Other films on this theme
Geek Girls
Gina Haraszti
Nerdy women – the “hidden half” of fan culture – open up about their lives in the world of conventions, video games, and other rife-with-misogyny pop culture touchstones. While geek communities have recently risen to prominence, very little attention is paid to geek women. Filmmaker Gina Hara, struggling with her own geek identity, explores the issue with a cast of women who live geek life up to the hilt: A feminist geek blogger, a convention-trotting cosplayer, a professional gamer, a video-game designer, and a NASA engineer. Through their personal experiences in the rich cultural explosion of nerdom, Geek Girls shows both the exhilaration of newfound community and the ennui of being ostracized. These women, striving in their respective professions and passions, face the cyberbullying, harassment, and sexism that permeate the culture and the industry at large. A rich conversation-starter for any class on Pop Culture and Feminism.
Bonbons bijoux
Sylvie Laliberté
“A very self-filmed and narcissistic video composed of brief chattering sequences, since the truth is short. And the frame? I am the frame. Bonbons bijoux also transports us into the intimacy of the home. The artist uses the ridiculousness of language to underline the difficult presence of the direct, the self-referential, the authentic. Bonbons bijoux takes us to the grating borders of the “suave feminine”. The ingenue, the naughty, the naïve get rid of their negative connotations. By making incongruous associations of words, objects and ideas, the artist blurs the lines, disintegrating the preconceived limits between girl and woman, between naivety and perversity.”
Bonbons bijoux
Sylvie Laliberté
“A very self-filmed and narcissistic video composed of brief chattering sequences, since the truth is short. And the frame? I am the frame. Bonbons bijoux also transports us into the intimacy of the home. The artist uses the ridiculousness of language to underline the difficult presence of the direct, the self-referential, the authentic. Bonbons bijoux takes us to the grating borders of the “suave feminine”. The ingenue, the naughty, the naïve get rid of their negative connotations. By making incongruous associations of words, objects and ideas, the artist blurs the lines, disintegrating the preconceived limits between girl and woman, between naivety and perversity.”
Waning
Gina Haraszti
She is captured, possessed and framed by a white border, her face will only exist in photos from this point forward. As the film progresses the viewer’s focus becomes more strained as varied layers of the story are laid out before her in varied ordered. As the memory repeats itself over and over again the order in which we remember will change. What was the truth, does it remain? Did you say the right thing at the right time or have your memories replaced the truth with your perceived reality? Waning investigates the questions of memory and death through the use of multiple layers of canted angles in one stationary shot. Layer upon layer builds up as Haraszti delivers the source, and the horror of the opening shot.
Sidings of the Afternoon
Gina Haraszti
Follow my train of thought, my shifting perception of the space around me, my fleeting relationships with nature and my urban cell. Seasons passing by while I stare at the same three objects in my house. What is outside, what will we find when we emerge? How will we move on when our toxic relationship with a virus that paralyzed our urban bodies end? Scathed or unscathed? Dreams, algae, shadows, flowers and knives. What can a filmmaker do when they are locked in during a pandemic? They make a film using a computer. With the participation of game scholars and academics from the Technoculture, Art and Games Research Centre, a town was built in Minecraft following the principles of Bauhaus. Just like the designers and artists of Bauhaus, we also need to rethink the way we use spaces, objects, cities. Beyond thinking about medical safety, as humans we need spaces that expand beyond our bodies’ physical circumference. Just like the light-shadow structures built by Moholy-Nagy, our inner worlds are bigger than the space our bodies take up. In Siding of…
Blanc comme neige
Geneviève Poulette
A father, a son. A snowy retreat, once busy, deep in the woods. A tête-à-tête that will change their lives forever…
Meet-Market.ca
Geneviève Poulette
Marie-Hélène (director) and Zoé (stylist), two friends who have been single for (too) long, get together every Friday night to party and forget about their marital status. One Friday, very drunk, they decide to register on the dating site (www.meet-market.ca) Meet-Market.ca. From virtual exchanges to face-to-face meetings, they will go from surprise to surprise… And so will their partners!
Jingle
Geneviève Poulette
Simon Paquet, an advertising copywriter in an agency, becomes so obsessed with his work that he gradually sees his life slipping out of control. The arrival of Magic Dave, an exceptional ideator, at the agency, provokes a merciless confrontation where Simon’s lucidity will be put to the test.
Juan Antonio Muñoz López: El mago del Coyoácan (Le magicien de Coyoácan)
Geneviève Poulette
Scraps of metal, a piece of cardboard, a soda can… From everything and nothing, Juan Antonio Muñoz López recycles insignificant objects into toys for children. He recreates a colorful universe where traditions are perpetuated and where the curiosity of young and old is solicited. A passion that has been with him for… sixty-three years.
