Hims

Director Krsy Fox
Year 2023
Run Time 16min
Genre Horror
Jo and her three year old daughter Lulu struggle to adjust to life alone after her divorce. The worst is yet to come, when an evil force inhabits Lulu's bedroom.

Director

Krsy Fox

Writer

Krsy Fox

Cast

Elle Riot Fox, Krsy Fox

Producers

Krsy Fox, Spider One

Genre

Horror

Interests

Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Tautuktavuk (What We See)

Directors Carol Kunnuk, Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)
Year 2023
Run Time 82min
Genre Drama

Blurring the line between narrative and non-fiction, Uyarak and her eldest sister Saqpinak, embark on a difficult healing journey after a traumatic event that reminds them of the importance of community, culture, and family. Tautuktavuk (What We See) explores issues of trauma, resilience, and domestic violence from the perspective of two Inuit women.

Directors

Carol Kunnuk, Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)

Writers

Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk), Gillian Robinson, Samuel Cohn-Cousineau, Norman Cohn

Cast

Carol Kunnuk, Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)

Producers

Jonathan Frantz, Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

Inuktitut

In Flames

Director Zarrar Kahn
Year 2023
Run Time 98min
Genre Drama, Horror

Set in modern-day Karachi, the film opens with the death of the family patriarch. Mother and daughter find themselves in a precarious situation where their existence is ripped apart. In order to survive in a hostile world dominated by men, the two women have to work together in the face of threats both real and supernatural.

Director

Zarrar Kahn

Writer

Zarrar Kahn

Cast

Ramesha Nawal, Bakhtawar Mazhar

Producer

Annam Abbas

Genres

Drama, Horror

Interests

Asian Filmmaker, BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Global Experiences, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

Other Language

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

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

Charles-Olivier Michaud is a director, writer, and producer from Saint-Romuald, Quebec. His directing credits include 4 Minute Mile, On the Beat, and Snow & Ashes, which have won awards from the Slamdance Film Festival and the Washington DC Independent Film Festival. His most recent directorial work includes Ru, had its world premiere at TIFF 2023 and was nominated for nine Canadian Screen Awards.

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

Bones of Crows

Director Marie Clements (Métis/Dene)
Year 2022
Run Time 124min
Genre Drama

A powerful and moving exploration of the horrors and lasting impact of the Residential School System, Bones of Crows follows Aline Spears (Dove), a Cree musical prodigy forcibly removed from her family as a young girl. Following her traumatic experiences, Aline serves her country as a Cree Code Talker in World War II, and thereafter tries to carve out a life for herself, but the memories of what happened to her and her siblings never leaves her. Finding that her story is one shared by hundreds of thousands displaced Indigenous people, she sets herself on a pursuit of justice for herself and future generations.

This courageous generation-spanning epic premiered at TIFF to rave reviews, and received five nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards including Best Original Screenplay.

“[It] should be required viewing for all Canadians.” – Kim Hughes, Original Cin

 

Director

Marie Clements (Métis/Dene)

Clements works within a variety of mediums including film, television, radio, and live performance. Her work has screened at Cannes, TIFF, MOMA, VIFF, American Indian Film Festival and imagineNATIVE, and has garnered numerous awards. Her films include the musical documentary The Road Forward and Red Snow, her dramatic debut. She is currently directing the TV show Bones of Crows.

Writer

Marie Clements (Métis/Dene)

Cast

Gail Maurice (Cree/Métis), Phillip Lewitski (Mohawk), Grace Dove (Secwépemc), Rémy Girard, Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki)

Producers

Trish Dolman, Christine Haebler

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads

Original Languages

Cree, English

Love, Leymo

Director Randall Lloyd Okita
Year 2023
Run Time 12min
Genre Documentary
Leymo, a charismatic teenager with autism, writes out a loving letter to his recently-deceased mother with updates about his life, experiences, and accomplishments.

Director

Randall Lloyd Okita

Writer

Leymo Mohammed

Genre

Documentary

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships

Original Language

English

Through Black Spruce

Director Don McKellar
Year 2018
Run Time 111min
Genre Drama, Thriller
The disappearance of a young Cree woman in Toronto traumatizes her Northern Ontario family, and sends her twin sister on a journey south to find her.

Director

Don McKellar

McKellar is a prolific filmmaker and actor whose work has garnered numerous awards. He wrote Highway 61, The Red Violin and Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, and wrote, directed and starred in Last Night (which won the Prix de la jeunesse at the Cannes film festival), and Childstar, and has directed several other films. He recently starred in Meditation Park, Crimes of the Future, and directed Sensitive Skin. Currently, he is writing episodes for Park Chan-wook’s The Sympathizer, which he is also executive producing.

Writer

Barbara Samuels

Cast

Tanaya Beatty (Kwakwakaʼwakw)

Producers

Tina Keeper (Cree), Phyllis Laing, Robert Lantos, Barbara Samuels

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English