In this gorgeously shot documentary, Ryan Mullins is guided by a former projectionist on a tour of a derelict movie theatre in rural Ghana that is now serving as a make-shift school. 

A hilarious take on a “not too distant future” in which we no longer need old fashioned forms of communication like (ugh!) talking.

Narrated by Tanya Davis to beautiful hand-drawn illustrations by Dorfman, Davis’s eloquent poem is full of powerful truths. With over 9.5 million views on YouTube, the film is an online sensation.

An intimate portrait of the inspirational Ray Sanderson, a single father blinded by gun violence who pleads for us to look at things differently.

“It’s remarkable how easily a human spirit can be broken,” this punchy short about bullying laments. But, as the animation assures us, it’s just as remarkable how it can be fixed.

An animator finds a unique way to deal with the fact that yellow sticky notes are taking over his life. 
 

In her first winter in Canada after her family moved from India, Gita finds a special way to celebrate Divali, the Hindu festival of lights.

For three teenage girls growing up in Kahnawake — and indeed, all teenagers on the reserve — life can be quite confusing. If they want to move away to pursue new experiences — perhaps in nearby Montreal — they risk losing credibility, or worse yet, their rights as Mohawk women. Of course, if they stay, their opportunities in the tiny community are limited.

With insight, humour and heart, director Tracey Deer (who left Kahnawake to attend school and pursue filmmaking) returns to her community to follow these Mohawk girls and tell their stories. Her deeply emotional documentary reveals the complex hope, heartache and promise of growing up Indigenous in the 21st century.

In 1979, when the US embassy in Iran was seized by militant Islamic revolutionaries, six American diplomats managed to escape. They found shelter in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor and eventually escaped the strife-torn country, thanks to his efforts.

These events were fictionalized in the Hollywood film Argo, but this fascinating doc sets the record straight through archival footage and the words of those who experienced it, all culminating in the fantastical plan devised to smuggle the fugitives out.

“Sometimes, the truth can be more entertaining than fiction. If Argo was a high-stakes political thriller…it was also a simplistic and escapist escape movie about the power of Hollywood to defeat evil. So now…we Canadians respond with a documentary to reclaim our true story.” — Simon Houpt, The Globe and Mail

Originally produced for the CBC (but not aired on TV due to profanity), Warrendale is one of Allan King’s most searing and revealing pieces of work. King places us inside Warrendale (a facility for troubled youth in Toronto’s Rexdale community) like a fly on the wall, and we witness the full spectrum of emotions displayed by 12 fascinating children and the caregivers trying to nurture and guide them.

The stunning Warrendale won the Prix d’art et d’essai at the Cannes film festival and a special documentary award from the National Society of Film Critics.

The Speed Sisters are the first all-women race car driving team in the Middle East. They're bold. They're fearless. And they're tearing up tracks all over Palestine.

This powerful documentary chronicles the trial of Oskar Gröning, one of the last surviving perpetrators of the Holocaust and a former members of the SS. In 2015, the 94 year old was brought to trial for his role in the murder of 300,000 Jewish people.

This thought-provoking and insightful film explores his life and actions before, after and during the Second World War. An emotionally affecting and intellectually challenging look at responsibility, forgiveness, justice, and the role of an individual in one of human history’s greatest evils.

The runner-up for the audience award at the 2018 Hot Docs festival, this deeply affecting documentary has resonated with critics and audiences around the world.

A lyrical ode to the hard work, determination, and kinship of the fisherman of Gesgapegiag First Nation.

Filmmaker Nettie Wild notes that in Canada, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994, was a matter for lively discussion and political debate. In Chiapas, one of the poorest states in Mexico, it provoked an actual revolution.

In this remarkably clear-eyed and vivid documentary, Wild follows the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) as they fight and evade the Mexican army. Wild takes viewers on a journey through fear and hope, telling a complex story of Indigenous rights and corporate interests in the wake of NAFTA.

The film won the Genie for Best Documentary, among several other awards.

In 1969, the community of Old Massett raised a totem pole carved by Robert Davidson, the first new pole in Haida Gwaii in almost a century. 50 years later, a Haida filmmaker remixes the incredible archival footage and animation to reflect on the important event.

This Canadian documentary chronicles the era of lesbian-themed pulp romance paperbacks of the 1950s, a time when titles such as “Odd Girl Out” spoke to the isolated and confused young lesbians of the era. Ten women (including one of the authors of these novels), talk about being queer in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, discovering these books, and going through their own first love affairs and painful breakups.

The hardships they faced (from being shunned by their families to enduring police raids) are interspersed with archival footage and four dramatized chapters from a pulp novel, Forbidden Love. The desperate measures resorted to by the protagonists in these works of pulp fiction are shown to have been quite tame compared to the real-life experiences of these women.

The film won the Genie Award for best feature documentary.

“It is testimony to how clever the film and filmmakers are that a documentary about history continues to seem so utterly timeless.” – Matthew Hays, POV Magazine

Bret Sergeant Hart — known in the professional wrestling world as Bret “The Hitman” Hart — was one of the greatest pro wrestlers in the sport’s history.

In 1997, at the Summer Series in Montreal, Hart put his WWF (now WWE) title on the line against Shawn Michaels, where the two privately agreed to end the fight with a no contest conclusion.

Referred to in the wrestling community as the “Montreal Screwjob,” the agreement was believed to be a secret betrayal of Hart, who was one of the WWF’s most popular performers. In the end, Michaels won the match, and Hart lost his title.

Jay’s award-winning documentary is an honest and engaging look at a world-famous career of highs and lows.

In July of 1990, the Oka Crisis was a critical moment in contemporary Canadian history and a turning point for Indigenous affairs. That summer, as the small Quebec community was thrust into the international spotlight, master filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin spent 78 nail-biting days filming the armed stand-off between the Mohawks of Kanehsatake, Quebec, the Quebec police and the Canadian army.

This powerful documentary takes you right to the heart of the action, painting a sensitive and deeply affecting portrait of the people behind the barricades.

Winner of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Best Canadian Feature Film prize.

One of the masters of Canadian documentary cinema, Alanis Obomsawin has spent decades chronicling the injustices visited on First Nations communities, creating a remarkable body of work. In her latest film, she digs into the difficult history of Treaty 9, the infamous 1905 agreement in which First Nations communities allegedly relinquished their sovereignty over their traditional lands.

Setting the film against the recent resurgence of First Nations activism (Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike and the Idle No More movement), Obomsawin interviews legal, historical and cultural experts — as well as people whose ancestors were present when the treaty was signed — to explore some fundamental questions about Canada’s relationship with our First Nations.

“Obomsawin’s documentaries inform, inspire and shock us. Trick or Treaty? is no different.” — Nadya Domingo, Toronto Film Scene

Adapted from the much-celebrated novel by the late Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese, Indian Horse is a powerful drama that delves deep into the shameful history of Canada’s Residential Schools.

The young protagonist of Wagamese’s saga – brought to the screen by a team that includes director Stephen Campanelli, screenwriter Dennis Foon and executive producer Clint Eastwood — Saul comes to know the worst of the system’s abuses after a series of family tragedies leave him in the care of authorities in Manitoba of the late 1950s.

When one of the priests – played by Michiel Huisman of Game of Thrones – recognizes Saul’s hockey talents, a potential pathway opens up before the youngster but like so many survivors of the schools, he remains haunted by the traumas of the past.