Steve Joe is a traditional archaeologist with the Moquohat Nation. Down on his luck, with bad things befalling him and others, Steve wants to set things right. The ancestors demand the repatriation of sacred artifacts so loved ones can finally be at rest, including a loved one whose tragic death haunts Steve in his sleep. Alas, the artifacts are in the hands of the dreaded Royal Western Canadian Museum, who's shipping the First Nations exhibition to Europe so "white peoples can gawk." So, turning to others on the Rez, Steve assembles a crack team of burglars while trying to bamboozle a wealthy and diabolical Russian mobster obsessed with collecting artifacts.

British Columbia's Old Growth forests are virgin forests, untouched since the last ice age. They represent one of the last lines of defense against climate change, and contain scientific properties we barely understand - yet mismanagement and greed have left less than 2.6% of them standing. Only one of hundreds of valleys (outside of parks) remains entirely uncut on Vancouver Island - Fairy Creek (Ada'itsx). An indigenous led movement to prevent the cutting of this last Old Growth watershed has now become Canada's largest act of civil disobedience, and the government response has been alarming. The publicly funded Royal Canadian Mounted Police are aggressively disbanding and arresting the peaceful protesters blocking industry access to these ancient forests, despite numerous recent political conservation commitments to protecting at risk Old Growth forests in B.C. Rematriation follows concerned B.C. citizens exploring the confluence of scientific, cultural, economic and sociopolitical perspectives, as they take a stand to protect the last big trees from being cut down. Like peeling layers back from an onion, the lessons we take away reach far beyond the forests, permeating the very social fabric of Canadian identity.

A Filipino girl is constantly told by her parents that only boys play sports, and only a divine intervention will change their mind.
Content Note: Graphic Content & Religious Themes

Jason meets his great-great-greatgrandfather and soon finds himself in a hilarious debate about what it means to be a hunter.

We have been changed in innumerable ways by the historical event of SARS-CoV-2. Ways that we haven’t begun to comprehend. In this short, an individual reflects on the chaos and monotony of the past year.

Through his father’s gift of a secret and tiny hand-carved cedar canoe, an Indigenous child discovers the strength and resilience to endure his first year at a residential school.

A precocious 9-year-old with a wild imagination grows up amid her traditional Chinese immigrant family in Vancouver.

Tyler (Lulua), a young aspiring filmmaker, spends his days comedically documenting life on the Tl’etinqox Reserve where he lives, but everything changes when he meets the mysterious Aaron (Koostachin) who encourages him to tell a new kind of story. What starts out as a personal project about his family soon leads to the reveal of a shocking secret that threatens to unravel his life. 

A coming of age story that is often funny and surreal, this debut feature from director Trevor Mack is also a poignant look at the importance of family and being in touch with one’s ancestry.

“Portraits from a Fire boasts some superb production values… wrapped around a simple, heartfelt tale that is clearly close to the heart of its 29-year-old director.” – Chris Knight, The National Post

After going in and out of prison for over 30 years after a career of stagecoach robbing, Bill Miner is released in 1901 to a completely new reality. Lost about what to do next, Miner finds his inspiration for his next great adventure from the film The Great Train Robbery. His plan to commit the first ever train robbery leads to a thrilling heist and an intriguing tale full of twists and turns. 

Based on the true story of William Miner (nicknamed the Gentleman Bandit), The Grey Fox won 4 Genie Awards including Best Picture and has been included on TIFF’s top 10 list of the Best Canadian Films of All Time.

In 2016, scientists declared that the Earth has entered a new geological era, one that is entirely the consequence of humanity’s abuse of the planet. This documentary goes around the world illustrating the variety of ways that humanity has affected its environment.

In Kenya, authorities set fire to mounds of elephant tusks to protest the illegal ivory trade, resulting in a devastating display of the impact of poaching. In Russia and Germany, mining operations transform the land into an otherworldly wasteland. The unfathomable scale of the images created by these moments are equal parts beautiful and disturbing.

Following Manufactured Landscapes and Watermark, photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier conclude their award-winning trilogy with an urgent message to all the citizens of the world to see the consequences of our actions, before it’s too late.

Three Punjabi-Canadian sisters await the verdict from the trial of the cousin charged with abusing them as children. In this heavy-hitting documentary, the sisters confront the culture that allowed the abuse to happen, including parents who encouraged their silence.

Gang violence and a maelstrom of crime rock Vancouver in this flashy, dangerous thriller about the Indo-Canadian underworld. Starring Randeep Hooda and Ali Momen. 

The final film in Carl Bessai’s Family X trilogy — following 2008’s Mothers & Daughters and 2010’s Fathers & Sons — tells thoughtful emotional truths touching on themes of jealousy, despair, affection and forgiveness. But this is a comedy, and it mines real relationships for honest laughs as four sets of siblings reunite, none of whom have been close in some time.

