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Joy, vitality, and a steampunk organ. A perfect recipe for direct cinema. Organic was created with the ancient mariner’s technique called scrimshaw. This film was originally commissioned for the closing ceremonies of the 2019 Annecy International Animation Festival.

Masculine tropes are undone to form a relationship between male sexuality and the human death drive. The body, violence and humour are positioned in the larger context of nothingness and somethingness, bridging a tension between externalized anxieties and the terrors of nature.

This short experimental documentary follows two men in Varanasi, India, a woodcutter and a ceremonial haircutter as they go about their duties, preparing for a daily 3000-year-old Hindu cremation ceremony. Their lives exist in the shadows of processions of those passed on, cyclically making their way through the streets of Varanasi to the site where they are to be cremated. Through poetic editing and using minimal dialogue, this film offers a unique observational perspective on the Hindu experience of life and death.

Vojta and Rami roam around Prague, witnessing the damage caused by mass tourism.

This film chronicles the amazing Scotsman who adopted Canada as a young man and then carved out an international career as saxophonist and jazz impresario.

As a child, Marie-Pascale began to make a raucous sound. As a young adult, she discovers that this voice can be the instrument of katajjaq, or Inuit throat singing. This discovery propels her on a quest and jostle her life. She learns to practice throat singing with the Inuk singer, Charlotte Qamaniq. She meets the Inuit people of today. By listening to their stories and History, she senses parts of her own, intimate, and collective story.

Haunted by an evil spirit that keeps him awake, a hunter discovers the secret power of dreamcatchers.

A Stoney Nakoda father searches his upbringing for wisdom on parenting in a colonial world.

A short, playful, sexy video about a butch dyke/trans professor in teacher education.

This experimental video was filmed in the polluted waters of the Staten Island boat graveyard. Located near the former Fresh Kills landfill, these toxic shores have been affected by floods, coastal erosion and by Hurricane Sandy.

A filmmaker explores the difficulty of being a woman, provoked by the porn films found among the belongings her father left behind. ‘Is pornography love?’ she asks herself. Watching these 8mm porn films becomes her way of creating a connection with ‘the FATHER,’ as she passes progressively from her memories of her father to her own gaze. A film that considers the male gaze.

Filmed in Victoriaville, the film uses images from various sources to paint a cynical portrait of the violent boredom that reigns in rural areas. Quiet sequences of people sharing joints by the river are followed by a lone car speeding along wooded roads, as if seeking speed on the brink of accident. Thuya abandons technical mastery in favor of intimate and spontaneous filming, composing a raw self-documentation of daily stagnation. Filmed mainly in a single day of improvisation, based on chance encounters and found footage.

Dragonmasters is the untold story of the Chinese dragon in America. When this symbol of good fortune and benevolence first arrived, it found communities in trouble and was soon employed by its handlers to battle prejudice, violence, and exclusion. Utilizing a mix of documentary interviews, archival material, vérité footage and filmed in six locations in New York, California, Canada, and China, this 67-minute “authored-documentary” film with multiple storylines is the story of the evolution and cultural impact of the Chinese dragon and its Masters in America.

Christmas dinners can often turn into hostile environments, particularly after a few drinks.

This ten-minute video lecture was commissioned by Haema Svanesan and Marina DeMaio who are putting together a Buddhism and Art confab called In the Present Moment: Buddhism, Contemporary Art, and Social Practice at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in October, 2019. I was supposed to be on a panel but fear of flying led to further video steals. The text came out of sessions with Emotion Focused Therapy maestro Bill Gaynor. Anne Carson and Karl Ove Knaussgard make appearances, along with a bevy of writers and meditators. What if the pause before speaking was equal to the speaking itself? How to grant attention, to celebrate even, the moments of pause?

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

In order to be in her older brother's music video, Clara, a 13-year-old tomboy, agrees to undergo a radical change of style. She soon notices that this transformation changes her brother's friend's behaviour towards her.

Lying in bed, she receives a text message from a man she likes. He asks for a photo of her. Dissatisfied with the clichéd shots she takes of herself, she starts a game, pretending to be the illustrious Cindy Sherman, in four photographs from her Untitled Film Stills series.

