Solemates

In this animated short, a pregnant woman imagines the worst domestic disasters befalling her unborn child.

In this whimsical French comedy, Cookie (aka Venus de Palma) is a tough, sweet little rich girl, and is rather smart, too. She's smart enough and charming enough to outwit her kidnappers by setting one against the other until they have all killed each other or died trying to prove thier worth to her.

Told with heart, humor, and a little bit of magic, Dragonfly is a female led feature film about homecoming and healing for a Midwestern family divided by divorce and illness. Struggling artist Anna Larsen’s mother has never understood her. When her mom is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, Anna returns home to help but brings years of family baggage with her. As she unpacks her past, Anna rediscovers a mysterious mailbox from her childhood and embarks on a search to solve its mystery. What she learns along the way may just be the key to rekindling her own magic.

This documentary follows two Mohawk girls on their journey to become Mohawk women. Friends since childhood, Kaienkwinehtha and Kasennakohe are members of the traditional community of Akwesasne on the U.S./Canada border. Together, they undertake a four-year rite of passage for adolescents, called Oheró:kon, or "under the husk." The ceremony had been nearly extinct, a casualty of colonialism and intergenerational trauma; revived in the past decade by two traditional leaders, it has since flourished. Filmmaker Katsitsionni Fox has served as a mentor, or "auntie," to many youth going through the passage rites.

When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

The second "visual album" (a collection of short films) by Beyoncé, this time around she takes a piercing look at racial issues and feminist concepts through a sexualized, satirical, and solemn tone.

This feature documentary is an exploration of the concept of dirt and impurity. From the slums of Kolkata to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to a barbeque joint in Central Texas, Dirt digs deep into the webs of meaning and feeling attached to that deceptively simple 4-letter word. An odyssey into all things unclean, the film features animation to make Hieronymus Bosch blush and music from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Cavaliers Seuls

This short documentary by Alanis Obomsawin takes us to Poundmaker's Lodge, a treatment centre in St. Albert, Alberta, that welcomes Native people troubled by addiction to drugs and alcohol. Named after a 19th-century Native leader, the centre offers a space where Natives can come together for mutual support, partake in healing rituals like the sweat lodge, and rediscover their traditions. The film shows the despair of a people dispossessed of land, culture, language and dignity, and their strength and courage in overcoming substance abuse.

Jon Stewart performs a solo standup routine, telecast live from Miami, Florida.

A woman's tranquil day at the beach turns tumultuous when she is forced to confront a sudden, new reality concerning her mother.

At a party with diverse guests are dealing with the events os August 23rd, 1944. Guests are serving as metaphors for different parts of society.

Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.

Fred Hollows was a controversial, larger-than-life character who was abrasive, determined, flamboyant, unconventional and full of contradictions. Some loved him, some hated him. The style of this film, like the man, is direct, forthright, warts and all. Rather than conquer and convert, his philosophy was to train indigenous people to help themselves and this film documents his work in Eritrea, Nepal and here in Australia with the Aborigines. Included is film shot during recent expeditions, archival material and interviews and glimpses of him at home and on the road. "For all the world to see" is bold, wry, intimate and ultimately a very moving tribute to an extraordinary life.

An unusual work, MEMORIES AND DREAMS combines documentary and animation styles in a powerful evocation of time and place. The film is the story of one woman's experience from childhood to the early years of adulthood, set against the tide of European history, which eventually carries her from her homeland to Australia. It weaves a poetic narrative from emotions, memories and inner imaginings and was developed from an original idea by producer, Julie Stone and director, Lynn-Maree Milburn. Director of photography, Andrew De Groot, assisted in all areas of post production.

Noah, an insecure middle schooler, struggles to make sense of a momentary blackout she suffers from. Her mother who has already made her own assumption of the incident, seeks the help of Noah's sister.

A wealthy student with too much fashion sense, her equally rich friends, and her rival/superior from the school paper work together to solve the case when their teacher goes missing.

A widower and her daughter witness the retirement of a colleague of his and the closing of her department at her university.

The friendship between two children is threatened by their parents’ differences. Malú is from a family that was upper-class before the Revolution and remains well-to-do through remittances from relatives overseas, and her single mother (Larisa Vega Alamar) does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother (Luisa María Jiménez Rodríguez),

Smart. Outspoken. Opinionated. Three-time Emmy Award winner Wanda Sykes is back! Reigning over everything from television sitcoms to feature films, this comedienne extraordinaire has returned in her second solo HBO comedy special, I’MA BE ME. Live from Washington, D.C. and edgier than ever, Wanda holds nothing back as she riffs on the perks of having a Black president, coming out, getting married, motherhood, aging, and twenty-first century pirates. With her trademark wit, Wanda shocks and astonishes at every turn in this feature-length special.