Film Categories: Race + Ethnicity

  • Redemption of Ogum, The (Redenção de Ogum)

    A haunting, poetic vision from the streets of Brazil. “Today you can find yourself, but soon you will end up getting lost.”

  • Chinese Cafés in Rural Saskatchewan

    A “television documentary” which researches the Chinese communities in rural Saskatchewan by tracing the popularity of Chinese cafés. Using archival photographs, the video presents the experiences of Chinese immigrants from the turn-of the-century to the present.

  • Flora’s Film

    In 1873, Eadweard Muybridge, commonly referred to as “the father of the motion picture,” succeeded in photographically freezing a horse mid-gallop. One year later, he shot and killed his wife’s lover. Using an evocative collection of found footage and sounds, Wilson channels the voice of Flora Muybridge, imagining her response to her husband’s act and subsequent acquittal at trial.

  • Selections

    Sam, a young black man, is trapped inside a wooden cube, and is faced with the challenge of finding a way out. He reflects upon two projected memories from his past, and explores a mysterious bar code that appears on the cube wall. He finds himself struggling against a system of machines whose only goal is to manufacture racial profiles.

  • ZERO the inside story

    On a journey to find the origins of the number zero, a woman discovers more than she was expecting. The journey begins as a quest for the cultural roots of zero and how this concept touches human consciousness in unexpected ways. The search leads her to India, said to be the birthplace of the mysterious number, and the ancient city of Varanasi. There she maps her inner world onto the powerful mix of Hindu ritual and spirituality she encounters, finally confronting a traumatic event in her past. More than a film about the number that is not, “ZERO the inside…

  • Snack Pack

    “Snack Pack” plays with the tensions between the director’s Mexican and Canadian identities.

  • Chulas Fronteras

    “Chulas Fronteras” is a magnificent introduction to the most exciting Nortena musicians working today: Los Alegres de Teran, Lydia Mendoza, Flaco Jimenez and others. Theirs is the music of the Northern Texas-Mexico border. It reflects the spirit of the people in their strong family life and sheer enjoyment of domestic rituals- preparing food and eating, celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary, gathering in the backyard with friends. Blank does not overlook the hardships of the Chicano migrating from state to state for seasonal work in the fields. He makes clear the role that music has in redeeming their lives by giving…

  • Almost Forgot My Bones

    A lyrical video-poem which depicts the transformation of an African-Canadian woman’s identity as she goes in search of her roots. In order to find herself she must travel past skin into bone – to the root, the secret inside identity. Almost forgot my bones In this home without no mirrors Almost forgot my bones In this home without no mirrors Of myself, my skin, my kin, my hidden Of myself, my skin, my kin, my hidden

  • Profile

    “Profile” takes place during a short cab ride through New York City and the subconscious of the passenger. The short conversation between cabbie and passenger is at once mundane, evocative, and unnerving.

  • Gloriously Free

    “Gloriously Free” is one of the first documentaries to explore the world of gay immigration, and the desperate search of five young men to find welcoming arms outside their countries of birth – where persecution and hatred of alternative lifestyles may lead to torture or death. What they find is Canada, leading the world as the safest haven for persecuted gays and lesbians. “Gloriously Free” is a powerful profile of gay immigrants to Canada. Among them are Al-Hussein from Jordan; Julian, blackmailed and blacklisted in his homeland of Mexico and a resident of Canada for three years; Bruno, who immigrated…