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Discrimination (58)

  • 5. Rebuilding Relationships
    5. Rebuilding Relationships
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    Jean-Martin Gagnon 2023 22 min
    Police Tech students meet with members of an Algonquin community. They learn about the realities of minority groups... and the consequences of not following the rules.
  • 1. Collateral Damage
    1. Collateral Damage
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    Jean-Martin Gagnon 2023 27 min
    Collège de Maisonneuve is shaken by a shocking turn of events. Both students and faculty are deeply affected and try to make sense of this disturbing development.
  • 2. Systemic Problems
    2. Systemic Problems
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    Jean-Martin Gagnon 2023 26 min
    The student association engages in critical self-assessment over diversity and considers the best way forward. Meanwhile, students question the association’s practices.
  • 3. Intergenerational Conflicts
    3. Intergenerational Conflicts
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    Jean-Martin Gagnon  &  Nicolas Wadimoff 2023 26 min
    Different generations come together to discuss major issues, revealing wildly divergent points of view. How can we live together while respecting each other’s differences?
  • 4. Collective Responsibilities
    4. Collective Responsibilities
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    Jean-Martin Gagnon 2023 28 min
    The 2017 Quebec mosque attack renews the debate over radicalization. In this tension-filled period, the Maisonneuve community finds itself grappling with questions of personal and social responsibility.
  • 6. Daring to Risk Failure
    6. Daring to Risk Failure
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    Jean-Martin Gagnon 2023 30 min
    Students take stock of their turbulent time at Maisonneuve. They reveal how the remarkable and striking events of the last two years—and the reflections they brought on—have influenced their own journeys.
  • Bird of Passage
    Bird of Passage
    Martin Defalco 1966 10 min
    A young Japanese-Canadian businessman, now established in Montréal, recalls the time during World War II when the Japanese-Canadian community of Canada's west coast was uprooted and moved inland. There are some flashbacks to the events he describes, but the film is mainly about his home and family life in Montréal and his successful career as a chemical engineer.
  • Baroque'n Roll
    Baroque'n Roll
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    Pierre M. Trudeau 1994 4 min
    A young immigrant is rejected because of his different ways and unusual clothing but is eventually accepted by the other kids when he impresses them with his bravery and resourcefulness. Based on article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, this film illustrates the right of children belonging to minority groups to enjoy their own culture, religion and language. Film without words.
  • The Basketball Game
    The Basketball Game
    Hart Snider 2011 5 min
    This animated short tells the story of an epic basketball game between kids attending Jewish camp and students of a notorious local Holocaust denier. Nine-year-old Hart is attending Jewish summer camp for the first time. He is both curious and afraid. What awaits him on the basketball court?
  • Barbed Wire and Mandolins
    Barbed Wire and Mandolins
    Nicola Zavaglia 1997 48 min
    This documentary introduces us to Italian-Canadians whose lives were disrupted and uprooted by seclusion in internment camps during the Second World War. On June 10, 1940, Italy entered WWII.
 Overnight, the Canadian government came to see the country's 112,000 Italian-Canadians as a threat to its national security. The RCMP rounded up thousands of people it considered fascist sympathizers. Seven hundred of them were held for up to three years in internment camps, most of them at Petawawa, Ontario. None were ever charged with a criminal offence. Remarkably, the former internees are not bitter as they look back on the way their own country treated them.
  • The Cora Player
    The Cora Player
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    Cilia Sawadogo 1996 7 min
    Two young Africans from different social backgrounds want to defy tradition and be free to love each other. This Burkina Faso/Canada co-production is based on Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which particularly upholds the right to love freely, blind to convention and social class. An animated film without words for twelve to seventeen yers olds.
  • The Colour of Beauty
    The Colour of Beauty
    Elizabeth St. Philip 2010 16 min
    Renee Thompson is trying to make it as a top fashion model in New York. She's got the looks, the walk and the drive. But she’s a black model in a world where white women represent the standard of beauty. Agencies rarely hire black models. And when they do, they want them to look “like white girls dipped in chocolate.”

    The Colour of Beauty is a shocking short documentary that examines racism in the fashion industry. Is a black model less attractive to designers, casting directors and consumers? What is the colour of beauty?
