Caterpillarplasty

Skin for Skin is a dark allegory of greed and spiritual reckoning set during the early days of the fur trade.

In 1823, the Governor of the largest fur-trading company in the world travels across his Dominion, extracting ever-greater riches from the winter bounty of animal furs. In his brutal world of profit and loss, animals are slaughtered to the brink of extinction until the balance of power shifts, and the forces of nature exact their own terrible price.

With nods to Melville and Coleridge, directors Kevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher have created a visually stunning contemporary myth about the cost of arrogance and greed.

An allegory of mankind heading for disaster, this animated short is a tragic vision inspired by the 4th movement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Drawing on the composer’s brilliant ability to evoke work and labour in his music, animator Patrick Bouchard brings earth to life through animated clay sculptures, creating a tactile nightmare in which man is his own slave driver.

In The Mountain of SGaana, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter spins a magical tale of a young man who is stolen away to the spirit world, and the young woman who rescues him. The film brilliantly combines traditional animation with formal elements of Haida art, and is based on a story inspired by a old Haida fable.

Manivald, a fox, is turning 33. Overeducated, unemployed and generally uninspired, he lives with his overbearing, retired mother and spends his days learning piano while she makes his coffee and washes his socks. It is an easy life, but not a good one. Their unhealthy co-dependence is about to collapse when the washing machine breaks down and Toomas, a sexy and adventurous wolf repairman, arrives to fix it, and them.

This ultra-short film proves that walls are real and borders are imaginary with an animated critique of long-term detention for minors in immigration centres.

Naked Island is a series of 14 super-short and incisive films that expose the dark underbelly of modern-day society.

An animator dissects his own body, extracting memories, emotions and fears that will nurture his work. As he cuts into his skin with a scalpel, various symbolic objects recalling his past emerge. Reaching the heart after cracking his ribs, he succeeds in identifying the burden he’s been dying to cast off.

This short film from Eoin Duffy introduces a mysterious traveler journeying across time and space in search of the origin of life, God, and the universe. Looking for answers, he arrives at a devastating realization, yet the earth continues to spin.

Through sharp modernist shapes and a riveting score by Menalon, I Am Here takes a curious and contemplative approach to dark and complex themes. Featuring the voice of Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci's Inquest), the film is a thoughtful and open-ended exploration of existence itself.

A war pilot crash-lands through his apartment window. When his wife returns from work, she discovers that her husband’s face has been replaced by an airplane turbine. He’s also fallen in love with their kitchen ceiling fan. To save their faltering marriage, his wife decides she will no longer let her humanity get in the way of love.

The NFB’s 72nd Oscar®-nominated film.

In 1909, a dapper young remittance man is sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching. However, his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle. It soon becomes clear that nothing in his refined upbringing has prepared him for the harsh conditions of the New World. This animated short is about the beauty of the prairie, the pang of being homesick and the folly of living dangerously out of context.

Freaks of Nurture is an animated short about a neurotic mother-daughter relationship inspired by the filmmaker’s own unorthodox upbringing with her single-parent mom, who is also a foster parent and dog breeder. Self-deprecating and bursting with energy, the film reveals that no matter how grown-up we think we are, we never quite stop craving the love and support of a parent.

TRIGGER WARNING: This film contains the following subject matter: Suicide and self harm.
If you are affected by the topics addressed in the film, we encourage you to reach out to someone you trust.

If you’re in need of crisis support, please visit Crisis Services Canada

Shannon Amen unearths the passionate and pained expressions of a young woman overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety as she struggles to reconcile her sexual identity with her religious faith. A loving elegy to a friend lost to suicide.