been better disguised.

Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies

6.6 2019
No Limits: The Thalidomide Saga

Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker John Zaritsky returns to the story that has fascinated and compelled him for years - thalidomide and it's effect on the survivors of "the worst drug disaster in history." In this, his third film on the subject, he reconnects with some of the thalidomide victims he originally profiled when they were young, and introduces us to some new people who have been active in the fight for justice. He also highlights some recently released information about German pharmaceutical giant Grünenthal, who aggressively marketed the drug, and are now selling it again under a different usage, but still with no compensation for those who's lives they affected so deeply. The indefatigable spirit of the extraordinary thalidomide victims is cast against the callousness disregard of the drug's manufacturers in a film that lays out the story from it's beginnings in the late 50s to the current state of affairs in the present day. —Philip Webley

No Limits: The Thalidomide Saga

9.0 2016
Welcome to the Pit

In 2011, Steve Matthews had a bright idea. With his kids completely hooked on snowboarding, he rallied a few friends and set out to build Yellowknife’s first and only rope tow. Without city permission or permits, Steve quietly went to work on the abandoned gravel mine on the outskirts of town, inadvertently creating the epicentre of snow-sliding in the Northwest Territories. This film tells the story of Bristol Pit - and the community that it's created - from the perspective of those who hand-built the pit and keep it running today.

Welcome to the Pit

NR 2024
A Celebration of Darkness

In 2015, Jaene turned 40. This lead them to become introspective about their unusual life history. From a childhood of severe abuse, neglect, psychiatric institutionalization and being in care, they grew to become a street involved sex worker by 20. They met Elder Isaac Day from Serpent River First Nations in the early 2000's. Through his teachings and ceremonies at Thunder Mountain, Jaene was able to turn their life around. This film is a narrative driven experimental self portrait of that journey.

A Celebration of Darkness

NR 2015
Freedom Besieged

Freedom Besieged is a feature-length documentary concerning the economic and political climate of Greece and specifically how such has impacted the development and psychology of the nation's youth. Treading fearlessly into what has been called a "humanitarian catastrophe", the film explores the pursuits of Greek youth living within the country's crisis. Freedom Besieged is an intimate portrait of a young Greek generation who serve as the focal point for the future of European youth today.

Freedom Besieged

NR 2017
Murder Research

“Early in the morning on Thursday Feb 26, 1976, a young First Nations man named Eugene Lloyd Pelly was fatally stabbed in an apartment at 4272 Watson Street, east of Main near 28th. After escaping out a window Pelly collapsed in the middle of the road and, as snow fell, succumbed to his injuries. That same morning Jeanette Reinhardt noticed Pelly’s bloody body from her window. Paul Wong, whom she was living with at the time, shot a roll of 35mm film documenting the scene – first from their window, and later at roadside. The quiet violence of the scene captivated Wong, and together with collaborator Kenneth Fletcher, the two embarked on a project to research the crime in full detail." – Allison Collins & Michael Turner, Mainstreeters: Taking Advantage 1972-1982

Murder Research

NR 1977
The Challenging Dance

"The Challenging Dance"—a lively short film that documents the first dancer of color in Les Grands Ballets Canadiens—tracks Vanesa G. R. Montoya as she mounts her first major solo piece. Conveying a sense of the intense work that goes into each dance production, the film also represents a new initiative highlighting filmmakers from Quebec’s immigrant community: for this first edition, the two laureates were directors Gabriela de Andrade and Alexandre Paskanoi.

The Challenging Dance

NR 2020
The Legend in Me

Living in the shadow of Canadian sports legend Lionel Conacher (1900–1954), whose legacy spans five sports, is a daunting challenge for any relative. For great-grandchild Lionel IV, better known as Chas, that challenge extends beyond athletics into the realm of self-discovery. As a non-binary individual navigating identity in the 21st century, Chas explores both the weight of their family’s star-athlete lineage and the evolving landscape of queer identity in a documentary that bridges nostalgia with forward-looking reflection.

The Legend in Me

NR 2024
Tracks Across Sand

In sixteen chapters containing four and a half hours of materials, Tracks Across Sand offers a unique chance to travel to the edge of the Kalahari, to a struggle for indigenous rights, and into the heart of contemporary South Africa. Driven from their lands, forced into a life of destitution, and denied the right even to speak their own languages, the ‡Khomani San fight for their heritage. Culled from over 130 hours of video recorded between 1996 and 2010, Tracks presents a unique record of the ‡Khomani San, bringing together the story of Africa's first Bushman claim, from preparation through to ten years after the claim was granted. Seen through the eyes and told in the words of the ‡Khomani San themselves, this film chronicles the struggle for indigenous rights by a people who are defying a history that has attempted and failed to make them disappear.

Tracks Across Sand

NR 2012
Open Secrets

This provocative documentary uncovers a lost chapter in Canadian military history: how the Armed Forces dealt with homosexual behaviour among soldiers, during and after World War II. More than 60 years later, a group of five veterans, barely adults when they enlisted, break the silence to talk about how homosexual behaviour "was even more unmentionable than cancer." Yet amidst the brutality of war, instances of sexual awakening among soldiers and officers were occuring. Initially, the Army overlooked it, but as the war advanced, they began to crack down: military tribunals, threats of imprisonment, discharge and public exposure. After the war, officers accused of homosexuality were discharged. Back home in Canada, reputations and careers were ruined. For the young men who had served their country with valour, this final chapter was often too much to bear. Based on the book Courting Homosexuals in the Military by Paul Jackson.

Open Secrets

6.7 2004
Collective Unconsciousness: The Not Dead Yet Story

"Collective Unconsciousness: The Not Dead Yet Story" explores the annual Not Dead Yet festival that takes place in Toronto. This documentary dives into what makes the festival great and the impact it makes on the city's hardcore/punk scene. "Collective Unconsciousness: The Not Dead Yet Story" also features performances from bands that played in 2015, shot up close to give the viewer the feel that they are there. Features performances by S.H.I.T., V.C.R., Power Trip, Title Fight, Career Suicide and more alongside interviews with members of Dress Code, Title Fight, I.C.E. and more.

Collective Unconsciousness: The Not Dead Yet Story

NR 2016
Stravaig / Errance

An experimental portrait of a place, Scotland. You are looking for something. What you find is something else. "Stravaig / Errance" (Gaelic for wandering) is techno tourism of a personal nature. Forrest visits a Scotland that only she may show us. The artist is an informed tourist with a curious eye. The viewer is lead, but there is no sense that the artist holds to a definitive way to see/record. Travelogues are referenced in "Stravaig," but their form is never embraced. This is not tourism, but memory and sense. Forrest looks beyond the architecture and must see sights of the place(s) to unearth an ethereal essence of space/time.

Stravaig / Errance

NR 1999
Strength and Honour: Cycling Canada Coast to Coast

What could a person gain by cycling across Canada? The cyclists on this trek know nothing about cycling. It is clear from the start that a lot of learning will take place throughout the seven-week journey this summer. The elements of wind, sun, spandex and road construction tame the wildest spirits on the team. Everyone has a wall to go through, but how badly does each one want to smash through it. Does the fear of what lies on the other side prevent someone from finishing the trip?

Strength and Honour: Cycling Canada Coast to Coast

NR 2006