Film Categories: Childhood

  • The Places We Lived

    The Places We Lived uses a large family archive of Super8 and digital home movies from the mid-1970s to late 1990s to grapple with the hopes, dreams, and disappointments of two South American immigrants who moved to Montreal in the wake of the excitement and optimism generated by Expo ’67. This story focuses on the father, Jose (“Pepe”), whose life in Canada followed four hardscrabble decades in Chile. A story about childhood and fatherhood, aging, capitalism, and obsolescence, The Places We Lived opens up new questions about class, memory, diasporic narratives, and the complicated histories of migration and exile.

  • Bellydance Vogue

    “My birthday was on the 3rd of April 2020, and for the first time, I celebrated it all by myself. But even if I was alone, I decided to celebrate it as if it’s the last one” The film was made during quarantine, using archive films from the 80-90s and using VHS recorder app.

  • Contents under Pressure

    An anxious young party-goer finds love at a party, but after committing a party faux pas, is destroyed in a washing machine accident. From here, the project pivots, self-conscious and needing to recast its hero, who quickly has an existential crisis (“what’s my motivation?”). A poetic, quirky, singular meditation on identity and personal history, populated with the beautiful vistas of Atlantic Canada.

  • Beyond Curls & Kinks

    Beyond Curls & Kinks follows a group of women who are challenging beauty standards and empowering each other and the next generation to embrace their coily kinky curly hair. The film explores the complex relationship they have with their Afro-textured hair and issues such as self-esteem, confidence and identity. It also challenges society to see women and girls beyond their curls & kinks.

  • Wave

    Tender memories of a first gay embrace, of shock and exhilaration-and disavowal-animated against the waves of a deep blue lake. This animated biography tells the story of the artists’ first encounter with another boy. This was not the way his life was planned and he hoped that this feeling would eventually pass. He waited years until he finally met someone who would change his life forever.

  • The Shadow of My Life

    Hanna, a recent immigrant to Canada from Iran, struggles with depression as she tries to process memories of Iran and find her place in a new country. As she rediscovers her passion for painting she finds inspiration from other artists. Told in graphic monochrome animation with occasional striking splashes of red. Image description: A graphic drawing in stark black-and-white depicts a woman and her shadow considering themselves in a mirror.

  • Sab Shimono: Acting “As If”

    On the eve of his eightieth birthday, acclaimed Japanese American actor Sab Shimono reflects on his lifelong commitment to the craft of acting, his struggles against racism and homophobia, and how his life was transformed by gay bars and marriage equality.

  • The world is blue at its edges

    “What could I tell you about the world I live in?” Addressing her unborn child, the narrator tries to find answers partly through claustrophobic pictures interwoven with intimate notes on a pregnancy in times of a pandemic. Based on a childhood memory, this experimental short film spans from the Cold War Iron Curtain, to the so-called “refugee crisis,” and the renewed closing of borders during COVID-19. Textures of walls closing in blur with pixelated maps, creating a subjective portrait of a new reality and its digital image-world. // “Iris Blauensteiner’s and Christine Moderbacher’s ‘The world is blue at its edges’…

  • I (heart) Jack Lalanne: A Cartoon Memoir

    This is an animated documentary film structured around the life and legend of Jack LaLanne as it explores my personal experiences growing up female and gay in 1960s-70s America. I was a serious athlete during my early and young adult years, thus the film also delves into issues of self-identity, societal expectations, and the effects of aging on the human body. “I (heart) Jack LaLanne: A Cartoon Memoir” uses classic and computer-based animation techniques that serve as the visuals to voiceover storytelling. Original drawings combine with rotoscoped footage, composited archival video clips float inside retro televisions, while stop-motion vitamins march…

  • Little Sky

    Little Sky follows the journey of Sky, a Chinese American pop star who returns to the city they were raised in to find their estranged immigrant father. Haunted by their childhood memories, Sky risks their non-binary identity to end the cycle of violence in their family. In the confrontation, Sky discovers something that changes how they feel about the people they love. Packed with original songs, Little Sky is a film about finding the chosen family who sees us when our blood family cannot.