An intimate portrait of teenagers trying to understand their world and their possibilities. The film weaves together video shot by teens and by the filmmaker, as they work together to make a film and create expressive outlets for youth in the community. They organize dances and community events and paint a mural. At the same time, with humor and pathos, these young people raise issues around violence, feeling misunderstood by adults and lacking respect in their community. Set in the small town of Sitka, Alaska, home to a large Alaska Native population, the video chronicles their creativity, concerns and dreams.
Through the figure of Lakota activist and community organizer Madonna Thunder Hawk, this inspiring film traces the untold story of countless Native American women struggling for their people's civil rights. Spanning several decades, Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle's documentary charts Thunder Hawk's lifelong commitment, from her early involvement in the American Indian Movement (AIM), to her pivotal role in the founding of Women of All Red Nations, to her heartening presence at Standing Rock alongside thousands protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. She passed her dedication and hunger for change to her daughter Marcy, even if that often meant feeling like comrades-in-arms more than mother and child. Through rare archival material—including amazing footage of AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee—and an Indigenous style of circular storytelling, Warrior Women rekindles the memories and legacy of the Red Power movement's matriarchs.
Sid Perou follows the attempt of climbing Europe's highest and most extreme rock face, the Troll Wall in Norway, using free climbing methods. The documentary features Hans Christian Dossieth, Colin Brooks, Steve Bancroft, Chris Gibb and Sid Perou.
Two young brothers from the Lil'wat Nation set out to ski the sacred mountain they were raised beneath, pushing both themselves and their culture to evolve. To most skiers in British Columbia, Ts’zil (Mount Currie) is a true gem. The gorgeous mountain looms high above Pemberton and is home to many stories of skiers and snowboarders pushing themselves on the classic lines of its Northwest Face. But while Ts’zil is the backdrop to life in the valley, it’s easy to forget that the history of Ts’zil goes much deeper than what's been skied or snowboarded.
Resident Orca tells the unfolding story of a captive whale’s fight for survival and freedom. After decades of failed attempts to bring her home, an unlikely partnership between Indigenous matriarchs, a billionaire philanthropist, killer whale experts, and the aquarium’s new owner take on the impossible task of freeing Lolita, captured 53 years ago as a baby, only to spend the rest of her life performing in the smallest killer whale tank in North America. When Lolita falls ill under troubling circumstances, her advocates are faced with a painful question: is it too late to save her?
Unique shapes, no two the same, formed by the action of water and frost. The water that once ran from the summits in torrents and waterfalls is immobilized for a few weeks. The thing is to be there, in time, just at the moment when they become solid, just before they return to water. A question of balance. Around seven top-level climbers who represent all the richness of the activity, these images will highlight different techniques and different approaches. Although the athletic performance is impressive, it is there only to emphasize the dazzling shapes, the warmth of friendships, the stories of teamwork.
This DVD takes you on a magnificent journey through Norway’s stunning natural scenery – an event that will remain with you forever!
Shot mainly using spy cameras, this film gets closer than ever before to the world's greatest land predator. As the film captures its intimate portrait of polar bears' lives, it reveals how their intelligence and curiosity help them cope in a world of shrinking ice.
Ice climbing in the Arctic Region of Norway.
In this follow-up to his 2003 film, Totem: the Return of the G'psgolox Pole, filmmaker Gil Cardinal documents the events of the final journey of the G'psgolox Pole as it returns home to Kitamaat and the Haisla people, from where it went missing in 1929.
Espejo de Agua is a non-fiction short film set in Venezuela 's Sinamaica Lagoon, Zulia, where the Añú people are silently displaced due to climate change. Community leader Laura and the inhabitants of the lagoon, inside and outside their homeland, cling to the hope that it is not too late for changes and preserve their ancestral culture.
In the Norwegian lands south of Trondheim, not far from the Swedish border, temperatures can drop to -50°C in winter. Yet this harsh climate lends the landscape a special beauty. Ella Kjosnes, 16, is a sled dog leader. She prepares her six huskies for the 200-kilometer Femund race. While the lakes and rivers freeze over, Jan Moen goes ice fishing in the mysterious Hessdalen valley. If he doesn't catch anything, he may be able to observe the strange and partly unexplained light phenomena that regularly appear in the valley's skies. Not far away, Tone and Rolf Eriksen run a hotel on a lake that is only accessible by plane in winter.
With Olin's 85-year-old father as guide, we experience Norway's most adventurous valley, Oldedalen in Nordfjord. He grew up here, and here generations before him have lived in balance with nature.
A 4 year-old boy stands in awe of a 1,000 year-old Viking boat in a small Norwegian museum and finds within its silent grace an impressionistic sweep of picture and music revealing the rich spirit of Norway and its people.
The people of Unamenshipu (La Romaine), an Innu community in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, are seen but not heard in this richly detailed documentary about the rituals surrounding an Innu caribou hunt. Released in 1960, it’s one of 13 titles in Au Pays de Neufve-France, a series of poetic documentary shorts about life along the St. Lawrence River. Off-camera narration, written by Pierre Perrault, frames the Innu participants through an ethnographic lens. Co-directed by René Bonnière and Perrault, a founding figure of Quebec’s direct cinema movement.
Delve into the world of modern whaling in Norwegian waters. Discover the shocking truth about the demand for whale meat, the associated health risks, and its unexpected use in pet food. Experience thrilling hunts firsthand as the crew confronts Norway's largest whaling operators.
When Masset, a Haida village in Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), held a potlatch, it seemed as if the past grandeur of the people had returned. This is a colourful recreation of Indigenous life that faded more than two generations ago when the great totems were toppled by the missionaries and the costly potlatch was forbidden by law. The film shows how one village lived again the old glory, with singing, dancing, feasting, and the raising of a towering totem as a lasting reminder of what once was.
Waking up in a nightmare before the sunrise of December 30, 2020, the indigenous community of the Tumandok was suddenly surrounded by fear. Panambi features the stories of bright memories of the past and the despair of having now as a mere memory of the future without a trace of justice; how they lived and what they lived for. A decades-long struggle is shot, one in the lens of a mother paralyzed by fear; another from a mother raged and moved by fear—both looking forward to a better tomorrow.
A short documentary that celebrates Dene cultural reclamation and revitalization, in which a father passes on traditional knowledge to his child through the teachings of a caribou drum.
In this short documentary, Canadian poet Andrew Suknaski introduces us to Wood Mountain, the south central Saskatchewan village he calls home. In between musings on his poetry, which is tinged with nostalgia and the vast loneliness of the plains, the poet discusses the area’s multicultural background and Native heritage, as well as the customs and stories of these various ethnic groups.