Film Categories: Portraits

  • Bye

    If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, you’re going to get what you deserve. Based on a time in the director’s past and his pet fish, this short piece looks at the point in his life when having the beautiful boyfriend just wasn’t enough.

  • In Between

    Portrait of Jesse Collins: a daydream nightmare in the surrealist tradition. Music by John Cage.

  • Silent Song

    “Silent Song” brings new life to a remarkable piece of 1945 footage found by chance in an archive. “Silent Song” completes a deeply personal trilogy on family history and Holocaust memory. The first two films of the trilogy, “Zyklon Portrait” (13min. 1999) and “The Walnut Tree” (11min. 2000) have been seen in 20 countries around the globe, garnering numerous awards. In the pandemonium of the liberation of Nazi concentration camp Dachau, a U.S. army cameraman filmed a young boy playing the accordian. This strangely poetic moment offers an unusual contrast to the all-too-familiar WWII liberation images of emaciated prisoners in…

  • Tom

    “A dazzling experimental documentary about notorious cineaste Tom Chomont. Tom narrates his recollections and transgressions against a dizzying array of found footage, video, super-8 and photographs. At moments, he appears in front of the camera, alternately flamboyant or fragile. His revelations cover a broad scope from sadomasochistic desire through existential vulnerability to an incestuous relationship. With this extraordinary portrait, Hoolboom creates a different kind of biography film, one that eschews traditional mimetic realism in order to depict the reminiscences of a fading life lived in the throes of image culture.” – Diane Burgess, Vancouver International Film Festival “An uncommon biography…

  • Friend

    Relationships are never simple. Something as seemingly simple as “friend” is complex and layered. Through personal Super 8 footage, the filmmaker examines his relationship with someone who is more than “just a friend,” uncovering the things that held the two together and the things that drew them apart.

  • Tourbillon, Le

    Over and over I am mesmerized by Jeanne Moreau’s presence in cinema. Enigmatic, gutsy, provocative, she defines the true female avant-garde artist. (LB) English and French with subtitles.

  • Nicky

    Nicky is a portrait of my big sister, told in the form of a personal letter, emphasizing the strong influence she has had on my life and work. (RK)

  • Ger Film

    “Ger Film” reflects the philosophical attitude a 20-year-old exhausted student has towards Art, Time, and looking at pretty pictures.

  • Promised Land

    “Promised Land” is an experimental documentary film that mixes the personal and the political. It follows the story of my family in Peru, from the middle of the last century through to the present day. It is told from a personal point of view and also in relation to the political developments taking place throughout the Latin American continent. This film waves together these various viewpoints, forming a unique perspective on memory, history and identity. (MA)

  • Saskatchewan

    Using home movies, vintage memorabilia, and the straight facts about Saskatchewan, the filmmaker creates an eccentric portrait of the first year of his life, and the province that shaped his identity. “Brian Stockton’s bittersweet tribute to the province he was born in perfectly captures the essence of life in the vast and lonely prairies.” – Nicole Cohen, EYE Weekly “Miss at your peril… Stockton’s grounded, deadpan voice-over, combined with the homely seduction of the images, keeps the tether strong between private myth and real life.” – Cameron Bailey, Now Magazine