Online cinema
Illusions of Control
Shannon Walsh
Who stands up when everything falls apart? A riveting meditation on resilience in the face of disaster, Illusions of Control unfolds in landscapes irrevocably shaped by human attempts to dominate them. Five women confront unbearable crises: Silvia searches for her missing daughter in the deserts of northern Mexico; Yang attempts to hold back the expanding desert in China; Kaori mobilizes mothers as citizen-scientist to monitor radiation in Fukushima, Japan; Stacey builds on Indigenous knowledge to confront toxic legacies in Yellowknife; and, Lauren stands at the crossroads of a serious health diagnosis in Chicago. Each story reveals surprising ways to live on, and reimagine life in the ruins.
The Gig Is Up
Shannon Walsh
A very human tech doc, The Gig Is Up uncovers the real costs of the platform economy through the lives of people working for companies around the world, including Uber, Amazon and Deliveroo. From delivering food and driving ride shares to tagging images for AI, millions of people around the world are finding work task by task online. The gig economy is worth over 5 trillion USD globally, and growing. And yet the stories of the workers behind this tech revolution have gone largely neglected. Who are the people in this shadow workforce? The Gig Is Up brings their stories into the light. Lured by the promise of flexible work hours, independence, and control over time and money, workers from around the world have found a very different reality. Work conditions are often dangerous, pay often changes without notice, and workers can effectively be fired through deactivation or a bad rating. Through an engaging global cast of characters, The Gig Is Up reveals how the magic of technology we are being sold might not be magic at all.
Les sept dernières paroles
Sophie Deraspe
Sophie Goyette
Caroline Monnet
Ariane Lorrain
Inspired by Franz Joseph Haydn’s masterpiece The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, Les sept dernières paroles (The Seven Last Words) examines the experiential states and rituals of humankind through the seven themes of this musical composition: forgiveness, salvation, relationship, abandonment, distress, triumph and reunion.
Quelqu’un d’extraordinaire
Monia Chokri
Sarah, a beautiful and intelligent 30-year-old, has everything to succeed. But her fear of banality keeps her in a permanent state of inertia. One day, she wakes up in an unknown suburban house after a complete blackout. Helpless, she calls her friend Catherine and lands, against her will, in a bachelorette party with old acquaintances. As the night unfolds and the tension builds, Sarah’s pursuit of authenticity leads to a merciless climax where secrets are unveiled, and friendships, destroyed.
La femme de mon frère
Monia Chokri
Sofia, 35, sees nothing bright about her future. She’s unemployed despite having a Ph.D. in political philosophy, pregnant and living with her brother. To make matters worse, the brother falls in love with Sofia’s gynecologist… Winner of the Coup de cœur award in the Un certain regard section at the Cannes Festival, La femme de mon frère showcases the immense talent of director Monia Chokri. An existential comedy shot through with malaise and physical comedy, directed in a seemingly effortless vintage style, the film stars Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, whose intense energy brings her neurotic but endearing character to life.
Babysitter
Monia Chokri
Cédric loses his job at Ingénérie Québec after making a sexist joke that goes viral. Encouraged by his intellectual brother, Cedric starts therapy and writes Sexist Story, a book that aims to be revolutionary and to attack misogyny. Nadine, exasperated by her boyfriend’s introspection and herself in need of dreams and adrenaline, is tempted by the surprising games initiated by the mysterious babysitter. Adapted from the play, the comedy Babysitter plunges even further into the unconscious, the desire to dominate the other and the drift of the couple.
Mon cirque à moi
Myriam Bouchard
Born into a family of circus performers, Laura has spent much of her young life on tour with her father Bill, a professional clown, and his stage hand, Mandeep. Secretly, she yearns for a more conventional life. Thanks to her new teacher, Patricia, she can finally fulfill her dream: to go to private school. Having spotted her new pupil’s enormous potential, Patricia helps Laura pass her entrance exams. This act is a form of rebellion against her father… Can bohemian Bill, a self-proclaimed nonconformist, accept that the apple of his eye has fallen so far from the paternal tree?
Lignes de fuite
Myriam Bouchard
A dramatic comedy that invites us to the eventful reunion of three high school friends. After a festive and drunken start to the evening, the trio of thirty-somethings unravels: old tensions resurface, discussions escalate and revelations follow one another – all of which form an increasingly explosive cocktail that will test their friendship to the limit. Can yesterday’s best friends still be friends today?
