Assez French (2023)

Picture of Light

A documentary of an expedition to Churchill, Manitoba to film the Northern Lights.

Writing the Land

In this short documentary, a Musqueam elder rediscovers his Native language and traditions in the city of Vancouver, in the vicinity of which the Musqueam people have lived for thousands of years. Writing the Land captures the ever-changing nature of a modern city - the glass and steel towers cut against the sky, grass, trees and a sudden flash of birds in flight and the enduring power of language to shape perception and create memory.

A Return to Memory

When Canada entered World War II, the National Film Board suddenly had an urgent new mission—and hundreds of women stepped forward, helping to create Canadian cinema as we now know it.

The Whale and the Raven

Director Mirjam Leuze’s The Whale and The Raven illuminates the many issues that have drawn whale researchers, the Gitga’at First Nation, and the Government of British Columbia into a complex conflict. As the people in the Great Bear Rainforest struggle to protect their territory against the pressure and promise of the gas industry, caught in between are the countless beings that call this place home.

Gota entre gotes

Four young Balearic singers, Maria Hein, Clara Fiol, Marga Rotger and Júlia Colom, share their concerns and creative processes while working on a common project.

Gentleman Bandit

Documentary on the Canadian career of train robber Billy Miner, who became a folk hero in British Columbia. Locations near Kamloops and Mission are explored in present day.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

A chronicle of Bob Dylan's strange evolution between 1961 and 1966 from folk singer to protest singer to "voice of a generation" to rock star.

Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound

Following folk musician Joan Baez on her extensive 2008-2009 tour, this film commemorates her career, which has spanned five decades. It includes concert and archival footage as well as interviews with such disparate colleagues, friends and admirers as Bob Dylan, Jesse Jackson and David Crosby. In addition to the music, it also touchs upon Baez's long history of global social activism.

Beyoncé: Self-Titled

"Self-Titled" is a documentary comprised of several parts that give a glimpse into BEYONCÉ, The Visual Album. This version has been edited into a full-length film.

EXPO 67 Mission Impossible

This documentary let us to relive the challenge of the men behind the 1967 Universal Exposition in Montréal, Canada. By searching trough 80,000 archival documents at the national Archives, they managed to bring light on one of the biggest logistical and political challenges that were faced by organizers during the "Révolution Tranquille" in the Québec sixties. Includes the accounts of the Chief of Advertising Yves Jasmin, and businessman Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien.

Bowling for Columbine

This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.

Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger

The story of a young boy forced to spend all five years of his short life in hospital while the federal and provincial governments argued over which was responsible for his care, as well as the long struggle of Indigenous activists to force the Canadian government to enforce “Jordan’s Principle” — the promise that no First Nations children would experience inequitable access to government-funded services again.

There's Something in the Water

Elliot Page brings attention to the injustices and injuries caused by environmental racism in his home province, in this urgent documentary on Indigenous and African Nova Scotian women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures.

The Dionne Quintuplets

In 1934, Elzire Dionne delivered five identical girls. The Dionne Quintuplets follows Cecile, Emilie, Marie, Yvonne and Annette through twenty-one years of strange upbringing. When the girls were just infants, the premier of Ontario issued a court order removing them from parental care. Cut off from the world and their family, over-publicized, viewed twice daily in a special viewing compound, they grew up as prize exhibits. Director Donald Brittain uses old newsreel footage, home-movie sequences and interviews to depict a historic event that became a tragic exploitation of a family.

Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words

With unprecedented access to the multi-faceted woman behind the persona, follow Megan Thee Stallion's journey on the road to stardom as she tenaciously navigates fame, grief, pressure and success, This documentary unpacks the Houston native's most vulnerable moments in a powerful way that allows fans to meet the real Megan Pete.

NiiSoTeWak: Two Bodies, One Heart

NiiSoTeWak means “walking the path together.” Tapwewin and Pawaken are 10-year-old brothers trying to make sense of the world, their family and each other. They’re already grappling with some heady questions about identity. What does it mean to be a twin? What does it mean to be Cree? How do you define yourself when you’re forever linked to someone else? The twins discuss these questions with their two elder brothers — 22-year-old actor Asivak and 20-year-old basketball player Mahiigan — and their parents, Jules and Jake.

