Film Categories: history

  • Third Tongue, The

    “The Third Tongue” explores the loss of historical identity in a post-colonial society. A haunting look at the legacy of war.

  • Flora’s Film

    In 1873, Eadweard Muybridge, commonly referred to as “the father of the motion picture,” succeeded in photographically freezing a horse mid-gallop. One year later, he shot and killed his wife’s lover. Using an evocative collection of found footage and sounds, Wilson channels the voice of Flora Muybridge, imagining her response to her husband’s act and subsequent acquittal at trial.

  • ZERO the inside story

    On a journey to find the origins of the number zero, a woman discovers more than she was expecting. The journey begins as a quest for the cultural roots of zero and how this concept touches human consciousness in unexpected ways. The search leads her to India, said to be the birthplace of the mysterious number, and the ancient city of Varanasi. There she maps her inner world onto the powerful mix of Hindu ritual and spirituality she encounters, finally confronting a traumatic event in her past. More than a film about the number that is not, “ZERO the inside…

  • Saddle: The Making of a Western Saddle

    This film is a lyrical journey that captures the major stages of making a western saddle. Beautifully filmed, it follows renowned saddlemaker Chuck Stormes as he transforms wood, leather and silver into an elegant balance of form and function. Shot on location at Stormes Saddlery in Calgary and Longview, Alberta, “Saddle” is a slice of Canada’s western culture and heritage. Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film and Video Festival “Chris Awards,” 1995

  • Paradise Lost

    A poetic assembly of 1950s’ and 1960s’ Soviet film print fragments and graphic text that elicits a romantic tale of an individual’s fall from grace.

  • Coconut/Cane & Cutlass

    The title of “Coconut/Cane & Cutlass” represents the psyche behind the collective memory, history and imagination of Indo-Caribbean people. The film is a mythic/poetic rumination on exile, displacement, and nationhood from the perspective of an Indo-Caribbean lesbian who migrated to Canada twenty years ago. Intersections of the autobiographical voice (in the realm of mythic/memory and the personal) co-mingle with the historical, to produce a film that is neither an “official historical document” nor a “personal history.” Instead, “Coconut/Cane & Cutlass” is a hybrid fusion of the autobiographical, historical and experiential, in an episodic structure that is richly textured and layered…

  • Popcorn with Maple Syrup: Film in Canada from Eh to Zed

    The first movie star in the world, the first three actresses to win Academy Awards, the first performer in a nude scene, the first actress to kiss on-screen, the first nickelodeon – all were Canadian. From drive-ins to IMAX to Mike Myers to “The Barbarian Invasions,” a rambunctious history of the Canadian movie industry, including some key triumphs and disappointments, unfolds in “Popcorn with Maple Syrup: Film in Canada from Eh to Zed”. “‘Popcorn with Maple Syrup’ might be the most exhaustive and entertaining overview of this country’s film biz ever undertaken.” – Bill Brownstein, Montreal Gazette “A jaunty, packed…

  • Multiple Selves of Hannah Maynard, The

    A glimpse into the unique, eccentric mind of a pioneering Canadian photographer, Hannah Maynard (1834-1918). Born in England, Maynard immigrated with her family to Vancouver Island in 1862, where she set up her own portrait studio. After the sudden death of her youngest daughter, she produced a troubling series of experimental images that reflected her haunted state – an attempt to contact her beloved daughter’s spirit. Considered overly bold and unconventional, Maynard experimented with such techniques as collage, multiple exposure and photo-sculpture. She developed a surreal vision, a world obsessed with children and death, but also the spiritual possibilities of…

  • still | move

    “still | move” is a visual essay of the photographic album in which I sociologically explore the history of my family. Channeling through old postcards, torn letters, and discarded photographs, I document and archive the snapshots, the landscape where my father’s family lived, and the home movies shot by my grandfather. I mark myself, as a filmmaker and a member of the family, to understand the history and to chronicle the decay of a prairie railroad community. – Michael Rollo

  • Der Fus Tort

    A 21st-century take on the tower of Babel story, this zany animated tale combines modern Yiddish storytelling with the hottest of new media. From angel’s foot cake to angels’ cheese cake, this delicious serving of new Yiddish film comes complete with a high fat, double, double ending. “Whimsical drawings and Yiddish humor animate this charming tale. ‘Der Fus Tort’ is a treat for all ages.” – Susan Alper, Director Montreal Jewish Film Festival Yiddish /w English subtitles