Recent videos of interest

Politics & International Issues

• 5 broken cameras
  A deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Burnat and Davidi.
• A Question of Madness: The Furiosus
  A documentary on the life of assassin Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who changed the course of South African history.
• Afghan women: a history of struggle
  Examines the drafting of the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights. [Looks at] the pivotal role women's struggle for equality has played in the country's tumultuous political history and debunk the myth that current U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has liberated Afghan women from the tyranny of fundamentalism.
• An encounter with Simone Weil
  What response does seeing human suffering demand of us? Filmmaker Julia Haslett seeks an answer in the controversial French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-1943), whose life and work took on this question in a dramatic way. Driving her obsession with Weil is the interwoven story of suffering within Haslett's own family.
• Bombay calling
  DVD only. Filmmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal dive into the bustling world of late nights, long hours and hard partying. The result is a compelling insider's look at youth culture in India, and a growing number of young people who choose to follow the American dream...Indian style.
• Budrus
  Tells the story of a Palestinian father and daughter who united Arab and Israeli factions to create a non-violent movement and save their village from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier
• China heavyweight
  Profiles the ever-changing Chinese economic landscape through the view of the sport of boxing. Filmmaker Yung Chang follows boxing coach Qi Moxiang as he travels across China's Sichuan province recruiting young fighting talent from impoverished farms and villages. Selected boys and girls are taken to national training centers in hopes of becoming Olympic heroes, but can they leave their families behind to become boxing's finest?
• Constitute!: women's constitutional activism
  The largest social mobilization of women in Canadian history in the 20th century. Led by the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women and the Constitution, women and other activists across the country fought to gain stronger equality provisions entrenched in the newly repatriated Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
• Courting justice
  Illustrates how the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa partially lived up to its goals of promoting justice and human rights. Essential to keeping these promises, indeed mandated by the constitution, is a judiciary that includes women. By 2008, 18 percent of the superior court judges were women. This film is their story.
• Crude Sacrifice: you can't reclaim humanity
  Looks at how the community of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta is affected by the exploitation of Canada's Tar Sands and how the federal and provicial governments are dealing with local concerns.
• Cultures of resistance
  In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. From Burma, where non-violent monks take on a dictatorship, to Brazil, where musicians transform guns into guitars, and myriad places in between, Cultures of Resistance celebrates the people standing up to exploitation and violence ...
• Egypt : we are watching you
  In 2005, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose National Democratic Party has been the dominant political force for 24 years, announced that Egypt would hold multi-party presidential elections. Unable to sit by while their country is on the brink of change, three women activists start a grassroots campaign to empower the public and hold their government accountable...
• Fambul tok: a film about forgiveness
  Explores a culture that believes true justice lies in redemption and healing for individuals, and that forgiveness is the surest path to restoring dignity and building strong communities. Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone's brutal civil war come together for the first time in tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies. By reviving their ancient practice of fambul tok (family talk) Sierra Leoneans are building sustainable peace at the grassroots level
• Finding our way: moving beyond Canada's apartheid = Neba wheti hon'a e kwuznata
  Stories of conflict between Indigenous people, governments and industry: “... documentary film in 3 chapters with and about the Burns Lake band and the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, two First Nations bands located in central B.C., Canada”
• Flow
  “A look at the world's water crisis and how the causes of the depleting water supply are connected to pollution, human rights, and even politics.”
• From under the bushy trees: [how can aid be delivered with justice and dignity?]
  Filmed in Powell River, B.C., as well as in Chad, Africa… Focuses on Gerri Graber, founder of Willing Hearts International Society Canada, and her efforts to build a school for the orphans of AIDS victims. Lynn Whitehouse, Canada's Honourary Consul for Chad, offers insights into the challenges of bringing aid to Africa.…
• Ghosts
  Three Arab-Canadian men are detained and tortured for months and years in Syria and Egypt. Upon their release they return to Canada struggling to find some answers as to why they were detained and tortured. An internal inquiry into their cases, the Iacobucci Inquiry, reveals that the Canadian government was complicit in their detention and torture. The camera team follows the lives and cases of the men for a year and a half as the men fight to leave the horror of torture behind them.
• Ghosts of Rwanda
  “Frontline marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide with a documentary chronicling one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Illustrated are the failures that enabled the slaughter of 800,000 people to occur unchallenged by the world.”
