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Lamentations: A Monument to the Dead World belongs to a 35-hour film cycle, The Book of All the Dead, which comprises the bulk of Toronto-based Bruce Elder’s filmmaking from 1975 to 1994. In ancient Egyptian culture, the Book of the Dead consisted of religious texts intended to help preserve the spirit of the departed in the afterlife — but in Elder’s reading, that comforting idea of continuity takes on a rather darker cast. Lamentations is comprised of a complex audio and visual patchwork: a philosophical meditation superimposed as text throughout the film; vignettes featuring a comical but disturbing Franz Liszt, a debate between Isaac Newton and George Berkeley, an angry, deranged man in an alley, and an arrogant psychiatrist; and a final search for salvation in the forests of British Columbia, the American Southwest, and Mexico’s Yucatan.

A penetrating look at how difficult it is for the northern countries--Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark--to remain neutral, caught as they are between the two superpowers. All but Canada were neutral before World War II. Today, only Sweden has not joined a military alliance, but with American and Soviet military forces in the northern seas, even its lone neutrality is at risk. Archival footage from the two world wars, animated maps, and interviews illuminate the historical shaping of each country's stance on neutrality and approach to its own defense, and how these positions work for and against the countries. The film's thesis is that a non-aligned north is the key to separating the superpowers and attaining world peace.

Just north of the City of Edmonton lies Poundmaker’s Lodge, an addiction and mental-health facility specializing in treatment for Indigenous people. Founded in 1973 and still operational today, the Lodge’s programs and services are Indigenous-run and based in culturally appropriate recovery and healing techniques. Framing the short documentary with the words of the great Plains Cree Chief Pîhtokahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker), Alanis Obomsawin presents a frank examination of the root causes of substance abuse in Indigenous communities and how the absence of love and support – exacerbated by the impacts of colonialism and racism – created a legacy of alcoholism for some individuals. Through searing and emotional testimonies of people in the Lodge, this work presents portraits of courage and perseverance, and hope for future generations.

A biology lab circa 1920, becomes colourized as the camera engages in a number of pans past strange forms in bottles and under glass. This is the basis for a formalist exploration of shape, colour and tonal loops on the sound track.

Women have always sought ways to terminate unwanted pregnancies, despite powerful patriarchal structures and systems working against them. This film provides a historical overview of how church, state and the medical establishment have determined policies concerning abortion. From this cross-cultural survey--filmed in Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, and Canada--emerges one reality: only a small percentage of the world's women has access to safe, legal operations.

Animated short film by Francois Aubry

A co-production between the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative and the Winnipeg Film Group, this documentary shows children and youth speaking frankly about their home communities in Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

In the dead of a cold Montreal winter, lonely, recently divorced Robert Filion learns his father has died in Florida. Robert and his son Maxime, travel to Florida for the funeral and then set out from Dixie with his late father's car for the return trip to Montreal.

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.

A mother chooses her dream of the day from the shelves of magazines: she will therefore be “Sylvia, the-beautiful-heroine-courted-by-two-men”.

The filmmakers were given remarkable freedom to record the historic 1984 contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corporation. Bob White, labour leader of the Canadian branch of the UAW, must also confront his American counterpart from Detroit and succeeds in arriving at a contract that is significantly Canadian. His members had already given him a mandate to fight for independence from the American union. This is an invaluable document for anyone interested in the complexities of United States-Canada relations. It's an extraordinary film about revolutionary events.

An animated vignette. A lively dance of painted wooden dolls that twirl, swing and sway to gay music.

An animated film created from pastel drawings by Clorinda Warny, Premiers Jours traces the complete cycle of life, from birth to adulthood, in four seasons, and through the evolution of earthly landscapes that become human bodies. Completed Postumously by Suzanne Gervais, Lina Gagnon

Goddess Remembered is a salute to 35,000 years of "pre-history," to the values of ancestors only recently remembered and to the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. This documentary features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Luisah Teish, Starhawk, Charlene Spretnak and Jean Bolen, who link the loss of goddess-centered societies with today's environmental crisis.

Part of a trilogy that started with Grey's Lullaby, Tongue Tied was shot and processed at E.T.C. and set aside for three or four years. It deals with an artist on a voyage and is reflective without being too serious. It is in black and white, and uses a strobing grey pattern of digitized images.

Russian agents hijack a plane with a dirty bomb.

A documentary that allows us to witness three births in their intimacy. Through their actions, the couples who agreed to participate in the film help to propose alternatives to the dominant medical interventions in hospitals.

Elvis Gratton wins the contest organized in memory of Elvis Presley, which earns him a trip to the Republic of Santa Banana. We find him, clumsy and cartoonish, on the beaches of this shabby republic, ruled by a veritable petty dictator.

