Chi

Chi 2013

6.20

Director Anne Wheeler joins actress Babz Chula on a trip to India to rid herself of cancer.

2013

Street Musique

Street Musique 1972

6.80

Animator Ryan Larkin does a visual improvisation to music performed by a popular group presented as sidewalk entertainers. His take-off point is the music, but his own beat is more boisterous than that of the musicians. The illustrations range from convoluted abstractions to caricatures of familiar rituals. Without words.

1972

Griefwalker

Griefwalker 2008

1

Documentary about Harvard-trained theologian Stephen Jenkinson, a grief counselor who teaches that death empowers us to live and that we must not only accept death but embrace it.

2008

Blinkity Blank

Blinkity Blank 1955

6.30

A playful exercise in intermittent animation and spasmodic imagery. Playing with the laws relating to persistence of vision and after-image on the retina of the eye, McLaren engraves pictures on blank film creating vivid, percussive effects.

1955

The Shimmering Beast

The Shimmering Beast 1982

6.70

A documentary film about a group of hunters who gather annually to hunt moose near Maniwaki, Quebec.

1982

19 Days

19 Days 2016

1

This short documentary follows several refugee families during their first 19 days in Canada, as they navigate an unfamiliar terrain that has suddenly become their home. Located in the quiet Calgary neighbourhood of Bridgeland, the Margaret Chisholm Resettlement Centre is the starting point for government-assisted refugees who arrive in the city. During the 19-day timeline established by the federal government, an initial assessment is done and refugees are assisted with everything from airport reception and orientation to referrals, documents, and counselling. 19 Days reveals the human side of the refugee resettlement process. A unique look at the global migration crisis and one particular stage of asylum, it lays plain the realities faced on the difficult road towards integration.

2016

Out of Mind, Out of Sight

Out of Mind, Out of Sight 2014

6.00

Four-time Emmy winner John Kastner was granted unprecedented access to the Brockville facility for 18 months, allowing 46 patients and 75 staff to share their experiences with stunning frankness. The result is two remarkable documentaries: the first, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible, premiered at Hot Docs in the spring of 2013 and follows the story of a violent patient released into the community. The second film, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, returns to the Brockville Mental Health Centre to profile four patients, two men and two women, as they struggle to gain control over their lives so they can return to a society that often fears and demonizes them.

2014

21-87

21-87 1963

6.80

This short film from Arthur Lipsett is an abstract collage of snippets from discarded footage found by Lipsett in the editing room of the National Film Board (where he worked as an animator), combined with his own black and white 16mm footage shot on the streets of Montreal and New York City, among other locations. A commentary on a machine-dominated society, it is often cited as an influence on George Lucas's Star Wars and his conceptualization of "The Force."

1963

The Merry World of Leopold Z

The Merry World of Leopold Z 1965

6.60

A worker, called in a hurry to remove the snow in the city street, try to buy his remaining gifts in the tumult of Christmas eve without quitting his work.

1965

Walking

Walking 1968

6.41

A cinematic portrait of people walking in their individual ways.

1968

Synchromy

Synchromy 1971

6.65

The film's soundtrack is an original musical composition produced with synthetic sound - through photographing unusual geometric shapes and running them through an optical sound head. The images are an artistic rendering of this soundtrack.

1971

Churchill's Island

Churchill's Island 1941

6.44

The people of Britain resist the German air force and navy with help from North America. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Library and Archives Canada in 2005.

1941

The Decline of the American Empire

The Decline of the American Empire 1986

6.75

Four very different Montreal university teachers gather at a rambling country house to prepare a dinner. Remy (married), Claude (a homosexual), Pierre (involved with a girlfriend) and Alain (a bachelor) discuss sex, the female body and their affairs with them. Meanwhile, their four female guests, Louise (Remy's wife of 15 years), Dominique (a spinster), Diane (a divorcée) and Danielle (Pierre's girlfriend) are spending the time at a downtown health gym. They also discuss sex, the female body and, naturally, men. Later in the evening, they finally meet at the country house and have dinner. A ninth guest, named Mario, who used to know Diane, drops in on the group for some talk and has a surprise of his own.

1986

Debris

Debris 2015

1

This short film is a portrait of Tofino, BC intertidal artist Pete Clarkson as he crafts his most ambitious and personal project to date: a memorial to the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami. He, like so many of us around the world, was deeply affected by the disaster. Years later, as splintered and mangled timber and other objects started to wash ashore, the disaster hit home again for Clarkson, and the inspiration for his memorial was born. In Clarkson’s caring hands, the remnants from the Tohoku region take on a life of their own as he shapes them into a unique public sculpture. The result is an evocative memorial that is a site of remembrance and contemplation, and an emotional bridge connecting an artist, his community and a people an ocean away.

2015

Madame Tutli-Putli

Madame Tutli-Putli 2007

6.94

Madame Tutli-Putli boards the Night Train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. She travels alone, facing both the kindness and menace of strangers. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure.

2007

The Wait

The Wait 2006

1

High school is over, summer is ending, and Jake must say goodbye to his best friend Sarah but can’t. Instead, he confesses his true love and his desire to go with her. When Sarah rejects him, Jake seeks out escape by any means necessary: random sex, violence, going crazy, even buying into Charles’ deluded dream of driving to Toronto to become a stand up comic. But Jake’s real escape route leads not along the open road. It leads in the direction of a crazed dancing stranger.

2006

Neighbours

Neighbours 1952

7.60

In this Oscar-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower.

1952

Stories We Tell

Stories We Tell 2012

7.09

Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends whose reliability varies depending of their implication in the events, which are remembered in different ways; so a trail of questions remains to be answered, because memory is always changing and the discovery of truth often depends on who is telling the tale.

2012

The Man Who Planted Trees

The Man Who Planted Trees 1987

8.00

The story of one shepherd's single-handed quest to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the French Alps throughout the first half of the 20th century.

1987

Lonely Boy

Lonely Boy 1962

6.20

This short film portrays the story of singer Paul Anka, who rose from obscurity to become the idol of millions of adolescent fans around the world. Taking a candid look at both sides of the footlights, this film examines the marketing machine behind a generation of pop singers. Interviews with Anka and his manager reveal their perspective on the industry.

1962