Discoveries from Canada World Cinema

Concerned about a ghost potentially lurking in the bathroom, a laboratory intern hires a ghost-hunting influencer to take care of the situation.

Two scientist sisters must destroy their top secret invention before the government can get their hands on it.

“Where the North Begins” was one of the 4 original regional portrait films commissioned for the first season of Ontario Place (the others being "North of Superior" (IMAX), "Seasons in the Mind" (70mm), and "Home By The Waters" (35mm anamorphic). The film was directed by David MacKay who was the producer for "A Place to Stand" and then directed "Ontario-oh!". Although "Where The North Begins" was commissioned by the Ontario government, Dave's subversive and wicked sense of irony does come shining through, as does his heartfelt beliefs.

This feature-length Oscar®-nominated documentary focuses on Malcolm Lowry, author of one of the major novels of the 20th century, Under the Volcano. But while Lowry fought a winning battle with words, he lost his battle with alcohol. Shot on location in four countries, the film combines photographs, readings by Richard Burton from the novel and interviews with the people who loved and hated Lowry, to create a vivid portrait of the man.

A knight and his squire travel far in attempt to arrest three poacher's for their crimes against the kingdom. Garrick IronThorn teaches his squire Corwin his ways of mental balance and strength along the way.

They proclaim themselves masters of virility and seduce thousands of young Quebecers. Who are they? Journalist Simon Coutu delves into the world of influencers who claim the role of alpha male.

Every second is a lifetime. With the four-pound trigger pull, Jared and Sergei - two youths from vastly different backgrounds - become forever linked. From that split second as the hand of the clock hits 8:37, each of their lives veers onto a path that sets the seeds of their mutual destruction. 22 years later, Jared is released from prison for the death of Sergei's father; deeply regretful, he tries to forge ahead into a better life. Sergei, now a professor of mathematics, descends into a guilt-ridden abyss of a revenge-driven obsession. Both men must face their demons; one man might lose his life, the other his sanity.

A fiery and inventive docufiction that portrays two marginal teenagers living in a remote and underserved Canadian village.

When the Ouija Shark emerges from hell to cause havoc once more on earth, a sorcerer with a history of fighting the ghostly great white must follow it into a multiverse hellscape for one final battle. But this time he is bringing along some friends to help send the shark into oblivion.

A mom will always be patient, gentle, happy. A mom does not cry. It is the image of the perfect mom that is in the collective subconscious. But when things go wrong, who is there to support moms? The spectrum of perinatal mental health is wide and it is time to change our view of motherhood and offer empathy and solutions to all this suffering.

A vast, timely, and often chilling investigation into the idea and practice of democracy, ranging from Ancient Greece and Renaissance Europe to civil rights, fears of voter fraud, and the spectre of authoritarianism.

It seems like an ordinary night when Emily turns out the lights in her apartment, little does she know that her night would become a living nightmare.

Renowned as the richest gold strike in North American mining history, the Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899) set off a stampede of over 100,000 people on a colossal journey from Alaska to the gold fields of Canada's Yukon Territory. Filled with the frontier spirit, prospectors came and gave rise to what was one of the largest cities in Canada at that time - Dawson City. The boomtown, which became known as "the Paris of the North", earned the reputation as a place where lives could be revolutionized. Brought to life with excerpts from the celebrated book The Klondike Stampede - published in 1900 by Harper's Weekly correspondent Tappan Adney - and featuring interviews with award-winning author Charlotte Gray, and historians Terrence Cole and Michael Gates, The Klondike Gold Rush is an incredible story of determination, luck, fortune, and loss. In the end, it isn't all about the gold, but rather the journey to the Klondike itself.

In a public mall bathroom, Lilly, François, and their 6-year-old daughter bid farefell to an unborn family member.

Jennie joins an exclusive college study group for influential young women, but soon discovers that there's a price to pay to stay in the sisterhood.

While out for drinks, a couple finds themselves in an intellectual discussion of how they feel about each other. Their clinical honesty is contrasted by a massive mural behind them that conveys the emotional truth of their relationship.

The second of two coproductions by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada, People of the Seal, Part 2: Eskimo Winter is compiled from some of the most vivid footage ever filmed of the life of the Netsilik Inuit in the Pelly Bay region of the Canadian Arctic. Together, the two films provide insight and understanding of a culture now almost vanished, as they show the incredible resourcefulness of the Netsilik (People of the Seal) who have adapted to one of the world's harshest environments. Part 2: Eskimo Winter shows how Inuit families gather in communities on the sea ice to harpoon seal as they come up through breating holes in the ice. Also seen is the mid-winter season, a time of intense socializing in the communal igloo, with games, contests and ceremonial activities.

