Mama Colonel

Still from Mama Colonel

Colonel Honorine, more commonly known as “Mama Colonel”, works for the Congolese police force and heads the unit for the protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. Having worked for 15 years in Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she learns she is transferred to Kisangani. There, she […]

Freedom Summer

Still from Freedom Summer

At Black Lives Matter Toronto’s Freedom School, 13-year-old Moon learns to be a leader while Rihanna, who is seven, discovers that being Black is indeed beautiful. Modeled after the Black Panther Party for Self Defence’s Oakland Community School, Toront’s Freedom School is a three-week summer program that intervenes in anti-Black racism in the Canadian educational system […]

How I Became a Partisan

The Second World War still hides numerous stories, some of which will clearly remain a secret forever. One such mosaic of memories are the fates of the Roma partisans in the former Czechoslovakia. Film director Vera Lacková, who is also the great-grandchild of one of these forgotten fighters, learnt about her great-grandfather’s deeds when she […]

There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace

Still from There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE THIS PLACE, ANYPLACE looks at the transformation of a much-loved Toronto landmark, the Honest Ed’s block, through the stories of its community members who are forced to relocate when it is sold to a developer. Honest Ed’s, a discount store that opened in 1948 and served the neighbourhood’s working class families, […]

Memories of a Penitent Heart

Still from Memories Of A Penitent Heart

Combining a wealth of recently discovered home movies, video, and written documents with artfully shot contemporary interviews and vérité footage, MEMORIES OF A PENITENT HEART is a documentary that cracks open a Pandora’s box of unresolved family drama. Originating from filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo’s suspicion that there was something ugly in her family’s past, the film […]

Bill Reid Remembers

BILL REID REMEMBERS is a beautiful tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacy. Despite spending his early life away from his nation’s culture, renowned Haida artist Bill Reid always kept Haida Gwaii close to his heart. While working for CBC Radio, he started learning how to make jewelry, then later […]

Valley of the Southern North

Valley Of The Southern North: person with horse next to water

Valley of the Southern North is a love letter to the people and wildlife of the Peace Valley, and an elegy to the Peace River itself. The Site C dam, now under construction, will destroy ancestral territory of the Dunne-Zaa and Cree, violate treaties and displace residents and farmers living along its banks. The film […]

Everything Must Fall

Still from Everything Must Fall

An unflinching look at the #FeesMustFall student movement that burst onto the South African political landscape in 2015 as a protest over the cost of education, and morphed into the most militant national revolt since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994. The story is told by four student leaders at Wits University and their […]

Defensora

Still from Defensora

Defensora is a documentary about a Mayan Q’eqchi’ resistance against mining in Guatemala. The story is set along the shores of Lake Izabal in the community of El Estor where a nickel mining company has operated for over 50 years. Tensions run high against a backdrop of pro and anti-mining camps, violence and forced evictions. […]

KONELĪNE: Our Land Beautiful

still from konelīne: our land beautiful

More than 1,000 miles by road from Vancouver, British Columbia, or 130 miles east of Juneau, Alaska by air, the traditional lands of the Tahltan First Nation encompass the majestic Stikine River, ancient glaciers, tiny communities and magnificent vistas. Not a Western, but a Northern, Nettie Wild’s astonishing non-fiction film KONELĪNE: OUR LAND BEAUTIFUL transports […]

Bluefin

Still from Bluefin

The film explores the baffling mystery of why the normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans. Local fishermen swear tuna are so starving and abundant now that they will literally eat out of people’s hands like pets. But something is not right. One thing is certain: this sudden and incredible abundance of tuna off their shores flies in the face of scientific assessments claiming […]

Gulabi Gang

Still from Gulabi Gang

Nishtha Jain’s fierce documentary follows the true story of activist Sampat Pal and the legendary women’s vigilante group known as the Gulabi Gang. Never without a healthy dose of humour, this is a deeply humane film that is truly inspiring for women of all ages. Rising up in resistance to femicide in Bundelkhand, Central India, […]

Union Trouble: A Cautionary Tale

Still from UNION TROUBLE: A CAUTIONARY TALE

“Union Trouble – a cautionary tale ” is a dramatic story about a historic attempt to unionize the employees of the well-known hamburger chain McDonald’s, known all over the world for its anti-union policies. The film follows the battle undertaken by a small group of employees of one restaurant near Montreal, in an attempt to […]

Life is Beautiful

In 2014, when the young Palestinian filmmaker Mohammed Jabali was on exchange in Norway, Israel closed the borders of his native Gaza indefinitely. The Norwegian government would not accept his Palestinian passport and rejected his application for a work permit. As a result of all this, Jabali unwittingly finds himself trapped with his host family […]

Burma VJ

Still from Burma VJ

In BURMA VJ: REPORTING FROM A CLOSED COUNTRY, acclaimed filmmaker Anders Østergaard combines original footage recorded by undercover video journalists from the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) with controversial dramatic reconstruction of demonstrations, from the emergence of the protests in 2007 through the 2008 Saffron Revolution. In this riveting film, material shot in the streets […]