Another Planet

Director Christene Browne
Year 1999
Run Time 93min
Genre Drama
A young woman unsure of her cultural heritage, arrives in rural Quebec, Canada.

Director

Christene Browne

Writer

Christene Browne

Cast

Sandy Daley

Producer

Christene Browne

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Black Filmmaker, Female Filmmaker

Original Languages

English, French

Le coyote (The Coyote)

Director Katherine Jerkovic
Year 2022
Run Time 89min
Genre Drama
A widower's estranged daughter suddenly reappears with a grandson he didn't know about.

Director

Katherine Jerkovic

Writer

Katherine Jerkovic

Cast

Enzo Desmeules Saint-Hilaire, Jorge Martinez Colorado

Producer

Nicolas Comeau

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Newcomer Stories

Original Languages

French, Other Language

Black Life: Untold Stories – Northern Beats

Director Will Prosper
Year 2023
Run Time 44min
Genre Documentary

A musical look at the rise of hip hop in Canada, as told by some of its earliest pioneers, culminating in the worldwide success of artists like Drake and The Weeknd.

Director

Will Prosper

Writers

Leslie Norville, Margot Daley

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Arts and Culture, BIPOC Stories, Black Filmmaker, History

Original Language

English

Fractured Land

Directors Sylvia Jonescu Lisitza, Damien Gillis, Fiona Rayher
Year 2015
Run Time 75min
Genre Documentary
With some of the world's largest fracking operations on his territory, a young indigenous leader and lawyer confronts the fractures within his community and himself as he struggles to reconcile traditional teachings with the law to protect the land.

Directors

Sylvia Jonescu Lisitza, Damien Gillis, Fiona Rayher

Writers

Daniel Conrad, Fiona Rayher

Producers

Damien Gillis, Fiona Rayher

Genre

Documentary

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Environment

Original Language

English

Café Daughter

Director Shelley Niro (Kanien'kehaka)
Year 2023
Run Time 93min
Genre Drama

Tells the story of a nine year old half-Chinese half-Cree girl, Yvette Wong. On top of struggling to find her place in a small Saskatchewan community in the 1960s, she is also faced with the passing of her mother, who always told her children not to let anyone know they were Native Indian, as she believed they would have a better life if this information was kept hidden. Yvette confronts racism on the prairies in the classroom, with teachers and fellow students letting her know she is different from them. Despite wanting to be a doctor, her teacher states that girls can't be doctors, and that maybe she would be better suited as a nurse. Yvette begins to explore and embrace her Cree identity when she befriends Maggie Wolf, a part Mi'kmaq girl who encourages Yvette to be proud of her ancestry. When her Cree ancestry is revealed at school, Yvette confronts discrimination, but perseveres to pursue her dream of going to medical school.

Director

Shelley Niro (Kanien'kehaka)

Writers

Shelley Niro (Kanien'kehaka), Kenneth T. Williams

Cast

Violah Beauvais (Mohawk)

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

English

Mi’ma’omakw: People of the Salmon

Director Damien Gillis
Year 2021
Run Time 17min
Genre Documentary

For well over ten thousand years, the First Nations of BC’s Broughton Archipelago have lived in harmony with their environment, thriving on a diet of wild salmon and seafood which they’ve stewarded sustainably… that is, until Norwegian owned open net pen fish farms showed up and began polluting these coastal waters with their waste, parasites and diseases. Now, these nations are reclaiming their territories, leading the science-based removal of fish farms in an effort to bring back wild salmon.

Director

Damien Gillis

Genre

Documentary

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Environment

Original Language

English

Hey, Viktor!

Director Cody Lightning (Cree)
Year 2023
Run Time 102min
Genre Comedy

Twenty-five years after starring in the hit 90s film Smoke Signals, Cody Lightning directs and stars in this uproarious mockumentary about a fictionalized version of himself attempting to make a sequel. When a mysterious fan offers a full budget for the film, Cody jumps at the chance, promising the full participation of the original cast. The only thing standing in his way is the small fact that the entire original cast hates him. 


A refreshing and occasionally raunchy comedy, this charming underdog story is a great movie about how to make a terrible one.

Director

Cody Lightning (Cree)

Writer

Cody Lightning (Cree)

Cast

Cody Lightning (Cree)

Producers

Blake McWilliam, Sara Corry, Samuel Miller, Kyle Thomas

Genre

Comedy

Interests

Arts and Culture, BIPOC Stories, Cult & Offbeat Cinema, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

English

Cette maison (This House)

Director Miryam Charles
Year 2023
Run Time 75min
Genre Documentary, Drama, Experimental

Drawing from the events surrounding her fourteen-year-old cousin’s murder in 2008, director Miryam Charles wants to finally unpack her grief and the trauma associated with it. Through dream-like reenactments of her own childhood and an imagined life for her cousin, Charles delves into the changing emotional, political, and historical climates surrounding her family as Haitian-Canadians in Quebec.


This beautifully crafted film is a bold and thought-provoking look at family, and a moving tribute to a life tragically cut short.


“A daring blend of documentary and fantasy that invests a deeply personal drama with a wide historical scope.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Director

Miryam Charles

Writer

Miryam Charles

Cast

Schelby Jean-Baptiste

Producer

Felix Dufour-Laperriere

Genres

Documentary, Drama, Experimental

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Black Filmmaker, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Newcomer Stories

Original Language

French

Ru

Director Charles-Olivier Michaud
Year 2023
Run Time 120min
Genre Drama, Family
After a perilous journey across the pacific, a family of Vietnamese refugees settles in Montreal, in the hopes of starting a new life. Through a series of flashbacks, the whole picture of their story comes into view, as seen by the youngest family member, Tinh (Djandji), who is still processing the trauma of what they left behind, and struggling with her new setting and language. 

Brilliantly adapted from Kim Thúy’s Governor General Award-winning novel of the same name, this compassionate story of resilience in the face of adversity is stunningly captured and deeply moving.

“An exceptional and beautiful film.” – Isobel Grieve, Montréal Guardian

Director

Charles-Olivier Michaud

Writers

Kim Thúy, Charles-Olivier Michaud, Jacques Davidts

Cast

Chloé Djandji

Producers

André Dupuy, Marie-Alexandra Forget

Genres

Drama, Family

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Global Experiences, Literary Adaptation, Newcomer Stories

Original Languages

French, Other Language

The Queen of My Dreams

Director Fawzia Mirza
Year 2023
Run Time 97min
Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance

Azra (Kaur), a young Queer Pakistani-Canadian woman, has long felt disconnected from her mother, Mariam (Bucha). Reuniting in Pakistan for her father’s funeral in 1999, flashbacks to 30 years earlier show a young Mariam (played in a dual role by Kaur) falling in love with Azra’s father, Hassan (Haq). Jumping back and forth between these two coming-of-age stories, the connections between mother and daughter become more and more clear – but will they realise this in time to save their relationship?


Sumptuously capturing the feel of a Bollywood film while telling a relatable cross-continental story, Fawzia Mirza’s impressive debut feature is an instant classic.


“Mirza has created a film bursting with creative energy and distinctive aesthetic sensibilities.” – Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter

Director

Fawzia Mirza

Writer

Fawzia Mirza

Cast

Amrit Kaur

Producers

Marc Tetreault, Jason Levangie, Andria Wilson

Genres

Comedy, Drama, Romance

Interests

Asian Filmmaker, BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, LGBTQ2S+, Newcomer Stories, Strong Female Leads

Original Languages

English, Other Language