  • Crossroads
    Crossroads
    Don Haldane 1957 28 min
    This sensitive drama tells the story of a couple, Roy and Judy, and the reactions they encounter when they announce their intention to marry, reactions complicated by the fact that Roy is black and Judy is white.
  • Dresden Story
    Dresden Story
    Julian Biggs 1954 30 min
    This film goes to Dresden, Ontario, to sample local attitudes towards racial discrimination against black people that brought this town into the news. After a round-up of the opinions of individual citizens, white and black, commentator Gordon Burwash joins two discussion panels, presenting opposite points of view. The rights and wrongs of the quarrel are left for the audience to decide.
  • Doctors Without Residency
    Doctors Without Residency
    Tetchena Bellange 2010 9 min
    This short documentary highlights how the mechanism of discrimination prevents foreign-trained doctors from practicing in Canada – even after they've received their Canadian qualifications. Every year, scores of these doctors are turned down for the residencies they need in order to practice – and many of those residencies stay vacant. Through interviews with medical professionals and human rights advocates it becomes clear that systemic racism is to blame. Strikingly, several doctors interviewed for this film would not speak on camera, fearing repercussions from the medical establishment. What is the real problem: the incompetence of foreign-trained doctors or the injustice of the system?
  • Encounter at Kwacha House - Halifax
    Encounter at Kwacha House - Halifax
    Rex Tasker 1967 17 min
    This short film presents a lively discussion between black and white youths at the interracial club in Halifax, touching on racial discrimination in employment, housing, education and interpersonal relations.
  • Enemy Alien
    Enemy Alien
    Jeanette Lerman 1975 26 min
    This documentary tells the story of the frustration and injustice experienced by Japanese Canadians, who fought long and hard to be accepted as Canadians.
  • Fires of Envy
    Fires of Envy
    Don Haldane 1957 29 min
    This short film is a dramatization of Canadian author W.O. Mitchell's penetrating story about the racial prejudice encountered by a Polish immigrant farmer in a rural Saskatchewan community. Presented with the incisiveness characteristic of Mitchell's Jake and the Kid radio series, this film story employs homespun events of a farming community to lay bare some universal truths about the unthinking discrimination practiced against a man who is different from his English-speaking fellow farmers.
  • Flemingdon Park: The Global Village
    Flemingdon Park: The Global Village
    Andrew Faiz 2002 47 min
    This documentary examines the history and current reality of Toronto’s Flemingdon Park. Now a subsidized housing project, it was built in 1961 as a trendy urban utopia. A decade later it was sold, and Flemingdon became home to refugees and new immigrants. Once a model of urban planning, Flemingdon Park's flip side is a history of violence and racism that residents have fought to overcome. Yet despite challenges, the community succeeds in making people from around the world feel at home in a different kind of utopia–one where differences are celebrated and new visions are possible.
  • Fields of Endless Day
    Fields of Endless Day
    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1978 58 min
    In a series of dramatic and documentary episodes, Fields of Endless Day outlines the presence of Black people in Canada, from the 17th century to the wartime participation and activist groups of the first half of the 20th century. The film seeks to uncover the "roots" of Canada's Black population, tracing the history of their struggles and triumphs over a period of almost three hundred and seventy-five years.
  • Fighting Back
    Fighting Back
    Gary Toole 1984 24 min
    The Cabbagetown Boxing Club in Toronto has produced many Olympic and world-class boxers. Fighting Back is the story of Asif Dar, an underweight immigrant who learned boxing in order to defend himself from neighbourhood bullies. The film traces the relationship between Asif Dar, who came to the club as a youngster, and his instructor, Ken Hamilton, a long-time foe of the violence traditionally associated with boxing.
  • Freedom Had a Price
    Freedom Had a Price
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    Yurij Luhovy 1994 55 min
    A disturbing documentary of Canada's first national alien-internment operation. It tells the little-known story of Ukrainian immigrants who found themselves subject to discriminatory and repressive measures during World War I.
  • From Sherbrooke to Brooks - Inside a Migration Corridor
    From Sherbrooke to Brooks - Inside a Migration Corridor
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    Roger Parent 2016 1 h 7 min
    This documentary travels the migration corridor forged between Sherbrooke, Quebec, and the town of Brooks, Alberta, by French-speaking Africans. Most have come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, some by way of refugee camps in Uganda and Tanzania. Unable to find employment in Quebec, they travelled out West. An interweaving of personal stories and the filmmaker’s own trips back and forth through the corridor offer an honest look at how much work is yet to be done to successfully integrate these newcomers.
  • Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community
    Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community
    Jennifer Hodge  &  Roger McTair 1983 57 min
    This feature documentary takes us to the heart of the Jane-Finch "Corridor" in the early 1980s. Covering six square blocks in Toronto's North York, the area readily evokes images of vandalism, high-density subsidized housing, racial tension, despair and crime. By focusing on the lives of several of the residents, many of them black or members of other visible minorities, the film provides a powerful view of a community that, contrary to its popular image, is working towards a more positive future.
  • Hebron Relocation
    Hebron Relocation
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    Holly Andersen 2022 15 min
    In Hebron Relocation, Holly Andersen explores what makes a place a home as she learns more about her community’s connection to generations of displaced northern Labrador Inuit.
  • Hebronnimit Notitausimajut
    Hebronnimit Notitausimajut
    Holly Andersen 2022 15 min
    Atjiliugutik Holly Anderseni Makkovimiuk, Nunatsiavumi, Kaujimajuk illungani inoligijuk atjajuk iluani avalumini akinitsamik nollititausimajunik TakKani Labradorimi inunganut. Tapkunani Hebron nolititausimajut, Anderseni takunaajuk sunanik angiggaliusongujut uKalautiliguni ilannaganut amma ilageminut Kanuk nolititausimajunit anitausimamatta unuttunik jarikut Labradoriup inunganut.
  • In the Shadow of Gold Mountain (English and Mandarin Subtitles)
    In the Shadow of Gold Mountain (English and Mandarin Subtitles)
    2004 43 min
    Karen Cho, a fifth-generation Canadian of mixed heritage, discovered that half her family wasn't welcome in the country they called home. While Canada encouraged and rewarded immigration from Europe, it imposed laws that singled out the Chinese as unwanted and unwelcome. Cho's film, In the Shadow of Gold Mountain, takes her from Montreal to Vancouver to uncover stories from the last living survivors of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act. This dark chapter in our history, from 1885 until 1947, plunged the Chinese community in Canada into decades of debt and family separation. At the centre of the film are personal accounts of extraordinary Chinese Canadians who survived an era that threatened to eradicate their entire community. Through a rich melding of history, poetry and raw emotion, this documentary sheds light on an era that shaped the identity of generations, with deeply moving testimonials, it reveals the profound ways this history still casts its shadow.
  • The Interview
    The Interview
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    Claire Blanchet 2010 2 min
    In The Interview, racial stereotypes and prejudices deprive a highly qualified candidate of a fair interview – and may prevent an employer from hiring the best person for the job.

    This film is part of the Work For All series, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, with the participation of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.
  • In the Shadow of Gold Mountain
    In the Shadow of Gold Mountain
    Karen Cho 2004 43 min
    Filmmaker Karen Cho travels from Montreal to Vancouver to uncover stories from the last survivors of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, a set of laws imposed to single out the Chinese as unwanted immigrants to Canada from 1885 to 1947. Through a combination of history, poetry and raw emotion, this documentary sheds light on an era that shaped the identity of generations.
  • Journey to Justice
    Journey to Justice
    Roger McTair 2000 47 min
    This documentary pays tribute to a group of Canadians who took racism to court. They are Canada's unsung heroes in the fight for Black civil rights. Focusing on the 1930s to the 1950s, this film documents the struggle of 6 people who refused to accept inequality. Featured here, among others, are Viola Desmond, a woman who insisted on keeping her seat at the Roseland movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1946 rather than moving to the section normally reserved for the city's Black population, and Fred Christie, who took his case to the Supreme Court after being denied service at a Montreal tavern in 1936. These brave pioneers helped secure justice for all Canadians. Their stories deserve to be told.
  • Jaded
    Jaded
    Cal Garingan 2010 14 min
    This sharp and funny mockumentary uses role reversal to illustrate the realities of overt and systemic racism in the workplace.
  • John Ware Reclaimed
    John Ware Reclaimed
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    Cheryl Foggo 2020 1 h 12 min
    Please note: This film contains explicit language. Viewer discretion is advised.

