Film Categories: Community

  • East Hastings Pharmacy

    The chronicle of a typical pharmacy of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, where most clients are on a treatment that requires taking daily doses of methadone witnessed by the pharmacist. East Hastings Pharmacy is a site of rituals and repeated interactions where quiet routine and confrontation follow each other in one continuos movement. Part of “East Hastings Trilogy”.

  • William in White Shirt

    A young man contends with life in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside. As he agrees to visit his young son, the film observes his struggle with this new reality. Part of “East Hastings Trilogy”.

  • A Conversation With Hana

    During the Lunar Year, Yong talks to his family living in Korea from Canada on Skype and partakes in the new year ceremony online. Later on, Yong has a serious conversation on topics ranging from marriage to religion with his 9-year-old sister Hana whose only wish is to see her brother someday.

  • Blair’s Last Day

    Blair Maddox has been projecting IMAX films at the Space & Science Centre in Edmonton, Canada for almost 30 years. ‘Blair’s Last Day’ documents his last day on the job before the IMAX theatre switches to a digital projection system, leaving Blair unemployed after projecting over 30,000 films.

  • I Want To Kill Myself

    Contemplating suicide: a biography.

  • Belen

    BELÉN is a story about the consequences of experiencing a profound inspiration. The inspiration that one woman, a humble cocoa farmer and musician from a small Afro-Venezuelan village, unaware of her powers, generated in her community and in people all over the American continent, during her life, and after her death as a spiritual being. Queen of the Quitipla. Master of bamboo’s sounds and silences. Core and bridge to the African American community, to its connected beats and historical fights. A trip into the puzzled reminiscences of this woman’s life (and death), captured through more than 100 hours of amateur…

  • Take a Walk on the Wildside

    Wigs: shoulder length or long, naturally curled or straight. Shoes: pink glittery six-inch heels or black shiny two-inch heels. Nipples: stick on dime or dollar sized. A vibrant mesh of items line the shelves of one of Toronto’s oldest cross-dressing stores. Opened in 1987, Wildside was one of the only places to offer a full male-to-female transformation through makeup, clothing and hair. Still open today, Take a Walk on the Wildside provides viewers with a glimpse into a day in the life of the store. As five customers pass through, we peek into their colorful lives and reasons for visiting.…

  • The Royal Women Association

    THE ROYAL WOMEN ASSOCIATION tells the story of a group of South Asian women in Calgary who have banded together to overcome the isolation and loneliness so common among older members of their community. The women break out of their shells and overcome their demons by sharing songs, poetry, food, and laughter at the group’s monthly meetings. As they plan an event that calls attention to domestic violence in the community, one member, Sarbjit, tries to come to terms with the trauma of her own past.

  • The World in Ten Blocks

    Welcome to Bloorcourt, one of Toronto’s most diverse neighbourhoods. Small business owners from all over the world have made this one of the most vibrant parts of Toronto. Meet some of these immigrant entrepreneurs and hear about their dreams, struggles, victories, and the unexpected ways in which they’ve changed. An intimate journey into the kitchens and behind the counters of small businesses where cultures and traditions are preserved, shared, and evolve.

  • Mino-bimaadiziwin (The Good Life)

    Mino-bimaadiziwin (The Good Life) came out of the Artist for Film residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. I was excited about First Story’s walking tour with Elder Carolyn King. I was only able to participate with the aid of a wheelchair and allow others to push me around, it was my first time in a wheelchair. I documented this walk from that perspective with this manual timelapse on Super 8. Reconciling myself as a mixed-race indigenous Colombian settler “walking the red road” while being a person who lives with physical disabilities. Learning to live mino-bimaadiziwin as a settler to Turtle Island…