One summer day, Lili's jogging throught the park, enjoying every moment in this idyllic setting. She runs playfully, unwittingly turning heads. Life has never seemed so good. Until discomfort as well as reality catch her up. She must return to where she escaped.

A coming-of-age story about a girl, Winona (14), on the last day of summer before entering high school.

Endowed with unmistakable magnetism, boundless energy, leadership and a passion for everything he did, Roberto "Bob" Bissonnette dared to create his life according to his vision, independently. From his hockey career, where he was captain of the Hull Olympics, as well as the 10th most punished player in the history of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), to his career as a songwriter and singer he attracted crowds everywhere in Quebec, in French Canada and in several European countries. His tragic death in a helicopter crash at the age of 35 caused a shock wave.

The Japanese matsutake mushroom flourishes in formerly logged, second-growth forests, creating a unique human and non-human ecosystem and economy in northern British Columbia.

Playfully collapsing the space between Hollywood Cinema and what Dao refers to as 'Domestic Cinema', The Protagonists explores relationships between representation and reality. Motifs of a clumsy animatronic hand, colorful smoke bombs, a backyard garden and a metronome become characters – protagonists, so to speak – in the deconstruction of filmic colonisation.

In this sneak peak of the upcoming sequel to the acclaimed "The 8:37 News," a former Hell's Angels Gang member is interviewed by a less-than-competent weatherman.

Juskatla weaves together perspectives of the people who live on the islands of Haida Gwaii-an archipelago on Canada's Northwest coast, and the ancestral territories of the Haida Nation. From industrial loggers who harvest trees from ancient forests, to Sphenia Jones, a Haida matriarch who bears an intimate knowledge of her People's territories, Juskatla meditates on the divergent ways of being that shape the islands and its people.

A darkly comic film that follows a woman through a life characterized by damage, loss, humour and joy. With a score that follows the span of her life, from her birth in the early 70s to her death in the 2040s, the film is narrated by performers who range in age from nine to sixty-nine. Her story is illustrated with images of people, animals, and landscapes.

An audiovisual poem floating through an apocalyptic landscape devoured by boreal wildfires and the ruthless exploitation of fossil fuels. Recorded in 2016 at the Athabasca oil sands in Canada.

A stop-motion animated film depicting a cotton blower at work.

Witness three stories told over two decades shedding light on Sikh hate crimes in one nation.

Explores the relationship between identity, culture, and food, locating fruit from Venezuela as a grounding point for memory and connection.

When you detox in Serbia, you eat, drink, and enjoy the music. The greatest brass band festival in Europe is in GUCA. Paradoxically, it is a backwoods village located in the very heart of Serbia, but it beats with a passion and rhythm that unites the whole world. The whole region is a unique place where East meets West and the North borders with the South. The Celtic rhythm, a southern warmth, the Latin romanticism, and the Slavic sentimentality is present everywhere. It radiates within the culture, the food, the people and the music. The festival has been around for for the last 55 years. By its size and vibe it has often been compared with Woodstock and the Festival in Rio. About half a million people come to visit every year and they stay for a week during the month of August. What is really magical is that everyone feels rejuvenated after spending day and night in this place. No matter how long your trip will be, you will always want to come again.

On January 29, 2017, a lone gunman entered a mosque in Quebec City, took the lives of six people, injured 19 others and left an entire community in complete shock and grief. This act of hatred, fuelled by racism and Islamophobia, transformed a place of worship and community to a site of unthinkable trauma, devastating Muslim communities the world over and forcing Canadians to question how we got here in the first place.

IS THERE A PICTURE tells the remarkable-and improbable-story of a unique group of artists who used photography to launch a far-flung city into the fine arts stratosphere. An outgrowth of our earlier production, PICTURE START, this 95-minute documentary tracks the rise of Marian Penner Bancroft, Christos Dikeakos, Rodney Graham, Jeff Wall and Ian Wallace from the rich countercultural milieu of 1960s Vancouver, to their place of global prominence today. Drawing back the curtain on this extraordinary set of artists, IS THERE A PICTURE offers rare insight into their work, their relationships with one another, and how it is they emerged in a city until recently known more for its surrounding forests than its art.

