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Single-parent Families (6)

  • Freaks of Nurture
    Freaks of Nurture
    Alexandra Lemay 2018 6 min
    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.
  • It's Just Better
    It's Just Better
    Beverly Shaffer 1982 15 min
    This short documentary takes us to a farmhouse on Cape Breton Island where Shawn Peter Dwyer, age 10, lives with his mother and nine brothers and sisters. While the children’s pockets are usually empty, their lives are well filled. This film is part of the Children of Canada series.
  • Our Dear Sisters
    Our Dear Sisters
    Kathleen Shannon 1975 14 min
    Alanis Obomsawin, an Indigenous woman who earns her living by singing and making films, is the mother of an adopted child. She talks about her life, her people, and her responsibilities as a single parent. Her observations shake some of our cultural assumptions.
  • Standing Tall
    Standing Tall
    Marie Ka 2015 23 min
    In this short documentary, three French-speaking women (from Senegal, Mexico and Belgium) examine their own experiences as immigrants in Vancouver, where they raise their children alone. With strength and resilience, these women take up the challenge of rebuilding their lives to provide a “new world of possibility” for their children, while seeking to find their place in Canadian society.
  • A Score for Women's Voices
    A Score for Women's Voices
    Sophie Bissonnette 2002 1 h 26 min
    Between March and October 2000, millions of people around the world took to the streets to denounce poverty and violence against women. The historic World March of Women was a bold initiative of the Québec Federation of Women and represented a turning point in global solidarity.

    Director Sophie Bissonnette invited five filmmakers from around the world to cover the march. She also asked each one to film an innovative project. In Senegal a community battles female genital mutilation through education. In Australia a women's circus teaches survivors of sexual assault to become skilled performers. In India a group of low-caste women mediate domestic disputes in informal women's courts. Native women in Ecuador offer leadership training programs to create women leaders. In the United States, Linda Carney describes why she founded Survival Inc. for poor women in Boston: this wealthy city refused her and her son welfare benefits unless she quit her minimum-wage job.

    Set against the backdrop of a song, A Score for Women's Voices ends at the UN, where women deliver 5 million cards signed during the marches. Their goal? To change the world!

    Some subtitles.
  • Then Sings My Soul
    Then Sings My Soul
    Susan Rodgers 2021 14 min
    Prince Edward Island singer and part-time fisherman Chad Matthews is a hardworking father of four and a Stompin’ Tom Connors tribute artist. In a rural town where making a living means only earning minimum wage, Then Sings My Soul follows Chad as he reaches for a guitar to help ease the pain.