Online cinema
In The Waves
Jacquelyn Mills
In the Waves is an expressive documentary that depicts the life of 80 years old Joan Alma Mills in her aging coastal village. Following the death of her younger sister, Joan finds herself confronted by the fragility of life. As she tries to come to terms with her loss Joan searches for meaning in the natural world around her. Weaving intimate thoughts with lyrical imagery, In the Waves was crafted by Joan’s granddaughter Jacquelyn Mills. In essence, the film is an intergenerational love-letter, an ebb and flow between dream and reality, past and present, a glimpse of childhood and an encounter with the end-of-life.
Geographies of Solitude
Jacquelyn Mills
Geographies of Solitude is an immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island, guided by naturalist and environmentalist Zoe Lucas who has lived over 40 years on this remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Shot on 16mm and created using a scope of innovative eco-friendly filmmaking techniques, this feature-length experimental documentary is a playful and reverent collaboration with the natural world. Zoe leads us among wild horses, seals and bugs, through peaks, valleys, roots, sands, weathers, seasons and stars. The intangible is evoked with hidden sounds and vanishing light. Much like a field book, the film tracks its protagonist’s labor to collect, clean and document marine litter that persistently washes up on the island shores.
Manon aime le hockey
Rachel Graton
Manon, a young teenager with a passion for field hockey, puts her heart and soul into recording the video that will allow her to realize her greatest dream: to meet the SAGS’ star player, number 9, Janeau Trudel. (SAGS: The Chicoutimi Saguenéens are an ice hockey club in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League)
Suzanne et Chantal
Rachel Graton
This morning, Chantal (60 years old) comes to pick up Susan (92 years old) by car. Susan seems more nervous than usual. Chantal attributes her behavior to her health concerns and the exam she has to take at the hospital in the afternoon. First, they have to go to the hair salon where Chantal works. When she arrives at the salon, Chantal is intercepted by her boss who asks her to give him what she owes him. But this week, she has no money for him… This week, she has a surprise for him. Suzanne et Chantal is a film about friendship, solidarity and the strength of life.
Nancy’s Workshop
Aïcha Diop
One Sunday a month, natural hair specialist Nancy Falaise closes the doors of her Montreal salon to lead a private workshop for young Black girls struggling to love their natural hair. Step-by-step, she teaches them how to wash, detangle, style and care for their respective hair textures, while also creating a safe space for them to bond over their shared experiences and forge meaningful friendships. Nancy’s Workshop is an intimate and immersive exploration of this journey.
Envers et contre nous
Marilyn Cooke
In the middle of the sunny countryside, 10-year-old Selma and her big brother Jonas set out by bike on a journey with a very personal goal in mind. Taking them further and further away from home, their mission pushes them beyond their limits and into the real world, where they must face the fact that some things in life can’t be changed.
L.A. Tea Time
Sophie Bédard Marcotte
A filmmaker stuck in an arid, jobless Montreal winter embarks on an improbable quest across the USA, taking her director of photography along for the journey. L.A. Tea Time is an unusual travelogue, at times meditative, at times haunted, recounting the adventures of Sophie and Isabelle with humour and a little touch of magic.
Claire l’hiver
Sophie Bédard Marcotte
As a malfunctioning cargo spaceship is threatening to crash into Earth, Claire is going through a difficult Winter.
No Crying at the Dinner Table
Carol Nguyen
A collection of family secrets, confessions and confrontation. Filmmaker Carol Nguyen interviews her own family to craft an emotionally complex and meticulously composed portrait of intergenerational trauma, grief, and secrets in this cathartic documentary about things left unsaid.
Nanitic
Carol Nguyen
na·nit·ic / adjective: The first brood of worker ants produced by a queen ant using only the reserved nutrition in her body. Nanitics shoulder the initial fate of the colony and are often underfed due to the conditions in colony building. Thus, nanitics may be smaller in size from later workers ants to optimize the survival of the group… But what happens to the colony when the queen dies? Had the nanitics done enough? 9 year-old Trang starts to shift out of oblivion as her aunt Ut tends to Grandma, who lies in her deathbed in the living room. How can a single body occupy so much space? What will happen when Grandma is gone?
Every Grain of Rice
Carol Nguyen
They say it only takes three generations for a culture to assimilate. What happens next?
