Can I Get a Witness?

Director Ann Marie Fleming
Year 2024
Run Time 110min
Genre Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Director

Ann Marie Fleming

Fleming is a visual artist, filmmaker and writer who has animated over 20 films, including the shorts Stories Sarah Tells, Big Trees, A Short Film About Tegan & Sara, Question Period, and Old Dog. Her features include New Shoes, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, The French Guy and Can I Get a Witness, which premiered at TIFF 2024. Fleming has won nearly 20 awards and nominations for her films, including 15 for Window Horses

Writer

Ann Marie Fleming

Cast

Joel Oulette (Cree/Métis), Sandra Oh, Keira Jang

Producer

Ann Marie Fleming

Genre

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Interests

Arts and Culture, Asian Filmmaker, BIPOC Stories, Environment, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

500 Days in the Wild

Director Dianne Whelan
Year 2023
Run Time 124min
Genre Documentary

Director

Dianne Whelan

Writers

Dianne Whelan, Tanya Maryniak

Cast

Dianne Whelan

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Environment, Female Filmmaker, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Seeds

Director Kaniehtiio Horn (Mohawk)
Year 2024
Run Time 82min
Genre Horror, Thriller

In this tense thriller, a Mohawk internet personality receives her first sponsorship, promoting the seed and fertilizer company Nature's Oath. But when she returns to her reserve, she discovers a dark side to the company that threatens both her and her people.

 

Director

Kaniehtiio Horn (Mohawk)

Writer

Kaniehtiio Horn (Mohawk)

Cast

Kaniehtiio Horn (Mohawk), Meegwun Fairbrother (Ojibway), Cherish Violet Blood (Kainai), Graham Greene (Oneida)

Producers

Leonard Farlinger, Jennifer Jonas

Genres

Horror, Thriller

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Environment, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Yintah

Directors Brenda Michell (Wet'suwet'en), Jennifer Wickham (Wet'suwet'en), Michael Toledano
Year 2024
Run Time 88min
Genre Documentary
In early 2020, the Wetʼsuwetʼen land defense exploded into the headlines, and sparked a national conversation  – but the story behind it had been brewing for nearly a decade. Exploring the work of the Indigenous leaders of the blockade, including the sacrifices they made to dedicate their lives to this cause, this documentary offers new insight into this crucial moment in Canadian history.

Capturing footage that startlingly echoes Alanis Obomsawin’s 1994 film Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, this is a story we can’t afford to forget. Winner of the Audience Award at Hot Docs 2024.

“An incendiary feat of filmmaking” – Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
 

Directors

Brenda Michell (Wet'suwet'en)

Brenda Mitchell is Tsakë ze’ K‑eltiy (a hereditary chief) of the Unist'ot'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation. In addition to participating in Wet’suwet’en governance, she has worked in post-secondary education for the Lake Babine Nation Band for decades, and is currently a resident Elder, language teacher and addictions counselor. Yintah is her first documentary. 

Jennifer Wickham (Wet'suwet'en)

A member of the Cas Yikh (Grizzly House) of the Gidimt’en (Bear/Wolf) Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, Wickham is a poet, youth advocate, and a committed land defender and activist whose work includes language and culture revitalization. She has worked as Media Coordinator for Gidimt’en Checkpoint since 2018. Yintah is her first documentary. 

Michael Toledano

Michael Toledano is a journalist, photographer, and documentarian whose work focuses on environmental pollution and Indigenous land defense. His reporting has appeared on Al Jazeera America, VICE, Ricochet, Upworthy, Rabble, and other outlets. His footage has appeared on CBC News, CTV, CP24, CityNews, APTN, and Democracy Now. Yintah is his first feature documentary. 

Producer

Bob Moore

Genre

Documentary

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, Environment, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

Singing Back the Buffalo

Director Tasha Hubbard (Cree)
Year 2024
Run Time 99min
Genre Documentary
Decades after they were driven almost to extinction, the fight to restore North America’s buffalo population continues to rage on. Activists in Indigenous communities across the continent are determined to restore the buffalo’s place on the Great Plains, knowing that they are essential to the survival of our ecosystem.

This epic and inspiring documentary not only offers a new perspective on our connection to the land, it shows us what’s possible when we come together. Singing Back the Buffalo is an essential call to take notice – and take action.

“Tasha Hubbard has created a piece of living history” – Caitie Talty, In the Seats
 

Director

Tasha Hubbard (Cree)

Hubbard is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and an associate professor in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies. Her NFB documentary 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 Familynîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, which won 14 awards, including the CSA for best documentary and Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs 2019. She is a founding director of the International Buffalo Relations Institute. Her documentary Singing Back the Buffalo won three awards and was nominated for four others.

