Film Categories: Families

  • Even Flowers Wake Up in the Morning

    “A powerful visual tribute to a lost loved one. Superimposing hand-processed film footage with home movie imagery, director Tara Khalili conveys an eloquent personal message of mourning. Funerary footage mixes with that of a quiet home, resulting in sensitive reflections on loss and remembrance.” – Alex Rogalski, Hot Docs Festival 2010 “Even Flowers Wake Up in the Morning” is a filmic expression of my feelings about the absence and death of my Iranian grandfather. Memories of him flicker in my head as if I were watching a projector shining old film clips in a dark theater. In this film, I…

  • Family Portrait #2

    An ultrasound recording of my first-born’s heartbeat…the intensity of childbirth…a family portrait. Form is altered through lens manipulation, optical printing and hand-processing to elicit the polarities and fragility of life.

  • SEE/SAW

    A film about seeing and having seen. Completely hand-processed and painstakingly edited, ‘SEE/SAW’ is comprised of a series of iris fades – commonly found in silent films to signal the beginning or end of a scene – re-appropriated as a formal approach that frames the desire to see and to remember. Dichotomies surface in the high contrast images – opening/closing, beginning/ending, light/dark – it is also a deeply personal film that faces the imminence of not being.

  • Letters

    “Letters” is a poetic, reflective expression of the filmmaker’s rediscovery of her roots and coming out later in life as a Jewish lesbian. Although this is one person’s story, it poignantly touches the heart of what it means to be Jewish and gay. “Letters” was created as part of the Legacy Video Project, a special multi-generational mentoring program in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival. Three seniors and four youth journeyed together for five months, learning the skills to create short videos that would both challenge and touch us. Selected Screenings:…

  • Still Life

    A loose narrative comprised of both found and shot footage derails conventional uses of familial images and forms the residue of a looming traumatic experience. The anxieties of parenthood feed an undertow of tension that heightens awareness to the vulnerabilities of the children we bring into this world.

  • Cinco Minutos (Five Minutes)

    When you spend your entire life next to someone, all the time in the world isn’t enough to say goodbye.

  • A mais forte (The Strongest)

    Will the apartment that put two sons together push two mothers apart?

  • Hens and Chicks

    Raised by her two moms, Hanna has always known that there are all types of families. But she’s never really thought about the logistics of it all until her friend Marco explains the process of creating chicks from eggs. Soon after, an educational trip through cyberspace has Hanna asking, “Who’s MY rooster?” “Hens and Chicks” is a short independent film that explores the meaning of family and the finding of self. Sweet and funny, this coming-of-age story plays with the universal questions we ask ourselves as parents, children, and human beings.

  • I’m Just Anneke

    “I’m Just Anneke” is a portrait of a 12-year-old girl who loves ice hockey and has a loving, close-knit family. Anneke is also a hardcore tomboy and everybody she meets assumes she’s a boy. The onset of puberty has created an identity crisis for Anneke. Does she want to be a boy or a girl when she grows up, or something in between? To give her more time to make a decision, her doctor has put her on Lupron, a hormone blocker that temporarily freezes her body in a pre-pubescent state. Despite rejection by her friends and struggles with suicidal…

  • Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children, The

    “The Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children” charts the emotional and intellectual transformations parents and siblings must make in order to successfully nurture their gender nonconforming family members. In frank, vulnerable interviews, families from all over the country speak about the power of love and acceptance to help their unusual children thrive. They also come to realize that loving a gender nonconforming child, in the face of ignorance, and sometimes hostility, has turned them into more compassionate human beings.