Social Issues
19 Days
This short documentary follows several refugee families during their first 19 days in Canada, as they navigate an unfamiliar terrain that has suddenly become their home. Located in the quiet …
1999
When death haunts a high school in a small town in the late 1990s, everyone is forever transformed. In this gentle, prismatic film, Samara returns to the town she fled …
24 Davids
Céline Baril’s latest film takes us across three continents on a quest driven by a simple yet original idea: to shine a spotlight on the inimitable Davids of this world. …
Afterwards
Inside a shelter, participants in a talking circle share their experiences of intimate partner violence as a way to regain their dignity and strength to act. Powerfully empathetic, Afterwards creates …
The Amina Profile
Part love story, part international thriller, and a gripping chronicle of an unprecedented media and sociological hoax, this feature documentary travels from San Francisco and Washington to Istanbul, Tel Aviv …
Assholes - A Theory
Some grapple with the challenge of treating other human beings decently. Others are just… assholes, claims Professor Aaron James in his New York Times bestselling book, Assholes: A Theory. This …
Balakrishna
When an extraordinary new resident – Balakrishna, an Indian elephant – arrived in the town of East River, Nova Scotia, in 1967, no one was more in awe of the …
Because We Are Girls
A conservative Indo-Canadian family in small-town British Columbia must come to terms with a devastating secret: three sisters were sexually abused by an older relative beginning in their childhood years. …
Beyond Paper
At a critical moment in the history of the written word, as humanity’s archives migrate to the cloud, one filmmaker goes on a journey around the globe to better understand …
Conviction
Conviction envisions alternatives to prison through the eyes of women behind bars and those fighting on the front lines of the decarceration movement. Not another ‘broken prison’ film, this collaboration …
The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed examines the global food crisis from the viewpoint of farmers in various countries, exploring how their situation relates to the economic crisis, rural exodus, and dwindling natural resources.
The End of Certainties
More than a decade after the worldwide financial crisis of 2007–08, what does globalization mean today? Filmmaker-philosopher Jean-Daniel Lafond takes us behind the scenes of the International Economic Forum of …
Everything Will Be
Julia Kwan’s feature-length documentary Everything Will Be captures a significant moment of time in Vancouver’s Chinatown, with the influx of condos and new, non-Chinese businesses. The film follows a year …
Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives
This film contains scenes of nudity and/or sexuality. Viewer discretion is advised.
This feature documentary delves into the rich history of Canadian queer women’s experiences in the mid-20th century. Compelling, …
The Fruit Hunters
From award-winning director Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze, China Heavyweight) comes a story of adventure, desire and obsession.
The Girls of Meru
Over five years, acclaimed filmmaker Andrea Dorfman follows the heartbreaking yet uplifting story of the girls of Meru and their brave steps toward meaningful equality for girls worldwide.
In Kenya, …
Grassroots in Dry Lands
Grassroots in Dry Lands tells the story of three unconventional social workers united by a common vision that transcends the antagonisms between their countries. Nuha, from Nablus (Occupied Palestinian Territories), …
Hell Runs on Gasoline!
This short documentary transports us to the Saint-Félicien racetrack, where engines are running hot and excitement has reached a fever pitch. With its thunderous soundtrack, jarring backfires and choking clouds …
In Pursuit of Peace
IN PURSUIT OF PEACE makes the case for unarmed civilian peacemaking and mediation as a response to violent international conflict. We follow four Canadian peacemakers as they take us inside …
Into the Light
Into the Light features the liberating life stories and powerful words of inspiring Quebec women of African origin who’ve regained control over their lives after suffering from domestic violence. The …
KOROMOUSSO: Big Sister
With candor, humour and courage, a group of African-Canadian women challenge cultural taboos surrounding female sexuality and fight to take back ownership of their bodies. Combining her own journey with …
Kenbe la, Until We Win
Some dreamers have the power to inspire us, bring us together, and help us reconnect with our humanity. Alain Philoctète, a Haitian artist and activist who settled in Quebec, returns …
Last Chance
This feature documentary tells the stories of 5 asylum seekers who flee their native countries to escape homophobic violence. They face hurdles integrating into Canada, fear deportation and anxiously await …
Love, Scott
Following the journey of a young gay musician who is attacked and paralyzed from the waist down, Love, Scott is an intimate and visually evocative window into queer experience, set …
Moments of Life
The phenomenon of perinatal grief has largely gone unrecognized; parents who live through the experience frequently find themselves isolated, with no resources to support them. Co-directed by Samuel-A. Caron and …
Our People Will Be Healed
Our People Will Be Healed, Alanis Obomsawin’s 50th film, reveals how a Cree community in Manitoba has been enriched through the power of education. The Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education …
Paper Accordeon
Papier Accordéon unfolds over a period of 24 hours, as two young women spend time together from a distance. One in Montreal, one in Toronto, they share their experiences through …
The Perfect Story
The Perfect Story offers a riveting, intimate look at the ethical and moral challenges sparked by the relationship between a foreign correspondent and a young Somali refugee. By revealing the …
Picture This
What does it mean to be disabled and desirable?
