For three teenage girls growing up in Kahnawake — and indeed, all teenagers on the reserve — life can be quite confusing. If they want to move away to pursue new experiences — perhaps in nearby Montreal — they risk losing credibility, or worse yet, their rights as Mohawk women. Of course, if they stay, their opportunities in the tiny community are limited.

With insight, humour and heart, director Tracey Deer (who left Kahnawake to attend school and pursue filmmaking) returns to her community to follow these Mohawk girls and tell their stories. Her deeply emotional documentary reveals the complex hope, heartache and promise of growing up Indigenous in the 21st century.

For centuries, the villagers of Île aux Coudres, a small island in the St. Lawrence River, hunted beluga whales by creating a sort of “fence” of saplings in shallow, muddy waters, trapping the mammals in low tide as they swim by.

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.

In July of 1990, the Oka Crisis was a critical moment in contemporary Canadian history and a turning point for Indigenous affairs. That summer, as the small Quebec community was thrust into the international spotlight, master filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin spent 78 nail-biting days filming the armed stand-off between the Mohawks of Kanehsatake, Quebec, the Quebec police and the Canadian army.

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.

Actor and filmmaker Micheline Lanctôt won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for her second feature, the story of two teenage girls whose close bond, dreams, and sentimental whims are presented in a series of vignettes that move gradually from the seemingly trivial to the extremely dark.

Structured around three parts, the first follows teenage Chantal (Pascale Bussières), who pursues an infatuation with a bus driver (Pierre F. Fauteux), ultimately costing him his job. The second segment follows Louisette (Marcia Pilote), who has run away from home but finds temporary affection from a Bulgarian sailor (Kliment Denchev) in the port. In the third and final chapter, the two girls come together and make a grim, disturbing plan.

Micheline Lanctôt won the Genie Award for Best Director for the film.

Quebec filmmaker Catherine Martin made her feature debut with this film about a 19th century woman struggling against oppressive Victorian social norms. 20-year-old Yvonne (Marie-Ève Bertrand) is a free spirit whose prudish, strict older sister Héleène (Guylaine Tremblay) struggles to contain her.

Helene intends to send her sister to a convent, and when Yvonne falls in love with the rakish Charles (David Boutin), Hélène concocts a scheme to keep them apart by arranging for him to marry her own teenage daughter. Unwilling to give up her passionate desires, Yvonne heads to the woods to find her own solution.

This finely crafted historical drama was awarded Best Feature by the Quebec Association of Film Critics in 2001.

Céline Bonnier stars as Mother Augustine, a passionate and resilient Catholic nun who teaches music to children of all backgrounds in a convent school in rural Quebec in the 1960s. When her rebellious but musically gifted niece (Lysandre Ménard) joins the convent, Mother Augustine must confront a past that she strives to forget.

With the looming changes brought by Vatican II and Quebec's Quiet Revolution, the local government threatens to shut down the school in favour of public education, and Mother Augustine must search her soul for a solution – or perhaps a new calling. She and her fellow nuns are forced to confront the waves of modernity, but can Augustine move forward, or will she perish with tradition?

The film was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards including Best Actress for Bonnier, and Best Original Score.

In the bleak aftermath of an outbreak of zombies in rural Quebec, Bonin (Marc-André Grondin) struggles to survive along with the rapidly dwindling remaining population. When he encounters a group hiding in a house that is in the path of an invading horde of the undead, he must decide whether or not to save them, as doing so would put him and his companions in danger.

Les affamés is a brilliant and fresh take on the zombie genre, maintaining a tense atmosphere with exceptional moments of horror. It won the Best Canadian Feature prize at TIFF in 2017 and swept the Jutra Awards (now the Prix Iris) with ten wins, including Best Film and Best Direction.

“Robin Aubert's idiosyncratic and nuanced drama breathes fresh life into the zombie apocalypse subgenre.” - John Leydon, Variety

A vacationing couple discovers an unconventional skydiving club. Should they take the plunge?

A box-office smash, Bon Cop, Bad Cop is an action-packed comedy about two policemen who are thrown together to solve a crime committed on the border between Quebec and Ontario.

Ward (Feore) and Boucher (Huard) couldn’t be more different: one is an English-speaker from Toronto, the other is a French-speaker from Montreal; one never deviates from established procedure, the other is a rebel who refuses to play by the rules. The detectives soon learn that if they are to solve this lurid crime, which is linked to the world of hockey, they need to stop bickering and work together.

With uproarious performances from both leads, Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a genuinely clever take on the buddy-cop genre that will keep you captivated throughout.

This hard-hitting miniseries was based on real events that took place at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in Canada’s largest sexual abuse scandal.

At the heart of this powerful film is a remarkable performance by Henry Czerny as Brother Peter Lavin, who transformed his own difficult childhood into a cycle of abuse and pain for others in his charge. Director John N. Smith grapples with this difficult subject with remarkable sensitivity and honesty, turning a dark chapter in Canada’s history into a thoughtful and affecting docudrama.

Based on the real events that led to the 1970 October Crisis, Corbo follows Giovanni Corbo (Therrien), the son of the rich and powerful businessman Nicola Corbo (Nardi). Perhaps in spite of his father’s big-L Liberal leanings, fresh-faced Giovanni finds revolutionary freedom in the friendship of two activists who encourage him to join the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). As Giovanni’s behavior becomes radicalized, he quickly ascends the ranks of the FLQ, a group whose separatist desires are turning militant.

