Genres: documentary

  • Michael, A Gay Son

    An improvised dramatization of a family counselling session with Michael, a homosexual, and his family. The session is facilitated by an actual social worker, who specializes in such counselling. Each family member is given the opportunity to explore his or her feelings about Michael being homosexual. The film concludes with Michael’s evaluation of his decision to reveal his homosexuality to his family.

  • Minomen Harvest

    “Minomen Harvest” is a documentary of the traditional native method of harvesting wild rice which takes place outside the town of Ardock in Ontario. The August harvest begins with cutting the wild rice by hand, then the drying and winowing. No mechanization is used throughout the entire process. The film ends with a sunrise ceremony that honours Mother Earth, the creator of wild rice.

  • Moffie Called Simon, A

    “A Moffie Called Simon” is a collage of photographs, letters, TV footage and dramatic sequences presenting the case of Simon Nkodi, a black gay activist and student leader in South Africa, who has been in jail for nearly two years. Based on letters from Nkodi and his lover, Ray, a Canadian gay journalist, “A Moffie Called Simon” also explores connections between anti-apartheid struggles and gay liberation.

  • Monarch

    The poetic story of a butterfly’s life from his beginnings in a meadow, through his metamorphosis and his 3000 mile journey to the enchanted forest where Monarchs have gathered for centuries. The exceptional photography and the ethereal flute music by Paul Horn intensify the rainbow ballet of the Monarch’s life.

  • Mondo Punk

    In the beginning were the Sex Pistols. All the ikons of the Punk Movement and more. Anarchistic anti-art calculated to offend. “It’s violent… it scared the shit out of me a couple of times.” – Freddy Pompeii, The Viletones

  • Moose Jaw: There’s a Future in Our Past

    “Appropriate to a context of Canadian de-confederation, “Moose Jaw” is at once a statement of the filmmaker’s own maturation; a regionalist dirge on the fatality of economic dependency; an excavation of our ever-vanishing collective past; and the ironic deconstruction of all the above.” – Michael Dorland, Art Gallery of Ontario Moose Jaw was a frontier boom-town flourishing on the Canadian Pacific rail line forging Canada as a “Dominion” in the late 1800s. But as rail gave way to the jet age, Moose Jaw began to decline. Now, museums dot the landscape (along with a giant moose), and schemes to restore…

  • Artist on Fire: The Work of Joyce Wieland

    Joyce Wieland was, for well over thirty years, one of Canada’s most exciting and innovative artists. She worked in virtually every artistic medium, including cloth works, pastels, coloured pencils, oils, bronze, watercolours, and films of all gauges. One of the founding group of what came to be known as structural filmmakers in New York in the late 60s, she was also one of the first artists of this century to break into women’s traditional crafts as an art form, and used both film and cloth works as platforms for her principal political subjects – ecology, Canadian nationalism, and feminism. This…

  • Moscow Summer

    “Moscow Summer” is a street-level portrait of Moscow and its people. This lyrical documentary interweaves compelling visual sequences with impromptu interviews to create a rich and realistic portrait of the city. While Moscow’s political and social turmoil form an undercurrent in the film, ultimately “Moscow Summer” is a film about love and humanity – and those are the qualities with which it has been made.

  • Music for Wilderness Lake

    Twelve trombonists station themselves around the shore of a wilderness lake. At dawn and dusk, they play meditative music across the water to one another. The quiet and the water allow the sounds to echo back and become part of this piece of wilderness music written by the Canadian composer, R. Murray Schafer. The event, as conceptualized by Schafer, is documented in “Music for Wilderness Lake”. The film shows plans, preparations, and the event itself.

  • As We Are

    A documentary about autistic children and the difficult and often trying process of their education. While attending special art classes in a small well-equipped studio, several children are seen during the delicate and inspired moments of learning self-discovery. Here the teachers meet, with great inventiveness and sensitivity, some of the special challenges posed by autistic children and achieve some moving breakthroughs.