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A lady and her Cat. A friendship stronger than the optic nerve

Part one in a series, Mach Stem is an essay about skincare, depression, memory loss, and the atomic bomb.

An elderly Chinese can collector strikes up an unexpected friendship with a house full of friends in East Vancouver.

Toronto-based singer-songwriter Lukas Clay brings earnest lyricism and coming-of-age fantasies with a textural alt-pop and well, gay, sound. Produced in the living room with producer Aaron William Smith, Lukas Clay's Debut EP and film 'Wasted Lies' is a self-portrait of a younger self, struggling with sexual and gender identity within the LGBTQ+ community, relationships, and a rude introduction to a world outside of the safety of 'home'.

In British Columbia, young people in foster care ​“age out” of the child welfare system when they turn 19. Ready or not, they are left to fend for themselves as adults, and are disproportionately at risk of experiencing adverse outcomes such as substance use issues, homelessness, and mental health struggles. Forthright and often heartbreaking, 19 and Homeless introduces us to eight young people — most Indigenous or LGBTQ2+ — who have paid the price for a failed system. As we follow them over a two-year period, they relate, in their own words, their journeys and their struggles, transforming troubling statistics into compelling human stories.

Safe Haven weaves together the powerful stories of U.S. war resisters who sought safe haven in Canada during both the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

After moving from Argentina to Canada, Maya finds it difficult to adjust. The world passes her by at an overwhelming pace as she desperately hangs onto the past.

Origami plays with perspectives and dimensions. Fractals and luminous geometry are here liquefied by the cathode-ray tube of a hacked television set.

Filmed on both sides of the US-Canadian border before the transition to our collective “new normal,” every light returns – sinister bodies of water takes its inspiration from the possibilities inherent in gritty monochromatic filmstock; the landscapes of Essex Country and rural Michigan; and the hypnotic score performed by local musician JAG. I pushed the digital format as far away from a “clean” image as I could, trying to reflect the ambient feeling in the audio composition.

What could go wrong while making a nice dinner on Halloween night!

A stop-motion folktale about a gourd that learns what it means to be human.

The stop-motion animation features the plant species at risk that grow on Canadian soil but also live beyond borders. The word bower is derived from the Middle English word bour meaning “dwelling”. Our planet is currently considered the only dwelling that supports life as we know it; we should honour how we live within it.

At night, when our fears return, we never know what to expect!

Based on texts gleaned from Catherine Bush’s novel Blaze Island, this multi-layered collage offers a fleeting love story on a distant shore. The novel reimagines Shakespeare’s last testament, The Tempest, now set on a fictionalized version of Fogo Island, a windswept island off Canada’s east coast. Local photographers/artists Paddy Barry and M’Liz Keefe issue a lifetime of photographs and deep weather sightings, which create a kind of ground and schooling for the couple (Miranda and Frank), who find themselves by embracing the climate.

An alienated yet brilliant man develops an artificial intelligence, but as he commits himself entirely to his ambition, he begins to blur the line between his identity and the emerging machine intelligence.

A young man uses the power of dance to teach vulnerable teens the power of mentorship and community.

"Her Voice is an intimate portrait of dysphoria and discovery for a young trans woman going through vocal training." -VQFF

"Grounders is an attempt to capture the elation and confusion of play. The film was shot by several children, friends of my daughter, at nearby Lifesaver's Park in Hamilton ON. I was interested in a playground game called 'Grounders,' particularly the vernacular and malleable quality of the rules. Dispute and debate is constant, but it never seems to devolve into a bad time." (Derek Jenkins)

"Donkeys on a farm will face off with a predator rather than run, and horses can find some security in their presence. This is a portrait of Charlotte, April, and their companions at my aunt's farm in Southern Ontario." (the8fest)

"Travelling the Trent-Severn Waterway by houseboat, from the Kirkfield Liftlock to Omemee." (the8fest)

In an alternate earth, the apocalypse has wrecked havoc on Tyler’s whole reality.

'Visions' explores ocular phenomenon and spiritual experience.

Trails in Motion is an international segment racing film tour offering an approximately 90-minute selection of the best short and mid-length trail running films from around the world.

In 2020, humanity is facing one of the biggest pandemics of our time with Covid-19 while another pandemic is on the horizon. We take a look into the personal life of Sharma, a black psychologist who is now forced to confront her own suppressed emotions as tensions rise and the issue of race is pushed to the forefront.

On autoroute 15, just outside of Montreal stands a monument to the Quiet Revolution, the decaying screens of the Ciné Parc Laval, opened in 1971, the year the drive-in theatres made their mark in Québec history. In 1947, under the pressure on the Catholic church, drive-in theatres were banned in Québec. It was the church's attempt to regulate sex outside the domestic sphere. Originally a 2 theatre drive-in it soon became 4 screens due to its popularity. This film uses segments of David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975) in its dubbed Québécois version as a way to recall the lost traces of this informal history against the regulation of sex at the drive-ins of Québec in the 1970s.

My Gentrification is a documentary film consisting of two independent sections that explore my experiences and observations about housing, urban living and the rapidly changing landscape of Toronto. These ideas are presented using personal film footage on Super-8 or 16mm and interviews with local residents which I have been collecting since late 1990. For nearly 20 years, I have filmed small segments of daily life, street events and personal moments. This footage began taking on more meaning and structure as time passed and the neighbourhood started changing. I discovered that it is a record exploring a body of ideas and thoughts that can be used to talk about the process and impact of gentrification in Toronto. (MA)

On July 8th, 2019, the New Democracy government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis assumed power in Greece, after campaigning on a promise to ‘clean up’ the central Athens neighborhood of Exarchia, and ‘take it back’ from the anarchists. Since then, the Greek state has launched a renewed attack against the anarchist and self-organized migrant movements, targeting squats and promising future raids. Against this threat, Greek anarchists have responded with characteristic resolve and determination.