Refusing to paint too broad a brush on an important part of Quebec’s history, this gripping, beautifully crafted and moving Canadian Screen Award winner establishes director Mathieu Denis as a talent to watch.

This award-winning feature-film debut by Robert Lepage is a Hitchcockian mystery set in Quebec City, both in the present (circa 1989) and in 1952, when Alfred Hitcock’s I Confess was filming on location.

Unfolding in flashbacks between the past and the present, the film follows the story of an adopted man on a search for his true identity, as recounted by his mother to a priest in a private confessional. Family secrets are on the line, blurred by the filming of I Confess. Further, lies and intrigue are clouding the air with mystery — and the foreshadowed sparks of the Quiet Revolution are growing louder.

Winner of the Genie for Best Film, Best Director and several others.

A box office blockbuster and the winner of a whopping 11 Genies, C.R.A.Z.Y. is an infectious, entertaining coming-of-age drama. When Zac Beaulieu (Grondin) is born on December 25, 1960, it becomes clear that he is different from his four brothers. He vies desperately for attention and acceptance from both of his parents, but in particular from his loving and old-fashioned father, Gervais (Côté).

The film follows Zac as life takes him on an epic journey to come to grips with his sexual identity. Buoyed by a vibrant soundtrack, C.R.A.Z.Y. boasts countless moments of true movie magic. It is at once a crowd pleaser and a poignant auteur film.

In a remote part of the Quebec countryside, Jean-François (Bilodeau) brings up his daughter Julyvonne (Bilodeau) alone, home-schooling her in between shifts doing maintenance at an isolated motel. However, vague and mysterious occurrences — a blood stain at the motel, frozen bodies in the snow — soon threaten their peaceful solitude.

Atmospheric and suspenseful, Curling is a beautiful blend of realism with a dash of Hitchcock, set in the icy stillness of rural Quebec.

Winner of the Best Director and Best Actor awards at the Locarno Film Festival.

Hanna (Vanasse) is an unhappy tomboyish teenager living in 1960s Montreal. Her erratic father and perpetually sick mother aren’t much help as she tries to navigate the tricky terrain of puberty. Feeling isolated and alone, Hannah seeks to escape in cinema, becoming fixated on the beautiful and freespirited Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre sa vie (My Life to Live).

As her home life deteriorates, the confused Hannah attempts to emulate her movie idol, making some poor and potentially dangerous decisions before finding a healthy way to express herself and cope with her world.

A touching coming-of-age story that won four Jutras for director Léa Pool.

In this story of unlikely romance, Meira (Yaron), a young Hasidic Jewish mother, and Felix (Dubreuil), a young francophone man who is mourning the death of his estranged father, prove the age-old saying: opposites attract.

Showing off the multiculturalism and diversity of Montreal’s beautiful Mile-End district, this unique gem of a movie thrusts its characters into situations they are not familiar with and tells a relatable tale of human connection, which triumphs in spite of many cultural, personal and faith-based differences.

For his unusual love story, director Maxime Giroux took home the Toronto International Film Festival’s Best Canadian Feature Film Award and a slew of international prizes.

Canada’s foreign-language Oscar nominee for 2014, Gabrielle is a big-hearted drama about a young woman with Williams syndrome who has a genuine and infectious zest for life. Like most young adults, Gabrielle longs for independence, but when she falls in love with a young man in her choir, both the families and social workers worry that the two won’t be able to handle an adult relationship.

As the choir prepares for an important performance, Gabrielle must confront other people’s prejudices with courage and overcome her own limitations.

“On the surface, it’s a simple love story: girl meets boy, girl likes boy, girl kisses boy. But Louise Archambault’s Gabrielle is much more…a deeply affecting tale of difference, dignity and the healing power of song.”
— T’cha Dunlevy, Montreal Gazette

 

In this amiable comedy, the villagers of St. Marie-La-Mauderne in northern Quebec set out to seduce a Montreal doctor into becoming a local. Their once-prosperous fishing industry has run dry, and only the promise of a new plastics factory coming to town can keep the quaint and lively community intact.

Since the new factory requires a resident doctor to be on hand, the boisterous and resourceful mayor (Bouchard) sets out to keep Dr. Christopher Lewis (Boutin) in the village. Dr. Lewis, whose stay in the village was caused by a speeding ticket, is a man of eccentric tastes — he loves cricket, beef Stroganoff and women in open-toed sandals. The villagers set out to create a community that mirrors the habits and loves of the good doctor. Will they succeed?

Winner of the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

On the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, outside of Montreal, there are two unspoken rules: don't marry a white person, and don't have a child with one. The consequences of ignoring these rules can be dire — loss of membership on the reserve for yourself and your child. For those who incur them, the results can be devastating.

In this honest and affecting doc, filmmaker Tracey Deer follows the stories of four Kahnawake women whose lives have been affected by these rules, shedding light on contemporary Indigenous identity and asking quesitons about how we all understand who we are. 

With her own family as a poignant case study, Deer's film will strike a chord with anyone who's ever thought about ethnicity, culture or their place in the world.

It’s no secret that much of an artist’s craft is spent in solitude. For photographer J. A. Martin (Sabourin) in late 1800s Quebec, solitude is found in the countryside during the summer, when he travels around taking beautiful photographs to sell.

After 14 years of marriage, Martin’s wife (Mercure) decides to accompany him on one of his summer tours, using it as an opportunity to try to rekindle their relationship as they explore the uniquely beautiful landscapes of rural Quebec.

Winner of three Canadian Film Awards (including Best Feature Film) and the Best Actress award for Monique Mercure at the Cannes Film Festival.