With a stellar cast (all of which collaborated on the film's script) including the late Cory Monteith, Gabrielle Miller and Amanda Crew, this lovably dysfunctional story presents a funny, off-kilter vision of familial connections and their intricacies.

When Arctic bush pilot Charlie Halliday (Pepper) is given two rare walrus tusks by a group of Inuit, he agrees to fly a mission of mercy, transporting a sick girl (Piugattuk) to a hospital. It’s the early 1950s, and the brash pilot has flown through the Arctic for years without seriously thinking about the people who live there or how they survive.

Everything changes when Charlie’s plane goes down in the wilderness, leaving him alone with the young girl. Forced to rely on each other, the two form a bond of friendship as the summer months quickly end and winter’s harsh conditions begin to take hold. Based on a story by acclaimed Canadian author Farley Mowat, this is a beautifully rendered tale, set in the gorgeous but desolate Arctic. Director Smith played a key role in an earlier Mowat adaptation, Never Cry Wolf.

“The Snow Walker is a powerful, poignant and transcendent film.” — Bruce Kirkland, Jam! Movies

A lawyer (Holm), pursued by concerns of losing a daughter to drugs, comes to a Canadian town where 20 children have died in a school bus accident. He wants the parents to sue to make those at fault pay. Told partly in flashbacks that dramatize the days leading up to the accident, this heart-wrenching story follows the lawyer from family to family as he coaxes each to join the lawsuit.

As momentum for the case builds, he finds himself squaring off against the lone survivor of the accident (Polley), battling against the power of long-held family secrets. Based on the bestselling novel by Russell Banks, this shattering film won eight Genie Awards and garnered two Oscar nominations for Egoyan.

“Cuts to the bone and stays there long after its end credits have finished rolling.” — Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com

In 1929, the Haisla people of British Columbia returned from a fishing trip to find their tribe’s nine-metre mortuary pole — otherwise known as the G’psgolox — missing, severed at the base. The pole’s fate was a mystery for over 60 years until it surfaced in a Stockholm museum, where members of the Haisla Nation journeyed to in order to get it back in 1991.

Mixing interviews, location photography and awesome footage of Haisla carvers, this unique documentary takes an incredible story and weaves in important commentary on the issue of cultural appropriation and art history.

This touching documentary, narrated by Ryan Reynolds, tells the story of a young killer whale, Luna, who gets separated from his family on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. As rambunctious and surprising as a visitor from another planet, Luna endears himself to the community with his determination to make contact, leading to many unexpected consequences.

The Whale charts the community’s struggle to deal with Luna, since whales who are separated from their pods rarely survive in the wild. Raising more questions than it can answer, the film is a truly compelling exploration of our relationship with animals.

“The issues surrounding the emotional lives of animals — and the often presumptuous assumption of humans that they comprehend them — are explored in The Whale with a quiet dignity and gorgeous images.” — Andy Webster, New York Times

Two Indigenous women from vastly different backgrounds find their worlds colliding on an East Vancouver sidewalk when domestic violence forces one of them, a pregnant teen named Rosie (Violet Nelson), to flee her home.

Àila (Tailfeathers) swiftly offers her shelter, and as their intimate yet challenging encounter develops, the women weave a fragile bond, and must face their own unique struggles with the complexities of motherhood, class, race, and the ongoing legacy of colonialism.

For more than a hundred years, US corporations — including giants like Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Nike — have been treated as “persons” under the law.

But if a corporation is a person, what kind of person is it?

In answering this question, this provocative film takes a mischievous approach. Because the pursuit of profit is behind every corporate decision, corporations fit a classic psychiatric profile: They are psychopaths.

This unexpected conclusion prompts many moral, political and social questions. Full of interviews with corporate insiders and critics, this often humorous documentary is packed with fascinating insights.

Winner of 26 international awards, including 10 Audience Choice awards at film festivals around the world.

By day, Arthur Poppington (Harrelson) works at a construction site; by night, he is the mighty Defendor, a costumed vigilante who keeps Hamilton safe from his arch nemesis, Captain Industry.

Outfitted in a homemade costume, Defendor may not have special powers, but he is nonetheless dedicated to protecting the streets and fighting crime. He battles a corrupt cop (Koteas), befriends the tough and streetwise Kat (Dennings) and schemes to bring down a local mob boss, all while a court-appointed psychiatrist (Oh) tries to get to the bottom of his conviction that he is, in fact, a superhero.

Turning the superhero genre on its head, Defendor is a bittersweet and emotionally affecting take on our comic book–obsessed culture.