Film Categories: Families

  • Holding Hands

    Craig and Shane were holding hands when they fell victim to a brutal hate crime. Through speaking out about the lack of police investigation, their courage led to important changes at their local police station. ‘Holding Hands’ follows a challenging year in this inspiring couples’ life: triumphantly leading the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade as community heroes, struggling to recover from the physical, financial and psychological costs of a hate crime, and ultimately revealing the healing power of love. At its heart, Craig and Shane’s story reveals that even in the worst circumstances, we can all create positive change.

  • Tourist of memory

    In this journey through time and place – an Ottawa snowstorm, Niagara Falls, and the filmmaker’s childhood home – recollections come unbidden and half-articulated, of trains, marshes and wind turbines, resolving at the inexpressible place where memory lies. A stand-alone chapter of the video essay, “In Between (remembering and forgetting),” “Tourist of memory” was filmed in 16mm, Super 8 and video, with sound design by Edmund Eagan.

  • In Between (remembering and forgetting)

    Composed of nine film and video chapters made between 2004 and 2010, “In Between (remembering and forgetting)” journeys through an abstract landscape marked by half-glimpsed memories and fragments of the past. Using multiple formats and a fluid episodic structure, the work expands beyond the personal to create an enigmatic piece where the viewer’s own experiences and memories resonate. The result is a sustained poetic meditation on family, place and time.

  • 2 sisters, 1 closet

    “2 sisters, 1 closet” explores the assumption that there is a default, or normative form of sexuality. It tells the story of two sisters, one straight and one lesbian, who both undertake the process of coming out. Declaring sexual preference is highlighted as something that should not be limited to one group. The film follows two sisters as they discuss their own relationships to the idea and process of coming out. What does it mean for a lesbian or a straight woman to speak a sexual preference? Is it a more salient action for one sister than the other? What…

  • Change

    Jamie is an African-American teenager grappling with his sexual identity on the night Barrack Obama is elected president and Proposition 8 – the voter initiative to eliminate same-sex marriage – is passed. When one of his gang initiates the bullying of an openly gay classmate, Jamie uses his wits to try and prevent it, but when things don’t go the way he predicted, he is forced to face his fears head on. Winner Audience Award, Inside Out LGBT Film & Video Festival (Toronto)

  • Out on the Street

    This short film explores LGBTQ youth homelessness in Toronto and the lack of support available. Several people’s lived experiences are shared.

  • Au pays des esprits (Home of the Buffalo)

    Constructed from Canadian prairie archival images taken between 1920 and 1940, this film lyrically explores a son/daughter’s relationship with his/her father and the family’s relationship to their land.

  • Free Man

    When Michael’s partner of thirteen years, Charlie, dies unexpectedly, he is forced to work with his estranged mother-in-law, Celine, to plan his funeral. When they have a difference of opinion, Michael finds himself embroiled in a power struggle for the right to plan the memorial the way Charlie wanted. While Michael begins to dive deep into his psyche to keep the memory of Charlie alive, Celine turns to the legal system, stripping Michael of Charlie’s burial rights. Michael must use his music and the power of their union to confront his grief and mourn his dead lover.

  • Small, Stupid and Insignificant

    “Small, Stupid and Insignificant” is a film about a family’s struggle with choosing to live. Marie is a single mother, her sister is in a coma, and her Mama is a rosary clutching leave-it-to-God kind of woman. Marie is haunted by her sister, who has been in a coma for three years, to pull the plug. And yet neither of them feels like living. This all changes after one intoxicated night when Marie meets a wandering spirit that helps her realize not only her sister’s wish for freedom, but also her own. Winner, Experimental Drama Award, Female Eye Film Festival…

  • Spiral Transition

    “Spiral Transition” is a candid, compelling and interwoven documentary that explores the filmmaker’s relationship with his mother and how it is changing and evolving as he transitions genders.