Beluga Days

From the lower St. Lawrence, a picture of whale hunting that looks more like a round-up, with a corral, whale-boys and all. In 1534, when he stopped at the island he named l'Île-aux-Coudres, Jacques Cartier saw how the Indians captured the little white beluga whales by setting a fence of saplings into off-shore mud. In the film, the islanders show that the old method still works, thanks to the trusting 'sea-pigs,' the same old tide, and a little magic.

Chicano Moratorium: A Question of Freedom

On August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, a peaceful march of over 20,000 Chicanas/os, united in protest against the Vietnam War as part of the National Chicano Moratorium movement, was violently interrupted by an extreme, unjustifiable response by law enforcement. The tragic events of that day left four dead. Chicano Moratorium: A Question of Freedom is a harrowing, eyewitness documentary of the events of August 29, 1970 and their immediate aftermath, including the murder of Chicano journalist, Ruben Salazar. In contrast to biased TV news reports of the period, this student-made short offers an impassioned, unvarnished community account of the unrest and violence unleashed by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in response to the otherwise peaceful march in protest of disproportionate Chicano casualties in the Vietnam War.

Poland: A Nation under Stress

In the run-up to parliamentary elections in mid-October, Polish filmmaker Marcin Wierzchowski travelled across his country to gauge the atmosphere in a society that is more divided than ever.

Nanook of the North

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

Daughter of the Crater

A woman with a deep love of the land, Yolande Simard Perrault sees her life as having been shaped by a planetary upheaval in Charlevoix, Quebec, millions of years ago. As enduring as the Canadian Shield, she’s a woman of strength and spirit, a child of the crater left by the meteor’s impact. This documentary portrays a determined woman who’s the reflection of a land created on an immense scale. She was the creative and life partner of filmmaker Pierre Perrault, who gave up everything to be by her side. The film charts the influence of her unquenchable dreams and her contribution to the building of a people’s collective memory. In a stream of images and words, Simard Perrault recounts the splendours of the landscape and the people who shaped it. Generous and boundless, she embarks on a quest for identity that nurtures and perpetuates the oeuvre of the man who breathed new life into Quebec cinema.

Bixas Pretas: Entre o Amor e Afetos

The documentary mixes reenactments with true accounts from four characters/actors who tell the stories of six black gay men, their experiences and their romantic relationships crossed by racism and homophobia.

The Great Invasion

The film looks at the impact of over-development in historic towns in Quebec’s picturesque Laurentian mountains. As big box stores and large retailers drive local merchants out of business, and foreign developers buy up huge tracts of land for resorts, local residents’ property taxes are skyrocketing. While the locals organize against expropriation by taxation, an internationally-known artist, René Derouin, adds his creative energy to protect the heritage of “Les pays d’en haut” from The Great Invasion.

La détresse au bout du rang

L'école de demain

Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop and Power

Pop star Leigh-Anne Pinnock confronts her experience as the only black member of Little Mix, and as a black woman in the music industry. She embarks on her own very personal journey to understand how she can use her platform and privilege to combat the profound racism she sees in society around her.

Montreal and India

The Taj Mahal and shots of Jalandhar nestle between footage from Canada and Africa.

Une identité dans la diversité

The Venerable W.

A view of the religious tensions between Muslims and Buddhist through the portrait of the Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, leader of anti-Muslim movement in Myanmar.

Me Alone in the Classroom

Doing really well on your school assessment tests, but still having the school recommend that you go to preparatory vocational school. Going to a club with friends and having the bouncer keep you out. Having to endure jokes from classmates. These are examples of the sort of casual racism that the children of director Karin Junger and their friends have to face. In Ik alleen in de klas, director Karin Junger, white mother of three darker-skinned children, stands with her family to confront the racism they experience in their daily lives. Twelve adolescents meet at a mansion in France. The group consists of Junger’s children and their friends. All of them come from ethnic minority backgrounds and share a feeling of being excluded from Dutch society. Re-enactment is used to explore painful situations again. In this simple but effective documentary, we can see the impact of subtle and less subtle forms of racism on the lives of young Dutch people.

A Losing Game

A Losing Game follows three people who ran for office in the 2022 Quebec provincial election, casting a critical eye on its electoral system and the many ways in which it is dysfunctional.

Tshiuetin

Take a breathtaking train a ride through Nothern Quebec and Labrador on Canada’s first First Nations-owned railway. Come for the celebration of the power of independence, the crucial importance of aboriginal owned businesses and stay for the beauty of the northern landscape.