Discoveries from Canada World Cinema

Several story threads about consciousness and perception intertwine in this film by video installation artist Daniel Cockburn.

Quebec-Montreal: 250 km (150 miles) of asphalt, nine thirtysomething travelers, four cars, one destination. The journey becomes an opportunity to share points of view about life and to discuss troubling questions about our existence.

Jerry Bines is trying to live down a past that includes killing a man (in self-defence), theft and an alcoholic, abusive father. He sees hope for redemption by providing life-giving bone marrow to his leukemia-stricken son. But time is running out because an escaped killer (Gary Percy Rils) is coming to town to exact revenge for ancient sins. And like the old buck in a backwoods tale he spins for his kid, Bines must stop running and turn to face his hunter.

When the King of France demands that John relinquish his crown in favor of his nephew, the young Prince Arthur, war is the inevitable result. Excommunication, attempted atrocity, rebellion, and assassination all contribute to political turmoil and personal grief for a mother who has lost her son.

This is the story Delphine Lamarre, a young woman trying to focus on the way to dance rather than focused on her university studies. It will pass through trials and consequences facing choices.

Police detective Jacques Laniel's life becomes a nightmare the day drive-by shootists gun down his partner Thomas Colin. His colleagues make matters worse by blaming him for the death, and after his wife leaves him, Laniel decides to quit the force and launch a private investigation into Colin's murder. Soon afterward, Laniel finds the bullet-riddled body of famed author and literature professor Zachary Osborne tied to his car hood. The professor's wife hires Laniel to solve the murder, but what the detective finds is ugly: Osborne was a part of a lucrative land-speculation deal that involved the sale of a crumbling old rectory that had been turned into a halfway house called the Haven of the Monsters. The name is apt, for all the residents are convicted killers who were given inordinately light sentences. When Lanier starts questioning the Haven's tenants and their crimes are revealed via flashback, it takes on the character of a David Lynch production.

Two filmmakers, Rebecca and Mark, came up with a plan to make a hoax film about the mythical ‘Bigfoot’. They set up camp in the woods and interviewed locals who claimed to have sighted the beast, documenting each step as they laid the groundwork for their hoax.

Gerry Rogers, a filmmaker in Newfoundland, documents her personal battle with breast cancer. With her partner Peggy and lots of support from family and friends, she makes her way to recovery.

The 200th episode of the venerated sci-fi series is discussed during this special.

For three decades now, Qatar, this small desert kingdom, has not stopped being talked about; because of its financial power and the secrecy that surrounds it, the royal family that runs it fascinates as much as it frightens.

This documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin introduces us to Randy Horne, a high steel worker from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, near Montreal. As a defender of his people's culture and traditions, he was known as "Spudwrench" during the 1990 Oka crisis. Offering a unique look behind the barricades at one man's impassioned defence of sacred territory, the film is both a portrait of Horne and the generations of daring Mohawk construction workers that have preceded him.

Here in Toronto, four young Somali refugees are finishing high school. What did they bring with them? What did they find in Canada? Their testimonies, about us and about themselves, interspersed with newsreel footage and sequences of a theatrical creation in which they put all their soul, make them immediately endearing and overturn many prejudices held against refugees. A film that makes you want to get to know them better.

After winning tickets for a trip to Vegas at a fundraiser, a bunch of the Degrassi kids take off on a spring break adventure that none of them will ever forget.

Shows Tête-à-la-Baleine, Québec, a village with a double life--one on the North Shore mainland during winter months, the other on mossy islands of the Gulf to which the entire population moves for summer fishing.

A single mother of two, after being diagnosed with cancer, embarks on a journey to re-connect with her estranged birth mother.

Carls the eldest of three brothers and is expected to be a role model for the family. He wants to show his family that he made the right choice to move away. However, youngest brother Adam's unexpected hostility reveals the problems with Carls choices.

From polar bears in the arctic tundra to black bears in the Northern Rockies, you'll see some of the most spectacular footage ever shot of these enterprising omnivores. Catch salmon with a group of hungry grizzlies on the McNeil River in Alaska. Crawl inside a den with a mother black bear and her cubs. Learn about the challenges facing each of these species as their habitat diminishes.

Akashi is a multigenerational love story told across parallel timelines. Kana, a struggling artist in Vancouver, returns to Tokyo for her grandmother’s funeral, feeling out of place after ten years abroad. As she reflects on a secret only she and her grandmother shared—that her grandfather had another lover—she unexpectedly reconnects with an old love, Hiro. Intercut with the past, which traces her grandfather’s decades-long affair, Kana confronts hidden family truths and begins to navigate the complexities of love, sacrifice, and the choices that shape a life between desire and duty.