In 2019, Blank Collective Films were on a search for an explanation to their insanity. Anticipation. Inspiration. Creativity. Perseverance. Experience. Exploration. And Satisfaction. These 7 Stages are designed to postulate a progression of the emotional stages during a ski season. Simply, the Blank Collective takes you on a journey through the 7 Stages of Blank, a lighthearted look into the bond that develops around the sport of skiing.

Jenny and her bunny, Lucky, share their adventure across the Canadian prairies as her family moves from Ontario to Vancouver.

Charlotte Clermont’s where i don’t meet you presents a series of moving-image tableaus – interspersed with poetic intertitles evoking a breakdown in communication – that takes as much meaning from the hand-processed Super8 textures of the images themselves as it does its ongoing tension between the abstract and the specific.

From dancing in the hallways at her high school to winning battles across the globe, Nigerian immigrant Kosi Eze’s story of growth is a glowing example of how the power of Hiphop can inspire, uplift and support everyone.

Happy Halloween? "You Got Toes" was filmed in front of a live audience at the Corner Comedy Club in the heart of downtown Toronto Canada by Kevin Plachy.

Now, Please Think About Yesterday, produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture as part of the exhibition Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism, contends with the challenge of objectively recording data on happiness.

Zac, who has split personality, falls in love with his alter ego. The day finally comes when he decides to come clean with his father. What will be the look on his face? What will be his state of mind? Will his father accept everything?

Death and life dance together in this poetic short filmed in the streets of Mexico City. It is the fall of 2017, 32 years after the 1985 earthquake. While cracked buildings testify to the violence of a new quake, preparations for the Day of the Dead are in full swing. Flowers, music and masks come out to combat despair and fear. In grainy images in which reality becomes ghostly and ghosts come to life, Étienne Lacelle’s keen eye captures fleeting moments in the streets, markets and squares, embodying the chance encounter of the two sides of existence. Amidst a joyful atmosphere, the dead are not forgotten. To the contrary, the celebration is a stand against the fragility of fate.

A pair of unlikely travellers encounter a young man on the highway who seems to have forgotten that he can be seen. Collector explores the concept of semi-private spaces and how we act when we forget that we might be being watched. Produced as part of the 12th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

A young girl finds an outlet for her violent childhood, taking her on an unimaginable journey fighting for a world championship.

Bugs and Beasts Before the Law explores the history and legacy of the “animal trials” that took place in medieval Europe, in which animals—and other non-humans, such as insects and inanimate objects— were put on trial for various crimes and offences, ranging from trespassing and thievery, to assault and murder. This history of colonial law-making forged political and sometimes profane relation- ships between humans and animals. Bambitchell’s essayistic film reimagines common perceptions of legal history and, in doing so, produces a world where past and present, fiction and non-fiction, human and animal fuse.

Nicki and Ellen are friends. They work on school projects and organize parties together. But how will things change if Nicki has a crush on Ellen?

A soft-spoken teenage boy gets a job at the local drive-in theatre to rekindle his relationship with his childhood friend when suspicion surrounding what truly happened at the staff party starts getting in the way.

a memorable and initiatory sunday "family" dinner

An unfulfilled high school senior becomes obsessed with an ominous radio broadcast containing steps to a cryptic puzzle.

Eight-year-old Landon Moise shows us around his favorite forested spots in his home community, Clearwater River Dene Nation. He explains why the environment is important.

How was matter able to organize itself into life? From the tiniest elementary particles to the most complex ecosystems, discover the fascinating organization of matter.

Torn from her family at the age of 4, Eugenea, a Métis girl living in foster care, fights to reconnect.

Installation, video (3D animation, 11:53 min.), synthetic fur, porcelain, fragrances, silicone, wax, various monitor and tablet holders, printed fabric, customized treatment tables, variable dimensions, 2019.

As Bolivia stages the 50th anniversary of Ernesto "Che" Guevara’s death, Julia, an old countryside teacher is invited to share her historical story with the world: Giving a bowl of soup to the captured guerrilla in her classroom, while he recited a poem about flowers to her a few hours before his death. The invitation is withdrawn soon after, as other women step forward claiming the story of “the soup and the flower” as their own.