Film Categories: Youth

  • Scissors

    An animated film using single-frame manipulation techniques to describe the imaginary life cycle of a pair of scissors, in a vaguely submarine backdrop of strange plants and ball-like creatures bounding around the landscape. Scissors like to eat these balls, but occasionally they form an aggregate monster that likes to eat scissors.

  • Short Story, A

    A humorous look at a young girl’s reaction when she discovers that her younger sister is suddenly taller than she is. Faced with the reality that she will be short for the rest of her life, she tries to adapt as best as she can. Being a short person living in a world geared to tall people is not easy. Eventually, she joins a group of short people whose aim is to unobtrusively scale the world down to their size and slowly make their presence felt. Note: Available in French language.

  • Sink or Swim

    Through a series of twenty-six short stories, a young girl recounts the events that shaped her childhood and formed her adult perceptions of fatherhood, family, work and play. The stories are told in a simple, direct manner, but are full of ambiguity, confused loyalties, and an apprehension of danger and loss. “I can think of no more corrosively moving refutation of the law of the father than Su Friedrich’s extraordinarily precise ‘Sink or Swim.’ Summoning her nerve, Friedrich rather fearlessly refines her previous researches into the unexplored area of memory, dream and desire.” – Ernest Larson Selected screenings: New York…

  • Smell of Burning Ants, The

    “The Smell of Burning Ants” is a haunting documentary on the pains of growing up male. It explores the inner and outer cruelties that boys perpetrate and endure. Through formative events of a boy’s life, we come to understand the ways in which men can become emotionally disconnected and alienated from their feminine side. The common dismissal that “boys will be boys” evolves into the chilling realization that boys frequently become angry, destructive, and emotionally disabled men. “The Smell of Burning Ants” illustrates how boys are socialized by fear, power and shame. The burning of ants is one of the…

  • Somebody’s Kids

    “Somebody’s Kids” is a social documentary that shows three contrasting adolescents, each with a learning disability, their feelings toward the disability and their perceptions of their behaviour. It makes reference to three essential criteria which help to determine the success or failure of the child: the importance of recognizing the disability in the young child; appreciating the fact that each child learns individually; and the significance of family supports. “Somebody’s Kids” is not a technical diagnostic tool. Its aim is to stimulate discussion and to help parents, teachers, and adolescents understand how adolescents with learning disabilities feel.

  • Sons and Daughters

    Filmed in seven countries, “Sons and Daughters” is a sensitive exploration of childhood in the fullness of its imagination, fierceness and wonder. This unconventional documentary consists of a series of precise observations in Canada, Mexico, England, France, Spain, Cyprus, and Isreal. With fluid slow motion cinematography and an evocative soundtrack, the film creates a lyrical and emotional impression of the joys and frustrations of childhood. An impromptu soccer game on a narrow Mexican street, Cypriot children reacting excitedly during a game of tag, and a native girl dancing wearily at a Canadian festival: these are just a few of the…

  • Starcycle

    A playful, improvisational line animation, “Starcycle” follows the birth, death, and rebirth of a star which can transform itself into everything from a television set to fireworks. The soundtrack, composed of children’s reactions to the visuals, creates a participatory atmosphere for the audience.

  • Big Deal, So What

    Set in the polyester 70s, “Big Deal, So What” is a deceptively simple look at the social dislocation of Rachel – a skeptical teen whose discontent sets the story in motion. Rachel leaves home and endures a number of subtle miscues, mild mishaps, and astrological misfortunes. Much to her chagrin, it is an unexpected gesture of goodwill from mother to daughter that brings her to the threshold of post-suburban independence. This is a playfully poignant film about what life is not supposed to be like.

  • Unicorn

    An unexpected encounter between a small boy and a toy unicorn is intended to encourage children’s imagination through the suggestion of magic. This visual poem includes an elementary school study pamphlet which explores the art of story-telling, introduction of myth and an awareness of changing cityscapes. French and English study guide availabe.

  • Waterworx (A Clear Day and No Memories)

    The waterworks in the Beaches area of Toronto is the source of an eidetic-like image from early childhood. It was always an enigma to me, and after returning years later to shoot this film, I was still not satisfied it was merely a filtration plant. Its architecture functioned more significantly as some kind of temporal metaphor. Wallace Stevens’ ironic and equally enigmatic poem, “A Clear Day And No Memories,” was sought out to address this phenomenon, and to appear as interruptive graphic for the same reason the editing is interruptive – that is, to both work with the alluring nature…