Genres: documentary

  • J’ai Ete Au Bal

    The definitive film on the history of the toe-tapping, foot-stomping music of French Southwest Louisiana. Includes many Cajun and Zydeco greats, featuring Michael Doucet and Beausoleil, Clifton Chenier, Marc and Ann Savoy, D.L. Menard, and many others. DVD includes 30 minutes of bonus footage plus special features.

  • January 15, 1991: Gulf War Diary

    “A personal register of the passing deadline, fashioned entirely in camera. Toward midnight, a trip to a demonstration at the U.S. consulate in Toronto vies for frame with the swirling super-impositions of clocks and newscasts.” – Pleasure Dome, “War and Cinema” program notes, January 15, 1991

  • Jill Johnston: October 1975

    Jill Johnston is the author of “Marmalade Me,” “Gullible’s Travels,” “Lesbian Nation’,” and “Motherbound.” This cinema verité documentary is a portrait of Johnston at work and a feminist author at a transitional point in the women’s movement and in her own career.

  • John Dunsworth – The Candidate

    Ever wonder what it would be like to run for political office? Sure you have! Actor and theatre director John Dunsworth exercises his curiosity about the political process in this look at his life on the campaign trail during the 1988 Provincial election in Nova Scotia.

  • John Nesbitt – Sculptor

    John Nesbitt is one of Canada’s greatest sculptors. Born in Montreal in 1928, he became prominent in art circles in the 1960s. After living in New York for a time, he returned to Canada in the 1970s to live on Cape Breton Island. Since the 1960s, Nesbitt has chosen to avoid public exhibitions in favour of producing a huge body of work outside the commercial environment. However, in the 1980s he is once again exhibiting his work and gaining recognition. “John Nesbitt – Sculptor” is an intimate portrait of the artist at home and at work. The film explores Nesbitt’s…

  • Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge

    80-year-old Julie Lyon, sister of Old Time fiddler Tommy Jarrell, lights up this gem of a film as she spins tales of her Appalachian childhood in North Carolina – and her first romance.

  • Just Before the Dawn

    Whether you’re in Honduras or in California, the symbols of the good life are the same… Coca-Cola, lottery tickets, and designer jeans… the difference is that in Honduras, most people can’t afford to buy. To combat the desperate poverty, the women of Honduras have started to organize. “Just Before the Dawn” focuses on three groups of women in rural Honduras who are discovering they can effect changes they never even dreamed of.

  • Keltie’s Beard: A Woman’s Story

    Before Keltie came along, the women in her family removed their facial hair and told no one. Keltie is proud of her beard and tells her story to us in this single-take film.

  • Lac La Croix

    Native people young and old speak about land issues, the environment, and the culture and history of Lac La Croix Ojibway peoples of northwestern Ontario. The film examines issues such as the community ban on liquor, the fight against welfare dependency, and the effects of the media on young people. “Lac La Croix” was made with the full cooperation of the Lac La Croix community. In the film, many different people speak about their lives and their current political struggles. This is a film about a Native community fighting successfully for survival, blending the old and the new.

  • Lady in a Chair

    This film documents the tragedy of senility as it affects the life of an elderly woman. Whereas she was once in command of language (and culture), she is now victimized by her inability to interact with it. The objects in her home offer no comfort; rather they combine to illustrate the imprisoning nature of her state. She questions the meaning of her continued existence and pleads for help that can never come. The voice used is that of the woman whose plight the film describes; the words are hers and, with two exceptions, the voice was recorded “straight.” Originally shot…