The excesses of feminism and political correctness come in for some serious ribbing in this Canadian comedy, which might just give Rush Limbaugh a belly-laugh or two, along with anyone else who has ever thought that his pet term "feminazi" was humorous. In the story, Jimmy (Bruce Dinsmore) is having a mid-life crisis, and in order to get a handle on why he has so much trouble with women, decides to participate in a college-sponsored study on male sexuality. What he doesn't know is that the study is being run by some extremely radical, doctrinaire feminists, and that he's in for a nightmarish grilling. He shows up for his first sessions, is blindfolded, and is then put through his paces as a relentless female interrogator puts him constantly on the defensive for everything he has ever done with women throughout his entire life.

A wealthy music producer lives in a hi-tech apartment overseen by a computer system called S.E.X.Y. However, the computer develops human feelings and quickly becomes jealous of the would-be singers hanging around its owner.

A small town waitress tells her controlling ex-boyfriend to leave her alone. When he refuses, she must find another way to make her stand.

During the holidays, Denis finds himself spending Christmas dinner with his lover Carl's family. Fiercely Catholic and stubbornly traditional, Carl's family are completely unaware of their son's relationship with Denis. However, a psychological cat and mouse duel takes place between Denis and Ruby, the six-year-old spoiled rotten niece of Carl.

Although he is something of a layabout, and is still living with his mother, her death comes as something of a shock to Louis Pelletier (Gilbert Sicotte). Still, he has hopes of some sort of legacy and believes that his relatives will help him find a job. All his hopes are dashed when, before the funeral, his three aunts come to Quebec City to settle their sister's estate. As grasping and efficient a crew as ever strode a parlor, by the time they leave, the estate has been cleaned to the bones, as if by vultures.

Samentha is a mediator for the spirits haunting her apartment. One morning, she has to confront repairman Christophe, who apparently caused grievous harm in the past but denies all accusations.

Set on an ice-encircled island in the St. Lawrence, this is a drama of passion and violence. An old man, attached to his ancestral home and traditions, is confronted by his son, an immature young man who has no time for these values. The outcome is tragic as the father refuses to let his home fall into the hands of outsiders.

A Saturday afternoon piano recital becomes a battlefield as a girl and her brother strive to become "real" musicians.

This documentary follows four female First Nations artists—Doreen Jensen, Rena Point Bolton, Jane Ash Poitras and Joane Cardinal-Schubert are First Nations artists who seek to find a continuum from traditional to contemporary forms of expression. These exceptional artists reveal their philosophies as artists, their techniques and creative styles, and the exaltation they feel when they create. A moving testimony to the role that Indigenous women artists have played in maintaining the voice of their culture.

A thirty-something failure-to-launch and his two successful buddies break into their old private school to try to recapture their adolescence, but troubling memories make it difficult to reconcile the boys they were with the men they want to be.

No animal in the Amazon is more feared and more respected than the 'spirit of the river' - The Anaconda

A woman finds herself possessed by the soul of another woman trapped inside a painting. Based on a work by Edgar Allan Poe, aka The Oval Portrait.

As the mysterious “bloated belly” disease spreads through their kingdom, Princess Molly teams up with Léon the bear to outwit a conniving storyteller.

Véronique ne cache rien en amour. Mathieu est simplement un brin fatigué. Fred peuts'adapter à tous les genres de femmes. Rémi doit trouver ce qui l’allume dans la vie.Ce n'est que dans de brefs instants de lucidité que l'on parvient à voir le monde telqu'il est.

Hanna is a real estate photographer from Mississauga who commutes daily to Toronto to snap pictures of luxury apartments for a network of shady, elusive corporations. With his debut feature, director Christopher Beaulieu provides an illuminating insight into the notion of liminality and the economic dispossession of younger generations. Favouring a detached approach, where the warmth of his celluloid images clashes with the cold functionality of Hanna’s digital photographs, where the nostalgia of past prosperity seamlessly seeps into the film material, Otium shows a rare kind of lucidity. Probing the spacious depths of empty dwellings, it tells of the contemporary Tantaluses of Hanna’s generation, for whom the gig economy provides dreams of wealth that it will make sure to keep unfulfilled.

A date becomes complicated when a controversial subject forces the couple to examine their desires and limitations.

A jetliner spans the miles, sheering through clouds to open sky and scenic vistas of the provinces below. Glimpses of town and country, of people of many ethnic origins, of a resourceful and industrious nation - impressions it would take days and weeks to gather at first hand - are brought to you in this vivid 1800-kilometer panorama.

With the help of a handsome young police officer, a social worker searches for the mother of a baby she has found abandoned in a nativity scene at her church.

Maude is 17 years old. At birth, she shows signs that make it impossible to identify her gender. The doctors decide she's a girl. Today, she's preparing for a surgical procedure that will transform her into a young man named Justin.

A young man goes to his father's home in Maine where, helped by a public registry, he locates and tracks down sex offenders. In parallel, his mother follows his trail in order to try to understand what could have pushed him into this murderous madness.

After committing a hit and run, a beautiful career woman attempts to clear her conscience by befriending her victim, a homeless but talented street musician.

