Film Categories: Race + Ethnicity

  • Plethora

    “Plethora” is a documentary about stuff. Several individuals and professionals from psychologists to sociologists discuss the reasons why people obtain, collect , store, hoard and creat attachments to things. The movie examines the personal storage industry, consumerism, compartmentalization of private lives and containment of belongings from the past and for the future.

  • Happy Birthday Hannah

    An irreverent look at diapers and dolls, ‘Happy Birthday Hannah’ is a delightfully funny animated short about Suzy, a rag doll who celebrates her owner’s birthday by painting her room.

  • 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

  • Slide

    Through a simple act of child’s play, a young boy confronts both his parents’ overwhelming protection and his own very real fears. “Slide” is an animated short film whose narrative centres around the metaphor of being handicapped. Even loving parents hand us crutches; what we do with them is up to us.

  • Zero Degrees of Separation

    “George Orwell, in his wildest dreams, could not imagine a place like this.” EZRA, ZERO DEGREES OF SEPARATION Described by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as a film “bursting with concern about identities – sexual, national, political, generational, cultural, class, ethnic and more,” Elle Flanders’ feature -length documentary “Zero Degrees of Separation” breaks from the sensationalistic media coverage of violence in the Middle East by examining the current conflict through the eyes of two mixed Palestinian and Israeli gay couples. Courageous and outspoken, their relationships are as complex and volatile as the politically charged world around them. Selim, a Palestinian, and…

  • Bindi

    “Bindi” is a non-dialogue, narrative short film, which explores a mother’s choice to take her own life, while leaving her young daughter to deal with the aftermath alone.

  • Alone

    A raw, haunting glimpse of a crucial moment in the lives of three people. “Alone” is a poetically stylized portrait of abandonment and despair.

  • I have no memory of my direction

    “i have no memory of my direction” is a feature-length experimental narrative. The story unfolds through a Canadian-born Japanese woman’s voice-over as she dreams her way though Japan. Ostensibly searching for an emotional connection with her aging father, the woman contemplates her own inherited culture and familial touchstones. Her North American pop-culture sensibility fuses with a distorted Japanese perspective to create a surreal interpretation of a “Japan of the imagination.” This fictional landscape is peppered with invented Japanese myths, ruminations on memory loss, the temporal space of digital photography and the ghosts of inherited imagination. DVD version available for institutional…

  • L’éclat du mal / The Bleeding Heart of It

    The house that bursts; the scene of the crime; the nucleus. A universe collapses on itself: all hell breaks loose. “In my dream there’s a war going on. It’s Christmas time. I’m running and I’m carrying myself as a child. It’s dark in the tunnel and I’m heading towards the light, the daylight.” – Louise Bourque, from the film’s voice-over narration Selected Screenings & Awards: Editing Award, Cinematexas, Austin, TX, 2005; Director’s Citation, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Jersey City, NJ, 2006; Opening Night film, Media City Festival, Windsor, ON, 2006; Whitney Biennial, New York, NY, 2006; Sundance Film…

  • Tuesday Be My Friend

    Sweet SHIUAN, a non-Muslim Malaysian, secretly loves her tudungs (Muslim headscarves), but none of her friends and family know. She is looking for friends who understand and on this particular Tuesday, she finds them. ‘TUESDAY BE MY FRIEND’ tells the story of one Malaysian girl that decides to take her fate into her own hands just so she can be happy. Mandarin with English subtitles. “TUESDAY BE MY FRIEND” is set in modern-day Malaysia, a country with Islam as its official religion, and Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) as its national language. The tudung (hijab) is a Muslim headscarf normally worn…