Michèle Bélanger

In both amateur and professional sports, being gay remains taboo. Few dare to come out of the closet for fear of being stigmatized, and for many, the pressure to perform is compounded by a further strain: whether or not to affirm their sexual identity. Standing on the Line takes a fresh and often moving look at some of our gay athletes, who share their experiences with the camera. They’ve set out to overcome prejudice in the hopes of changing things for the athletes of tomorrow.

A solitary man works in a tall office building. The only moment in his drab life that's out of the ordinary each year seems to be opening the birthday card and gift from his mother. Usually it's a tie, but one year it's an accordion. It goes into the closet with his many ties. A year or two later, he discovers what happens to the papers he processes every day. His discovery sends him first to the building's top floor, then to his closet.

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.

The selfishness of the bourgeoisie and the dull passivity of its servants are the theme of this puppet animation presenting the tragicomedy of a society in its death throes, taking refuge in absurd behaviour.

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.

What do two kids do after their TV explodes? On this quite extraordinary day, they turn into kids again. They burst into laughter for no reason and become so light they float off to a wonderful desert island. But you can't channel-surf on an island, and once the wonder wears off...

The curtains of a theatre open onto a smaller puppet theatre presided over by Marianne. The ringmaster waves her baton at three shadowy acrobats that climb one by one out of her hat. Each performs his number, although not without some difficulty. The clumsiness of the first, the mischievousness of the second, and the fieriness of the third trigger a few clashes that ultimately lead to chaos. How can Marianne create harmony without losing control? Will her show flop? Who's really calling the shots, the little puppet or her acrobats?

The film is an abstract allegory, showing two penguins with different ideas abot sea creatures that are their food or their shadows, depending on the perspective. Basically, sense-twisting animation.

For an Inuit fisherman, technology means absurdity. Floating out on a block of ice, he doesn't have any other choice to grab onto some flying fish to save himself.