Ice-Breaker: The '72 Summit Series

September 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of the Summit Series, the iconic hockey tournament that pitted the best players from Canada against the best from the Soviet Union. This documentary enlarges the canvas to tell the story from the unique perspectives of a diverse group who are rarely, if ever, heard: diplomats, NHL hockey legends, Soviet players, journalists, fans, broadcasters, business leaders and Team Canada’s Chairman – all reveal untold stories about what happened before, during, and after September ‘72.

Heaven Adores You

Heaven Adores You is an intimate, meditative inquiry into the life and music of Elliott Smith. By threading the music of Elliott Smith through the dense, yet often isolating landscapes of the three major cities he lived in -- Portland, New York City, Los Angeles -- Heaven Adores You presents a visual journey and an earnest review of the singer's prolific songwriting and the impact it continues to have on fans, friends, and fellow musicians.

Merci Bocuse

A young and ambitious team of chefs face the life-changing challenges of competing in the world's most prestigious culinary competition.

Festival Express

The filmed account of a large Canadian rock festival train tour boasting major acts. In the summer of 1970, a chartered train crossed Canada carrying some of the world's greatest rock bands. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, and others lived (and partied) together for five days, stopping in major cities along the way to play live concerts. Their journey was filmed.

Kate Bush: The Sound Witch

She became famous at a very young age and gradually slipped away, cultivating her legend and her mystery. Kate Bush, pioneering artist, is at the heart of a captivating documentary broadcast on Arte.

The Corporation

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Seven for Jack

Documentary on career criminal Jack Black during an episode of burglary in Victoria BC. Locations around Victoria and Vancouver are explored in present day, with narration from Black's autobiography.

Origins of consciousness

Experimental meditation on land, consciousness, and artificial intelligence. Shot in the Okanagan and West Kootenays. Original music by Jack Brintnell.

Nanook of the North

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

Abortion: Stories from North and South

Women have always sought ways to terminate unwanted pregnancies, despite powerful patriarchal structures and systems working against them. This film provides a historical overview of how church, state and the medical establishment have determined policies concerning abortion. From this cross-cultural survey--filmed in Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, and Canada--emerges one reality: only a small percentage of the world's women has access to safe, legal operations.

Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill

The never-before-told story of folk-rock icon Judee Sill, who in just two years went from living in a car to appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone. The documentary charts her troubled adolescence through her meteoric rise in the music world and early tragic death. Featuring Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Fleet Foxes, David Geffen, and more.

Roads Between Us

A retired truck driver reflects on a life spent on the road while his children explore the emotional toll of his absence, honouring the unsung heroes who keep the world moving.

Propaganda Message

A cartoon film about the whole heterogeneous mixture of Canada and Canadians, and the way the invisible adhesive called federalism makes it all cling together. That the dissenting voices are many is made amply evident, in English and French. But this animated message also shows that Canadians can laugh at themselves and work out their problems objectively.

The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights

In 2007 the legendary American duo White Stripes toured Canada. Besides playing the usual venues they challenged themselves and played in buses, cafés and for Indian tribal elders. Music video director Emmett Malloy followed the band and managed to capture both the special tour, extraordinary concert versions of the band's minimalist, raw, blues-inspired rock songs and the special relationship between the extroverted Jack White and the introspective Meg White - a formerly married couple who for a long time claimed to be siblings. The film makes striking use of the band's concert colors: red, white and black.

Cirque du Soleil: La Magie Continue

One of the earliest Cirque du Soleil releases, filmed during a tour of the troupe's native Canada in 1986 and filled with their trademark costumes, music and extraordinary feats.

Trick or Treaty?