23 Décembre
Myriam Bouchard
On December 23, the day before Christmas, the frenzy of the holiday season is everywhere and seizes many… In this ensemble film, we follow Elsa Lévesque (Virginie Fortin), a hardened bachelor who wants to find love; Stéphanie and Alex (Catherine Brunet and François Arnaud), who are expecting their first child; a singer (Stéphane Rousseau) who returns to the stage after a break; a woman (Guylaine Tremblay), mother of two daughters, wishing to organize a perfect Christmas; a teenager (Tao Vigneault) who carries a big secret; a man (Michel Barrette) who feels jostled by the modern world; and the new manager of a large hotel (Bianca Gervais) who must prove her worth for the position. Their destinies intertwine randomly on this already tumultuous day, crowned by a snowstorm… And if they all have a personal vision of a magical Christmas, they will discover that the perfect moments may be in the imperfections and contingencies.
M’entends-tu?
Myriam Bouchard
Can You Hear Me? is a dramatic comedy that plunges us into the unusual daily life of Ada, Fabiola and Carolanne, three long-time friends from the midst of poverty.
Les chroniques d’une mère indigne
Myriam Bouchard
Les chroniques d’une mère indigne (The Chronicles of an Unworthy Mother) is the very first French original web series produced in Canada. The web-series ia a 26 episodes of 2 to 6 minutes inspired by the Quebec novel Les chroniques d’une mère indigne (The Chronicles of an Unworthy Mother), by Caroline Allard. The Chronicles of an Missfit Mother is a web series that portrays the life of Missfit mother during her maternity leave. Through the story of episodes from his daily life and staging his little one family (Father Missfit, Daughter Missfit and baby), Missfit Mother confesses to us her crimes, her venial sins, his inability to be perfect and his white lies. She opens the door to her bungalow suburbs and invites us to laugh with it about the unsightly aspects of pregnancy and and childbirth, difficulties in married life with children, … of everything that weaves the daily life of a young mother but which we rarely dare to talk about.
Fabrique-moi un conte – Blanche-Neige
Myriam Bouchard
Miryam Bouchard reinvents Snow White in her own way. Fabrique-moi un conte: Eight directors adapt eight classic tales in a modern and contemporary way. They have carte blanche except that… It’s the public who decides which tale they adapt, the main location where the action will take place and the performer. An original way to revisit our classics!
Janette et filles
Léa Clermont-Dion
What has Janette Bertrand accomplished, what has she contributed to change in a lasting way? She has been a journalist, an actress, a screenwriter, an author, a psychologist… Through her fight to make her place, she has given a voice to all those who were refused to be heard, to the point of becoming a model for several generations of women who, in turn, inspire the next ones. All of them, Janette’s daughters: Guylaine Tremblay, Martine Delvaux, Noémi Mercier, Kim Lizotte, Claudia Larochelle, Régine Bertheau, Chris Bergeron and Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay.
T’as juste à porter plainte
Léa Clermont-Dion
This documentary focuses on Léa Clermont-Dion’s quest to understand the crossroads experienced by victims of sexual assault within the justice system. In parallel to the trying procedures she herself underwent, the filmmaker meets a dozen victims. The film echoes the painful scratches and collateral damage, consequences of an imperfect process. One thing is for sure: head high or low, victims rarely come out unscathed. Victims are often told that they should just file a complaint. But what if it’s not that simple? In this intimate and emotional documentary, Léa meets those who, in addition to saying “me too”, have taken this path of the cross. The goal is to give the microphone to those whose voices have been silenced by the justice system. How do they fare in practice? Guided by the experience of Léa who filed a complaint for a sexual assault suffered at the age of 17 during her first student job, T’as juste à porter plainte is punctuated by interviews with other victims and legal experts.
Bienvenue à F.L.
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles
Welcome to F.L. offers a candid portrait of the smart, passionate and reflective students at a typical Quebec high school as they reach the end of their teenage years and contemplate the lives that lie ahead for them. With the students of Fernand-Lefebvre high school.
Une colonie
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles
Camille wanders through the countryside talking with frogs and chickens: she sails through life as a carefree soul. But for her older sister, the introverted Mylia, things are more complicated. Mylia is lost between the uncertainty in her family life, the superficial atmosphere at her new school and her first experiences at house parties. It is Camille who eventually introduces Mylia to Jimmy. The boy from the nearby Abenaki reserve is different and he encourages her to break free.
