Genres: narrative

  • Phone Comes to Jammu, A

    When her relatives in India finally gets a phone, a young woman contemplates how this “new” technology will narrow or widen the gap between her lesbian diasporic self and her relatives overseas. Does easy access guarantee closeness?

  • Thirst

    “Tammy Ballaban wants to leave her mark, to be remembered, to stay safe. So she stops eating. ‘Thirst’ is an unconventional and beautifully structured meditation about eating disorders, hunger and desire, our need for identity, and control. A sumptuous collage of image and sound reflects the amorphous dialectic between conscious and unconscious drives.” – Lynne Fernie Selected screenings: Documentary Channel (Ontario), broadcast, 2006; Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival, 2002; Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Toronto, 2002; Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, 2002.

  • Touch

    “Touch” is an uncompromising work about emotional scarring, the cycle of abuse, and the perverse nature of desire. In a poetic and highly stylized treatment, the film details the tragic journey of a physically and psychologically abused teenaged boy from early childhood trauma through to adolescent dysfunction. Composed in three articulate sections (Captivity, Liberation, Withdrawal), “Touch” is a disturbing tale of a young boy who is held captive for a period of years. When he is mysteriously set free after this long period of deprivation, he is found, hospitalized, psychoanalyzed and treated, but he is unable to adapt to the…

  • Helpless

    Based on a tale from the work of Maritime folklorist Helen Creighton, “Helpless” is set in a fogbound world of superstition and magic. When a strange and terrifying illness befalls Walton Collins’ son Mortimer, the fisherman turns to a mysterious stranger with elemental powers to heal the helpless boy. An unsettling tale from the past, “Helpless” mines the dark realms of sorcery and desire. “Helpless” is conceived as both a cultural film work and an homage to Helen Creighton. The script for “Helpless” comes out of a collaboration with respected visual artist Eric Walker. A native Nova Scotian, Maritime history…

  • Cabbages and Kings

    A dramatic presentation of an alcoholic’s dead-end existence in a small Ontario town. The film shifts confidently between subjective, impressionistic footage – detailing the man’s desperate wanderings in an industrial landscape and fleeting glimpses of impending death – and realistic “documentary” material of his drunken parties, encounters with down-and-out “friends” and run-ins with institutional authorities. The film is strengthened immeasurably by the performances Duffy has drawn from his “actors” – alcoholics who worked closely with him to recreate their own situations. A tightly knit, thought-provoking film which carries a strong emotional impact.

  • Day I Stopped Caring, The

    A short comedy about depression with a melodramatic, Portuguese-guitar soundtrack. A boy is feeling blue and tries, in vain, to get over his depression by eating, drinking and more.

  • All Form, No Substance

    A witty exploration of the mid-1980’s trend of excessive film techniques that seem to add very little substance to a film.

  • 24 Store, The

    Before there was “Clerks,” there was this low-budget comedy from Regina about Phil’s Confectionery. The store is being put out of business by a franchise convenience store down the street. Filmmaker Brian Stockton leads a cast of other filmmakers in this charming, low-key comedy about city life on the prairies.

  • Final Gift, The

    A collaboration between the filmmaker and his grandmother, Edythe Stockton. Shot in a single five-minute take, Edythe reads a poignant short story she wrote, based on her time as a minister in a small prairie town. Filmed in Maryfield, Saskatchewan, Canada.

  • Cleveland in My Dreams

    “Cleveland in My Dreams” is the story of a man haunted by a recurring dream who discovers a simple yet bizarre solution to his problem.