Writer

Tasha Hubbard (Cree)

Producers

George Hupka, Tasha Hubbard (Cree), Jason Ryle (Anishinaabe)

Genre

Documentary

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Environment, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

Being Caribou

Directors Leanne Alison, Diana Wilson
Year 2004
Run Time 72min
Genre Documentary
Wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer and his wife, environmentalist Leanne Allison follow a herd of 120,000 caribou on foot across 1500 km of Arctic tundra, hoping to raise awareness of the threats to the caribou's survival. Along this journey, they brave torrid conditions, dangerous wildlife and treacherous terrain all in the hopes of learning the truth about this epic migration.

Directors

Leanne Alison, Diana Wilson

Genre

Documentary

Interest

Environment

Bluefin

Director John Hopkins
Year 2016
Run Time 53min
Genre Documentary
Endangered giant bluefin tuna have returned to Prince Edward Island, Canada, in surprising abundance after a complete disappearance from overfishing, but renewed human interference threatens to drive them away permanently. This fascinating documentary explores the baffling mystery of why the normally wary bluefin tuna no longer seem to fear humans.

Director

John Hopkins

Writer

John Hopkins

Cast

Carl Safina, Brian Skerry, Boris Worm

Genre

Documentary

Interest

Environment

Original Language

English

Pour la suite du monde (For Those Who Will Follow)

Directors Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault
Year 1963
Run Time 105min
Genre Documentary
For centuries, the villagers of Île aux Coudres, a small island in the St. Lawrence River, hunted beluga whales by creating a sort of “fence” of saplings in shallow, muddy waters, trapping the mammals in low tide as they swim by.

In 1962, Michel Brault and a team of filmmakers travelled to the island to document the resumption of the practice decades after it had been abandoned, shedding light and wit on this “resourceful” tradition.

A balance of grace, humour, and up-close observation, Pour la suite du monde is known as a landmark achievement in documentary filmmaking and was screened at the Cannes film festival.

Directors

Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault

Writers

Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault

Producers

Jacques Bobet, Fernand Dansereau

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Classics, Environment, History

Original Language

French

Occupy Love

Director Velcrow Ripper
Year 2013
Run Time 84min
Genre Documentary
This inspiring documentary captures the heart of a movement that is sweeping the planet in response to current global economic and environmental crises. The apparently fearless filmmaker Velcrow Ripper travels around the world to film a series of popular uprisings — the Arab Spring in Egypt, Spain’s Indignado movement, Occupy Wall Street — asking the question “Is it possible to understand these crises as a kind of love story?”  

This poignant documentary explores what Martin Luther King Jr. called “love in action,” searching for the meaning and importance of the love of humanity and of the planet.  

…the photography is beautiful, the scenes of crowds and their signs arresting, and the interviews with individual protesters — in Tahrir Square, Zuccotti Park, tear-gassed Oakland, and even melting Greenland — are often inspiring.” — Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice

Director

Velcrow Ripper

Writer

Velcrow Ripper

Producers

Ian Mackenzie, Nova Ami, Velcrow Ripper

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Environment, Global Experiences, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

Rise: Sacred Water – Standing Rock Part 1

Director Michelle Latimer
Year 2017
Run Time 45min
Genre Documentary

This powerful documentary series from VICELAND gives viewers a rare glimpse into the frontline of Indigenous-led resistance, examining Indigenous life through the stories of people in diverse communities who are working to protect their homelands. Several episodes of this urgent and timely show debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and were hailed as “persuasive and poignant” by The New York Times.

Sacred Water: Standing Rock Part 1 The residents of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation of South Dakota are fighting to stop a pipeline from being built on their ancestral homeland. In this absorbing account of the events leading up to the protests, Anishinaabe host Sarain Carson-Fox provides context and background, telling the water protectors’ side of the story as the conflict develops right before our eyes.

Director

Michelle Latimer

A filmmaker and actor, Latimer’s first short, Choke, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her credits include several documentaries and dramatic shorts, such as The Underground and Nuuca. She has directed the television series Rise, Burden of Truth and Trickster.

Cast

Gitz Crazyboy (Blackfoot/Dene), Sarain Carson-Fox (Anishinaabe)

Producer

Jarrett Martineau (nēhiyaw/Dene Sųłiné)

Genre

Documentary

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, Environment, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English