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A short documentary about gender identity issues

"À force d’usure" exposes the atypical path of three percussionists attempting to capture unlikely sonic moments: a rusty bath, dissolving flutes, sugaring on drums, melting ice, soaking wood… A variety of material reactions take place on different timescales. The Bascaille trio uses its worn-out instrumentarium in a video that has itself undergone various alterations and hybridizations.

Three men discuss how each of them wants to approach an upcoming heist. Stealth, action, and disguises. The film was written, shot, and completed within 48 hours for the Okotoks Film Festival 2021 where it won the award for "best use of genre".

A depiction of various anxious states of mind during isolation. Fragmented anxiety and existential thinking. Hand-processed Super8 reversal and black & white film. Based on an interesting discussion with my son about the possibility of being haunted.

Color only exists in the presence of light, so all things are essentially black. But really, what is black? A short, elegant and experimental exploration of the value and meaning of BLACK.

How to use this old technology of the postcard, with its marriage of image and text, its insistence that every exchange has two-sides which can never be considered at the same time, to write oneself back into the world? The traveller alights in Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, even in Canada, finding words for the old wounds, sitting for a portrait in the middle of the city, out of doors, alone in a crowd. The military ghosts are never far, their costumes barely able to cover up the casual brutalities, even as the city’s citizens come together in unexpected formations, inventing new lives and conversations, like the plant life that flourishes around them, as resplendent as weeds. One of his most perfect and most personal reflections, a letter from the heart.

In appreciation of the eponymous stream, this poem is a love letter to the beauty found in nature. Written and spoken in English and Anishinaabemowin.

Blue Light Blue is a film and video work that uses the blue light emitted from the backlit LED screens of cellphones, tablets and laptops as a formal element, an experimental narrative device, and a primary material. The work draws aesthetic inspiration from horror films and the cinematic device of “day for night”—a technique used throughout the history of film where footage shot during daylight is processed with a strong blue tint so that it reads as nighttime. Throughout Blue Light Blue, the notions of day and night are confused and the protected, intimate space of the bedroom is transgressed. Blue light is cast as the antagonist in a pseudo horror film where screens masquerade as mirrors or windows or light sources, all the while surveilling us as we gaze into their simulated depths.

A mysterious work of art examines its own existence after being abandoned in the Sahara desert, revealing the great secrets of the edges of reality.

With over 2000 uploads, Frenchman Georges denounces the alienating and dehumanising reality of Chinese society. The most successful and political film by Canadian director Gagnon who for years has chronicled the coding of a new world order in the digital age.

"At the New Year's Eve event of the 'Crossover' International Performance Art Festival, Canadian performance artist John G. Boehme appeared very calmly. He wore a black face mask and stared at the audience (camera) like a still life object in front of the screen, then he began to swallow the mask." – Cai Qing

News from another pandemic, the one that "changed everything" before it fell out of the news cycle and collective memory, except for the newly infected or those who, like myself, managed a new life after death. Based on a text by David Wojnarowicz.

People fall into water. Seen from underneath the surface of a lake, those men and women, fully dressed in office attire, move around trying to find orientation while following and bumping into each other. Thrown into this involuntary situation, their movements are at times softly flowing, elegant and caring, but change in the next moment into fighting against each other and for air. They are submerged in an environment which is removed from our daily reality associating sparkling fairy-tale dreams and horrible visions of drowning at the same time.

A young man is caught in the cyclical phases of a violent illness.

Tyler, a young gay man who is HIV positive, must deal with the demons of his past when he is confronted by a mysterious woman.

In this animated documentary famed black Canadian writer Austin Clarke talks about his upbringing in Barbados, his early literary influences, colonialism, race, class, discrimination and his friendship with Malcolm X.

Ablation explores the onslaught of melting glaciers at a time of rapid climate change.

In one of the world’s coldest climates, a heartwarming story is taking shape. Ellesmere, a fit and instantly lovable Canadian Inuit yearling sled dog, is setting off on her first training expedition and rite of passage.

Visual and poetic exploration of the effects of power lines on raptors within surrounding ecosystems. Adapted to nest and hunt from points closest to the sky, the birds themselves are prey to contemporary hunger for electricity. As power lines cover the horizon where forests once sprouted, owls, hawks and herons have no choice but to risk their lives to survive.

Pierre is an ordinary 55 years old man, solitary and very shy. He lives in his tidy and quiet apartment surrounded by his favourite figurine collections. However, his job is far from his low profil type. He’s been a Drag Queen Barmaid for the past 30 years, a hard and restrictive work he never really chose. But for him, it’s a job like any other.

This large scale video installation is a nature morte where the camera slowly unveils different fleshy entities embedded with technology. Laying in this strange land, half cemetery half waste-yard, obsolete mutations have been abandoned to create this new ecosystem hanging between life and death. By their shapes, textures and context, each entity is loosely inspired by different films of Cronenberg, such as The Fly, Scanners, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, The Brood, Existenz and Crash. The title is a reference to his film Crimes of the Future. The installation is surrounded by 5 televisions, lighting the room with different videos made with synthesizers. Each pattern represents a manifestation of the body, such as brain signals, heartbeats, blood etc. While referencing Videodrome and the evolution of the electronic image, it also suggests the idea that the body is a form of technology in itself.

An experimental film about memories and the uncertain future.

A documentary showcasing the traditional Filipino way of eating, through a foreign, outdated lens.

"D", wakes up to the moans of her father's one-night stand. Annoyed at first, D slowly warms up to Vanessa, who is quite the sight for her sore eyes. With her dysfunctional father, Kyle, as her only role model, D navigates the struggles of coming into womanhood while pining for Vanessa, her rare hope for tender, feminine attention. When Kyle drives Vanessa away, D is left to handle her first period with her dad as an untoward sidekick, a defining moment in their relationship.