Primas
Laura Bari
Primas is a moving portrait of cousins Rocío and Aldana, two Argentinean teenagers who, after suffering violence that abruptly ended their childhood, free themselves from the spectre of their past. Traveling through Argentina and Montreal, the girls enter adulthood through eye-opening experiences such as learning dance, mime, theater, circus and visual arts. Their bodies become the expression of their imagination, their unique perspective and their unfailing resilience.
Ariel
Laura Bari
At the age of 33 Ariel’s legs are shredded by an industrial dough mixer. Ariel confronts his tremendous metamorphosis, learning how to be with others, while he invents his own prosthetic legs in Mendoza, Argentina. Through this metaphorical and intimate portrait, Laura Bari reveals a decade of Ariel’s struggle towards a new trans-humanity.
Antoine
Laura Bari
Antoine is five years old and he is blind. A sensitive and poetical portrait of the real and imaginary life of Antoine, a boy detective who runs, drives, hosts radio shows and adores simultaneous telephone conversations. Over the course of two years he uses a mini-boom microphone to discover and capture the sounds surrounding him. In this manner he co-created the sound track of this film. This child, who is of Vietnamese origin, was born one hundred days prematurely. He is integrated into the regular school system in Montreal, with unprecedented success.
P.S. Jerusalem
Danae Elon
Filmmaker Danae Elon began to film her three young sons the moment she and her partner Philip decided to leave New York and return to Jerusalem. The decision was prompted by the death of her father, leading Israeli intellectual and writer Amos Elon It was his dying wish that Danae not return, but her attachment to the place she always called home was stronger. On a journey back Danae’s camera captures her three young boys growing up, asking endless questions and confronting the reality around them The place she once saw as “home” challenges her relationship with her partner and the future of her kids It is through the prism of parenthood, children and a family that the story of this film exposes a deep, complex and painful portrait of Jerusalem today.
The Patriarch’s Room
Danae Elon
“Jaffa Gate Is Ours!” screamed the headlines in 2005. Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos was accused of selling church property to Jewish settlers. He denied all the accusations. But for the first time in the church’s 2000-year history, its leader was ousted. For 11 long years, Irineos was imprisoned in his chambers. In this first-person account, filmmaker Danae Elon unravels what really happened to the former Patriarch. With unprecedented access to the inner workings of the church, a riveting, mysterious, disturbing, and often humorous story is revealed about an unknown world within the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Le chant d’une soeur
Danae Elon
Can we really know what is in the heart of our loved one? A Sister’s Song is the intimate and delicate story of two sisters, Marina and Tatiana, who live apart because of the choice Tatiana made in becoming a nun. Marina, who has hardly seen or spoken to her sister in twenty years, feels that something is wrong. She travels to a monastery in Greece to try to find the sister she has lost. An unexpected event will lead both of them on a path they never thought possible.
Partly Private
Danae Elon
To circumcise or not to circumcise, that is the question pondered by filmmaker and future mother Danae Elon and her husband Philippe. The couple, who hope to discover the sex of their baby at birth, are on two sides of the issue. Philippe, who is himself circumcised and a Jew of Algerian decent, explains that it is a cultural tradition for him. For Danae, submitting a newborn to this ritual would be absurd and irrational. This documentary follows her humorous and instructive exploration of this practice. In her quest she will meet rabbis, imams, doctors, theologians and parents. She will discover that myths and rituals in many great cultures and religions surround these few centimeters of skin.
Another Road Home
Danae Elon
Shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967, Danae Elon’s highly educated parents, noted Israeli author Amos Elon, and former correspondent and literary agent Beth Elon, hired a Palestinian man named Musa, the father of eleven children, to take care of their six month old daughter on a daily basis. It was a job he would continue for the next twenty years until she was grown and he was able to save enough money to send all eight of his sons to America for education and career opportunities. The last time Danae saw Musa, in 1991, he proudly showed her the house he constructed in the Palestinian village of Battir. Then, against the mounting tensions of the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Intifada, the two families lost track of each other. During that time Danae began to realize how much of an influence Musa had on her life and sought to reconnect with him. Her quest led her from her home in New York to Paterson, New Jersey, then to Battir in the occupied territories, and back to her…