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Ethnic Groups and Cultural Communities (13)

  • Canadians Can Dance
    Canadians Can Dance
    John Howe 1966 22 min
    From a festival of folk dances at the 1966 Canadian National Exhibition, an exciting selection of Canada's best amateur groups. The dances range from the seductive Hawaiian to the familiar Cossack. From all the major language groups of Canada, here is evidence that traditional cultures are expressed and maintained through the art of the dance. A film without words.
  • Faces
    Faces
    Paul Bochner 1978 1 min
    This short animation attempts to show the landscape of Canadians through a series of transforming faces -- young, old and from many different backgrounds, illustrating the great variety of people living in the country.
  • The Downtown Project
    The Downtown Project
    Isabelle Longtin 2011 52 min
    Just a stone’s throw from downtown Montreal is the largest social housing complex in Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance have retained something of the area’s seedy reputation for poverty, prostitution, drugs and violence. But who really knows the projects and the people who live there? Delving beneath the prejudices and stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside the buildings and met the residents. The result is The Downtown Project, a documentary that reveals a complex multi-ethnic reality made up of compelling personal stories and social movements.
  • The Faith Project - Making Space
    The Faith Project - Making Space
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    2015 4 min
    Preetinder Narang is a behaviour specialist for children with autism, and a Sikh living in the metropolitan area of Vancouver, British Columbia. Preetinder and her husband, Manpreet, perform daily prayers together every evening in the family home her mother designed, a home that was built around their family prayer room.
  • Johnny Osbourne
    Johnny Osbourne
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    Graeme Mathieson  &  Chris Flanagan 2024 18 min
    Before gaining international recognition as the “Dancehall Godfather,” legendary singer Johnny Osbourne was at the forefront of a revolution that transformed Toronto into one of the most influential reggae communities in the world.
  • Leroy Sibbles
    Leroy Sibbles
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    Graeme Mathieson  &  Chris Flanagan 2024 17 min
    In Trench Town—the birthplace of reggae—Leroy Sibbles rose to stardom as the lead singer of The Heptones and the undisputed king of the reggae bassline. Then, at the height of his career, he left it all behind to create a new legacy for himself in Toronto.
  • Mediterraneo Sempre - Mediterranean Forever
    Mediterraneo Sempre - Mediterranean Forever
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    Nicola Zavaglia 2000 1 h 12 min
    This feature documentary explores the roots and communities of the Italian immigrants who have made Montreal their home across the 20th century. Starting from a village in Calabria, the filmmaker recounts the saga of Italian immigrants and presents a chapter from the history of his own community. Wherever the tides of immigration carried them, the exiled descendants of Leonardo and Michelangelo have re-created a Mediterranean of the heart, to which they turn to reconnect with their roots.
  • Mosaic Village
    Mosaic Village
    Lucie Lachapelle 1996 50 min
    This feature documentary zooms in on Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges borough, where over 75 ethnic groups live side by side in a dizzying swirl of sound and colour. One day, filmmaker Lucie Lachapelle began knocking on the doors that isolated her from her neighbours. The result is a vibrant film about freedom and uprootedness set to urban music composed by Montreal jazz artist Harold Faustin.
  • Oumar 9-1-1
    Oumar 9-1-1
    Stéphane Drolet 1998 53 min
    This feature documentary paints an engaging portrait of Oumar, an auto mechanic from Burkina Faso. Always ready to lend a helping hand, Oumar has become a vital, central part of his community, in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood. People tend to gather round as he works, and talk often turns to weighty issues: feminism, polygamy, politics, religion. In eight months’ time, he is due to return for a visit with his family after six years away, so he is searching for hundreds of presents to take with him. Back home, when you leave the nest, it’s to look for wealth. Otherwise, failure awaits…
  • Our Street Was Paved with Gold
    Our Street Was Paved with Gold
    Albert Kish 1973 28 min
    Filmmaker Albert Kish revisits Montreal's St Lawrence Boulevard in the '70s. The street, also known as "The Main," is a little Europe with many languages, foods and small courtesies that make a stranger feel at home.
  • Sometimes I Wish I Was On a Desert Island
    Sometimes I Wish I Was On a Desert Island
    Eli Jean Tahchi 2020 10 min
    As the world learns to live again in the midst of the pandemic, for many Arabic-speaking LGBTQ+ people living in Montreal, this is just a period of time like any other. When you’ve fled homophobic violence in your home country and endured a painful migratory journey, or you still face social prejudices stemming from intercultural and intergenerational conflicts, surviving social isolation is nothing new.
  • Ted Baryluk's Grocery
    Ted Baryluk's Grocery
    John Paskievich  &  Michael Mirus 1982 10 min
    This short documentary profiles Ukrainian-Canadian Ted Baryluk, whose grocery store has been a fixture in Winnipeg's North End for over 20 years. In this photo study, Ted talks about his store, the customers who have come and gone and the social changes his multicultural neighbourhood has seen. But most of all he wonders what will become of his store after he retires. He hopes his daughter will take over, but she wants to move away. The film is a wistful rendering of a shopkeeper's relationship with his daughter and a fascinating portrait of a neighbourhood and its inhabitants.
  • World In a City
    World In a City
    Brett Story 2016 13 min
    World in a City is a portrait of Toronto and the steps Torontonians are taking to create a society that welcomes and encourages new immigrants to flourish. Join photographer Colin Boyd Shafer as he celebrates diversity in this short film, Canada’s contribution to the Big Cities project, an exciting international collaboration that uses documentary storytelling to outline both the challenges facing growing urban areas and the bold solutions to these ongoing problems.