    John Ware Reclaimed follows filmmaker Cheryl Foggo on her quest to re-examine the mythology surrounding John Ware, the Black cowboy who settled in Alberta, Canada, before the turn of the 20th century. Foggo’s research uncovers who this iconic figure might have been, and what his legacy means in terms of anti-Black racism, both past and present.
  • Mela's Lunch
    Mela's Lunch
    Sugith Varughese 1991 14 min
    This short drama from the Playing Fair series recounts the shaky beginnings of a friendship between Allison and Mela, a girl who recently immigrated to Canada from India. Mela is trying hard to make friends and get used to her new surroundings, but Peter and other classmates make her feel unwelcome and out of place. Though Allison initially goes along with the group, the film shows that differences in skin color and country of origin need not be an obstacle to friendship or self-esteem.
  • Minoru: Memory of Exile
    Minoru: Memory of Exile
    Michael Fukushima 1992 18 min
    The bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor thrust 9-year-old Minoru Fukushima into a world of racism so malevolent he would be forced to leave Canada, the land of his birth. Like thousands of other Japanese Canadians, Minoru and his family were branded as an enemy of Canada, dispatched to internment camps in British Columbia and finally deported to Japan. Directed by Michael Fukushima, Minoru's son, the film combines classical animation with archival material. The memories of the father are interspersed with the voice of the son, weaving a tale of a birthright lost and recovered.
  • Ninth Floor
    Ninth Floor
    Mina Shum 2015 1 h 21 min
    Director Mina Shum makes her foray into feature documentary by reopening the file on a watershed moment in Canadian race relations – the infamous Sir George Williams Riot. Over four decades after a group of Caribbean students accused their professor of racism, triggering an explosive student uprising, Shum locates the protagonists and listens as they set the record straight, trying to make peace with the past.
  • One of Them
    One of Them
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    Elise Swerhone 2000 25 min
    This short fictional film features high school seniors discovering and battling against homophobic discrimination and stereotypes. Jamie must face up to her own reactions as she realizes that her friend is gay and needs her support. Jamie's boyfriend must decide if he will support Jamie. One of Them focuses on homophobia and discrimination in a human rights context. The dramatization prompts viewers to examine their own responses and promote a safe school environment for all.
  • Opre Roma: Gypsies in Canada
    Opre Roma: Gypsies in Canada
    Tony Papa 1999 52 min
    This documentary celebrates the vibrant culture and tenacious struggle of the Canadian Gypsy and introduces a new generation of Roma who claim their roots with pride. They call themselves by their rightful name, the Roma. Almost 80,000 call Canada home. Meet Julia Lovell, a passionate defender of Roma human rights, whose father is slowly gaining the confidence to reveal his heritage; and Karen Gray Boothroyd, a flamenco dancer just beginning to reclaim her Gypsy roots.
  • A Passage Beyond Fortune
    A Passage Beyond Fortune
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    Weiye Su 2022 16 min
    Through an intimate archive of the Chow’s family lineage, A Passage Beyond Fortune offers an homage to the culturally significant but buried history of Chinese-Canadian communities in Moose Jaw.
  • Quo Vadis, Mrs. Lumb?
    Quo Vadis, Mrs. Lumb?
    Ron Kelly 1965 27 min
    A portrait of Jean Bessie Lumb, a Chinese-Canadian woman. Mrs. Lumb talks candidly about the prejudice she felt during her childhood in Vancouver, her arranged marriage, her occupation, raising children, and intermarriage.
  • Question Period
    Question Period
    Ann Marie Fleming 2019 4 min

    A group of Syrian women, refugees recently resettled in Canada, are negotiating life in their new home. They have some questions. Directed by Anne Marie Fleming, one of the original FFM filmmakers.

  • The Road Taken
    The Road Taken
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    Selwyn Jacob 1996 52 min
    This 1996 documentary takes a nostalgic ride through history to present the experiences of Black sleeping-car porters who worked on Canada's railways from the early 1900s through the 1960s. There was a strong sense of pride among these men and they were well-respected by their community. Yet, harsh working conditions prevented them from being promoted to other railway jobs until finally, in 1955, porter Lee Williams took his fight to the union.

    Claiming discrimination under the Canada Fair Employment Act, the Black workers won their right to work in other areas. Interviews, archival footage and the music of noted jazz musician Joe Sealy (whose father was a porter) combine to portray a fascinating history that might otherwise have been forgotten.
  • Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story
    Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story
    Jari Osborne 2002 50 min
    This feature-length documentary tells the story of the Asahi baseball team. In pre-World War II Vancouver, the team was unbeatable, winning the Pacific Northwest Championship for five straight years. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, all persons of Japanese descent in Canada were sent to internment camps. The former Asahi members survived by playing ball. Their passion was contagious and soon other players joined in, among them RCMP officials and local townspeople. As a result, the games helped break down racial and cultural barriers. This remarkable story is told with a combination of archival footage, interviews and dramatic re-enactments.
  • Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia
    Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia
    Sylvia Hamilton 1992 28 min
    In their predominantly white high school in Halifax, a group of black students face daily reminders of racism, ranging from abuse (racist graffiti on washroom walls), to exclusion (the omission of black history from textbooks). They work to establish a Cultural Awareness Youth Group, a vehicle for building pride and self-esteem through educational and cultural programs. With help from mentors, they discover the richness of their heritage and learn some of the ways they can begin to effect change.
  • Speakers for the Dead
    Speakers for the Dead
    David Sutherland  &  Jennifer Holness 2000 49 min
    This documentary reveals some of the hidden history of Blacks in Canada. In the 1930s in rural Ontario, a farmer buried the tombstones of a Black cemetery to make way for a potato patch. In the 1980s, descendants of the original settlers, Black and White, came together to restore the cemetery, but there were hidden truths no one wanted to discuss. Deep racial wounds were opened. Scenes of the cemetery excavation, interviews with residents and re-enactments—including one of a baseball game where a broken headstone is used for home plate—add to the film's emotional intensity.
  • Screen Test
    Screen Test
    Linda Lee 2004 6 min
    This short documentary portrays an actor's perspective on ethnocentrism and systemic racism in the entertainment industry. Made as part of the Work for All project in 2006, an NFB and HRSDC-Labour initiative to combat racism in the workplace.
  • Stateless
    Stateless
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    Michèle Stephenson 2020 1 h 35 min
    In 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 Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929, rendering more than 200,000 people stateless. Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows the grassroots campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris, as she challenges electoral corruption and fights to protect the right to citizenship for all people.
  • A Trumpet for the Combo
    A Trumpet for the Combo
    Morten Parker 1965 8 min
    In a city high school, a jazz combo needs a trumpet player. Randy is the natural choice since he is the most talented, but the music teacher favours Bruce, a black student. What should come first? The band? The opportunity it affords to Bruce? The teacher's pleasure? These are questions for the audience to decide.
  • Teach Me to Dance
    Teach Me to Dance
    Anne Wheeler 1978 28 min
    In this drama, Lesia convinces her English-Canadian friend Sarah to perform a Ukrainian dance with her as part of their school's Christmas pageant. Sarah's father, angry at the growing number of Ukrainian settlers, won't allow his daughter to participate. Despite the prejudices of their parents, the girls' friendship remains strong, and they meet in Sarah's barn to celebrate Christmas Day together. Part of the Adventures in History series.
  • Taxi Libre
    Taxi Libre
    Kaveh Nabatian 2011 12 min
    In this short fiction film, a Mexican university professor is stuck driving a taxi in Montreal. His tequila-swilling guardian angel doesn’t make life any easier.
  • Unwanted Soldiers
    Unwanted Soldiers
    Jari Osborne 1999 48 min
    This documentary tells the personal story of filmmaker Jari Osborne's father, a Chinese-Canadian veteran. She describes her father's involvement in World War II and uncovers a legacy of discrimination and racism against British Columbia's Chinese-Canadian community. Sworn to secrecy for decades, Osborne's father and his war buddies now vividly recall their top-secret missions behind enemy lines in Southeast Asia. Theirs is a tale of young men proudly fighting for a country that had mistreated them. This film does more than reveal an important period in Canadian history. It pays moving tribute to a father's quiet heroism.
  • Une femme de tête
    Une femme de tête
    Mohammed Belhaj 2006 14 min
    This film tells the moving story of one woman fighting for her rights and preserving her dignity. Made as part of the Work for All project in 2006, an NFB and HRSDC-Labour initiative to combat racism in the workplace. In French with English subtitles.