In Picture This, a new documentary by Jari Osborne, we meet Andrew Gurza, a self-described “queer cripple” who has made …
A Place that Matters
In Sainte-Anne-du-Bocage in Caraquet, New Brunswick, Acadian artists Renée Blanchar, France Daigle, René Cormier and Allain Roy launch several community projects to bring back the former Youth Club built by …
A Quiet Girl
In A Quiet Girl, adopted Montreal filmmaker Adrian Wills discovers, on camera and in real time, the startling truths of his complex beginnings in Newfoundland. Shocking details drive Wills …
River Silence
The people who live along Brazil’s Xingu River are facing man-made Armageddon. The massive Belo Monte Dam, one of the world’s most contested infrastructure projects, has caused untold ecological and …
A Short History of the Highrise
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada and the New York Times, A Short History of the Highrise is an interactive documentary that explores the 2,500-year global history of …
A Short History of the Highrise, Part Four: Home
In the final installment, "Home" consists of images from New York Times readers, who submitted personal pictures of their lives in high-rises from around the world. Montreal musician Patrick Watson …
A Short History of the Highrise, Part One: Mud
In the first installment, "Mud" traces the historical roots of the residential highrise, from the biblical Tower of Babel to the tenement buildings of New York. The film is narrated …
A Short History of the Highrise, Part Three: Glass
In the third installment, "Glass" examines the recent proliferation of luxury condos and the growing segregation between the rich and poor. The film is narrated by the singer-songwriter of Cold …
A Short History of the Highrise, Part Two: Concrete
In the second installment, "Concrete" explores how, in New York City and globally, residential high-rises and public housing attempted to foster social equality in the 20th century. The film is …
The Silence
Why be silent about the most serious matters? Doesn’t silence perpetuate suffering? From the 1950s to the 1980s, Catholic priests sexually abused many young boys in the francophone towns of …
Star Wars Kid: The Rise of the Digital Shadows
Ghyslain Raza, better known as the “Star Wars Kid,” breaks his silence to reflect on our hunger for content and the right to be forgotten in the digital age.
Stateless
n 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were exterminated by the Dominican army on the basis of anti-black racism. Fast-forward to 2013: the Dominican Republic’s …
Stolen Time
A compelling call for justice, Stolen Time follows charismatic elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller as she takes on the corporate for-profit nursing-home industry—an industry notorious for its lack of transparency …
Tales of Ordinary Fatphobia
What is fatphobia and what can be done to overcome it? With poetic illustrations and painful, compelling testimony, Tales of Ordinary Fatphobia offers multiple examples of the psychological effects of …
Theater of Life
Theater of Life captures the remarkable story of how renowned chef Massimo Bottura, joined by 60 of the world’s top chefs, transformed food destined for the dumpster into delicious and …
Uyghurs: Prisoners of the Absurd (Short Version)
This 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 …
Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises
In this feature-length documentary from Alanis Obomsawin, the filmmaker returns to the village where she was raised to craft a lyrical account of her own people. After decades of tirelessly …
What is Democracy?
Featuring a diverse cast—including celebrated philosophers, trauma surgeons, factory workers, refugees, and politicians—What Is Democracy? connects past and present, emotion and the intellect, the personal and the political, to …
Why? Sexual Violence and Teens
Danielle Sturk tackles the thorny issue of sexual violence against teens by boldly asking: Why? Young men, witnesses to the prevailing culture, and young women survivors of sexual assault share …
nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up
On August 9, 2016, a young Cree man named Colten Boushie died from a gunshot to the back of his head after entering Gerald Stanley’s rural property with his friends. …
this river
This short documentary offers an Indigenous perspective on the devastating experience of searching for a loved one who has disappeared. Volunteer activist Kyle Kematch and award-winning writer Katherena Vermette have …