Interest: Environment
Second Hand
Two neighbours have very different ideas about wasting time and saving stuff in this humourous meditation on what’s precious or disposable.
Director
Isaac King
Producer
Isaac King
Genres
Animation, Drama
Interests
Environment, Social Justice & Politics
The Ghosts in Our Machine
In a film that explores the rights of non-human animals through the compassionate lens of international photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, we meet individual animals living within — and rescued from — the machine of our modern world.
Director
Liz Marshall
Writer
Liz Marshall
Producers
Nina Beveridge, Liz Marshall
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Environment, Female Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics
Original Languages
English, French, Other Language
Canadian Distributor
INDIECAN ENTERTAINMENT
- Own Voice
Honey For Sale
Director
Amanda Strong (Michif)
Writers
Amanda Strong (Michif), John Sedore
Producer
Amanda Strong (Michif)
Genre
Documentary
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Environment, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker
Original Language
English
Canadian Distributor
Vtape
- Own Voice
Overburden
Directors
Warren Cariou (Métis), Neil McArthur
Genre
Documentary
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Environment
Original Language
English
Language Version
None
Canadian Distributor
Winnipeg Film Group
- Own Voice
Short Film Programme
If you’d like to show several short films together as a programme, please feel free to get in touch for advice and tips on selecting the perfect combination for your needs.
Director
Various
Genres
Action/Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, Family, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller
Interests
Arts and Culture, Biography, BIPOC Stories, Bullying, Classics, Cult & Offbeat Cinema, Discrimination, Environment, ESL, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, LGBTQ2S+, Literary Adaptation, Newcomer Stories, Social Justice & Politics, Sports, Strong Female Leads
Original Languages
English, French
- Own Voice
L’innu du futur
An Innu man discusses his relationship with his culture, how it was taken away from him, how he fought to take it back and what it will be like for the generations to come.
Director
Stéphane Nepton (Innu)
Writer
Stéphane Nepton (Innu)
Genre
Experimental
Interests
Arts and Culture, BIPOC Stories, Environment, Indigenous Filmmaker
Original Language
French
The Energy Carol
Director
Les Drew
Genre
Animation
Interest
Environment
Original Language
English
Meltdown
Director
Carrie Mombourquette
Writer
Carrie Mombourquette
Producer
Michael Fukushima
Genres
Animation, Family
Interest
Environment
Original Languages
English, French
Language Version
None
Canadian Distributor
NFB
Monsoon
By treating this natural phenomenon with the respect it commands, this Canada’s Top Ten audience award–winner becomes an epic journey into a phenomenon many call “the soul of India.”
With swells of music by the Bombay Dub Orchestra, Monsoon is wet, wild and utterly astonishing.
Director
Sturla Gunnarsson
Born in Iceland and raised in Vancouver, Gunnarsson earned an Oscar nomination for his debut feature doc, After the Axe. His films include Beowulf and Grendel, Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie and Monsoon, and he has directed hit TV shows such as Motive, Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Art of More, and most recently Schitt’s Creek and Ransom.
Writer
Sturla Gunnarsson
Producers
Ina Fichman, Sturla Gunnarsson
Genres
Documentary, Drama
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Environment, Global Experiences
Original Language
English
Canadian Distributor
KinoSmith
Pour la suite du monde (For Those Who Will Follow)
In 1962, Michel Brault and a team of filmmakers travelled to the island to document the resumption of the practice decades after it had been abandoned, shedding light and wit on this “resourceful” tradition.
A balance of grace, humour, and up-close observation, Pour la suite du monde is known as a landmark achievement in documentary filmmaking and was screened at the Cannes film festival.
Directors
Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault
Writers
Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault
Producers
Jacques Bobet, Fernand Dansereau
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Classics, Environment, History
Original Language
French
Canadian Distributor
NFB
Revolution
In this powerful follow-up to his acclaimed documentary Sharkwater, Rob Stewart discovers that sharks aren’t the only ones in danger — climate change has a devastating impact on human life as well. Striking and vibrant landscapes are juxtaposed with startling proof that significant damage has already been done. At the same time, Stewart finds immense hope in the dedicated and passionate youth whose efforts are changing our future for the better.
Director
Rob Stewart
Stewart was an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, whose docs Sharkwater, and Revolution earned awards at festivals worldwide. A tireless activist, Stewart was credited with saving a third of the world’s sharks. He tragically passed away in 2017, while filming Sharkwater: Extinction, which was completed posthumously and premiered at TIFF 2018.
Writer
Rob Stewart
Producers
Rob Stewart, Warren Needler
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Environment, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Canadian Distributor
D Films
- Own Voice
Stories From Our Land – Tide
A beautiful short film that captures the majesty of ice sculpted by wind and water. Time-lapse imagery reveals the dynamic dance of water and ice in the Arctic, in Nunavut.