A "cat and dog fight" film that also reminds us to keep emergency numbers close to our telephones.

This feature length documentary by Jacques Godbout tackles a topic all too rarely explored in the media: terrorism in Canadian society. From Montreal to Vancouver, and Quebec City to Toronto, exasperated individuals find a new calling as self-style saviours of humanity and decide to mete out their own justice. Part reportage, part essay and part critical analysis of the phenomenon, this film includes first-hand accounts by Serge Daoust, Franco Piperno, François Schirm, Pierre Vallières and young militants from the journal Révoltes.

Such diverse modes of expression as dance, music, poetic narration and images drawn directly on film combine to tell the story of a letter and the joy it carries to its destination. In French, with English sub-titles.

Landfall was shot in Prince Edward Island, near the family home on the Northumberland Strait. The original footage, shot in 1974, was a kind of interactive, camera “dance” with the environment. Poetry became important when the footage was later superimposed onto its own mirror-image, to help direct the viewer away from the luring yet limited world of image-identification. “I Thought There Were Limits,” by Quebec poet D.G. Jones, w as used to encourage the viewer to reject Newtonian notions of space and time, and to conceptualize the film’s interplay between absence, desire, and presence. Eventually, the limitation of text as spoken signifier is exposed through dynamic visual techniques reminiscent of concrete poetry. (RH)

The story is about a man who witnesses a murder from a train, and the ensuing chase.

This documentary, winner of three Canadian Gemini Awards, offers an in-depth portrait of the events encompassed by the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981, when 52 Americans were held by fundamentalist Iranian students deeply disturbed by the course of American policy in their native land. Attention is given to the American reaction to the crisis, both inside and outside of the country. The focus here is on the conduct of the hostages themselves and how they managed to survive within such a volatile situation.

This short documentary is a moving tribute to Richard Cardinal, a Métis adolescent who committed suicide in 1984. Taken from his home at the age of 4 due to family problems, he spent the rest of his 17 short years moving in and out of 28 foster homes, group homes and shelters in Alberta. A sensitive, articulate young man, Richard Cardinal left behind a diary upon which this film is based.

A boy makes a decision about how to dispose of a green glob he has concocted. What will happen if he dumps it into a stream? Where does water come from and where does it go? This film illustrates the water cycle and raises many questions about environmental responsibility and the consequences of our decisions.

A vignette using animation and live action to depict mussel farmers digging in the mud through the ice on bays and estuaries in Prince Edward Island.

These six essays on film/image history reconstruct cinema history by 're-imagining' its origins, and its poetries, and use historical films themselves (as 'text') to provide the meanings of their creations. Together, these film essays comprise a critical/structural investigation of silent cinema ending with Segei Eisenstein's works (for Stalin) - from Lumiere and Melies through surrealism and horros, to montage and propaganda, we 're-invent' epochs in cinema that became its language and culture.

The super-companies of this film are multi-national corporations that treat the world as one market. They take raw materials from one place, process them in another, and sell them everywhere. Shot on four continents, Super-Companies provides a provocative view of the way our world is being shaped by economic powers that are often at odds with the needs of people.

A short, sweet tape. Kind of painterly in its use of camera as it moves in a fluid way over a set that consists of a white picket fence, a plastic goose and hen, plastic, larger-than-life daisies, and some miscellaneous electronic gismos.

Kluane National Park is situated in the Yukon area of northern Canada and is a research paradise for glaciologists, geologists and other scientists. Mountaineers come to scale the impressive heights. Animals are free to roam, protected by stringent legislation. This film reveals many facets of this beautiful park, which has been declared a protected zone by UNESCO.

The video So Much I Want to Say consists of a series of still images, changing every eight seconds, which show the artist's face in close-up with a pair of male hands gagging her mouth and preventing her from speaking. Meanwhile her voice on the sound-track repeats over and over the words of the title.

A team of divers to the Arctic Ocean places a Canadian flag at the North Pole.

This documentary produced for TV follows a project consisting in remaking the journey of discoveries in the footsteps of Cartier's book. Sailors, some from Saint-Malo, others from the river, were entrusted with the care of navigation.

A collage of found footage from different media presenting the case of Simon Nkodi, a black gay activist and student leader in South Africa, who had been in jail for two years when the film was produced. Exploring the connections between anti-apartheid struggles and gay liberation, A Moffie Called Simon is based on letters from Nkodi to his lover, Ray, a Canadian gay journalist.

On the wedding day, a group of boys kidnap the bride. Her husband moves to the rescue.

