Film Categories: Families

  • Bonne mère

    Alfred leaves the north of France to find his estranged mother who’s become a prostitute in Marseille. He changes his identity and begins hooking in order to be close to her. “Bonne Mère” is a nostalgic poem of longing. Selected Screenings: 2008 Berlin International Film Festival

  • Birthday, The

    “The Birthday” is a short drama about Sapphire, an insecure and socially challenged woman who wants to experience real connections with people, especially her own mother. However, when her mother uses tricks to set her up on a date, the truth is revealed, leaving Sapphire feeling angry and used. Sapphire is faced with the decision to confront her mother, finally realizing that she cannot change anyone no matter what she does, unless that someone is willing to make the change personally.

  • Tell Us The Truth Josephine – A Bitter Immigrant Story

    “Tell Us the Truth Josephine” is a 15-minute experimental drama about a Maltese woman’s search for “home.” Josephine struts across Canada on stilts. And for Josephine to find home she must accept the Truth. And once she does she can come off her stilts and land. Her journey is haunted by fragmented voices and images of her bloodline – bitter immigrant stories.

  • Baggage

    Martin, a 30-year-old single man, lives a regular and well-ordered life. One morning, however, a mysterious suitcase inexplicably appears, and pursues him wherever he goes: in his home, at the office, outside at lunch time. Finally escaping to a public washroom, he encounters a man he recognizes from his past. Frightened, Martin takes refuge in a toilet stall. When he comes out the man has disappeared, only to be replaced by the ever-present suitcase. Martin decides to face his fears and open the suitcase, and what he discovers inside leads him towards a richer and more poetic existence.

  • Foodie

    Born into a murky world, jettisoned into flourescence, Foodie is all emotion, all merchandise, all pressure and all pleasure. Foodie waddles through emotional worlds that are hungry and stuffed, cozy-mean, cocooned and exposed. Foodie is the perfect consumer who is simultaneously socially conscious and suspect. Watch Foodie, struggling to stay within boundaries of good and proper, worrying all the time, trying to live forever with too much and not enough.

  • taking pictures

    A hand-processed diary film about memory, family and loss told through snapshots and landscapes in and around Ontario. Music by Sam Phillips. Screenings include: 2008 Berlin International Film Festival (in Forum Expanded section), 2008 Rotterdam International Film Festival. “nostagia isn’t what it used to be, i can only picture the disappearing world when you touch me”

  • Dish

    “Dish” is a unique documentary series created by David Quantic. Fast-paced editing and eye-popping graphics fuse together interviews with fans of popular culture to create a “chorus” of enthusiastic opinions. In this debut episode, 6 gay men talk about their obsession with Oprah.

  • Films of Su Friedrich, The: Volumes 1-5

    Digitally re-mastered from the original 16mm negatives, this collection of 13 films is essential for every library or media centre, as well as women’s and cinema studies programs. Since the 1970s, Friedrich’s skillful mix of experimental narrative and documentary forms, filled with provocative feminist and lesbian themes, has made her a groundbreaking member of the avant-garde film community and a pivotal force in the establishment of Queer Cinema. This collection of DVDs includes the filmmaker’s classic works such as SINK OR SWIM, HIDE AND SEEK, THE TIES THAT BIND, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T, and THE ODDS OF RECOVERY, as well…

  • Films of Su Friedrich, The: Volume 3 – Sink or Swim

    A contemporary classic and a landmark in autobiographical filmmaking, “Sink or Swim” is an unflinching account of the highly charged relationship between a daughter and her father. Through a series of twenty-six short stories, a young girl chronicles the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict…

  • v=d/t

    v=d/t is the physics formula which calculates velocity by dividing the distance traveled by the time required to travel that distance. This film explores the possibility of measuring distances between loved ones through time zones. The sound track is comprised of personal and tragic phone messages left on voicemail when individuals could not connect due to great time zone differences, while the visual elements present simple and contemplative images of antique telephones.