• Human terrain: war becomes academic
  Human Terrain' is two stories in one. The first exposes the U.S. effort to enlist the best and the brightest of American universities in a struggle for the hearts and minds of its enemies ... The other story is about a brilliant young scholar who leaves the university to join a Human Terrain team.
• In search of Gandhi
  'What does it mean to actually live in the world's largest democracy? Adopting the conventions of a road-movie, the film crew travels down the famous trail of Gandhi's salt march, stopping at the same villages and cities where Gandhi and his followers raised their call for independence... '
• Iron Ladies of Liberia
  Chronicles the historic first year in office of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa.
• KZ
  DVD only. Tourists, tour guides and locals at a former concentration camp in Austria. “Through its unflinching depiction of daily modern life in the small Austrian town of Mauthausen, KZ reveals the lasting legacy and impact of the Holocaust on individuals of all generations, nationalities and religions.”
• L'affaire Coca-Cola = The Coca-Cola case
  Colombia is the trade union murder capital of the world. Since 2002, more than 470 workers' leaders have been brutally killed, usually by paramilitaries hired by private companies intent on crushing the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands is the poster boy for American business: Coca-Cola. A searing indictment of a major corporate brand, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a riveting legal game of cat and mouse via the U.S. federal court and the Stop Killer Coke! campaign.
• Liberty, equality, accommodation
  DVD only. The Herouxville Code of Conduct informed newcomers that women were not to be excised, stoned or burned alive. A storm of voices and opinions greeted that announcement and generated a unique expression of direct democracy. The film is about this unprecedented collective experience.
• Menocracy
  Something's rotten in our state of democracy. Follow the journey of a woman and the spirit of a sassy Suffragette who, in trying to find out why our system fails to represent women, discover that it fails everyone but our political elites. A film about how to catch up to the rest of the world's democracies in the march to gender fairness and governments that reflect society.
• Militainment Inc
  “Militainment, Inc. offers a glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and 'reality television' in its glamorization of war. … the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle?”
• Paraiso for sale
  Depicts the struggles of local Bocas del Toro residents against land displacement by the escalating development of real estate housing for the growing population of American settlers.
• Pelts: politics of the fur trade
  NFB film originally produced in 1989. 'Canada's oldest industry, fur trade is facing challenges. Examines the morality of killing animals for fur.'
• Poetry of resilience
  DVD only. In a small gathering in a Massachusetts town, 27 poets have come together for the first time to share their experiences as survivors of political atrocities. The poets' tales all vary, but they are united by the drive to bear witness to their past and to continue the process of healing. This documentary features six international poets who individually survived Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China's Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Iranian Revolution.
• Questions nationales : National matters
  Brings new perspective to the Quebec sovereignty issue. In particular, it addresses the question of why Quebec has yet to achieve independence forty years after the movement began, when so many other countries have succeeded in achieving this goal during the same period. To answer this question, the film considers the cases of the Scots (UK) and the Catalans (Spain), who, like the Québécois, have had to think hard about the advantages or risks of independence over autonomy and to grapple with the 'unknowns' ...
• Saving face
  Every year in Pakistan, many women are known to be victimized by brutal acid attacks, with numerous cases going unreported. With little or no access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally scarred. Many reported assailants, typically a husband or someone else close to the victim, receive minimal punishment from the state. Plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad left his prominent London practice to return to his home country and help the victims of such attacks.
• Seoul train
  Seoul Train, with its footage of the secretive 'underground railroad', exposes the reality for North Koreans as they try to escape their homeland and China. The film also looks at the geopolitics behind the growing and potentially explosive humanitarian crisis.
• Sex Slaves
  Explores the multi-billion dollar world of sex trafficking. Goes to the villages of Ukraine and Moldova, where girls are lured and then sold and forced into prostitution in brothels and discotheques all over Europe. Follows Viorel, a Ukrainian man, on a mission to find his pregnant, trafficked wife in Turkey. The film explores the global trafficking problem through personal stories and unfettered access to traffickers and the people used as human chattel.
• Sisters in law
  Kim Longinotto production. A documentary record of a courtroom in Kumba, Cameroon, where a female prosecutor and judge work to put an end to their community's tacit acceptance of child abuse, wife beating and rape.
