Mother Eve

A family’s difficult but endearing journey that re-defines motherhood: is it through nature or nurture? Yasmine is a young woman forced to raise her 3 younger siblings after being struck with life’s difficult circumstances. Trying to provide for their stability, she begins working random part time jobs to make quick and easy money and is constantly trying to balance between her personal life and work life. This family’s journey is difficult, but it is surely heartwarming. Throughout the film, we discover why Yasmine has to be responsible for her siblings despite her age.

On Call

At the consulting service for immigrants at the Avicenne Hospital in suburban Paris, we observe the sorrow and powerlessness of the immigrants who come here.

Aqueducts

Aqueducts transport water. Images transmit the memory. Images of aqueducts are useless.

My Father

This short documentary is a tribute to the unknown father. Emerging filmmaker Danic Champoux poses the question "How many men still have to uproot themselves and leave their families to get work?" as he sets out to search for his own father. He wonders about these men who are labourers, itinerants, and mostly nameless, but who are all exemplary providers. But at what cost? This film was produced as part of the Libres Courts collection of first-time documentary shorts.

Children of Soldiers

In this documentary shot at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa during a troop deployment to Afghanistan, children and teens talk about the particular circumstances of having soldiers as parents. Directed by Claire Corriveau, Children of Soldiers lifts the veil on a reality shared by thousands of young Canadians, and on the difficulty of finding a balance between loyalty to the troops and staying true to themselves.

The Road of Health

The lecturer shows a microcinematographic sequence of spirochaetes and drawings of the gonoccus (the bacteria responsible for syphilis and gonorrhea). He then turns to an easel and begins to draw 'the road of health'; the cartoon takes this up in magic drawing, in a style that is highly reminiscent of the 'Giro the Germ' series made for the Health and Cleanliness Council a few years before.

Under Construction

Markku built a house for his family with his own bare hands like a strong man is supposed to do. He worked hard from dawn to dusk, so that his seven children would have a roof above their heads. Unfortunately, the task ended up being too hard and Markku burnt out. One day, he left his family and disappeared abroad. The filmmaker travels to his childhood home to face his father, who he never got to know properly. Together they build a steel gate in front of the unfinished house, and try to create a relationship between each other.

Cassis

"I was visiting Jerome Hill. Jerome loved France, especially Provence. He spent all his summers in Cassis. My window overlooked the sea. I sat in my little room, reading or writing, and looked at the sea. I decided to place my Bolex exactly at the angle of light as what Signac saw from his studio which was just behind where I was staying, and film the view from morning till after sunset, frame by frame. One day of the Cassis port filmed in one shot." -JM

Dawn of the Nazis

How Germany was when its people entered the nightmare of World War II? Despair and fear lead a hungry population to follow the chilling call of just one man to world domination. A real-life horror story, an ominous tale of violence and deception, which takes place from 1919 to 1934. (Entirely made up of restored, colorized archival footage.)

Pages of Hope

Homeless man Robert (Bobby) Webb discovers the art of filmmaking, turning pages of his life into a heartfelt reel. Through his journey he finds hope and new meanings in unexpected aspects of his life as he relives them.

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Karma Shadub

A young director tries to understand his estranged relationship with his father

PHOENIX

Untitled Al Gore Documentary

An intimate look at Al Gore and his family during the former Vice President's 2000 campaign

Pétain et les francs-maçons

Mirror

Bodybuilding is the pure narcissism. While the runner struggles against time and the weightlifter struggles with the weights, the bodybuilder only has his mirror. Exercise programs, diets and hours and hours in a training room are only the outside of an extreme discipline and eternal struggle for the ideal body. An ideal body that, to most people, seems absurd, but nonetheless has a fascinating power. Not least because most people in the western world even know about the hunt for the perfect body.