‘A Little Loopy’ is a piece of visual music hand drawn using colour inks on transparent 16mm film. The visuals explore the emotional and textural nature of the music using the extreme enlargement of the drawing. The music gives a sense of a constant beginning and this sensation is sometimes mirrored, sometimes juxtaposed in the visual treatment, creating a dialogue between the sound and the image.

The small recording device named REC lives all alone in an abandoned attic when a bird appears at the window. REC is really excited and wants to talk to it. But when the bird hears REC’s “voice” it flies away in terror. Now REC tries everything to record the bird’s beautiful song. Time is running out, because its battery will soon be exhausted.

Jeremias, a young race runner, faces the ultimate challenge of his career. What he doesn't expect is that by the end of the race, something bigger finds its way to him.

Illusory visual and sonic reflection on a stagnant film career both moving forwards and backwards, and not at all; driving 100mph yet standing still.

For Christopher Hunte, drag is a business, not a lifestyle. Christopher lets us watch as he transitions into Symone Says, and lets us in on stage life.

Surreal journey of a weary passenger train as it trudges north to the Hudson Bay revealing the monotony, oddities and marvels of Canada’s northern gateway.

Under the care of manned mechanical beings, we sit and wait in suspension. Held in abeyance, one cannot help but be captivated by these beautiful, hopeful, watchful creatures.

As social-distancing measures set in during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kristin Catherwood moved back to her family’s farm to stay with her widowed father. Spring brings the usual urgency to plant the year’s crops, and Kristin starts thinking about planting her vegetable garden—a garden that brings deep memories of her mother and grandmothers.

Marlene and Re:Tired traverse a febrile, digital landscape in the search of their voices. The gender-less duo thrive quite well off their diet of mayonnaise and discount window cleaner. Accompanied by one sentient—and very much exasperated—HedCam, hijinks ensue.

A film about a stubborn little monster named Curt who receives some advice from a clever little bird named Blue

An entity has a transcendent experience watching films.

The Boston Bruins will lose the 1988 Stanley Cup Finals.

After an apocalypse eradicates almost all life, an entity finds a film highlighting some good humanity has done.

During an ordinary day, an entity experiences a nervous breakdown.

In the absence of a foreseeable future, a portrait is drawn from memories and explanations consisting of spaceships, sticker books, the end of the world, and some place called "The Cove."

Mandy can’t make animations about his own character: what is he supposed to do?

Matilde’s world is turned upside from the death of her beloved grandfather. As his primary caregiver towards the end of his life, Matilde inherits Avo’s store in Toronto's Kensington Market, to the dismay of his two children. Desperate to hold on to her connection with her grandfather, Matilde attempts the stress of business ownership. With Matilde’s mother and uncle disapproving, and her relationship with Annie beginning to take a turn, Matilde has to make some hard choices about what matters most.

An entity undergoes a trance whilst admiring nature.

An entity goes to sleep and has a dream.

Five former soldiers team up to steal a drug trafficker's fortune in the notorious border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, setting off a chain of unforeseen consequences.

A trip around Sam's Farm.

This documentary film is about Martha, Winnie, Stella, and Yvonne who, as people wanting to immigrate to Canada, are struggling to deal with having been denied. State bureaucrats have deemed them to be social, legal and health risks. The film asks the viewer to consider and contemplate answers to this question: How would you feel about being discredited, singled out, disproportionately probed, and rendered ‘medically inadmissible’ based on your bodily status?

To get over his Sunday boredom, a young Atikamekw spends time with friends, reminiscing about his dogs.

An impressionistic haiku-like film, illustrating a man's first visit to his father's occupied homeland Tibet. Assembled using 16mm hand-processed film, ethereal road trip footage and film archives, The Visit artfully explores a stifled rage, too dangerous to show, and the profound effects of intergenerational loss and longing that belong to the liminal space of exile.

"Vanilla" takes you through the everyday ordinary life of a disabled senior citizen living in Ottawa, Canada: a portrait of aging and the loneliness of those suffering in silence.

Trudy goes for one last bounce, with unexpected results.

Part of a series from Sabrina Ratté

"Meltwater" is an icy terrain that dissolves into sweeping waves of shadows. Blurring the horizon between the real and the imagined, the possible and the unthinkable, this vision is a meditation on global warming and its havoc on the rhythms of the natural world.

After the pandemic forced the cancellation of events worldwide, Brett Kissel set out to bring live music back to Canada. In this documentary, Kissel shows how the drive-in concept became a reality—from video calls to socially-distanced rehearsal to finally being back on a stage, separated from his band with plexiglass. 8 sold out shows over 2 days, this was the beginning of the return of live music in Canada. This is the story about how music brought everyone together.

For Alex Abbott, a winning dirt bike freestyle rider, the moment of truth came when his dirt bike landed on his head and broke his neck and became an incomplete quadriplegic. During the months he laid immobilized in hospital, the notion of ever getting back on his bike seemed so remote he barely gave it any real thought. But ten years later, with the help of friends and family, Alex is on the verge of finding his way back onto two wheels. 257 Down is a documentary film about patience, endurance and courage. It is a story that will inspire people of all abilities to follow their dreams, no matter how inaccessible they might seem.