Film Categories: Politics + Policy

  • Retrato Oficial 2 | Official Portrait 2

    Retrato Oficial 2 | Official Portrait 2 animates the dissimulation and reconstruction of the great liberator of Chile, 19th-century revolutionary and republican Bernardo O’Higgins, and the historical reach of the late-20th-century dictator Augusto Pinochet. Based in part on a conceit borrowed from Raul Ruiz’s essay Images of Images and original footage shot by Patricio Guzman on September 11, 1973, the short video is an exploration of the mediated image and the mnemonic possibilities of video and still image technologies.

  • Golden Pin, The

    Long, a young Vietnamese-Canadian swimmer, finds himself struggling between the expectations of his family and the demands of his heart. His father wants him to marry soon, but his mother, haunted by a past romance, hopes her son will stand up for what he believes. English & Vietnamese with English subtitles Awards: Colin Campbell Award for Best Canadian Short, Toronto Inside Out Festival 2009; 2nd Place, National Film Board Award for Best Canadian Short, 2009

  • Becoming Susan

    BECOMING SUSAN is a portrait documentary about Toronto activist Susan Gapka. The film enters Susan’s world through an exploration of the spaces around her, with Susan’s story filling these personal spaces before her visual representation does. BECOMING SUSAN presents a way of sharing the world of a trans-woman without focusing on the physical. Instead, visual fragments of Susan and her world serve as powerful metaphor for Susan’s journey from pieces to a whole. As we explore each new piece presented by the documentary we begin to understand that each is as important as the last to understanding her. Multi-faceted and…

  • Carpet Diem

    A two-minute creative documentary made of two unaltered still photos: one taken by a cell phone, the other by a professional Hollywood paparazzo. Selected Screenings: Inside Out Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, 2009 (Toronto, ON); CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, 2009 (Toronto, ON)

  • Oh Me 2

    An animated essay which is a joint effort by both the artist and his son – a psychology prof. – to “describe” what it’s like to be living with manic depression and creating under its influence.

  • Nukie Goes Bonkers

    One more in the series of “Nukie”, the crazed Atomic bomb who this time realizes that the end of the world which he’s been calling for, will also end his source of “entertainment”.

  • Spanish Tale, A

    The story of a family and their friend Paco who fled Spain after the Civil War and the threat of imprisonment under Franco’s regime. Told by an English voice-over of the grown daughter of the same family whose photo album we peruse as she recounts their harrowing escape to France and Montreal as a five year old child. The collision of cultures, the clash of beliefs, an idealist’s exile and how the shadow of the past interferes on subsequent events.

  • Grains of Salt

    “GRAINS OF SALT” provides an innovative perspective on the Holocaust. Holocaust survivors’ accounts of how talking about food helped cope with the incredible hunger are interwoven with their poignant stories about life in the concentration camps. We also see how, after being released from the camps, the memory of starvation affects their religious beliefs. The film contributes to our understanding of both past and present conditions where extreme food deprivation has severely impacted peoples’ lives both psychologically as well as physically.

  • Trinidad

    “Trinidad” uncovers Trinidad, Colorado’s transformation from Wild West outpost to “sex-change capital of the world,” and follows three transgender women who may steer the rural ranching town toward becoming the “transsexual mecca.”

  • Chip & Ovi

    Chip and Ovi met in an orphanage near the city of Kluj-Napoca in Romania during their teenage years. Ovi was born with disabilities in his arms and Chip has a severely damaged leg from polio. Both were abandoned shortly after birth to be raised in the care of the state. Despite their difficult situation, they dare to dream big: Chip wants to be an oilman in Texas and Ovi a professional cameraman. With humor and charm, they struggle to overcome their disabilities, social discrimination and poverty while dealing with the inevitable ups-and-downs of their relationship. “Featuring a complex, all-encompassing look…