Genres: documentary

  • The Blacksmith

    Shot in a traditional blacksmith shop, where the blacksmith uses coal for his fire, we hear as much as we see how this art is executed. There are bumps and grating sounds, sounds of a very hot fire, hammer sounds…and the vivid reds, yellows, blues and white of a very hot fire, along with the earth colors of most of the tools and machines. Finally, from time to time, we hear the blacksmith himself explain the essentials of the process and near the end, we even catch a brief glimpse of his face.

  • Exposure

    “Exposure” is an experimental documentary that explores issues of race, sexuality and cultural identity. A dialogue between two lesbians of colour (Japanese-Canadian and Afro-Caribbean women) is intercut with photographs, texts, paintings and voice-over. Available on DVD on the compilation “Artist Spotlight Series: Michelle Mohabeer.”

  • Truck

    An aging junkie (the filmmaker’s uncle) reflects upon the glories of smack, his rebel / criminal past and getting ‘clean’.

  • Leftovers

    Norma and Virginia lived together in Chicago for almost fifty years. They died isolated, the vibrant lesbian community of their youth long gone; their tiny Chicago bungalow stuffed with objects – matchbook covers of bars where they had danced, paint-by-numbers left half done, bowling shirts Norma wore winning her many trophies, and over two thousand snapshots of lesbian life spanning four decades. An experimental documentary, Leftovers uses Norma and Virginia’s snapshots and objects to explore the unforeseen trajectory of lives lived at the margins. The film is a love story that poses a number of questions. How do we use…

  • Roundtrip

    A diptych filmed on a journey between Montreal and New York City. My last roll of Ektachrome to commemorate an important day when two became unified in the act of giving. 

  • [T]

    “[T] is a film at the limit of cinema, an experiment in the moving image where stillness and movement converge on each other to produce an experience of time as space. Philippe Leonard shot the footage for this remarkable work at Times Square, in New York City, during the hours of artificial illumination. Partly for this reason, it is an oneiric diary, tempted by myth and, at the same time, suffused by a melancholy sense that myth has lost its magical power. Faces appear and disappear in spasmodic waves of light, which emanate from billboards and mobile telephone screens and…

  • Eye of the Mask

    “Eye of the Mask” reveals for Canadian audiences another view of life in Nicaragua. Set against the backdrop of the 1979 Sandinista revolution and the continuing contra attacks, many Nicaraguans were involved in the resurgence of popular theatre. It’s theatre based on both folkloric and experimental techniques. Judith Doyle and her crew focus on one of the most exciting and important of these theatre groups – Nixtayolero (Dawn Star) and its director, Alan Bolt. The film follows Nixtayolero as they travel to perform in remote, rural areas. Their work, and the response of their audiences, is juxtaposed with film of…

  • Neither God Nor Santa Maria

    Since airplanes did not exist, people moved around using prayers, they went from one land to another and returned early, before dawn. In old audio recordings, the voices of pastors speak of the mythical existence of witches and their travels. In the daily life of a woman the magic of her tales begin to materialize as night falls. Night is the time when travel is possible.

  • Learning To Milk A Cow

    When the filmmaker’s grandmother was 19, she was taken from Soviet Ukraine to Germany to work on a Bavarian farm under National Socialism. She had the luck and perseverance to survive hardships of the forced famine in her homeland and forced labour in the new one. The stories of her everyday life – learning how to milk a cow, falling in love – are interspersed with three generations of reflections on politics, longing, feelings of displacement and loss. Hand-processed black & white film, colour film, photographs and official documents create a montage of different perspectives. The hand-touch aesthetic combines with…

  • Tale Of Winter

    Tale of Winter focuses on the societal indifference towards homeless people. One the of the biggest challenges of ours times is the lack of empathy towards the underprivileged, the poor, the deranged: the people who live on the margins of the society but who are often treated as if they are invisible, ignorable or as if they are nuisances. With Tale of Winter, I would like to draw attention to how much and how easily we disregard that which is right in front of us, that which call for our sensitivity and understanding.