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Asia (16)
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Abortion: Stories from North and SouthGail Singer 1984 54 minWomen 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. -
AsylumGarry Beitel 1998 1 h 18 minThis feature documentary follows three newly arrived people in Canada and their experiences with the Canadian Refugee process. As claims are assessed and paperwork is double checked, we begin to examine exactly who can be considered a refugee.
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At the CrossroadsMoira Simpson 1987 58 minThis 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.
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Food, Weapon of ConquestStuart Legg 1941 21 minThis 1940s wartime newsreel shows the food shortage in Nazi-occupied countries that have been forced to hand over their farm produce to Germany, leaving their own populations hungry. Part of the Canada Carries On series.
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A Friend for SupperGudrun Bjerring 1944 10 minIn this short film made during World War II, a teacher explains how children in Russia, China and occupied Europe are going hungry and how Canada is helping to remedy the situation.
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Universe Within - GuangzhouKaterina Cizek 2015 3 minThrough the internet, Ling has arranged for herself a "mock marriage" to a gay man, to conceal her lesbian identity from her parents, with whom she lives in a highrise apartment in Guangzhou, China's 3rd largest city.
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Hue: A Matter of ColourVic Sarin 2013 1 h 25 minThis feature documentary by renowned director and cinematographer Vic Sarin is a personal yet global investigation into the history and current state of colourism: the discrimination within one ethnicity based on differences in skin tone. Sarin travels the globe to discuss this complex cross-cultural social issue with individuals whose lives it affects, including a Filipina entrepreneur whose business has flourished within the billion-dollar skin-whitening industry. Hue leads viewers on a thoughtful and surprising journey to the heart of a painful and pervasive social issue that not only polices appearance, but also class, gender, and geography.
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Hue: A Matter of Colour (Short Version)Vic Sarin 2013 57 minThis feature documentary by renowned director and cinematographer Vic Sarin is a personal yet global investigation into the history and current state of colourism: the discrimination within one ethnicity based on differences in skin tone. Sarin travels the globe to discuss this complex cross-cultural social issue with individuals whose lives it affects, including a Filipina entrepreneur whose business has flourished within the billion-dollar skin-whitening industry. Hue leads viewers on a thoughtful and surprising journey to the heart of a painful and pervasive social issue that not only polices appearance, but also class, gender, and geography.
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Impressions of ChinaDonald McWilliams 1974 21 minThis short documentary follows a group of students from Hamilton, Ontario, on a rare three-week “tour” of China in 1972. These teenagers were the first North American students to visit China since 1949, when Mao Tse Tung’s Communists overthrew the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek.
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Showa ShinzanAlison Reiko Loader 2002 12 minThis animated film tells the story of a young Japanese girl's relationship with her grandfather, a postmaster and amateur geologist. When the neighboring Mount Usu erupts during World War II, he records its activity. As he witnesses the birth of a new mountain named Showa Shinzan, he transcends the misery and folly of war that surrounds them and teaches his granddaughter a valuable lesson about life. Evoking the tradition of Bunraku puppetry, this animated film is based on actual events.
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Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941Brian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 minIn the autumn of 1941, nearly 2,000 inexperienced Canadian soldiers were sent to Hong Kong at the request of the British government as a symbolic show of strength that would deter a Japanese attack on the colony. Canada's soldiers found themselves in the midst of a desperate battle they could not hope to win. On Christmas Day, 1941, the British colony of Hong Kong officially surrendered to Japan. The surviving defenders became prisoners of war. Over the next three and a half years, many of them would come to envy the dead.
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Spirit of Tibet: Journey to Enlightenment, The Life and World of Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheMatthieu Ricard 1998 46 minThe Spirit of Tibet is an intimate glimpse into the life and world of one of Tibet's most revered 20th-century teachers: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991). A writer, poet and meditation master, Khyentse Rinpoche was an inspiration to all who encountered him. His many students throughout the world included the Dalai Lama. This unique portrait tells Khyentse Rinpoche's story from birth to death... to rebirth--from his escape following China's invasion of Tibet to his determination to preserve and transmit Buddhist teachings far and wide. His life leads us on a journey revealing the wonders of Tibet's art, ritual, philosophy and sacred dance. Along with rarely photographed areas of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, this film features interviews with the Dalai Lama, who speaks candidly about his own spiritual life. Director Matthieu Ricard--noted French photographer, Buddhist monk and best-selling author--travelled with Khyentse Rinpoche for over 14 years.
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The Third HeavenGeorges Payrastre 1998 48 minThis documentary gives us a glimpse inside the influential but little-known community of Vancouver’s Hong Kong Chinese. Prejudices fall by the wayside as we discover the community's way of life and the vital role it plays in the Canadian and world economy through a moving, intimate portrait of the Lam family, who arrived here in 1991.
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They Chose ChinaShui-Bo Wang 2005 52 minIn this feature documentary, Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Shuibo Wang (Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square) aims his camera at the astonishing story of 21 American soldiers who opted to stay in China after the Korean War ended in 1954. Back home in the United States, McCarthyism was at its height and many Americans believed these men were brainwashed by Chinese communists. But what really happened? Using never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps and interviews with former PoWs and their families, They Chose China tells the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents.
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Uyghurs: Prisoners of the AbsurdPatricio Henríquez 2014 1 h 38 minThis feature documentary recounts the incredible odyssey of 22 men from China’s persecuted Uyghur minority who were detained in Guantánamo as terrorists. These Turkic-speaking Muslims, persecuted by the authorities in Beijing, escaped to the Middle East where they were captured and sold as terrorists to the American forces. From northern China to Guantánamo, Cuba, this new documentary by Patricio Henríquez charts the incredible odyssey of three of these “prisoners of the absurd,” linked to worldwide terror networks through no fault of their own.
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The World's Largest StudioCharlie Moretti & Matt Clarke 2007 52 minLarger than Universal's and Paramount's combined, Hengdian World Studios features 12 motion picture shooting sites spanning different periods of Chinese history. Since 1996, the company has invested over 240 million U.S. dollars in construction, which includes a replica of the Forbidden City built to scale: 100 acres, the equivalent of Warner Brothers' own Hollywood back-lot! Some 50 films and TV dramas are produced here every year, including international hits such as Hero. Hengdian boasts an amusment park, a vast filmmaking complex and a school for actors. It has become a hugely popular tourist site, making it a complex environment with a host of contrasting personalities each with their own agenda.