In a dystopian future where the air is unbreathable and all citizens must wear elaborate masks in order to live, one young scientist fights to win his lover by defying the state and seeing her face.

After a difficult separation, Serge Jr. takes his daughter Lily, 9, on a truck ride across Canada. They head to Alberta and its legendary Badlands World’s Best Truck Rodeo, a race Lily and him have been dreaming about. On the road, under his daughter’s increasingly worried gaze, Serge will eventually need to face the music.

In Sticks and Stones, the captain of a Canadian Pee-Wee hockey team organizes a tournament to make amends for the horrible treatment an American team received during a visit to Canada in March, 2003.

Two friends meet after 15 years. They have a complicated and intimate past that becomes impossible to deny in spite of intentions to the contrary.

K.C. and Jo are two hardened female ex-cons who decide to build a marina on a lake in backwoods Texas to start a life for themselves, only to be hassled by the redneck locals who do not like outsiders, and that the lakeshore is their own regular hangout. But K.C. and Jo's worst troubles come from Junior, a slow-witted psycho redneck who gets the O.K. from his equally demented mother to kill the two.

A therapist and her diverse young clients participate in a (fictionalized) documentary exploring the impact of global crises on mental health. Through this experience, they, along with the filmmaker, gain unexpected self-insight, leading to a profound understanding of their identities and roles in our transformed world.

An animator finds himself trying to explain his (lack of) artistic vision to his creations, who just aren't impressed.

An emotionally charged tale of a disconnected family whose spirits are rekindled with the help of a friend and a shared love of music. In his private moments, Zach Taylor relives his glory days as jazz trumpeter Pepper Taylor.

Follows Hazel, who goes to spend the holidays in her home town, where a romance begins to bloom with a local contractor who has been helping her father with their family bakery, but some misunderstandings threaten to tear them apart.

When sisters Cara and Amy make a pact to find their soulmates by next Christmas, they’re not expecting to be so successful! One year later, Amy’s winter wedding approaches and Cara finally finds her own perfect man, inviting him as her plus one. But after immediately losing his number, all hope is lost. Will she find him in time to make her Christmas wish come true? Or does love have other plans for Cara?

An odd and intense middle aged Korean American man flirts with the idea of suicide because he believes he's failed his immigrant parents. He's disturbed by his increasingly vivid hallucinations of what his life could have been. So he pursues spirituality to calm himself, and in the process encounters others who are struggling in their own ways.

Baklava is a fairy tale about a country in the heart of the Peninsula and two brothers, separated by the timelessness of the Transition. Djore is 26, dresses in black, listens to drum & bass and does graffiti. Kotze is 9, wears a silver chain, steals, fights and loves pop folk. Their journey in search of a buried treasure introduce us in an end neighborhood populated with weird characters, dark dreams and child's fantasies.

BET RAISE FOLD: The Story of Online Poker is a feature documentary that follows a new generation of Internet poker professionals during the meteoric rise and sudden crash of the multibillion dollar online poker industry of the 2000s.

In the 21st century Mr. George Reaper has become your average 9 to 5 working stiff, eking out an ineffectual existence, reduced to a pale shade of his former glorious self. The film has him wake up, get ready for work, wait for a bus and suffer humiliation at the hands of Norman the Daisy.

A company man struggles to save his career, his romantic relationship and his friendship with his colleagues in this corporate comedy.

In an effort to make friends in high school, Lucas finds himself in a position that compromises his safety. In the aftermath, he realizes that the support he seeks is not guaranteed.

A young woman taking care of her diabetic father gets involved in a one way relationship. Portrait of a generation about to replace another, Demain is a film based on an inertia marked youth, and on it's precursors confronted to their own disappearance.

This short film depicts how a small Canadian city, bearing the name of Stratford and by a river Avon, created its own renowned Shakespearean theatre. The film tells how the idea grew, how a famous British director, international stars and Canadian talent were recruited, and how the Stratford Shakespearean Festival finally became a triumphant reality.

A scorching summer stretches across the countryside and the city. In a lush landscape, Marie, a sound artist in research, begins to question her relationship. The arrival of Noée, a young traveler, disrupts her routine and that of Yan, a solitary farmer next door. In the city, Eva, newly arrived from the Philippines, walks sleepless nights, caught between homes, while Jeanne, a master's student, contemplates walking away from everything. Between moments of doubt and brief connections, their worlds echo one another.

