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Wapawekka

Director Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)
Year 2010
Run Time 16min
Genre Drama
Josh and his father visit their family cabin in Saskatchewan for the last time, confronting the generational differences between their Cree heritage and Josh's urban lifestyle.

Director

Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)

Danis Goulet is an award-winning Cree/Métis filmmaker from La Ronge, SK, now based in Toronto. Her films have screened at festivals worldwide including Sundance, Berlinale, TIFF, and MoMA. She is a former programmer and current board member for TIFF, and was the former Director of the imagineNATIVE Film+Media Arts Festival. Her latest projects include the TV series Reservation Dogs, and the upcoming feature film Ivy

Writer

Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)

Producers

Christine Kleckner, Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Languages

English, Other Language

Language Versions

EN Subtitles, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

Vtape

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Tia and Piujuq

Director Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)
Year 2018
Run Time 80min
Genre Drama, Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Tia (Bshara) is a 10-year-old refugee from Syria, living in Montreal and struggling to make friends and feel comfortable in her new environment. While her parents are preoccupied with her mother’s pregnancy and the challenges of everyday life in a new place, Tia is left mostly to her own devices. 

Everything changes when she discovers a magical portal that transports her to Igloolik, a community in the Arctic Circle. There she meets Piujuq (Tulugarjuk), an Inuk girl who she quickly forms a deep bond with in spite of their cultural differences. Through their friendship, the stories of Piujuq’s grandmother, and their wanderings across the striking northern landscape, the girls are immersed in Inuit myth and magic. 

A heartwarming magical-realist fable about friendship and discovery, Tia and Piujuq is a delightful adventure for all ages. 

Director

Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)

Writers

Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk), Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Samuel Cohn-Cousineau

Cast

Tia Bshara, Nuvvija Tulugarjuk (Inuk), Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk)

Genres

Drama, Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, Indigenous Filmmaker, Newcomer Stories, Strong Female Leads

Original Languages

English, French, Inuktitut, Other Language

Language Versions

EN CC, FR Subtitles, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

Vtape

Sharkwater Extinction

Director Rob Stewart
Year 2018
Run Time 88min
Genre Documentary

Rob Stewart’s final film brings another urgent message about shark conservation, as a new threat faces this misunderstood predator. While the inhumane practice of shark finning is being banned worldwide, Stewart goes deeper to find the pirates that continue to hunt sharks by manipulating legal loopholes. As beautifully shot and thrilling as his previous films, Sharkwater Extinction is an urgent call to action, in the face of a continuing decline in the worldwide shark population, with millions of sharks still being killed each year.

This was Rob Stewart’s final film before he tragically passed away in 2017, and it stands as a lasting legacy of his activism and courage.

“[Stewart’s] passionate documentary, boasting stirring underwater photography and an equally poignant score, speaks urgently on his behalf.” — Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times

Director

Rob Stewart

Stewart was an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, whose docs Sharkwater, and Revolution earned awards at festivals worldwide. A tireless activist, Stewart was credited with saving a third of the world’s sharks. He tragically passed away in 2017, while filming Sharkwater: Extinction, which was completed posthumously and premiered at TIFF 2018.

Writer

Rob Stewart

Producers

Rob Stewart, Holly Marie Combs, Brian Stewart, Sandra Campbell

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Environment, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

Language Versions

EN CC, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

Bell Media

Maps to the Stars

Director David Cronenberg
Year 2014
Run Time 111min
Genre Drama
The Weiss family seem to be living the Hollywood dream. They have money, fame, the envy of their peers, and more than their fair share of skeletons in their closet. Stafford Weiss (Cusack) is a TV self-help therapist with an A-list clientele. Meanwhile, Cristina (Williams) has her work cut out managing the career of their disaffected child-star son, Benjie (Bird), freshly out of rehab at age 13.

Unbeknownst to them, another member of their brood has just arrived in town – the mysteriously scarred Agatha (Wasikowska), recently released from a psych ward. Agatha befriends a limo driver (Pattinson) and becomes the assistant to one of Stafford’s clients, (Moore) who is haunted by the abuse she suffered at the hands of her legendary mother (Gadon).

A wickedly funny trip into the depravity of Hollywood and a compelling meditation on the ways family can haunt us both literally and figuratively,  Maps to the Stars won 10 awards including two CSAs and two awards at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for 20 others internationally.

Director

David Cronenberg

Writer

Bruce Wagner

Cast

Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, John Cusack, Evan Bird

Producers

Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz, Michel Merkt

Genre

Drama

Interest

Arts and Culture

Original Language

English

Language Versions

EN CC, FR Subtitles, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

eOne

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One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk

Director Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)
Year 2019
Run Time 111min
Genre Drama

It is 1961 in Kapuivik, north Baffin Island, and Noah Piugattuk’s nomadic Inuit band live and hunt by dog team as his ancestors did when he was born in 1900. When the white man known as Boss arrives at Piugattuk’s hunting camp, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens up the prospect of momentous change. 

Boss is an agent of the government, assigned to get Piugattuk to move his band to permanent housing, assimilate his children into settler society and give up their traditional way of life. 

Told through the extended showdown between Inuit camp leader Noah Piugattuk (Kotierk) and a government emissary (Bodnia) (as well as the translator who must help them communicate), One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk is a deeply absorbing account of a little-known and important piece of Inuit and Canadian history.