Director
Ericka Chemko
Writer
Ericka Chemko
Producer
David Christensen
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Environment, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker
Original Language
No Dialogue
- Own Voice
Treading Water: Plight of the Manitoba First Nation Flood Evacuees
In 2011, close to 4000 First Nation people in Manitoba were forced from their homes after artificially diverted floodwater swamped their communities to save the city of Winnipeg. Most of the evacuees, the majority from Lake St. Martin and Little Saskatchewan First Nations, checked into Winnipeg hotels, assuming they would return to their homes within a couple of weeks. Shockingly, nearly 7 years later over 1700 evacuees remain displaced and continue to be stranded in a political firestorm between First Nation band councils, the Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters, hotel owners and the federal and provincial governments. The displacement has triggered a rise in substance abuse and suicide rates. Plans for getting people home seem to be at a standstill. Interspersing intimate clips of everyday life with footage of heated political debates, this deeply intimate documentary tells the unexpected story of the real people behind the national headlines of the 2011 Manitoba flood.
Directors
Janelle Wookey (Métis), Jérémie Wookey (Métis)
Writers
Janelle Wookey (Métis), Jérémie Wookey (Métis)
Producer
Janelle Wookey (Métis)
Genre
Documentary
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Environment, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics
Original Languages
English, Other Language
Canadian Distributor
APTN
Occupy Love
This poignant documentary explores what Martin Luther King Jr. called “love in action,” searching for the meaning and importance of the love of humanity and of the planet.
…the photography is beautiful, the scenes of crowds and their signs arresting, and the interviews with individual protesters — in Tahrir Square, Zuccotti Park, tear-gassed Oakland, and even melting Greenland — are often inspiring.” — Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice
Director
Velcrow Ripper
Writer
Velcrow Ripper
Producers
Ian Mackenzie, Nova Ami, Velcrow Ripper
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Environment, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Canadian Distributor
Fierce Love Films
A Place Called Chiapas
Filmmaker Nettie Wild notes that in Canada, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994, was a matter for lively discussion and political debate. In Chiapas, one of the poorest states in Mexico, it provoked an actual revolution.
In this remarkably clear-eyed and vivid documentary, Wild follows the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) as they fight and evade the Mexican army. Wild takes viewers on a journey through fear and hope, telling a complex story of Indigenous rights and corporate interests in the wake of NAFTA.
The film won the Genie for Best Documentary, among several other awards.
Director
Nettie Wild
Writers
Manfred Becker, Nettie Wild
Producers
Betsy Carson, Kirk Tougas, Nettie Wild
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Environment, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Language Version
EN CC
Canadian Distributor
Zeitgeist Films
There’s Something in the Water
Elliot Page brings attention to these injustices in her home province of Nova Scotia in this urgent documentary about women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures.
Page travels to rural areas of the province that are plagued by toxic fallout from industrial development, discovering that these catastrophes have been precisely placed, all in remote, low income — and very often Indigenous or Black — communities. As the filmmakers observe, your postal code determines your health.
Directors
Elliot Page, Ian Daniel
Producers
Elliot Page, Ian Daniel, Julia Sanderson, Ingrid Waldron
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Environment, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Canadian Distributor
Giant Pictures
- Own Voice
Up the Yangtze
At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
Director
Yung Chang
Writer
Yung Chang
Producers
Mila Aung-Thwin, John Christou, Germaine Wong
Genre
Documentary
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Environment, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Canadian Distributor
National Film Board (NFB)
- Own Voice
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World
Director
Charles Wilkinson
Producer
Tina Schliessler
Genre
Documentary
Interest
Environment
Original Language
English
Canadian Distributor
Wilkinson Household
- Own Voice
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
This powerful documentary takes you right to the heart of the action, painting a sensitive and deeply affecting portrait of the people behind the barricades.
Winner of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Best Canadian Feature Film prize.
Director
Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)
Legendary Abenaki filmmaker Obomsawin has made over 50 documentaries on issues affecting Indigenous peoples in Canada, including Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, Trick or Treaty?, Is the Crown at War with Us?, Our People Will Be Healed and Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger. Her most recent film is the short documentary Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair. Next, she is set to appear in an episode of Marie Clements’ Bones of Crows: The Series.
Writer
Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)
Producers
Wolf Koenig, Colin Neale, Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)
Genre
Documentary
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Classics, Environment, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Language Versions
EN CC, EN Subtitles, FR CC, FR Dub, FR Subtitles
Canadian Distributor
National Film Board (NFB)
- Own Voice
Trick or Treaty?
One of the masters of Canadian documentary cinema, Alanis Obomsawin has spent decades chronicling the injustices visited on First Nations communities, creating a remarkable body of work. In her latest film, she digs into the difficult history of Treaty 9, the infamous 1905 agreement in which First Nations communities allegedly relinquished their sovereignty over their traditional lands.
Setting the film against the recent resurgence of First Nations activism (Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike and the Idle No More movement), Obomsawin interviews legal, historical and cultural experts — as well as people whose ancestors were present when the treaty was signed — to explore some fundamental questions about Canada’s relationship with our First Nations.
“Obomsawin’s documentaries inform, inspire and shock us. Trick or Treaty? is no different.” — Nadya Domingo, Toronto Film Scene
Director
Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)
Legendary Abenaki filmmaker Obomsawin has made over 50 documentaries on issues affecting Indigenous peoples in Canada, including Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, Trick or Treaty?, Is the Crown at War with Us?, Our People Will Be Healed and Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger. Her most recent film is the short documentary Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair. Next, she is set to appear in an episode of Marie Clements’ Bones of Crows: The Series.
Writer
Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)
Producers
Annette Clarke, Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)
Genre
Documentary
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Environment, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Language Versions
EN CC, FR Subtitles
Canadian Distributor
NFB