This unique narrative incorporating documentary elements follows Rey, a 40-year-old non-binary teacher and typhoon survivor, on a roadtrip to fame. With surreal comedy and social portrait realism, filmmaker Seán‌ Devlin explores climate change, LGBTQ+ issues, and the impact of colonialism on contemporary Philippines.

North of the 51st parallel, where the dense boreal forest opens onto an arctic islet, the snow-capped peaks of the Uapishka Mountains watch over the Nitassinan of Pessamit. In the heart of winter, a group of Innu and non-Innu adventurers attempt to cross this vast mountain range on snowshoes, completely independently. Faced with the vastness of the territory, the rigors of the northern climate and the impetuous breath of the tundra, they discover each other in a different way, form friendships and unite to better chart their course. Over the kilometres, the adventure reveals a space for meeting, sharing and reconciliation.

In an alternate timeline Arizona State alumni William “Billy” Coltran was the president of the USA. Billy seems to have lost something...

Where futures are known and happiness is guaranteed by G.O.D., a mother is given a choice - her child or her perfect future.

Documentary on the making of the cult classic Nelvana animated film, "Rock & Rule." Featuring interviews with Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Iggy Pop, Maurice White, and Director Clive Smith.

A martian comes to a small town in Quebec and becomes friends with the town children. He gives them candy to get the children into his spacecraft. This alarms the parents but he wins them over and they have a great big Christmas party.

A girl and boy. Brother and sister. Living in poverty and neglect. Lost in the woods. They see a house, rush toward it... it is magical. Full of good food, soft sheets, love and care. But in this house, danger lurks. And all they have is each other. The Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel takes a modern, neorealistic twist in H&G.

Bounce original movie, starring Brandon Jay McLaren and Gabrielle Graham

Two decades after the initial exposé of the corporation, this follow-up unveils a world now fully remade in its image and perilously close to fascism.

Koji Yamamura's allegory the immutability of time, love and devotion, and the unbreakable nature of the parent-child bond, into interlacing story.

Pierre, a retired professor in his early sixties ends up making a short, unsettling trip around Okinawa with Junko, a 40-year-old runaway wife. The confused intellectual would rather not get involved with this unlikely and unexpected lover but decides to follow his destiny, wherever it (she?) may take him.

The Story of a Japanese-Canadian woman who finds friendship after her family is interned to a small town during World War II.

Documentary-drama recounting the Martian War of 1913–1917. Europe was on tenterhooks in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, everyone was expecting a Great War between the major European powers. But then, in 1913, something crashed into the forests of SW Germany. Troops were sent to investigate but were wiped out. Martian fighting machines began making their way across Western Europe and the countries of Europe combined forces to resist them. With aspects taken from ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells and from WWI itself, this dramatisation presents a documentary style look at events as they unfolded and the effect they had of our world today. Lots of references to real events including the mass attacks and defeats as men were thrown against machines on the Western front, the Christmas truce and the Angel of Mons, America's isolationism and late entry into the conflict, the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic that killed more people than the war, and many other things.

A love triangle between a man, a maiden and a monster.

During the height of the Vietnam war, a hippie and a draft dodger get together and hatch a plan to flee to Canada. They steal a car and head towards Vancouver, but the trip doesn't go as smoothly as they planned, and before long they're being chased by the police, accused of murdering several police officers.

A century after a village and its paper mill were abandoned, a group of actors is tasked with recreating the fantasized daily life of its inhabitants.

A scavenger discovers a valuable artifact deep within an abandoned facility on a desolate planet. Hoping for a big payout, he ventures inside, only to find something much more sinister.

An animated film compiled by David Ehrlich consisting of 27 animators from different countries all explaining themselves through their animation.

This comedy chronicles the many crazy sexploits of Xaveria Hollander, the notorious "Happy Hooker."

This is the story of an ordinary businessman named Joe, as told from the point of view of his heart. Because Joe doesn't watch his diet, his smoking habit or his stress levels, he eventually suffers a heart attack.

When Ms. Christmas, a shopping channel host, receives a terminal diagnosis, she heads on a multi-city excursion to spread Christmas cheer.

Suzie, a 58 year old depressed taxi driver on the night shift. On Halloween, she finds a 10 year old autistic boy in the back seat of her taxi with 50$ and an address. As Suzie arrived at the father's address, she realizes the mess this family is in. This child and her own troubled past lead her down a surprising road.