Film Categories: Childhood

  • Why I Hate Bees

    WHY I HATE BEES is a comedic journey into a young girl’s memories of near death, based on the short story by Canadian writer Nancy Jo Cullen. Awards: Best Canadian Lesbian Short, Inside Out Festival, Toronto, 1998; Grand Prize, Cabbagetown Film Festival, Toronto, 1999; Honourable Mention, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2000. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: When I discovered Nancy Jo Cullen’s short story “Why I Hate Bees” in the Saskatchewan quarterly literary magazine, Grain, it had just won an honourable mention in the publication’s writing contest. Nancy lives in Calgary, Alberta. The complete text of her story serves as the narration for…

  • Innocent Vision

    “Innocent Vision” is a documentary about the world from the viewpoint of children through their personal photographic interpretations.

  • Primiti Too Taa

    The film “Primiti Too Taa” is a playful sound poem, where the text jumps to life through animated typing on paper. Visually the film is a concrete poem in motion: choreography. Aurally the film is a sound poem with a printed text: typography. Constructivist poetry meets literal choreography. Primitive sounds meet their typed representation. The film is based on a 45-minute sound poem “Ur-sonate (Sonata for Primitive Sounds)” by Kurt Schwitters. The film is larva in memory of Kurt Schwitters (Artist Poet 1887-1948), under the influence of Norman McLaren.

  • Two Taa Too

    A sequel to “Primiti Too Taa” which playfully animates the original film in different film frame sizes (Super 8, 16mm and 35mm).

  • Stargaze

    Toronto, 1952. 18-year-old Derek undergoes painful aversion therapy designed to “cure” his homosexuality. After the quiet literal shock of his first session, he leaves the hospital, finding refuge beneath the artificial skies of a planetarium. Eventually, he flees Toronto altogether, heading back to his small-town home. His doctor quickly finds him and threatens to notify the police if Derek doesn’t return. So again, Derek escapes, this time to the Peterborough Exhibition (which has advertised their own planetarium), in the hope of recreating the wonder and transportation he felt earlier.

  • sea song

    This animated film flows through a vibrant underwater landscape, shown at night time. Sound and picture are drawn directly on film – cameraless animation.

  • Bon Vivant

    “Bon Vivant” is a fanciful cut-out animation about a magic circle that suddenly appears in the middle of a street in the city. To the great surprise of the dapper little man who discovers this circle, it has the power to make things appear and disappear. Told without words, this is a film that will engage the imagination of the viewer and can be used to open discussion of the need for magic in our lives.

  • Fries with That

    “Fries with That” is the story of one boy’s heroic triumph over the fear and awkwardness Western culture often associates with death, as explained through the eyes of his sister – a girl still too young to be tainted by negative predisposition and unnatural paranoia. As the boy sets out into the world to discover whatever good fortune may lie in what’s left of his future, we are reminded by his sister’s gift to him that in times of difficulty, often the only solution is to be found in something as simple as a box of french fries… With music…

  • One Small Step

    Set in South Carolina on the eve of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon walk, “One Small Step” is a dramatic comedy about a rambunctious 8-year-old tomboy, Ernestine “Teen” Miller. Taught by her parents that she can be anything she wants to be, Teen learns that there is one exception to this rule when she announces to her mother that she is determined to “marry” the neighbour girl. Told from the point of view of an extremely creative and self -confident young girl, the film is a visual mixture of Teen’s real family interactions juxtaposed against her fanciful daydream life. Teen’s…

  • Brick, The

    A docu-drama on the sterility of suburban high school life and an example of one young man’s attempt to escape. From a brief intense excursion into drugs, music and parties, to a rational attempt at change through participation in a school paper, “The Brick,” Michael’s alienation is symbolized in a recurring nightmare of frustration and anger where he hurls a brick into a black void. Eventually he comes to terms with his loneliness and blindness through photography, and accepts his entry into the adult world.