This short documentary tells the story the once-thriving town of Okak, an Inuit settlement on the northern Labrador coast. Moravian missionaries evangelized the coast and encouraged the growth of Inuit settlements, but it was also a Moravian ship that brought the deadly Spanish influenza during the world epidemic of 1919. The Inuit of the area were decimated, and Okak was abandoned. Through diaries, old photos and interviews with survivors, this film relates the story of the epidemic and examines the relations between natives and missionaries.

Traces the 2,000-mile, 15-day voyage of the Freya, a small three-hulled sailing ship, from the Bahamas to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, following the path of the Gulf Stream. Uses animation, infrared satellite transmissions, and time-lapse photography to explain the origin, nature, and importance of the current, as well as its oceanographic, meteorologic, and ecological aspects.

Can true love survive two workaholics? For high-powered, successful executive Rosemary Michaels, her work commands her life - until romance novelist Steve Grady, with his subtle charm and quirk humor, writes his way into her heart.

Canadian poet Earle Birney indulges his love of trains in this performance of his sound poem To Swindon from London by Britrail. In fluent "trainish," he interprets the experience of excursions by rail. Imagination sparked by the rhythm of wheels and the clink of couplings, Birney hums, hisses and hoots his way through archival footage of vintage trains and the English countryside. A must for language, animation and train buffs.

This video links man's prehistoric traces in nature to the myth of the destruction of humanity. The birds speak about the frailty of the balance between culture and nature. Primitive figures which evoke Peruvian history emerge from Chantal duPont's paintings and take part in actual situations. In his flight, the eagle releases aman, only to eventually become his prisoner. From within a blaze where birds are consumed, a human form emerges. It has become both stone and archeological symbol.

A previously unreleased provocation from queer cinema’s outrageous auteur Bruce LaBruce

This feature documentary is an inquiry into Canada's economic troubles of the 1970 and '80s. The film summarizes the facts at hand, including some pre-NAFTA speculation about economic dependency on the United States. At roughly thirty percent, the Canada of a few decades ago was more foreign-owned than any other country in the world. Still, however, a great and stubborn national pride in our cultural and social idiosyncrasies persists, resulting in the confidence to look elsewhere besides the United States for economic alliances and models. This episode is the fifth and last part of the series Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada.

The Chronicle of 1812

A video essay using images and interviews to critically explore the history and current role of pornography.

It is a documentary joining 3 periods of filming in the Mouchouanipi, which is a faraway land in the North of eastern Canada.

An eccentric old grandmother decides to leave her nagging daughter's house to live on her own. Her teenaged granddaughter seizes the opportunity to go too.

Hundreds of students taking an exam together at the University of Toronto’s historic Varsity Hockey Arena. A wide-angle view of the entire scene, from the top of the stands. The film was shot in a single take, using two reels of film shot at one frame every four seconds over eight hours.

America is a legend, an idea. To rediscover the traces of such an idea within the reality of a city requires a transformation of this very city into ideas and legends, to the point that life and death, the real and the imaginary, past and future, that which can be communicated, and that which cannot,high and low are open to a contradictory understanding. Film made between 1981 and 1985.

A skillful, sensual rendering of an intriguing performance orchestrated by the artist. Through a fog-laden atmosphere, iconic figures emerge to perform on a huge turntable. Our look at this garishly lit spectacle is mediated by the gaze of a female Red Guard. All flesh and brilliance, this tape appears to critique popular culture by robbing it of any ostensible content. Hollywood proverb says, beneath the surface of fake tinsel lies only the real tinsel – the detritus of our times.

Girl meets girl, still likes boy, and all hell breaks loose.

An aspiring Canadian all-girl punk band reluctantly hires a down and out older male classic rock n roll guitarist.

Ronn Lucas special filmed in Canada to a live audience starring Lucas' puppets including Buffalo Billy, Chuck the punk rocker, etc. He also shows the audience how to make puppets out of socks and random objects. Ronn Lucas It was a one hour comedy special for the Disney Channel called "Who's in Charge Here?" for which he was nominated for an Ace award that aired in the mid-late 80s. It has an interesting cover of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" and Madonna's "Dress You Up". There is also an odd scene of a board room meeting with a stuffy T.V. executive and Buffalo Billy sitting lifeless at the conference table.

North Buxton, near Chatham, Ontario, has been a black settlement since the middle of the last century, when it was one of the destinations of escaped slaves traveling north on the Underground Railroad. Prieto and McTair went to Buxton to record one year's 'homecoming,' and came back with a celebratory reminder of the long history blacks have had in Canada. -- Images Festival

The dramatic story of two youths--one French and one Indigenous--who share a pivotal time in Canada's history: the first contact between European and First Nations peoples.