Denis Pilon

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.

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.

Shannon Amen unearths the passionate and pained expressions of a young woman overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety as she struggles to reconcile her sexual identity with her religious faith. A loving elegy to a friend lost to suicide.

A short, expressionist documentary, exploring the relationship between Cedar and three Indigenous women who work with it, weave with it, and live with it.

A quest across three continents driven by a simple yet original idea: to shine a spotlight on the Davids of this world.

Every child knows full well that losing a tooth is only the prologue to a magical experience—namely, a night-time visit from the tooth fairy and the gift she leaves behind. So why, in this case, is the tooth fairy a no-show? These are the sorts of questions a father needs to be able to answer for his son… In this brilliantly simple animated short, Quebec cartoonist Guy Delisle brings to the screen the titular parent of his popular series, Le guide du mauvais père (A User’s Guide to Neglectful Parenting), published by Delcourt. Inspired by a common childhood experience, Delisle uses his trademark wry humour to reflect on the vagaries of parenting. A slice of everyday life, courtesy of the Comic Strip Chronicles.

Many cultures have viewed the lunar eclipse as a powerful reminder of the Day of Judgment. People chant prayers, sing songs and recite poetry, all in an effort to communicate with nature and the cosmic forces in the sky. They ask for forgiveness or understanding, as they yearn for what they fear is lost. “Deyzangeroo” is one such ritual, performed in the Iranian port city of Bushehr, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. The distinctive percussive music, rhythmic chants and tribal dances—an echo of the city’s colonial rule by the British and Portuguese, and the African slaves that followed—are performed with reverence, fear and magic. The ritual is believed to ward off evil spirits and take back the moon. And it works every time…

Meshes of the Ocean is the story of Ron Ingraham, a charming 96-year-old Newfoundlander who immigrated to Canada during the 1940’s, while the territory was still under the British law. In this documentary, Ron weaves his life’s story from his home in the idyllic village of Neil’s Harbour, Cape Breton. He recounts his experiences and the vast changes he witnessed in the fishing industry over the last century and shows his hand-knitting skills while repairing fishing nets, a sustainable practice barely employed today. Through Ron’s story, we acknowledge practices lost over time and the importance of listening and learning while the knowledge is available.

In this short documentary, an ordinary working day in the heart of a granite quarry surreptitiously turns into a spectacular industrial symphony.

Three books: a film festival catalogue, a dictionary, the Bible. Three works whose materiality has become obsolete by the digital dematerialization. A commentary on the fragility of culture.

A young woman, interviewed by her doctor, gradually exposes her past and a vulnerable emotional core.

This animated short by Claude Cloutier is a pictorial account of an attack on Canadian soldiers during WWI. On the edge of the battlefield, recruits are dreading the order to attack. At the signal, a young soldier leaps into a hell of fire and blood where the earth engulfs both the living and the dead. Blending archival images and Cloutier’s hypnotizing brushstroke, the film is a dazzling illustration of the futility of war.

Inspired by an Inuit poem first assigned to paper in 1927, this animated short evokes the beauty and power of nature, as well as the bond between mother and daughter. As her daughter looks on, an Inuit woman creates a wall hanging filled with images of the spectacular Arctic landscape and traditional Inuit objects and iconography. Soon the boundaries between art and reality begin to dissolve.

In this animated short, a self-important colonial explorer emerges from a sailing ship and plants a flag on the Arctic ice, as a bemused Inuit hunter looks on. Then the explorer plants another, and another, and another, while the hunter, clearly not impressed that his land has been “discovered,” quietly goes about his business. In this charming and humorous re-imagining of first contact between Inuit and European, Jonathan Wright brings us the story of a savvy hunter and the ill-equipped explorer he outwits.

This animated short tells the story of Qalupalik, a part-human sea monster that lives deep in the Arctic Ocean and preys on children who do not listen to their parents or elders. That is the fate of Angutii, a young boy who refuses to help out in his family’s camp and who plays by the shoreline... until one day Qalupalik seizes him and drags him away. Angutii's father, a great hunter, must then embark on a lengthy kayak journey to try and bring his son home.

This animated short is a tragic and twisted story about the dangers of revenge. A cruel mother mistreats her son, feeding him dog meat and forcing him to sleep in the cold. A loon, who tells the boy that his mother blinded him, helps the child regain his eyesight. Then the boy seeks revenge, releasing his mother’s lifeline as she harpoons a whale and watching her drown. Based on a portion of the epic Inuit legend “The Blind Boy and the Loon.”

A train runs into a cow on the tracks; with the captain nowhere to be found, the fireman is forced to desperately improvise in order to keep the train going.

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.

Who hasn't felt apprehensive at the thought of starting high school? This is the central theme of this short animated film. Playing on imagination and humour, the director offers viewers a thought provoking piece dealing with the transition that young people between the ages of 10 and 13 experience. Inspired by the work of Escher and Magritte, Catherine Arcand has created a graphically rich film through optical illusions and trompe-l'oeil effects. Her style aptly illustra tes the theme of perceptions and is perfectly suited to conveying the dream world into which the film takes us.

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.

The story of twenty-one American POWs who, after the Korean War ended, chose to live in China instead of returning the USA.

This animated short by Theodore Ushev is like a whirlwind tour of Russian constructivist art and is filled with visual references to artists of the era, including Vertov, Stenberg, Rodchenko, Lissitsky and Popova.

In this animated short, filmmaker Diane Obomsawin shows how childhood can be a chaotic time, especially if you're bouncing back and forth between two continents. With engaging candour and gentle humour, Obomsawin fleshes out an uncertain identity and takes control of her life. Using drawings on paper and digitized snippets of fabric, she creates a whimsical world of simple lines and pastel tones.

Filmmaker Karen Cho travels from Montreal to Vancouver to uncover stories from the last survivors of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, a set of laws imposed to single out the Chinese as unwanted immigrants to Canada from 1885 to 1947. Through a combination of history, poetry and raw emotion, this documentary sheds light on an era that shaped the identity of generations.

In a quest to rediscover the spiritual values of his own people, an African filmmaker from the Gourmantche tribe of Burkina Faso visits an Aboriginal band, the Atikamekw of northern Quebec. The resulting documentary is a dialogue between those who divine the future in the sand with those who use snow-encased sweat lodges to reconnect with the spiritual world.

Filmed at the Wing Fong Farm in Ontario, this documentary follows the tilling, planting and harvesting of Asian vegetables destined for Chinese markets and restaurants. On 80 acres of land, Lau King-Fai, her son and a half-dozen migrant Mexican workers care for the plants. For Yeung Kwan, her son, the farm represents personal and financial independence. For his mother, it is an oasis of peace. For the Mexican workers, it provides jobs that help support their children back home.

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.