Interest: Biography
Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr
His subsequent detention at Guantanamo Bay, a harsh prison on the southern coast of Cuba, became the topic of a major political debate, as child soldiers have not been prosecuted for war crimes since WWII.
Guantanamo’s Child gives Khadr a chance to speak for himself on camera for the first time. More than just a stirring story, this documentary delivers an engrossing intimate portrait of how a teenager from a Toronto suburb became the first juvenile to ever be tried for war crimes.
Directors
Michelle Shephard, Patrick Reed
Producers
Peter Raymont, Patrick Reed, Michelle Shephard
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Biography, BIPOC Stories, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Birth of a Family
Between 1955 and 1985, the federal and provincial governments in Canada took an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children from their homes and placed them in the child welfare system. Often referred to as the Sixties Scoop, this policy was part of the same trend of forced assimilation as residential schools.
Betty Ann was one of these children, and over several decades has worked tirelessly to track down her three siblings. As the foursome piece together their shared history, their family begins to take shape.
This film tackles grief, redemption and discovery as it chronicles the family’s emotional reunion and captures an event that remains painfully elusive for many Indigenous people.
Director
Tasha Hubbard (Cree)
Hubbard is an award-winning filmmaker and an assistant professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of English. Her writing-directing project Two Worlds Colliding won a Gemini and a Golden Sheaf Award. She has also directed the short film 7 Minutes, and the feature docs Birth of a Family and nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, which won Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs and at the CSAs. She is currently directing the feature doc Singing Back the Buffalo.
Writers
Betty Ann Adam (Dene), Tasha Hubbard (Cree)
Producer
Bonnie Thompson
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Biography, BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, ESL, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads
Original Language
English
Stories We Tell
As Polley interrogates each of her subjects in turn, contradictory accounts emerge, and longstanding efforts to hide some painful truths eventually become futile.
The “stories we tell” — that all families tell in one way or another — turn out to obscure as much as they reveal, and the whole idea of the purpose of narrative is called into question in a way that is both fascinating and poignant.
Director
Sarah Polley
Polley won a screenwriting Oscar nomination for Away From Her, and directed Take This Waltz and Stories We Tell. She wrote and produced Alias Grace, a miniseries based on Margaret Atwood’s novel, which premiered at TIFF 2017. In 2022 she published the essay collection Run Toward the Danger. Her most recent feature, an adaptation of Miriam Toews’ Women Talking, premiered at TIFF 2022.
Writer
Sarah Polley
Producers
Silvia Basmajian, Anita Lee
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Biography, Female Filmmaker, History
Original Language
English
The Man Who Invented Christmas
After a string of flops, Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey) finds inspiration from his own life to write his most famous work, A Christmas Carol. With a tight deadline and doubt over how successful a Christmas book can be, Dickens must work around the clock and ends up living out the novel’s most famous scenes in his own study, in order to find the story that would come to be beloved by millions.
Also featuring screen legend Christopher Plummer as Ebenezer Scrooge, The Man Who Invented Christmas is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the creation of a classic and beloved novel, and a charming portrait of one of the most famous authors of all time.
“A surprisingly fresh movie about a story we all know very well.” - Peter Howell, The Toronto Star
Director
Bharat Nalluri
Writers
Susan Coyne, Les Standiford, Charles Dickens
Cast
Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce
Producers
Niv Fichman, Robert Mickelson, Vadim Jean, Ian Sharples, Susan Mullen
Genre
Drama
Interests
Arts and Culture, Asian Filmmaker, Biography, History
Original Language
English
Twenty-one-year-old Ricardo (Boucher) is a screenwriting student in Montreal, where he dreams about striking up a romance with his classmate Marie-Ève (Gosselin). When she announces that she’ll be going on an exchange trip to Italy, Ricardo can only see one option for himself: to follow her — and his heart — on the trip, and perhaps reconnect with his own Italian roots along the way. Of course, nothing on the trip goes as he expects, and connecting with Marie-Ève seems further away than before.
The charming and funny story is based on director Ricardo Trogi’s own coming-of-age experiences, and was a box office smash and winner of the Golden Screen Award (for biggest Canadian box office gross of the year). The film was nominated for 16 Prix Iris awards and won five, including those for best film and best director.
Director
Ricardo Trogi
Writer and director Trogi’s first film, Québec-Montréal, earned him a Jutra Award for Best Direction and Best Screenplay. His credits also include Horloge biologique, Le Mirage, and the coming-of-age trilogy 1981, 1987, and 1991. He recently co-wrote two seasons of La Maison-Bleue and directed the feature Le Guide de la famille parfaite.
Writer
Ricardo Trogi
Cast
Sandrine Bisson, Jean-Carl Boucher, Mamoudou Camara, Giuseppe Cantore, Juliette Gosselin
Producer
Nicole Robert
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Interest
Biography
Original Language
French
Jordan Gordon’s Guide to Kuujjuaq
Director
Jordan Gordon (Inuk)
Writer
Jordan Gordon (Inuk)
Genres
Comedy, Documentary
Interests
Biography, BIPOC Stories, Environment, Indigenous Filmmaker
Original Language
English
Refuge in the Rockies
Director
Kaio Kathriner
Writers
Kaio Kathriner, Tom Malenica
Producers
Matt Drake, Tony Cerciello, Kaio Kathriner
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Biography, BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, Global Experiences, Newcomer Stories, Social Justice & Politics, Sports
Original Language
English
Ryan Reynolds: I’m a Laureate?
In a Canadian twist on a classic late night comedy bit, Ryan Reynolds reads out “nice tweets” while discussing his life and career.
Director
Christopher Auchter (Haida)
Cast
Ryan Reynolds
Producer
Nicholas Klassen
Genre
Documentary
Interest
Biography
Original Language
English
Inside Hana’s Suitcase
When Fumiko Ishioka, a teacher in Japan, requests artifacts from a Holocaust museum to illustrate the history of WWII to her students, one item she receives is a suitcase labelled “Hana Brady.” As she and her students unravel Hana’s story, the film seamlessly transports audiences through 70 years of history, back and forth across three continents.
“Larry Weinstein’s deft, unique balance of documentary and narrative techniques helps…convey the combination of deep personal trauma and epic atrocity at the heart of Inside Hana’s Suitcase…a lovely, accessible and moving work.” — Kieran Grant, EYE Weekly
Director
Larry Weinstein
Weinstein has received three Gemini awards for his work, including Best Direction for Beethoven’s Hair. Weinstein also directed the docs Mulroney: The Opera, The Devil’s Horn, Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star, and Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas, and co-directed Our Man In Tehran. His latest, Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies, premiered at Hot Docs 2019.
Writer
Thomas Wallner
Cast
Daniel Hajek, Jindriska Hanusová, Linda Drexlerova, Karim Tarakji
Producers
Rudolf Biermann, Jessica Daniel, Larry Weinstein
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Biography, Discrimination, ESL, Global Experiences, History, Literary Adaptation
Original Language
English
Thunderbird
The amazing story of Steven Collins, a First Nations ski jumper who competed in the Olympics when he was only 15 years old.
Director
Erin Collins (Anishinaabe)
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Biography, BIPOC Stories, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Sports
Original Language
English