Film Categories: Race + Ethnicity

  • Regret

    When presented with the opportunity to tell the girl of his dreams that he loves her, a young man flashes through a visual expansion of that single moment, during which he relives associative memories of their relationship.

  • Moments in Motion (Mouvement Perpetuel)

    Seven short profiles of Canadian choreographers, each powerful voices from the new generation: Natasha Bakht from Ottawa; Byron Chief-Moon from Lethbridge; Day Helesic from Vancouver; Hinda Essadiqi and Audrey Lehouillier, both from Montreal; Malgorzata Nowacka from Toronto; and Sarah Stoker from St. John’s. From diverse cultures and backgrounds, these artists are all cultivating new ground, questioning the established codes and redefining the language of choreography. None shy from taking risks. Zeroing in on the creative process, the film presents their distinct worlds through cinéma-vérité and dance-for-camera sequences. By infiltrating their communities, studios and homes, the camera seizes the essence of…

  • Tell Us The Truth Josephine – A Bitter Immigrant Story

    “Tell Us the Truth Josephine” is a 15-minute experimental drama about a Maltese woman’s search for “home.” Josephine struts across Canada on stilts. And for Josephine to find home she must accept the Truth. And once she does she can come off her stilts and land. Her journey is haunted by fragmented voices and images of her bloodline – bitter immigrant stories.

  • Nocturne for the Fireflies

    A group of little girls parade through a forest at night, each carrying a brown paper bag that glows with firefly-like flickering light. “Nocturne for the Fireflies” is a cinematic interpretation of a dream that explores the interconnected relationships among young girls. Evoking the storytelling style of folktales or children’s lullabies, the film depicts a midnight procession of young girls as a magical and transformative collective.

  • Shelley

    “Shelley” draws on the work of Shelley Niro to meditate on the relationships between nature, Western ideals, cultural production, and Native life in Canada. Commissioned for CFMDC ReGeneration.

  • Secret Weapons

    “Secret Weapons” is an experimental animated filmic essay that tries to work through the emotional and political confusion that has shaped the way I, and many other young Queer Aboriginal artists, relate to the world. After looking at the films of Mike Hoolboom, my thoughts began to centre on the experiences of growing up under the fear of AIDS in the 1990s, and of the cultural loss and grief that has cycled through the Native community since colonization began. I divided the image into four channels to reference Hoolboom’s film “Frank’s Cock,” while also reinterpreting the framework of the four…

  • Procession

    “Procession” is a portrait of the modern Colombian city of Medellín filmed during the city’s Feria de las Flores, or Flower Fair, a famous annual celebration. Held during the first two weeks of August, this period of festivity was established in the late 1950s to celebrate the importance of flower growers in the regions near Medellín. It has since grown to include a range of festivities and to celebrate many aspects of this city and its surroundings. “Procession” proceeds through the city with a near-continuous camera motion from left to right.

  • Parícutin

    In February of 1943, a fissure appeared in the cornfield of Dionisio Pulido, a farmer in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Ash and incandescent rocks emerging from this fissure preceded lava flows, violent explosions, and the birth of Mexico’s youngest volcano. Despite the prayers of the locals, the lava flows displaced the populations of two nearby villages and part of that of another. The final explosion of the Parícutin volcano was in January of 1952, nine years after its birth. By March of that year, it merely fumed, standing 424.6 metres tall-the first volcano ever to have been observed through…

  • Kuboå

    The life and times of an ordinary Norwegian ghost.

  • But Some Are Brave

    “But Some Are Brave” is an innovative, multi-layered animated film project. This short poetic chronicle uses an oil paint-on-glass animation technique. It introduces iconic characters and historic events in a flurry of emotional and psychological rhythms. Using the metaphor and symbolic structural device of weaving, “But Some Are Brave” takes us through this visual poem like a spindle flying through layers of thread – telling us something of the cultural and political histories of communities under attack. Awards: Audience Award for Best Film, TAIS Animation Showcase, Toronto, 2009; Prix du publique for Best Animated Film, Cineffable Festival, Paris, 2009