Online cinema
Doigts de fée
Siham Kortas
Fairy Fingers is a documentary that tells the story of my son, who, despite his difference was able to grow up, take on challenges and realize his potential. It’s a story about how I, as a parent, went from a feeling of helplessness to one of pride and fascination.
Pour une histoire des Noirs au canada
Marilyn Cooke
Eva Kabuya
Pour une histoire des Noirs au Canada (For a History of Black Canadians) is a vibrant and exciting animated series that tells the extraordinary stories of Black people who have shaped Canadian history. Over the course of its 20 episodes, young viewers are immersed in unique stories that span different eras and fields, from politics to sports to the arts. In this series, we patrol the streets of Ontario with Peter Butler III, the province’s first Black police officer, and lace up our skates with Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first Black player. We follow Yvette Bony, the first doctor to perform a bone marrow transplant on a child in Quebec, and we take the plunge from the highest peaks with Jennifer Abel, the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal in diving. Vibrant, accessible, and moving, Pour une histoire des Noirs au Canada explores, with great sensitivity, themes such as racism and slavery. We celebrate the achievements and legacy of these figures who, with great determination and courage in the face of adversity, have written an important part of…
Uniques ensemble
Joannie Lafrenière
To mark Autism Awareness Month (April), Mélissa Lefebvre, Patsy Van Roost, and the bright students of the CASA (Adapted Classrooms for the Autism Spectrum) groups at the PGLO – Paul-Gérin-Lajoie-d’Outremont school decided to create the Uniques ensemble (Unique Together) project with joy and commitment by designing and making a quilt representing their uniqueness and the dreams they carry in their beautiful hearts. This joint creation is therefore a celebration of their singularity and powerful beauty.
L’arrache-coeur
Yvonne Defour
L’arrache-coeur (The Heartbreaker) is a short film I made for a painter friend, Nathalie Maranda. Her work includes 340 paintings on the theme of female genital mutilation. I chose to make this film because the subject touches on two of my concerns: the defense of human rights and artistic expression.
Uapishka
Marie-France L’Ecuyer
North of the 51st parallel, where the dense boreal forest opens onto an arctic islet, the snow-capped peaks of the Uapishka Mountains watch over the Nitassinan of Pessamit. In the heart of winter, a group of Innu and non-Innu adventurers attempt to cross this vast mountain range on snowshoes, completely autonomously. Confronted with the immensity of the territory, the rigors of the northern climate, and the impetuous breath of the tundra, they discover each other in a new way, form friendships, and unite to better chart their course. As the kilometers pass, the adventure reveals a space for encounter, sharing, and reconciliation.
Des racines nées
Alunaya
Uprooted from its land of origin, the diaspora tries to put its roots down elsewhere. But is it still possible to belong?
Le groupe des quatre
Katherine Ouimet
Françoise Sullivan is 100 years old. Dancer, painter, signatory of the Refus global, she has shaped Quebec art history. This portrait explores a lesser-known aspect of her life: her 78-year friendship with her childhood companions. Through their exchanges and shared memories, the film reveals the woman behind the iconic artist.
Esthétique d’une planète
Katherine Ouimet
Metal, water, wood, fire, earth: the five Chinese elements structure a visual journey across the planet and its inhabitants. These two-minute capsules blend striking imagery, poems by the director, and evocative music to reveal the world’s fragility – without moralizing.
Fire Jo Ball
Audrey Nantel-Gagnon
Walking the line between fact and fiction, Fire-Jo Ball shines a light on Jo-Ann, a 57-year-old barmaid who dreams of being a singer and actress.
Between Stone And Sky Blue
Arianna Bardesono
Between Stone And Sky Blue is an 8-minute documentary short film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How can we resist the call of violence? How can we bring the two peoples closer together across the 710 km of wall that encloses the Palestinian territories? Although the far right is undeniably growing, the peace movement remains active and shared on both sides of the wall. The words of hope spoken by Ann and Reefat, an Israeli and a Palestinian respectively, seem to echo the need to cultivate peace within oneself…
À l’heure de la décolonisation
Monique Fortier
This short documentary film, consisting of interviews and footage shot in Africa, takes us straight back to the 1960s, during the turbulent period following the Algerian War and the independence of several other African countries. What are the consequences of French colonization and what ties will remain between France and its former colonies? A valuable educational, social, and political document that encourages reflection on the cultural identity of all French-speaking countries around the world.
