Film Categories: Families

  • Lecciones en Proceso (Lessons in Process)

    “Lessons in Process” is a poetic documentary about a film making workshop given by Canadian filmmaker Philip Hoffman at the famed Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba. Founded in 1986 by Argentinean poet and filmmaker Fernando Birri, Colombian writer Gabriel García Marquez and Cuban filmmakers Julio Garcia Espinosa, and Thomas Gutirres Alea, “the school of the three worlds” was established to give students from developing countries in Latin America and the Carribean, Africa and Asia, an opportunity to participate in the democracy of the image. Hoffman collaborates with the students to produce…

  • The Prince’s Sword

    “The Prince’s Sword” is based on the true story of the conflict that arose in the director’s pacifist home when her 5-year old son wanted a toy sword. Reflecting the changing face of family, this film explores how two mothers struggle to guide their son’s masculinity in a peaceful, feminist fashion, while still honouring his boyhood. It puts a contemporary twist on the universal challenge of parenting as a complex process of letting go of what you love the most. When our children challenge our values, when it is right to hold on and when is it right to reconsider?

  • Dawn

    Dawn tells the story of two strangers who have more in common than they first realize. After Tye detects what he considers a racist glance from another passenger on the evening train home, a confrontation ensues. Tye is shocked to discover that they share something big, and both men are forced to face their prejudices in ways they never expected. Iris Prize Shortlist 2013

  • Howard

    “Howard” is a documentary about the filmmaker’s estranged Uncle Howard who was murdered in Yonkers in 1995. The film uncovers his complex and conflicted life as a gay man troubled with piety and self worth, which drove him to success, yet, ultimately led to self-destructive behavior and death. The story is intertwined with the filmmaker’s musings about the life/death of the Uncle she did not know in an attempt to comprehend what it means to have an estranged relative murdered.

  • Like a Tree in Which There are Three Black Birds

    Jimy waits in a hotel room to seal a deal. His intentions are well meaning but we soon discover his judgment have left him in a state of fragility and danger. Jimy must now deal with his brother, who has been made aware of the deal, and his adult nephew who Jimy has helped raise since he was ten years old. As Jimy comes to terms with the consequences of the deal we see how the tension affects him and those closest to him. Feeling trapped in the city and intuiting the danger, Jimy leaves for a different yet familiar…

  • Breaking and Entering

    Adapted from a short story of the same name by Canadian author Andrew Pyper, “Breaking and Entering” is a poetic parable of a young man coming to terms with the death of his father. The film was near completion at the time of Hull’s death and was subsequently finished by The Estate of Andrew Hull.

  • Breathtaking

    Breathtaking takes on the asbestos industry through a moving and personal investigation into Kathleen’s father’s death from an asbestos-related disease and the current present-day use of asbestos in Canada and internationally. Valued since the beginning of time and commercially mined since the Industrial Revolution, asbestos was coined the ‘magic mineral’ for its extraordinary capacity to protect against fire, and was used in everything from brake pads to oven mitts. Discovered to be carcinogenic, the use of asbestos was banned in many countries and the use of it limited in others. Canada, along with Russia and several other countries, still mines…

  • Severed

    Unable to cope with the murder of his identical twin, a young man resorts to disturbing measures to restore their severed bond.

  • Jason’s Dad

    Days after his father’s suicide, Jason, a disgruntled teenager, intercepts a series of text messages from what appears to be a mistress. Using his father’s cell phone he sets up a meeting to confront the woman for answers. When they meet neither one are prepared to face the real truth about Jason’s dad.

  • Dispatches From The Future

    A grieving woman who spends too much time in her car starts to think that it might be haunted.