Canada Council for the Arts

Centres on Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who in later years lived on skid row in Montreal following a history of drug and alcohol abuse.

An international team of art restorers and archaeologists begin work on the restoration of medieval frescoes inside a network of ancient caves. Faced with local bureaucratic challenges and systemic neglect of archaeological sites, the team encounters a community of shepherds and migrants that have used the caves for centuries and discover a living culture worth preserving most of all.

Over the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.

This unique narrative incorporating documentary elements follows Rey, a 40-year-old non-binary teacher and typhoon survivor, on a roadtrip to fame. With surreal comedy and social portrait realism, filmmaker Seán‌ Devlin explores climate change, LGBTQ+ issues, and the impact of colonialism on contemporary Philippines.

At the height of the October Revolution during the 1919 allied intervention in Arkhangelsk, the exploits of one-legged Canadian soldier Lt. John Boles are told, after he is taken in from the cold by a dysfunctional Russian family and mistakes a local woman for his presumed dead lover.

Fleeing to Tokyo with the hopes that she can fulfil her dream of becoming a dancer, Yume is met with the harsh reality that success isn’t something that comes quickly or easily. Whilst juggling her job as a hostess in Tokyo’s red-light district, Yume throws herself headfirst into studying the artform and integrating herself into the underground dance community.

An emotionally constrained view of the displacement of human feelings in our video saturated society. Van regularly visits his grandmother in a run-down nursing home. His father depends on phone sex for guidance meanwhile erasing family homevideos of happier times with homemade pornography. Will Van rescue his grandmother and memories of his mother in time?

A recent graduate is urged by an impossibly perfect woman to start digging a hole in a nearby park, setting in motion a chain of events that threaten her emotional balance and carefully maintained routines.

Scatterbrained Polly gets a job as a secretary in Gabrielle's art gallery. Polly aspires to be a professional photographer, and idolizes Gabrielle for her artistic ability. When Gabrielle rekindles an old romantic relationship with the younger painter Mary, Polly becomes jealous, and discovers Gabrielle isn’t exactly who she claims to be.

An immersion into the rich landscapes of Sable Island and the life of Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived over 40 years on this remote strip of sand.

The mountain-village passions of a German widow and her sons unfold in the style of a 1920s expressionist movie.

A surreal and comic exploration of an office space and its inhabitants and the decorations of a living room.

Four young office workers have a bet going to see who can last the longest without going outside. In the maze that is the downtown core of a large city, glass skywalks connect apartment buildings, office towers and shopping malls. Its day 28 of the bet and over the lunch hour, as the office prepares for the company founder's retirement party, things start to seriously unravel.

An open and honest autobiographical account of male sexuality centered on Frank, an unemployed photographer, and his circle of mainly gay friends. He and his best friend, Bozo, attempt to have sex, although they consider themselves straight. But things begin to fall apart when Frank meets and falls in love with Johnny, a 13-year-old boy.

The Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia is marketed as a destination of leisure, recreation, retirement and wealth. Behind this facade is a largely invisible agricultural labour force, comprised of temporary migrant workers from the Global South. These workers are placed in a system that is inherently precarious and potentially exploitative, wherein their legal status is tied directly to their employer, with no path to permanent citizenship. While the workers pay into Canadian health care and pension plans, they do not benefit from these social goods as temporary citizens. This film aims to make this labour visible, while contemplating the prescribed aesthetics imposed on the landscape within the region. Formally, the film resides at the intersection of photography and the moving image, while embracing the generative structural limitations of early cinema.

“In 1946, my great-grandfather murdered a black man named Bill Spann and got away with it.” So begins Travis Wilkerson’s critically acclaimed documentary, DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN?, which takes us on a journey through the American South to uncover the truth behind a horrific incident and the societal mores that allowed it to happen. Acting as narrator and guide, Wilkerson spins a strange, frightening tale, incorporating scenes from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, the music of Janelle Monáe and Phil Ochs, and the story of Rosa Parks’ investigation into the Recy Taylor case, as well as his own family history, for a gripping investigation into our collective past and its echoes into the present day.

A story about an aging crime family patriarch.

A film about urbanity and Indigeneity dedicated to Kamala Todd's child.

Barry Doupé’s Thalé (2009) experiments with the phenomenology of light and colour through fiber-optic flower arrangements. Doupé’s animations are inspired by the Thale Cress plant, which is commonly used in biological mutation experiments. His rotating electronic floras, which resemble neon lights, sex toys and fireworks, glow in the dark digital void. - Amy Kazymerchyk, Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film

Sofia yearns to sing with the heartbreak voice of the ranchera singers she admires. One day, she receives an unexpected invitation to visit the mysterious "Paloma Negra" bar. There, she is shocked to see her favourite singer, Pieta, who had all but disappeared at the height of her career, singing to the sad souls in the bar. Sofia gathers her courage to sing for Pieta, only to be told that her voice is devoid of the suffering and heartbreak necessary to sing the songs. Determined to fill her voice with the necessary pain, she learns a hard, but valuable lesson about the reality of heartbreak.