Film Categories: Families

  • Echo

    “Echo” recalls childhood and the native home of the filmmaker through image, song and text. This self-portrait hints at the fragments, the pieces, the painful and repressed shards that the self contains, and through which it strives to piece together and illuminate its mysterious gaps. “‘Echo’ by Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof boldly explores homesickness and cultural yearning through visual imagery, song and text. In this atypical self-portrait, the artist has created a photogram of her body that acts as a travelling matte through the countryside of her native land as she mouths an old Polish immigrant’s song; the original recording pierces like…

  • Congratulations Daisy Graham

    Seventy-year-old Daisy Graham is having a hard day. No one in her small town wants to let her forget about the big ceremony tomorrow, a ceremony at the local high school in her honour. But Daisy has more important things to think about than some ceremony – she’s dug out her old rifle, now all she needs is a box of bullets. Jury Prize, Best Female Short, Philadelphia Int’l Gay & Lesbian Film Festival World Premiere at 2007 Toronto International Film Festival Special Jury Mention at Image+Nation, Montreal “A subtle and touching portrait” – Barrett Hooper, NOW Magazine

  • Gesture

    As for the two films made with Hidalgo, Ariganello assumes a role more traditionally defined as “cinematographer,” and his aptitude for composition, lighting and camera movement is skillfully in display throughout. Both works with Hidalgo are to “the real” what the films with Gehman are to “the fantastical,” and are keenly aware of the cinematic traditions from which they emerge. Each draws extensively, in style and structure, from neo-realism and observational documentary, while the function of Hidalgo’s narrator in Gesture operates to construct a story of a not-so-distant future-present, not unlike in Chris Marker’s La Jetée (1962). — James Missen

  • Lunch with Fela

    “Lunch with Fela” is the filmmaker’s response to the passing of his last parent, Fela Ravett. Utilizing a combination of DV footage shot during her stay at a nearby nursing facility, excerpts from previously made 16mm films, animation sequences, plus remaining family memorabilia, the film renders the presence and absence of a much loved parent. “Lunch with Fela” is the eighth film in a series that addresses the complexities of family history and Jewish cultural identity.

  • Hello, My Name Is Herman

    “Hello, My Name Is Herman” poignantly and humorously describes the relationship between a 91-year-old Jewish man, his lesbian granddaughter and her girlfriend. This ten-minute documentary explores intergenerational and interracial relationships, coming out, aging, and the process of accepting difference and love. Awards: Audience Award for Best Short Film (Tie), Fairy Tales Festival, Calgary, AB, 2009; Mikey/Schmkey Award for Best Short Film or Video at the 2007 Toronto Inside Out Film Festival. Honourable Mention for Best Up-and-Coming Toronto Film or Video Maker Award at the 2007 Inside Out Film Festival. Special Mention at the Iris Prize Festival 2007 in Wales.

  • Babysitting Andy

    What do you do if you’re nine and nobody will tell you what ‘fellatio’ means? If Andy, the most curious nine year-old, has a question, she will do anything to get the answer. When Andy’s uncle and his boyfriend arrive to babysit, Andy is not on her best behaviour, armed with a supersoaker and a devious mind, Andy corners the men, who can do nothing but comply.

  • 3 X 16

    These three short films consist of perceptive depictions of a public square in Lima, the view from his mother’s rooftop, and work at the Toronto Film Festival revision department. The filmmaker used 16 mm as documentary format. Each film in this series is almost three-minutes long, which is the length of one roll of 16 mm film. The entire film uses in-camera editing, therefore all the editing decisions were made on location.

  • Kali Ma

    When a suburban Indian mother finds out her son is the victim of a vicious bully, she delivers her own brand of vigilante justice. Starring popular Bollywood star Kamini Khanna (Monsoon Wedding), and the follow-up to director Soman Chainani’s acclaimed 2006 short “Davy & Stu”, “Kali Ma” plunges us into a battle of mythic proportions, where we discover the secrets that divide mothers and sons and the love that binds them together.

  • Diane Bonder Compilation

    A compilation of works by the late American filmmaker Diane Bonder. Shot in Super 8 and 16mm in documentary, poetic and semi-narrative styles, Bonder’s work explores issues of belonging, landscape and loss. Her work has screened internationally at festivals including Ann Arbor (Michigan), Images (Toronto), European Media Arts Festival, Pacific Film Archive (San Francisco), Museum of Modern Art (NY), Brooklyn Museum of Art, and The Whitney Museum. Please see individual titles for descriptions. 1. I Remember Now, We Never Danced, I Miss You, Good-Bye (16mm, 8 min., 2006) 2. You Are Not From Here (Super 8 on video, 10 min.,…

  • Turumba

    “Set in a tiny Phillipine village, ‘Turumba’ focues on one family who traditionally made papier-mache animals to sell during the Turumba religious festivities. One year, a German department store buyer shows up and purchases all their stock. When she returns with an order for 500 more (this time with the word ‘Oktoberfest’ painted on them), the family’s seasonal occupation becomes year-round alienated labor. Increased production, however, creates inflated needs. Soon, virtually the entire village has gone to work on a jungle assembly line, turning out papier-maches mascots for the Munich Olympics. “Long before the town band learns to play ‘Deutschland…