Tkaronto

This very short film from the Canada Vignettes series documents the annual pilgrimage that members of Saskatchewan’s Métis Catholic community make to St. Laurent, a village in the Duck Lake area that became the Métis nation’s spiritual centre at the time of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion.

By retracing the mixed heritage of First Nations peoples and Quebecers, painting a modern portrait, and sketching a human geography, this film helps us (re)discover the beauty and strength of our common territory: the Americas.

A few years ago the indigenous musician Delfín Quishpe uploaded a video clip on YouTube of his song Torres Gemelas without imagining the impact it would have. For some, the video was strange and in bad taste, however his charisma and his lyrics made him a celebrity. After ten years, Delfín still has not overcome the hangover of fame and now he struggles not to turn off the magic of his music, in a world of ephemeral stars in the digital age.

Amazônia Indomável

Two young men spend an ordinary weekend together as Jehovah's Witnesses in the historic industry town of Trail, British Columbia. They eat junk food, play video games, watch movies, drink energy drinks, go out in the Ministry, then go their separate ways towards the silence of living. In that silence they contend with the hidden realities of their lives and feelings.

In the summer of 2000, federal fishery officers appeared to wage war on the Mi'gmaq fishermen of Burnt Church, New Brunswick. Why would officials of the Canadian government attack citizens for exercising rights that had been affirmed by the highest court in the land? Alanis Obomsawin casts her nets into history to provide a context for the events on Miramichi Bay.

When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.

Documents the conflicts and tensions that arise between highland migrants and Mosetenes, members of an indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon. It focuses particularly on a system of debt peonage known locally as ‘habilito’. This system is used throughout the Bolivian lowlands, and much of the rest of the Amazon basin, to secure labor in remote areas.

Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.

This documentary short is a cinematic recording of Tales from a Prairie Drifter, a stage comedy about the North-West Resistance during the opening of the Canadian West. Highlighting the roles of Louis Riel, the Resistance leader, prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald and General Middleton, who was sent to quell the uprising, the play defines the First nations and Métis cause more succinctly than many history books. Here, the play is performed by the Regina Globe Theatre before and Indigineous audience of First Nations and Métis, whose reactions are recorded.

Inter-tribal rivalry leads to a competition to erect a huge statue (moai) in record time before Make can take part in the race to retrieve the egg of a Sooty Tern. The reward for winning this race is to rule the island for one year.

An oil company expedition disturbs the peace of a giant ape and brings him back to New York to exploit him.

When Michael Wiseman finds himself thrown out of his wealthy Toronto family home for abusing drugs, he proceeds to fall into a lonely, drug-laden personal nightmare accompanied by a sleazy drug dealer and a hooker from Parry Sound.

This Traveltalk series short visit to the province of Ontario begins in Ottawa, Canada's capital, then proceeds to Algonquin Park, Toronto, and Niagara Falls.

Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.

A man spreads rumours about a local elder. To be forgiven, he will be put to the test. Ka tatishtipatakanit (Ethereal) is a poetic lesson about respect.

In this drama that was a UCLA student thesis expanded to feature length, two African-Americans come from Tennessee to Los Angeles. The man will not marry the woman as he has just been released from prison and cannot commit himself. He ends up working in a factory, while she gets a job as a maid. The two split up after he gets involved in a strike. She goes to school but ends up laid off from a good paying job. Later the two meet again. Both are surprised by the great changes in their lives since they have been apart.

Louise is a professional photographer and very successful in her job. But her father who had disappeared for many years resurfaced. He is very sick and would like to see his three daughters again. At the request of her father, Louise hesitates and then slips away. The reappearance of his father poses problems even in her life as a couple.

Even though the protagonist of the Canadian Femme De L'Hotel is a female filmmaker, one would think twice before suggesting that this effort by Swiss-born director Lea Pool is autobiographical. Paule Baillargeon portrays a well-known director who returns to her home town of Montreal to film a high-budget musical drama. At her hotel, Paule has a brief but unsettling encounter with a suicidal elderly woman (Louise Marleau). This element of the plot is briefly forgotten as we get to know the actors in Paule's current project. Then she meets the old lady again, and with mounting incredulity Paule discovers that the actual events in the woman's life mirror the fictional events in the director's film.

A documentary with a mystical-criminal air about a man who studies the story of a photographer from the Estonian diaspora in Canada who drowned 24 years ago. A branching, strange network of predestination is brutally turning against the researcher. The film is composed of material left behind by him.