Kafarnaüm
Geneviève Poulette
Sisters: Dream & Variations
Catherine Legault
Tyr and Jasa grew up in an artistic household where art was a way of life. Quirky and insightful sisters, Tyr is a musician and singer while Jasa is an interdisciplinary artist. Inspired by their great-grandmother’s recordings of Icelandic folk songs, they have developed artistic practices that draw on their colourful imaginations and Icelandic roots. Their exploration leads them to journey to Iceland for the first time and collaborate on a project that brings together their artistic disciplines and cultural heritage. In her debut feature film Sisters: Dream & Variations, Catherine Legault immerses us in an oneiric world made up of animation, performances and cinema vérité. More than a portrait, the film is an inspiring look at the artistic approach, its various forms and how it can simultaneously express and explore who we are.
Amoureuses
Louise Sigouin
For the first time, cloistered nuns agree to be filmed for a year in all aspects of their lives. The nuns of Berthierville, the only French-speaking community of Dominican nuns in North America for nearly a century, reveal themselves in a rare and unique documentary in which testimonies and exceptional archives are interwoven. We invite you on a spiritual journey to the heart of the monastery’s intimacy.
Shift
Liz Singh
A black, or possibly gray, comedy about hamburgers, strap-ons and one waitress’ defining moment.
The Lower Plateau
Liz Singh
A formerly successful Montreal musician trudges through the darkest days of winter, armed with a backpack full of weed and a repertoire of Alanis Morissette covers. Dogged by her ex-band mate’s new hit song, Jaine mourns the loss of her career, her band and her self respect. In the heart of the city’s independent music scene, the snow covered Plateau, Jaine encounters both allies and obstacles, including her best friend-slash-roommate Mari, her married ex-lover-slash-manager David, and her charming new customer-slash-potential love interest, Darren. When a glittering opportunity in the Emerald City of Toronto threatens to lure her into a shiny new life, Jaine struggles to sever old ties. Her ex wants her to move on, her mom wants her to move to Toronto, her best friend wants things to stay the same forever, and her clients just want weed, but Jaine has other plans.
De longue haleine
Tahani Rached
Chronicle of the daily life of an Egyptian family, during the post-revolutionary months. They try to analyze the events in order to understand their personal and collective impact. For Gamal, a chemistry teacher, it is an irreversible process. The enthusiasm of the young people transports and moves him, but it will take a long breath to get there.
Au Chic Resto Pop
Tahani Rached
This feature-length film about poverty in Montreal is set against a soundtrack that includes rap, blues, rock, and country and western music. The film deals with the universal themes of hunger, hope and love and is named after an actual Montreal restaurant that’s been serving those in need for over 25 years.
La phonie furieuse
Tahani Rached
A whimsical film about a fashionable “virus”: the Walkman, a portable cassette player with headphones, thanks to which we can now escape the limits of everyday life, “get carried away” with pleasure in a musical world and slide into the dance of our imagination… But, would this “furious phonics”, so popular, hide some inconveniences?
Voisins
Tahani Rached
Garden City, a small district of Cairo, is far from being without importance. In the early 19th century, it was the center of international political affairs in the Egyptian capital. The film takes us on a tour of these abandoned villas, huge reception halls, foreign embassies, endangered businesses and rooftop terraces. The houses become witnesses as they reveal the turmoil of history. These houses and their residents speak with one voice to describe hope, fall and survival. Far from the politically correct, a piece of truth appears, far from the clichés.
Urgence! Deuxième souffle
Tahani Rached
Urgence! Deuxième souffle (Emergency Room! Second Wind) explores the reality of an evening shift in the emergency room of the Centre hospitalier Pierre-Boucher and reveals the daily lives of the nurses who work in this essential service to the population. The camera follows in the footsteps of these professionals and reveals what they have to endure in order to cope with the demands of their work, which is sometimes carried out under intense stress, at the limit of what is bearable. From the triage room to the shock room, from the patients lined up in the corridor to the waiting room, they run to put out fires, often with only one priority: the preservation of life. It is urgent, urgent to listen to these women who resist and succeed, despite the difficulties, in keeping human dignity at the center of their concerns.
Soraïda, une femme de Palestine
Tahani Rached
This feature-length film introduces viewers to Soraida, a Palestinian woman who lives in Ramallah. In her neighbourhood the women do not all wear veils, the men do not rattle off empty political slogans, the young people do not strap bombs to their belts, and the children play together like kids everywhere. Taking us into the daily existence of Soraida, her family and neighbours, the film compels us to ask fundamental questions about life in the Middle East.
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.
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.
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.
Les voleurs de job
Tahani Rached
A glimpse into the living conditions of many immigrant workers in Quebec who have to accept difficult and poorly paid jobs in order to make a living. With this first 16mm feature film, the only one made outside of the NFB, Rached establishes a new and committed look at immigration in Quebec. Shot mainly in Montreal, she gives voice to several characters who translate from the inside a real-life situation of workers inscribed in their bodies. It is worth noting the place given to song, which inaugurates a particular trait of Rached’s cinema when she lets it become a testimony and sociological data.