Film directors clandestinely enter one of Burma’s most dangerous zones, penetrating to the heart of the Karen Nation, where civil war has been waging for 60 years. We travel to the country’s interior to meet peasants, as well as clandestine networks of armed resistance living in exile in Thailand, where determined political and human rights activists are working to combat one of the world’s most bloody military dictatorships.
Breaking the Silence demonstrates the strength of the Burmese people’s resistance against one of the world’s worst dictatorships. We travel to the country’s interior to meet peasants, as well as clandestine networks of armed resistance living in exile in Thailand, where determined political and human rights activists are working to combat one of the world’s most bloody military dictatorships. www.informactionfilms.com
75 min.
Budrus - 2009
Director: Julia Bacha
It takes a village to unite the most divided people on earth. Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat.
81 min.
Winner, Panorama Audience Award Second Prize, Berlin International Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Special Jury Mention, Tribeca Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Founders Prize, Best of Fest, Nonfiction, Traverse City Film Festival, 2010
Enemies of the People - 2012
Director: Thet Sambath
A personal journey into the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge
0 min.
In the Name of the Family - 2010
Director: Shelley Saywell
On December 10, 2007, a 16-year-old Toronto schoolgirl, Aqsa, was strangled to death; her father and brother are charged with murder. Three weeks later, teenage sisters were shot to death in Dallas; their father is wanted for murder. Six months later, a 19-year-old college student was stabbed by her brother; he was convicted and is now in jail in New York. Friends and family of the murdered girls paint a chilling portrait of the forces that led to their deaths, and Toronto schoolgirls talk about their lives of constant fear. While Muslim women organize to help girls at risk and the imam at a Toronto mosque teaches that violence has no basis in Islam, some men continue to justify these crimes through patriarchal beliefs about family honour. Award-winning director Shelley Saywell brings her consummate documentary skills and passion for human rights to challenge the traditions that lie behind the heartbreaking tragedies committed against young girls caught between two cultures in North America. www.bisharifilms.com
90 min.
Best Canadian Feature, Hot Docs, Toronto 2010
Sex and Money - 2012
Director: Joel Angyal
human sex trade
0 min.
The Green Wave - 2010
Director: Ali Samadi Ahadi
The Green Wave, a documentary about the Green Revolution uprising in Iran in June 2009 follows the protests by the supporters of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, after he lost the election to incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad among allegations of vote-rigging. It documents the violent crackdown on this dissent by government militias with videos shot first-hand on mobile phones and digital cameras by its victims. The film also includes animations based on Facebook reports, Twitter messages and blogs from those taking part. The film describes the protesters initial hope and curiosity, their desperate fear, and the courage to yet continue to fight. www.thegreenwave-film.com
80 min.
Selected World Cinema Documentary Competition, Sundance 2011
The Market - 2010
Director: Rama Rau
A slum in Chennai, India. Out here, survival means selling a kidney. Hema, a young mother of two, wants to sell her kidney so she can pay off the crippling debts of her family. Across the world in Nanaimo, Canada, forty year old single mom Sandra's kidneys are failing and she has been on a waiting list for 5 years now, for a new kidney. Her condition has left her chained to a dialysis machine, four times a day, every day, if she is to live. The Market follows individual stories that explore the larger issues surrounding the organ trade - and looks at these issues from both a Western point of view as well as from the point of view of people selling their organs. What are the ethics of organ buying and selling? And, what would we ourselves do if we were forced into a similar dilemma? www.themarketfilm.com
70 min.
Director Rama Rau received Hot Doc’s Don Haig Award, April 2011
Official Selection, International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam
The Storytelling Class - 2009
Director: John Paskievich and John Whiteway
Gordon Bell High School in Winnipeg is comprised of rich and poor, aboriginals, Afghans, Arabs, Africans, refugees for war-torn countries, immigrants, and a recent influx of Burmese students. Marc Kuly, a teacher, set out to bring students together. In an effort to build bridges of friendship and belonging across cultures and histories, Marc initiated an after-school storytelling project whereby the immigrant students would share stories with their Canadian peers. By turns poignant, uplifting, angry and humourous, The Storytelling Class is a remarkable testament to the resilience of the human heart and it’s infinite capacity for forgiveness and redemption. www.mcnabbconnolly.ca
60 min.
Canada Award, Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, 26th Annual Gemini Awards, 2011
Triage: Dr. Orbinski's Humanitarian Dillemma - 2007
Director: Patrick Reed
The act of triage is the ultimate humanitarian nightmare. Racing against time with limited resources, relief workers make split-second decisions: who gets treatment; who gets food; who lives; who dies. This impossible dilemma understandably haunts humanitarians like Dr. James Orbinski, who accepted the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Médecins Sans Frontičres (MSF) as their President, and was a field doctor during the Somali famine, the Rwandan genocide, among other catastrophes.
Having seen the best and worst of humanitarian assistance and of humanity itself, Orbinski embarks on his most difficult mission to date - writing a deeply personal and controversial book that struggles to make sense of it all.
Leaving his young family behind in Toronto, Canada - where he's a university professor and doctor - Orbinski returns to Africa, revisiting the past and engaging with the present. He hopes that here, in the place where he witnessed humanity literally torn apart, he can rediscover the true heart of humanitarianism.
90 min.
Nominated, Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival, 2008
Top Ten, Hot Docs, Toronto, 2008
Vanishing of the Bees - 2011
Director: George Langworthy
Honeybees have been disappearing across the planet. Colony Collapse Disorder has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for pollinating crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.
The film follows David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy, fulfill pollination contracts and struggle to plead their case on Capital Hill. Filmed across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and our earth is examined.
