Film Categories: Race + Ethnicity

  • Displaced View, The

    “The Displaced View” traces a personal search for identity and pride, within the unique and suppressed history of the Japanese in Canada. Through an examination of the emotional and cultural links between the women of one family, the processes of the construction of memory and the re-construction of history are revealed. Utilizing an innovative combination of experimental, dramatic and documentary forms, the film emerges as a deeply moving and compassionate love letter. Just as the official history of the Japanese Canadians has been thrown into question, so does the film’s fictionalized narrative question doumentary as truth.

  • My Own Private Lower Post

    “My Own Private Lower Post” is the story of Duane Gastant’ Aucoin, a two-spirited Tlingit, as he seeks to understand how his mother’s trials at Lower Post Resident School have influenced his life. As she shares her story, he comes to understand how he too is a survivor. Haa Koosteeyi (Our Tlingit Way) is where mother and son find the strength to overcome and truly survive. “My Own Private Lower Post” won an Honourary Mention (runner-up) for best BC Short at the 2009 Vancouver Queer Film Festival. This groundbreaking video has been called “enjoyable, emotional and historic” (Whitehorse Star review).…

  • Conchitas

    Slippery, colourful gummy bears and hundreds of little conches are used to construct a barrier against the stillness of a summer day. Two landscapes are juxtaposed, one of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron and the other of Veracruz Beach in Panama City. Two voices narrate an intimate conversation about the fear of dangers hidden deep in salty waters. Spanish with English subtitles.

  • In the New World…

    Employing a rotoscope, IN THE NEW WORLD transcribes the film IN THE LAND OF WAR CANOES (1914) into a short “undated” version of a West Coast classic. 2nd Place, Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria Media Arts Award Selected Screenings: Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2010; Antimatter Underground Film Festival (Victoria, BC), 2009

  • Off World

    Two million tonnes of waste inhabit the landfill known as Smokey Mountain in Manila, Philippines. A squatter community of more than 30,000 people live in the slums around the landfill, and make their living by picking through the decomposing mountain of trash, looking for rare valuables. This is the setting for director Mateo Guez’s raw, ethereal first feature film. “Off World” follows a young Toronto man, Lucky, as he returns to Smokey Mountain for the first time since his adoption by Canadian parents when he was just a year old. Aided by NGO worker, Julia, Lucky tracks down his surviving…

  • Basin

    The forest and river awaken to a new day; the hum of the highway is constant. This is a boom town. An oil town. But what of it? An environmental scourge, or an economic miracle? … Just look. And listen. Selected Screenings: Hot Docs 2010 (Toronto, ON); Inside Out LGBT Festival, 2010 (Toronto, ON); Out on Screen, 2010 (Vancouver, BC)

  • Batty Boys Revenge, The

    Recording artist Troy Jackson calls for sassy, irreverent voices to join a chorus of queers, who demand justice and equality for all.

  • What’s the Ukrainian Word for Sex? A Sexual Journey Through Eastern Europe

    “What’s the Ukrainian Word for Sex? A Sexual Journey Through Eastern Europe”, the first-ever Canadian film about East European queer identity, began with the director’s realization that there’s no language for sex in her culture. A humorous montage begins the video, “What’s the Ukrainian word for sex?” We follow the director to Ukraine and see extreme contrasts between family, queer life, and the postcolonial culture of Ukraine. Interviews shot in Vancouver, Toronto and Kyiv tell the story of sexual and cultural changes in the east, and update us on the current troubled situation of queer rights in Eastern Europe. Dramatic…

  • Jay Dreams

    “Jay Dreams” uses Jai Brook’s ironic poetry to bring humanity and humor to sometimes awkward moments in the on-going struggle for LGBT people to self-define, find safe partnerships, and gain acceptance. Catherine Pancake uses improvised documentary footage of Jai Brooks and his partner, Monique Meadows, to present the realities of daily life. Special vignettes shot in colour 16mm highlight more idealized (fantasized?) images. The interplay between fantasy and reality provides a humorous and entertaining backdrop to find human commonalities across race, gender, and sexual orientation.

  • Even Flowers Wake Up in the Morning

    “A powerful visual tribute to a lost loved one. Superimposing hand-processed film footage with home movie imagery, director Tara Khalili conveys an eloquent personal message of mourning. Funerary footage mixes with that of a quiet home, resulting in sensitive reflections on loss and remembrance.” – Alex Rogalski, Hot Docs Festival 2010 “Even Flowers Wake Up in the Morning” is a filmic expression of my feelings about the absence and death of my Iranian grandfather. Memories of him flicker in my head as if I were watching a projector shining old film clips in a dark theater. In this film, I…