• Suspino: a cry for Roma
  DVD only. 'Examines the persecution and discrimination inflicted upon European Roma. Focuses on Romania, where Europe's largest concentration of Roma are considered ‘public enemies’-- and Italy, where the Roma are classified as nomads and forced to live in camps while being denied human rights available to refugees and foreign residents.'
• The Big Wait: A Film About The Doctor Shortage in Canada
  The doctor shortage is getting critical and one town is desperately trying to recruit physicians. At the same time, three internationally trained doctors are trying to get licensed to practice medicine in their new country.
• The end of immigration? / La fin de l'immigration
  DVD only. Montreal filmmakers look at the regressive immigration policies of the Canadian state and the people most affected.
• The feminist initiative
  The passion, pitfalls and promise of a diverse group of women working to establish the world's first feminist political party in Sweden in the spring of 2005… In the face of internal discord, public backlash, and a worrisome lack of funds, the Feminist Initiative forges a new path towards parliament, raising critical questions along the way…
• The M word
  DVD only. A history and critique of multiculturalism in Canada. “The M Word records the history of various immigrant groups who are not officially recognized in the history books. It also interviews a number of prominent Canadians to take the pulse of multiculturalism today, including Haroon Siddiqui, Allan Gregg, Candy Palmater, Jack Jedwab, and Uzma Shakir.”
• The price of sex
  This inquiry into a dark side of immigration reveals the experiences of Eastern European women forced into prostitution abroad. Mimi Chakarova traveled from post-communist Eastern Europe to Turkey, Greece, and Dubai to uncover the harrowing personal accounts of women trafficked into modern-day sexual slavery.
• The Pruitt-Igoe myth
  Destroyed in a dramatic and highly publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which the projects resided, while tracing personal and poignant narratives of those who lived in them.
• The reckoning: the battle for the International Criminal Court
  Rome Conference of 1998 was the culmination of 50 years of effort by the part of those seeking a humane world. Representatives from 140 governments and numerous NGOs were at the conference to establish the International Criminal Court (the ICC).
• The world before her
  In the lobby of a modest Bombay hotel, 20 young women from across India arrive for an intense, month-long beauty boot camp. They are the hand-picked contestants for the Miss India pageant, the ultimate glamour event in a country that has gone mad for beauty contests. Winning the coveted title means instant stardom, a lucrative career path and, for some girls, freedom from the constraints of a patriarchal society. But as the popularity of pageants has exploded, so have the controversies surrounding them.
• United States of Africa
  African hip hop pioneer Didier Awadi is on a quest to craft an album that pays tribute to the great black revolutionary leaders and their struggle to realize a dream: a united, independent Africa. In this epic musical and political journey, Awadi visits some 40 countries to collaborate with hip hop activist artists, including Smockey (Burkina Faso), M-1 of Dead Prez (United States) and ZuluBoy (South Africa).
• Water on the table
  Water on the Table features Maude Barlow, considered 'an international water warrior' for her crusade to have water declared a human right... [The film] presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue that water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it.
• What are we doing here? has foreign aid hurt Africa?
  DVD only.Challenging viewers to rethink traditional humanitarian approaches, this film follows four young Americans as they experience firsthand the scope and intractability of Africa's suffering….Discussions focus on HIV/AIDS, armed conflict, child sponsorship, U.S. farm policies, and the role of NGOs.
• Where credit is due
  Against a backdrop of oppression and civil war in Guatemala, three women's groups of the Kaqchikel Presbytery are using micro-credit loans for businesses that include agricultural projects and textiles.... a good illustration of how beneficial micro-credit can be for sustainable human development.
• Why Democracy? Series
  DVD only. Ten one-hour films focused on contemporary democracy, made by filmmakers from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Liberia, USA, Bolivia, Denmark, Egypt, Pakistan and Russia. For more info see: www.whydemocracy.net
• ¡¿Revolución!?
  A political documentary examining the concept of revolution as created by Hugo Chavez. Using Don Quixote as his inspiration, Chavez is redefining Venezualan society with his 'Bolivian Revolution'. The documentary asks if there are a series of guidelines for a democratic and peaceful revolution. To answer the question, filmmaker, Gervais, interviews pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez militants, politicians and citizens within and without the barrios of Venezuala's cities. Note that this film CAN be used for classroom ...