Jean-Paul Vialard

In a remote himalayan region, the villagers of Maikot are preparing for the harvest of a mysterious aphrodisiac caterpillar-mushroom worth more than gold.

Belle River is a film about Louisiana and its peaceful inhabitants, both threatened with extinction by the emergence of the climate crisis.

Exploring the conscious, the unconscious and the self, By Winds and Tides takes a deep experimental dive into the birth of an idea—how it takes shape, how it is released. An allegorical quest, the film combines images and words into a singular sigh.

Cut off from his loved ones due to the strict COVID-19 lockdown at the long-term care facility where he lives, a quadriplegic rabbi is filmed by his daughter while reflecting on love, mortality and longing.

For generations, the sound of traditional Inuit drum dancing fell silent in Labrador due to colonization. In the early 21st century, the beat of the drum returned, and with it a renewed sense of pride in Inuit culture. Evan’s Drum tells the story of seven-year-old Evan Winters of Happy Valley-Goose Bay as he learns from his mother, Amy, how to drum dance. Amy hopes that her son will continue this newly reclaimed tradition and help to pass it on to future generations of Inuit. Labrador Inuk filmmaker Ossie Michelin brings us into the home of the Winters-Allen family for an intimate look as the revitalized tradition of drum dancing is once more passed down through the generations. Evan’s Drum provides a window into modern Inuit family life through the story of Evan and his family, who work alongside their community to keep the drumbeat alive.

The roar of their engines is a short documentary film set in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a territory that still bears the scars of an ongoing 50 years-old conflict, where peace talks are at a standstill. Meanwhile, the Turkish-Cypriot population is aging, silently and away from the spotlight, on disputed and over-militarized lands. This war no longer concerns them.

After marrying a settler, Mary Two-Axe Earley lost her legal status as a First Nations woman. Dedicating her life to activism, she campaigned to have First Nations women's rights restored and coordinated a movement that continues to this day. Kahnawake filmmaker Courtney Montour honours this inspiring leader while drawing attention to contemporary injustices that remain in this era of truth and reconciliation.

According to the official history of Afghanistan, ruthless destruction has always prevailed over art and creation; but there is another tale to be told, the forgotten account of a diverse and progressive country, seen through the lens of innovative filmmakers, a story that survives thanks to a few brave Afghans, a small but very passionate group that secretly fought to save a huge film archive that was constantly menaced by war and religious fanaticism.

The story of a young boy forced to spend all five years of his short life in hospital while the federal and provincial governments argued over which was responsible for his care, as well as the long struggle of Indigenous activists to force the Canadian government to enforce “Jordan’s Principle” — the promise that no First Nations children would experience inequitable access to government-funded services again.

Manivald is a fox in his early 30s. He is still living at home with his mother. One day a young hot wolf called Toomas comes to fix the washing machine. A love triangle develops between the three of them. Things get out of hand and Manivald realizes that it is time to move out.

“Those Who Come, Will Hear” proposes a unique meeting with the speakers of several indigenous and inuit languages of Quebec – all threatened with extinction. The film starts with the discovery of these unsung tongues through listening to the daily life of those who still speak them today. Buttressed by an exploration and creation of archives, the film allows us to better understand the musicality of these languages and reveals the cultural and human importance of these venerable oral traditions by nourishing a collective reflection on the consequences of their disappearance.

Quebec, on the cusp of the 1960s. The province is on the brink of momentous change. Deftly selecting clips from nearly 200 films from the National Film Board of Canada archives, director Luc Bourdon reinterprets the historical record, offering us a new and distinctive perspective on the Quiet Revolution.

Prisoners of their technology-bound lives, Julie and Victor feel disillusioned with humanity. They stumble upon a mysterious group who, after stripping them bare, welcomes them and gives them ready-made roles to play. Joining the strangers, they head into the forest toward an unknown destination, until they suddenly come under attack. As they face this threat together, Julie and Victor will need to separate truth from fiction. Or simply surrender to the pleasure of artifice...

New York, 1905. Visionary inventor Nikola Tesla makes one last appeal to J.P. Morgan, his onetime benefactor.

In the suburbs of Montreal, Mutang is a family man. But in Malaysia, he was a voice of resistance for the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. The documentary A TIME TO SWIM follows Mutang as he returns home for the first time since his exile in 1992. The remote forest village, however, is not like he remembers it. Contrary to the will of the elders, cousins who once stood by him at the blockades are now welcoming the timber companies. Despite the threat of a lingering arrest warrant, Mutang can’t resist taking up his old cause. A TIME TO SWIM explores the effects of environmental destruction on the fabric of a community through the personal story of Mutang’s search for belonging in a place where the very ideas of home and heritage are slipping away.

From out of nowhere, the most beautiful girl in the world sits at the table across from me at the library. Is this a stroke of good luck or bad? Her smile paralyzes me… How will Sam win Nadine’s heart? Must he seek out his inner samurai to fight the monster of his anxiety? Real courage is conquering your fear.