Façade
Carol Nguyen
Four individuals discover that the main element that unites them is also the reason for their isolation.
This Home Is Not Empty
Carol Nguyen
A personal film questioning the ‘lies you tell yourself’ through a metaphorical lens.
Nika tsheka uiten mishkut (Ne le dis pas)
Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush
A life is forever changed by rumors in this raw and sincere portrayal of a woman struggling to make sense of her past.
Tshima it (Amen)
Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush
The Innu language is being lost. You don’t notice the strength of a loss until you stop and admire it.
Gros chat
Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush
Simeon Malec, host of Pakueshikan FM radio, welcomes Marie-Soleil Bellefleur on the air to discuss a new regulation concerning salmon nets. To their dismay, the duo is constantly interrupted by increasingly disturbing calls… It seems that a lion has been spotted in the community!
Zagros
Ariane Lorrain
Zagros follows the creation of hand-made carpets across the Zagros mountains in Western Iran, the land of Bakhtiaris. Wool is the guiding thread that traverses the worlds of weavers, dyers and shepherds, revealing nomadic and sedentary cultures through labour. Carpets weave the social fabric of their lives, giving it form as well as colour. The work is hard, and is gradually being devalued by the outside world – but their lives are redeemed because of the love they feel for their traditions.
Beyrouth! «À défaut d’être mort»
Tahani Rached
A gripping plea against war, a poignant testimony of Lebanese survivors, especially those who escaped the Sabra and Shatila massacres, this film will be of interest not only to those concerned about the situation in Lebanon, but also to all those who are concerned about the consequences of wars on civilian populations – the so-called collateral damage
Haïti (Québec)
Tahani Rached
Feature documentary on the Haitian community in Montreal. There are more than 40,000 Haitians living in Quebec, the vast majority of whom live on the island of Montreal, where they are often the target of prejudice, hostility and contempt. This film aims to catalyze our attention, by taking us to witness this cruel reality. Yet, if they left their homeland, it was to escape repression, poverty, and find a better life elsewhere – here – in Canada. Did they find it? Perhaps they have obtained work here and the right to speak and act freely. But are they understood, loved and respected for all that?
Haïti, Nous là! Nou La!
Tahani Rached
From Haiti, images and testimonies that describe the climate that reigned during the aborted elections of November 29, 1987. A powerful military police in the service of a despotic power terrorized an impoverished people that they wanted to keep submissive. The government had succeeded in ousting Duvalier. However, another dictatorship has taken over, and nothing has changed. However, both on the radio and in the streets, the voice of the Haitians was heard with strength and courage. But what if it was all a sham of democracy?
Médecins de coeur
Tahani Rached
Documentary on AIDS. A deeply human essay that gives another point of view: that of omnipractitioners, researchers, ethics specialists, philosophers and humanists. The disease is omnipresent but does not dominate the discussions. It serves as a revelation of the state of our society. A global approach, unprecedented, that goes far beyond life, far beyond death, far beyond AIDS.
Quatre femmes d’Égypte
Tahani Rached
How do we get along when we have everything to tear each other apart? This feature documentary attempts to answer this question through the friendship of four Egyptian women. Muslim, Christian or independent of any religious practice, their choices are at the antipodes. But these four friends refuse to demonize the other and to coexist in contempt; they listen to each other, they thwart each other without ever breaking the bond that unites them. And they laugh about it. Their confrontation redefines tolerance.
Bam Pay A! – Rends-moi mon pays!
Tahani Rached
In this feature documentary, a Haitian, exiled in Canada for twenty years, returns to his country after the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Through his encounters with former friends, professors and colleagues, the face of this newfound Haiti gradually takes shape… Shot in Haiti after the fall of the Duvalier regime, this film, beyond a simple observation, shares with us the hopes of the Haitian people as well as their fears and uncertainties regarding this country that has yet to be built.
À travers chants
Tahani Rached
This documentary opens the door to the magnificent world of choral music, a world inhabited by exceptional beings with the capacity to experience joy from a single musical note. They sing anywhere and everywhere: at the wheel, in the shower, even in the kitchen. But above all, they sing together, men and women of all ages and various backgrounds, transformed by the radiant glory of song and united under the banner of L’Ensemble vocal d’Outremont.