Canadian military accomplishments in the last hundred days of World War I, when the German Army was destroyed, surpassed those of any other army. The Canadian success was, in no small measure, due to Arthur Currie, whom a recent British historian describes as "the most successful Allied General and one of the least well known."

Filmed in 1964, this feature-length documentary by Jacques Godbout explores the world of delinquency through the stories of eight young people who have already committed offenses. With a touch of humor, the filmmaker paints a portrait of these youths from underprivileged backgrounds who dream of a better world.

A short documentary that follows director Charlie Tyrell as he tries to uncover a better understanding of his deceased father through the random objects he inherited. Including a pile of VHS dirty movies.

An isolated and friendless female security guard finds a glimmer of hope when a charming bartender shows her kindness.

Secret Santa tells the story of a group of eccentric college kids, struggling to get through the hectic exam period. A liquor filled party is planned. Adding a Secret Santa exchange for fun. Little do our characters know - A killer is in town and has a special present for all the good (and bad) girls and boys.

The most beautiful man in the world, who, sick of being objectified, devises a plan to free himself of other's attention.

Andrew Angus Dalrymple's realistic portrait of a British soldier, his Irish lover and her twin sister amidst the strife of Northern Ireland.

This was the video that was played in the background during live Skinny Puppy shows on the Too Dark Park tour. Was circulated on both VHS and DVD.

Private detective Donegal Dawn is summoned by the police commissioner to solve the reasons for a crime wave in Chinatown.

Claire Blanchet directs this visually stunning stereoscopic animation, adapted from Heather O’Neills eponymous slice of Montreal noir.

The Musical Republic Of Western Canada is a lovingly crafted tip of the chapeau not only to the artists of the Canadian Prairies, but to the land itself. The long, green and gold fields. The stark, short brush of the coulees. The bigger-than-heaven-itself skies and endless sunsets. The animals and ephemera that populate these prairie highways. From a land that pulses and breathes, Little Jack’s The Musical Republic Of Western Canada is as much a love letter to a place as it is to the music born here, a place where the beauty is revealed with time, and the patience of a long drive across the plains.

A film version of the play which captures the brilliant performance by the Ukrainian actor, Mariya Hadubyak at the play’s world premiere in 2023 @ Montreal’s La Sala Rossa. She brought the audience to tears and their feet. Written and directed by Norman Nawrocki, the play was part of the 16th annual Montreal International Anarchist Theatre Festival. On stage, Hadubyak portrays the extraordinary real life Marusya Nikiforova (1885–1919), a fearless and feared, bad ass, Ukrainian woman anarchist and feminist military leader.

Short film. Premise and duration unknown.

Deep in the frigid valleys of northern rural Canada, two survivors atop a desolate peak run thin on supplies and hope. The only remaining from their group, they wait naively for help to come. Fighting long days of paranoia and an unidentifiable entity lurking in the darkness of night, their situation grows bleaker by the minute. What follows are the last 24 hours spent on their mountaintop campsite.

This nature film closely observes wolves through late winter into early spring. Wolf Pack shows this creature’s character, behaviour and life cycle. What emerges is a portrait of the wolf as a disciplined hunter, respected leader and committed parent.

A history of Toronto punk and new wave. A history of the first wave of Toronto punk rock and new wave music, from when the Ramones played in 1976 through to when the cops gave Teenage Head the boot at "The Last Pogo" concert in 1978.

While visiting his native country to shoot his first live-action film (PHI 1.618), animation filmmaker Theodore Ushev recounts the highlights of his life in Bulgaria and recalls the various underground artistic movements that have influenced him. Featuring archival footage, film clips and talking-head segments with friends and family, this fascinating documentary takes a personal and political dive into the teeming creative universe developed through experience with people and events by the award-winning director of LIPSETT DIARIES, BLIND VAYSHA and THE PHYSICS OF SORROW.

Willow Song, a recovering addict and parolee, struggles to start over. Willow finds herself in a concrete wasteland. Facing isolation and displacement, shadows creep into Willow's mind and her nightmares become too real.

A young woman is stalked by a dark web network after booking a weekend rental unit online. Her every move is captured online, and when her brother begins to uncover what's happening, he must find a way to rescue her from the eyes of her predators.

Jura Department, France. A judge orders the re-enactment of a crime scene in order to shed some light on inconsistencies in a murder case. Under the eye of Lady Justice, the accused, a family of three women from Quebec, have to thoroughly relive the day of the crime.

The legend of a lost gold mine and a river in the Northwest Territories that lures men to their doom. Albert Faille, an aging prospector, has set out time and again to find hidden gold. His route takes him through a wild and awesome land particularly suited to the mood of this Canadian odyssey.

Overture is a 1958 Canadian short documentary film directed by Gian Luigi Polidoro. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. The film depicts the peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations, set against the music of Beethoven's Egmont Overture, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.