  • Unarchived
    Unarchived
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    Hayley Gray  &  Elad Tzadok 2022 1 h 24 min
    In community archives across British Columbia, local knowledge keepers are hand-fashioning a more inclusive history. Through a collage of personal interviews, archival footage and deeply rooted memories, the past, present and future come together, fighting for a space where everyone is seen and everyone belongs. History is what we all make of it.
  • Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 1 - Identity
    Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 1 - Identity
    Dan Moscrip 1999 26 min
    This episode puts a human face on the immigrant experience. Newcomers tell us why they have come to Canada and talk about how this move has affected their sense of identity. Families also discuss the conflicts between generations that immigration can cause. Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada is a 4-part series that reveals the challenges faced by immigrants who leave all they know to make a new home in Canada. The aim of this series, as the title suggests, is for viewers to walk that symbolic mile in the others' shoes and to more readily show understanding and tolerance of the immigrant experience in Canada.
  • Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 4 - Employment
    Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 4 - Employment
    Dan Moscrip 1999 27 min
    This final segment looks at the challenges newcomers face finding employment. The problem of having credentials recognized in a new country is explored. Immigrants with job training and skills cannot always work in their field of expertise since Canadian professional associations may not recognize their qualifications. An added difficulty surrounding employment arises from traditional gender roles where the man is expected to be the bread winner. Newcomers may have to adjust to new roles that disrupt family life. The problem posed by lack of job experience in Canada is also addressed. Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada is a 4-part series that reveals the challenges faced by immigrants who leave all they know to make a new home in Canada. The aim of this series, as the title suggests, is for viewers to walk that symbolic mile in the others' shoes and to more readily show understanding and tolerance of the immigrant experience in Canada.
  • Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 2 - Language
    Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 2 - Language
    Dan Moscrip 1999 27 min
    Through interviews with new Canadians and supporting dramatizations, episode 2 looks at the trials and successes of newcomers struggling to learn one or both of Canada's official languages. Language, immigrants stress, is of major importance since the ability to communicate in English and/or French affects employment, social integration and acceptance. Without the necessary language skills, immigrants with academic or professional credentials often find themselves doing menial jobs. In some cases, newcomers are exploited by members of their own ethnic community. Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada is a 4-part series that reveals the challenges faced by immigrants who leave all they know to make a new home in Canada. The aim of this series, as the title suggests, is for viewers to walk that symbolic mile in the others' shoes and to more readily show understanding and tolerance of the immigrant experience in Canada.
  • Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 3 - Discrimination
    Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada - Episode 3 - Discrimination
    Dan Moscrip 1999 27 min
    Canada espouses the concept of a cultural mosaic, where ethnic and cultural diversity is respected. In episode 3, immigrant Canadians share their experience of this mosaic, presenting realities that do not always coincide with official policy. Many newcomers, especially visible minorities, encounter discrimination in imployment, housing and social acceptance. This film also addresses the experiences of refugees seeking asylum in Canada. Walk a Mile: The Immigrant Experience in Canada is a 4-part series that reveals the challenges faced by immigrants who leave all they know to make a new home in Canada. The aim of this series, as the title suggests, is for viewers to walk that symbolic mile in the others' shoes and to more readily show understanding and tolerance of the immigrant experience in Canada.
  • Western Eyes
    Western Eyes
    Ann Shin 2000 39 min
    This documentary presents two Canadian women of Asian descent who are contemplating eyelid surgery. Maria and Sharon, of Philippino and Korean heritage respectively, believe their looks--specifically their eyes--get in the way of how people see them. Layering their stories with pop culture references to beauty icons and supermodels, filmmaker Ann Shin looks at the pain that lies deep behind the desire for plastic surgery.
  • Zero Tolerance
    Zero Tolerance
    Michka Saäl 2004 1 h 15 min
    Being young is tough, especially if you're Black, Latino, Arab or Asian. In a city like Montreal, you can get targeted and treated as a criminal for no good reason. Zero Tolerance reveals how deep seated prejudice can be. On one side are the city's young people, and on the other, its police force. Two worlds, two visions. Yet one of these groups is a minority, while the other wields real power. One has no voice, while the other makes life-and-death decisions.

    When a policy of zero tolerance to crime masks an intolerance to young people of colour, the delicate balance between order and personal freedom is upset. A blend of cinéma vérité and personal testimonies, this hard-hitting film will broaden your mind and change your way of thinking. In French with English subtitles.