Legendary Canadian documentarian Alanis Obomsawin digs into the tangled history of Treaty 9 — the infamous 1905 agreement wherein First Nations communities relinquished sovereignty over their traditional territories — to reveal the deceptions and distortions which the document has been subjected to by successive governments seeking to deprive Canada’s First Peoples of their lands.

The Haida in Canada

Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the west coast of Canada, is home to Skil Jaadee and her family. They live in harmony with nature and have made it their mission to save their language and preserve their history.

We The North: From Prehistoric to Historic

A basketball team born out of an egg, in a hockey-crazed city, playing in a baseball stadium, fights for survival and ultimately conquers a nation and the league. This documentary offers an in-depth look at how a fledgling franchise transformed into a cultural phenomenon, uniting communities and reshaping Canada's identity. The Raptors' story is the ultimate underdog tale, with an unprecedented look into the team's global impact and lasting influence across Canada and beyond.

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

Tells the story of Justin Bieber, the kid from Canada with the hair, the smile and the voice: It chronicles his unprecedented rise to fame, all the way from busking in the streets of Stratford, Canada to putting videos on YouTube to selling out Madison Square Garden in New York as the headline act during the My World Tour from 2010. It features Usher, Scooter Braun, Ludacris, Sean Kingston, Antonio "L.A." Reid, Boyz II Men, Miley Cyrus, Jaden Smith, Justin's family members and parts of his crew and huge fanbase in a mix of interviews and guest performances.

Without Getting Killed or Caught

Follow Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt as they rise from obscurity to reverence: Guy, the Pancho to Van Zandt’s Lefty, struggling to establish himself as the Dylan Thomas of American music, while Susanna pens hit songs and paints album covers for top artists, and Townes spirals in self-destruction after writing some of Americana music’s most enduring and influential ballads.

Project Grizzly

Documentary about the lifelong project of Troy Hurtubise, a man who has been obsessed with researching the Canadian grizzly bear up close, ever since surviving an early encounter with such a bear. The film documents Hurtubise's diligent work to improve his homemade "grizzly-proof" suit of armour, his efforts to test its resilience, and his forays into the Rockies to track down the grizzlies he dreams of meeting. The film manages to capture the humor of the project as well as its sincerity.

First Stripes

As they undergo 12 weeks of intensive training, a group of young civilians is gradually moulded into soldiers. The Basic Training, a prerequisite for joining the Canadian Armed Forces, becomes the gateway to exploring the inner workings of a world governed by its own rules and values.

Classic Albums: Carly Simon - No Secrets

Carly Simon is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of her generation. The classic album that made her a global star was No Secrets, which included the enigmatic song You're So Vain. The album spent five weeks at number one in the US chart.

Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland

Originally produced in 1997 as part of the Classic Albums television series, this newly edited, expanded edition features almost 40 minutes of additional content not see in the original feature. Bassist Noel Redding, drummer Mitch Mitchell and co-manager Chas Chandler detailed their contributions while engineer Eddie Kramer re-examined the many multi-track tapes created during the sessions. Help from Jimi's `friends and passengers' came by way of new interviews with drummer Buddy Miles, Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady, Traffic's Dave Mason and Steve Winwood, among others.

North of Superior

The second IMAX film made, commissioned by the Ontario Government, and produced by MultiScreen Corporation, later to become IMAX corporation. North of Superior is a Northern Ontario travelogue, and was the first short feature to be shown at the newly created Ontario government theme park, Ontario Place, in it's state of the art cinema, Cinesphere, the first permanent IMAX installation.

I Am: Celine Dion

A raw and honest behind-the-scenes look at the iconic superstar's struggle with a life-altering illness. Serving as a love letter to her fans, this inspirational documentary highlights the music that has guided her life while also showcasing the resilience of the human spirit.

Joan Baez: I Am a Noise

Since her debut at the age of 18, musician, civil rights campaigner and activist Joan Baez has been on stage for over 60 years. For the now 82-year-old, the personal has always been political, and her friendship with Martin Luther King and her pacifism have shaped her commitment. In this biography that opens with her farewell tour, Baez takes stock in an unsparing fashion and confronts sometimes painful memories.