Genres: documentary

  • Pura Sangre

    Torn from the pages of a South American travelogue, “Pura Sangre” explores society’s obsession with sociological and biological bloodlines. Spanish-language version also available.

  • In a Present Distance…

    “In a Present Distance…” explores the complex terrain of motherhood, through an experimental narrative about a woman who travels to Quebec City to do research for a film she is making. While on the train, fragments of her life emerge and speak subtly to the journey of life: of grieving and loss, of happiness and sadness, as well as the joyful and reverent gestures of living. At the heart of this film is her child, shown at various times and spaces in his development as he explores the world around him. It is through him and his growth and discovery…

  • Scheme

    “‘Scheme’ is composed of photographs, text and drawings from my son’s creative play and school work. Many of the images are photographs he shot with a child’s Crayola 110 camera, which I feel capture some of the essence of movement and the transcience of childhood. The video is framed by ideas of how we are socialized to make patterns and connections to the world through the use of language. It explores this patterning through the relationship between the photographic image and a dialogue between my son & I.” – Tracy German

  • Toraanisqatsi

    Leif Harmsen’s remake of Godrey Reggio’s classic independent film “Koyaanisqatsi” was shot on Super 8 film entirely on location in Toronto by invitation to the Splice This! 2005 Super 8 Film Festival. Bob Wiseman wrote and performed the evocative instrumental soundtrack. “Toraanisqatsi” is an environmental thriller set in the Toronto of the 21st century, a city taken over by cars, fast food, electronic billboards, jetliners, industry and pollution. It is seen through the terrified eyes of a living breathing human. All transportation for this film was done by bicycle or foot.

  • DAS OVO (Ovo – das Video) | THE OVO (Ovo – the Video)

    “It’s not about how a drag queen moves, it’s what she sets in motion.” – Ovo Maltine, 1966-2005 Christoph Josten was Ovo Maltine. She died on February 8, 2005 at Berlin’s Auguste Viktoria hospital, eleven week after suddenly being diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. She had lived with the HIV virus for 13 year. “Ovo (the egg)” – read one obituary – “lay down in Berlin’s nest of queens and brooded on a number of political projects: a hotline for gay victims of assault, Act Up, AIDS benefit events, the legalisation of marijuana, the recognition of prostitution as a profession, transgender…

  • Blue Box Blues (Staging a Photo Shoot)

    How long does the twinkling of an eye last? What all happens in a moment? Slap in a snap – a document of directing and a video on the half-life of still photos.

  • Hong Kong Showcase (a case study), The

    “The world is everything that is the showcase.” Living in a globalized world – a case study. (Loosely based on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus, sentence no. 1.)

  • Dreaming House, The

    The filmmaker, his father and his youngest child walk past the house in Chinatown where the filmmaker’s father was born, triggering a sublime moment.

  • Artist Spotlight Series: Philip Hoffman

    Available for purchase in the CFMDC Shop: https://www.cfmdc.org/shop. Described as Canada’s “pre-eminent diary filmmaker,” Philip Hoffman has been making work since the late 1970s. Expanding the boundaries of the personal documentary, his films explore themes of family, memory and loss while at the same time interrogating the film medium and the authenticity of the photographic image. “Philip Hoffman is a precious resource, one of the few contemporary filmmakers whose work provides a bridge to the classical themes of death, diaspora, memory, and, finally, transcendence.” – Martha Rosler. Study guide includes an essay by Michael Zryd, York University. 1) Somewhere Between…

  • Crystals

    A cinematic tribute to William Bentley, a Vermont dairy farmer who pioneered the “art” of snowflake photography for forty-six winters (1885-1931), proving that no two of his 5381 specimens were identical. This film contains about 1500 examples (fewer than the average snowball), showing the incredible variation of design in nature, while producing the effect of an “organic” hexagonal mandala in a state of continual metamorphosis.