Film Categories: Race + Ethnicity

  • Sarah’s Dream

    An animated film of sweeping romance and inevitable tragedy – this is the story of Sarah, a young Jewish girl in Russia. A wistful peasant worker on a landowner’s farm harbours dreams of immigrating to the new land, to Canada. The one sad note for Sarah is that the realization of this dream necessitates a separation from her beloved cow, Brindle. Will she be brave enough to lead her new life alone? A richly funny film, “Sarah’s Dream” utilizes a plasticine cast to tell its extraordinary story.

  • Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins

    In his own words and music, Lightnin’ Hopkins reveals the inspiration for his blues. He sings, jives, ponders. He boogies at an outdoor barbecue and a black rodeo and takes you with him on a homecoming visit to his boyhood home of Centerville, Texas. Blank has captured Lightnin’s blues in their fullest, darkest power. The film reaches “past the impish bluesman himself into the Blues itself, into the red-clay Texas, into hard times, into blackness, into the senses… you begin to understand the reasons why black Texas people might be in love with this land and angry at poverty” (Carmen…

  • bodies of water

    “Bodies of water” is a poetic memory of the filmmaker’s return to the Ganges River in India where her grandparents were cremated. It was only with her generation that daughters were included on the family tree. Was she now relevant? Impressionistic, meditative images of water are superimposed with slide guitar and tablas.

  • Spent

    This film takes the viewer into the depths of the film noir world with black-and-white shadowy images. The film, however, is distinctly modern, unsettling and mysterious. Eric is a secret agent whose double identity and dangerous missions are completely hidden from the people closest to him. As his lies and betrayal come to the forefront due to reckless behaviour, his relationships crumble and his secret life becomes all-consuming.

  • Swell

    Desire disorients and bodily swellings result. “A lovely concoction of hand-tinted and scratched film evoking a woman’s flight from concrete to nature – spurred on by a kiss.” – Gordon Bowness, Xtra!

  • Offering, The

    This is a film about the progression and the passing of life. Without dialogue and music, the story centres on the evolution of love and friendship between a Japanese monk and the young novice who has come into his life, from their initial encounter to their final parting. In rejecting his own faith and drowning in self-doubts, the novice leaves his life of unfulfilled potentials. The passing of life is demarcated by the progression of seasons. The only force that propels the narrative forward is the poetic seasonal variations in nature. The passing of life, in this life, in this…

  • Death Threat

    A comic farce about Yasmeen Siddiqui, a young Muslim woman. She has just written her first novel and can’t understand why no less than fifty-nine publishers would reject a romantic epic like “The Unquenched Wench of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.”

  • Makbul – His Favoured One

    An historic film, set in the 16th century. There are two characters, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and Irbahim the Makbul, his favoured one. Ibrahim, as the chief caretaker of the royal chambers, comes into the room where the Sultan is awaiting him and brings the neccessary material for foot washing. The royal feet are washed and the toenails cut. These functions are practiced as a silent homo-erotic ceremony. History in “Makbul” is subjectively read. “Makbul” is a film about power and passion. It aims at questioning power. Who is more powerful, the sultan or the slave that he…

  • Sabor a Mi (Savour Me)

    A sensual and erotic short drama about secrets and desires. By covertly watching the most intimate moments of each other’s lives, two neighbours discover their mutual longing for each other. Selected screenings: Vancouver International Film Festival; Montreal World Festival; Northwest Film & Video Festival

  • Struck While the Iron Was Hot

    This documentary film offers a glimpse into the life of an ordinary housewife, the filmmaker’s grandmother, Sally Strauss, who 40 years ago was suddenly catapulted into a media hero by tripping a runaway bank robber. The film laces elements of another era, the sights and sounds of a tight Jewish community and the naiveté of good intent. A woman who reacts instinctually to the “just” way ultimately discovers that her heroic act unexpectedly creates an overwhelming tension in the family.