One Day In The Life Of Noah Piugattuk illustrates Inuit-colonial relationships brilliantly.” - Kelly Boutsalis, NOW Magazine

Director

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)

In 2015, Atanarjuat was selected as TIFF’s number one Canadian film of all time. Kunuk has directed shorts such as Exile and Home and features such as Maliglutit, which was nominated for two CSAs. He recently directed the series Hunting With My Ancestors and executive produced SGaawaay K'uuna (Edge of the Knife). His latest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, premiered at TIFF 2019. Most recently, he directed the short The Shaman’s Apprentice, which won the CSA for Best Animated Short among other awards at festivals worldwide.

Writers

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk), Norman Cohn

Cast

Apayata Kotierk (Inuk), Kim Bodnia, Benjamin Kunuk (Inuk), Tessa Kunuk, Mark Taqqaugaq

Producers

Jonathan Frantz, Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

Inuktitut

Language Versions

EN Subtitles, FR Subtitles, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

RDV Canada

Bar Salon

Director André Forcier
Year 1974
Run Time 84min
Genre Drama, Family

Shot in 1972 but released three years later, Bar Salon is a minimal, subtle drama that tells a tender and socially observant story. This simply shot black-and-white film follows Charles (L’Ecuyer), a down-on-his-luck salon owner who’s on the brink of losing his bar. With nothing left to do but close up shop, he manages to snag a gig that may go his way, but that too goes south.


This tender, witty and relatable slice-of-life film established writer/director André Forcier as a strong new voice in Quebec cinema. Forcier treats his characters with respect and affection, providing compelling insights into the gritty reality of their lives.

Director

André Forcier

Writers

André Forcier, Jacques Marcotte

Cast

Guy L'Écuyer, Françoise Berd, Lucille Bélair, Madeleine Chartrand, Jacques Marcotte

Producer

Jean Dansereau

Genres

Drama, Family

Original Language

French

Language Versions

EN Subtitles, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

Cinema Libre

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Better Than Chocolate

Director Anne Wheeler
Year 1999
Run Time 101min
Genre Comedy

Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) is happy with her life in Vancouver. She works at an LGBTQ+ bookstore owned by Frances (Anne-Marie MacDonald) and has recently fallen head over heels with a young artist named (Christina Cox). When the couple decide to take their romance to the next level and move in together, everything seems perfect.

That is, until Maggie’s recently-divorced mom Lila (Wendy Crewson) and brother Paul turn up at her doorstep, looking to stay with her. The unlikely foursome end up sharing Maggie’s Vancouver loft, and Maggie must decide whether to keep her relationship – and her sexuality – a secret, or reveal who she really is to her well-meaning but naïve and conservative mother.

“Anne Wheeler's sexy, funny, poignant film, from a bright script by Peggy Thompson, is a real charmer, with considerable brains.” – David Noh, FilmJournal International

Director

Anne Wheeler

Writer

Peggy Thompson

Cast

Wendy Crewson, Karyn Dwyer, Christina Cox, Christina Cox, Karyn Dwyer

Producer

Sharon McGowan

Genre

Comedy

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Female Filmmaker, LGBTQ2S+

Original Language

English

Language Versions

EN CC, FR Subtitles, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

TVA Films

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Maliglutit (Searchers)

Directors Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk), Natar Ungalaaq (Inuk)
Year 2016
Run Time 93min
Genre Action/Adventure, Drama
Fifteen years ago, Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk won the prestigious Caméra d’or for Best First Feature at Cannes with Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. His second feature, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, opened TIFF in 2006. A decade later, Kunuk and collaborator Natar Ungalaaq have used the plot of John Ford’s 1956 western The Searchers as inspiration for a very different kind of revenge story, in which an Inuk man and his band of maliglutit ("followers") set out across the barren Arctic in search of the marauders who have ransacked his home and kidnapped his wife.

Like Ford’s film, Kunuk's Maliglutit (Searchers) explores the repercussions of violence, asking whether these hunters have begun to act like those who have torn apart their family. Very unlike Ford, Kunuk questions not only the colonial ideology inherent to the western genre, but also the possibility of justice in a seemingly unjust world. With a tale as timeless as the landscape in which it is set, Canada’s foremost Inuk filmmaker has provided us with another classic.

Directors

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)

In 2015, Atanarjuat was selected as TIFF’s number one Canadian film of all time. Kunuk has directed shorts such as Exile and Home and features such as Maliglutit, which was nominated for two CSAs. He recently directed the series Hunting With My Ancestors and executive produced SGaawaay K'uuna (Edge of the Knife). His latest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, premiered at TIFF 2019. Most recently, he directed the short The Shaman’s Apprentice, which won the CSA for Best Animated Short among other awards at festivals worldwide.

Writers

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk), Norman Cohn

Cast

Benjamin Kunuk (Inuk), Karen Ivalu (Inuk), Jonah Qunaq

Producers

Cara Di Staulo, Jonathan Frantz, Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)

Genres

Action/Adventure, Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

Inuktitut

Language Versions

EN Subtitles, FR Subtitles, Other Subtitles

Canadian Distributor

Isuma Distribution International