Unfinished is a 40-minute personal documentary that encapsulates the struggle of a daughter's mental illness as seen through the lens of her mother. Over a series of hospitalizations through involvement of the ‘invisible’ medics treating her daughter, the mother’s frustrating enquiry to understand and untangle the conundrum of her daughter’s mental health condition unfold. The filmmaker-mother critically examines home videos filmed by her during her daughter’s first episode that unravels the family’s genetic archive. She fears that her past films may be a foreshadow of their lived experience.

Sebastian, a 26-year-old Spanish tutor living in Vancouver, must choose between keeping his engagement with his fiance Leyla or start a new relationship with his one-night stand Kelley, an openly gay yoga instructor who remembers the couple from an university in Germany.

Based on a text message from their Kokum, the artist imagines planting the seeds for future generations.

A tourist, lost in the crowds, gets caught up in the moment.

In a story inspired by real events, Annisa, a young South Sudanese midwife, finds herself in a race against time to save the life of a young mother (Agnes) who has suffered postpartum haemorrhage. With conventional methods not seeming to work and no resources, Annisa must use her own resources and training to save Agnes from the same fate that befell her own mother ten years earlier.

“Grapheme” is a short experimental video exploring the visual representation of language and symbols. A personal collection of books, letters, photographs, postcards, posters and signs are represented throughout the work. The title “grapheme” is derived from a linguistic term referring to the smallest unit, or letter, of the written language. In this piece, the written word and representational images are simplified to an ambiguous visual motif through extreme close-ups, a fast-paced rhythm and dynamic motion. The nature of seeing and reading is questioned by the sequence of images, letters and words. Underscoring the video is an original soundtrack composed with a musical collaborator, Daniel Brlas. In this moving-image work, visual language is interrogated as a fragile source of meaning.

A short documentary following a random citizen’s odd daily commute to school.

The many environmental, social, legal and human perils of BC’s controversial Site C hydro dam project are explored in Heather Hatch’s documentary.

The mockumentary tells the story of a friendship between eleven lifelong friends within a virtual wrestling federation that exists for more than ten years.

Alex has wanted to have a baby almost as long as she can remember. But how is a butch Chicana lesbian supposed to get sperm?

A psychological suspense film shot entirely on Zoom with an international cast. Starring Michael Lake, Bella Duve, Neil Ovenell, Edward Osredkar, and more.

Å®†3ƒ@ç+ is a short dance film that uses digital glitch to explore degradation and generation loss across multiple mediums. It layers and blends footage of a body dancing with the fractal textures of natural elements like trees and birds, creating a dense lattice of flickering colour, branching light, and human forms, all buried in pastel washes of cascading residuum.

The film focuses on the life of Emeka Ojukwu, between 1954-1960, before Nigeria’s Independence, as he spends time frolicking with different women and throwing parties for his friends, inviting highlife originator E.T Mensah from Ghana to play for him with Bobby Benson, singing at his birthday party.

An imaginative take on the origin story of Bill Reid, one of Canada’s most iconic Haida artists.

Sitting Tall: The Patrick Anderson Story examines the background and career of Patrick Anderson, arguably the greatest wheelchair basketball player of all time, as he prepares for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

An ice cream factory worker reflects on AIDS and the new capitalism. "A move from a regime of cultural production ordered by authorship, originality and signature to one ordered by the brand, branding and simulation." This short essay doc is indebted to deep digs by Emily Martin, Lisa Adkins and Karen Ho.

The experience of climbing on a cold winter day on the coast of Nova Scotia is unique. What does exposing yourself to the elements teach you about life? I’m Thinking of a Place is a meditation on the art of being uncomfortable.

A short experimental documentary on the effects of industrial society.

Single sounds, one-of-one sounds like halloween skeletons hanging lopsided in windows, parts, stages, sections, ecosystems, vignettes, episodes, amateur zen forms, overlapping in local a/v technique.

Sara has to miss school because she has a fever.

A multigenerational household. A widower living alone in a retirement home. A long-term care resident determined to stay connected with his husband during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gay, lesbian and transgender seniors speak of the struggle and desire to attain rights and recognition.

In Quebec, as everywhere around the world, the Spring of 2020 was drastically changed by the Covid 19 pandemic. I decided to make the most of this extraordinary period by putting the disruption caused to the season of rebirth into images in a short animated film. Using my scanner to animate an assortment of flowers gathered from my neighbourhood and objects from my daily life allowed me to cast a distanced and light-hearted eye at this anxiety inducing global situation. The black, rectangular surface of the scanner is the sole backdrop of the film, like a representation of our confinement within four walls.”

Renown Mi’kmaw filmmaker Catherine Martin’s short film took decades to put together, and looks at the effort and skill that go into traditional baskets.

In his debut full-length video, Antoine Perrone and friends showcase their talents in the streets of Québec City.

Frustrated with his Muslim friends and their assimilation into western culture, Omar makes an impromptu trip to Pakistan.

Aimee, the non-binary lead singer of “The Love Club,” must gain the courage to continue their performance after they are tormented during their big concert. By portraying the characters as messy and as complex as they are in real life, After the Glitter Fades showcases the relationships between band members to underscore the importance of friendship. After the Glitter Fades gives us a chance to heal and to say the things we are too afraid to say out loud.

In his first heartfelt documentary, Jack Belhumeur takes the viewer on a ride, navigating the trials and tribulations of life as an essential worker far from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A meditative journey through colour, form and sound. This film was created for Toronto chamber music composer Frank Horvat. The composition is performed by Canadian percussionist Beverley Johnston. The animation is created by painting ink directly onto 16mm film.