La beauté même
Monique Fortier
“I have often wondered what constitutes beauty…” So says Monique Miller, who in this short documentary film personifies the universal woman, anxious to please since childhood, vulnerable, depending on the moment, to the gaze of others, to the torture of waiting, to the obsession with tomorrow’s wrinkles. This film, which attempts to define what beauty means to women, as presented to them by the advertising world as the ultimate goal, was made in the 1960s. It is one of the first films to have been made by a woman about women.
Unempty Space (間)
Lucile Parry-Canet
間 | Unempty Space shows how sensitivity can fill someone’s feeling of emptiness inside and help them connect with what is larger than themselves. This topic is particularly important currently as many people question what is meaningful in a world where they have lost faith in the system and where climate change is an international emergency. In the 5-minute film, we see my brother lost in a winter landscape. As he observes and connects with his surroundings, the seemingly empty grey space no longer represents a negative void but something full and profound. This notion can relate to the Japanese concept ‘Ma’ which translates to “space between”.‘Ma’ is a sense of place in relation to the whole (1). It says emptiness, but it is an emptiness where there is an abundance of energy. This is depicted by its character ‘間’ which refers to the sun in between gates (2). The literal translation “space between” is not a static gap, it is rather the distance that exists between objects as well as between time. It is said to be “the silent pause…
Le pain perdu
Abeille Tard
A voiceover describes the artifacts left behind by a family member who died of wounds during the First World War. His diary, a slice of bread still wrapped in paper…
La vidéo, à part et… Entière: Helen Doyle
Martine Asselin
Third in a series of 13 television programs hosted by Marie-Michèle Cron, art historian and media arts critic. A look back at the beginnings of Vidéo Femmes with Helen Doyle, director and co-founder. Excerpts from Chaperons rouges; Les mots / maux du silence; and Les tatouages de la mémoire.
Nitrate
Yousra Benziane
When the fireworks inflame the memory of a war survival. A chemistry that links spectacle and war, nitrate is an element found in both fireworks and bombs. Nitrate examines what happens when a show rekindles a survivor’s memories of war, when the light present plunges him into a past darkness.
Le temps d’ériger un clocher
Laurence Turcotte-Fraser
The little Sainte-Cécile chapel in Calixa-Lavallée is the brainchild of Pierre Moussard, an enthusiast of religious antiquities and Quebec history. For many years, the Calixa resident had cherished the dream of building a processional chapel to house the many works of religious heritage that this specialist has collected over the decades, including crosses of all shapes, holy-water fonts, candlesticks, a 19th-century altar, paintings and more. The man paid over $50,000 out of his own pocket to build this chapel, which is dedicated to Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, and was inaugurated in September 2011. However, the Municipality of Calixa-Lavallée alleges, among other things, that the construction does not comply with standards for agricultural land, while the owner asserts that it is in compliance with the law. The case was heard in Superior Court in Sorel-Tracy last April, when the judge ordered a site survey, adjourning the trial which is due to resume shortly. It should be noted that Pierre Moussard was nominated for the Prix Gérard-Morisset, the most prestigious distinction awarded by the Quebec government in the field of…
Partir pour mieux revenir
Priscillia Piccoli
Two Gaspesians return to their native land to find a life far from the noise of the city. They plunge us into their daily lives.
Tant qu’il restera de la glace
Priscillia Piccoli
Ten years after the Vancouver Olympics, former figure skater Jessica Dubé describes her daily life and opens up about her love and hatred for her sport.
Levanjil dlo a (L’évangile de l’eau)
Priscillia Piccoli
Documentary on the importance of a river that feeds a Haitian community in Haiti.
Laila
Diane Beaudry
Laila Paattinen is a working woman. Tired of low-paying jobs, she completed a five-month course in dry-wall installation. Because she had chosen a non-traditional job for women, she ran into resistance in the marketplace. She finally solved her problems by opening her own dry-wall application business. A useful film for women seeking non-traditional jobs.
The Unbroken Line
Diane Beaudry
This is a historical survey of the office of the Canadian governor general, from its inception through the inauguration of Edward Schreyer to office. Drawing from archival photos and using live-action film footage, The Unbroken Line gives us a look at some of the governors general (and their families) who have contributed to the Canadian political system.
Maud Lewis: A World Without Shadows
Diane Beaudry
Set against a background of her paintings and the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, landscapes they depict, this short documentary is a portrait of the life and work of one of Canada’s foremost primitive painters, Maud Lewis. Emerging from her youth crippled with arthritis, Lewis escaped into her painting at the age of 30. She had never seen a work of art and had never attended an art class but her paintings captured the simple strength, beauty and happiness of the world she saw – a world without shadows.