Feisty, fiercely independent and firmly rooted in place, 90 year-old Mabel Robinson broke barriers back in the 40s when she became the first woman in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, to launch her own business—a hairdressing salon where she still provides shampoo-n-sets over 70 years later. Weaving animation and archival imagery with intimate and laugh out loud moments in the salon, the film celebrates the power of friendship, doing what you love and staying active. With no desire to retire anytime soon, Mabel gives voice to a generation who are not front and center of cinema or the pop hairstyles of the day, and subtly shifts the lens on our perception of beauty and the elderly.

While on an airplane, a traveller's spirit plunges into a dream world. Here, under the influence of the unknown, the logic of his desires prevails, and a romantic saga takes shape.

For ancient Mayans, cocoa was as good as gold. For subsistence farmer Eladio Pop, his cocoa crops are the only riches he has to support his wife and 15 children. As he wields his machete with ease, slicing a path to his cocoa trees, the small jungle plot he cultivates in southern Belize remains pristine and wild. His dreams for his children to inherit the land and the traditions of their Mayan ancestors present a familiar challenge. The kids feel their father's philosophies don't fit into a global economy, so they're charting their own course. Rohan Fernando's direction tenderly displays a generational shift, causalities of progress in modern times and a man valiantly protecting an endangered culture. Breathtaking vistas of lush rainforests contrast with the urban dystopia that pulled Pop’s children away from him. Will one child return to carry on a waning way of life

In this documentary shot at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa during a troop deployment to Afghanistan, children and teens talk about the particular circumstances of having soldiers as parents. Directed by Claire Corriveau, Children of Soldiers lifts the veil on a reality shared by thousands of young Canadians, and on the difficulty of finding a balance between loyalty to the troops and staying true to themselves.

Emile is an unhappy little vampire, doing a job he detests, in a world plunged into perpetual gloom. He serves a despotic mistress who loathes wrinkles, in the most extreme way.

A look at the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s as experienced by filmmaker Donald McWilliams.

One winter, a ravenous ogre terrorizes the land of King Balthasar. Meanwhile, a blizzard is brewing in Léon’s heart. Braving the cold, this adopted bear cub runs away from home. Léon has many an adventure during his travels. He befriends a hedgehog and an elephant, confronts an ogre, and sets Princess Molly Gingerbread free. His courage and integrity eventually lead him back to his family. In the end, the cub earns everybody’s respect.

Uncle Bob is getting up in years, but manages quite well, thank you. Then an unexpected illness changes everything. Suddenly he's scooped out of his safe and familiar surroundings and deposited inside the foreign and chaotic world of the hospital. Here the once self-reliant Uncle Bob becomes vulnerable and dependent.

Exploration of the connections between sex, love and technology.

Billionaire businessman Noel Noel is long on cash but short on social graces; so when he finds himself falling for the fairy Beatrice, he mistakenly thinks he can buy her love with material gifts. It takes a little girl named Zooey, her dog Snooze, and a blue-eyed reindeer to help Noel Noel learn the true meaning of love in this animated Christmas fable that features narration by Leslie Nielson (AIRPLANE, NAKED GUN) and music by French-Canadian songstress Ariane Moffatt.

A blend of drama and documentary, this film follows several people caught up in the turmoil of the modern world. The drama centres on a woman who has burned out and who holds up her own despair – and her attempts to rebuild her life – as a mirror to the rest of us. With a blend of gravity and humour, Sylvie Groulx's film shows the absurdity of a society dedicated to the cult of speed at all costs.

A short animation about a boy who sees an iceberg coming. Will he be in time to warn the captain?

In his first short documentary, made for the series Libres courts, filmmaker Danic Champoux points his camera at his own father. This is one of those men who have to uproot themselves and leave their families to be able to work. How many of them have the terrible feeling that they are wasting their life to earn it? Exemplary suppliers, anonymous workers, nomadic builders, they move from factory to dam, from one site to the next and form a society apart. Every day, these men have to rise to the occasion. Each evening, they have to tame the loneliness a little more.

This film illustrates the life of the film director, Shui-Bo Wang in The People's Republic of China. We learn of the life of the director in his own words and images from a child steeped in the values of Chinese communism exemplified by Chairman Mao, to a young man striving to live up to those ideals both as an artist and a soldier.

This documentary focuses on the goose hunt, a ritual of central importance to the Cree people of the James Bay coastal areas. Not only a source of food, the hunt is also used to transfer Cree culture, skills, and ethics to future generations. Filmmaker Paul M. Rickard invites us along with his own family on a fall goose hunt, so that we can share in the experience.

A day-to-day record of the construction of the Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island to the mainland, Abegweit reveals some of the innovations that made this mammoth project one of the most impressive engineering feats in Canadian history.

An abstract animated film, using computer and experimental techniques in choreographing quilt motifs and designs to music. A tribute to the unique and long-established art form of patchwork quilting. A film without words.

An examination of how science and social politics have shaped our notions of homosexuality through history.