Documentary

  • yaya/ayat

    yaya/ayat explores identities, being lost in translation and distance. But at its core it’s about Shimby longing for a relationship with her geographically distant grandma and her journey to Greece to find her. This is an experimental documentary about how being a part of any diaspora shapes a person’s identity.

    Biography

    Shimby Zegeye-Gebrehiwot was the first in her family to be born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. In February 2010 she went to Greece to be with and film her maternal grandmother. The result of this trip was the experimental documentary yaya/ayat, which is her first film.
  • Negativipeg

    Negativipeg tells the story of Rory Lepine, who shot to Herostratic fame in 1985 when he attacked Winnipeg rock legend Burton Cummings with a beer bottle in a North End 7-Eleven. Narrated by Lepine himself, the film meditates on this mysterious act of destruction and suggests that Winnipeg might have an attitude problem. 

    Biography

    Matthew Rankin was born in Winnipeg and educated in Montréal and Québec City. A graduate of l’Université Laval and l’Institut national de l’image et du son, Rankin returned to Winnipeg in 2005 to work more directly with the imagery of his native province. His films include Oú est Maurice? (2006), which won the CanWest Global Prize for best short film, and, with Mike Maryniuk, the underground collage opera Death by Popcorn (2005) which was temporarily banned in his native Manitoba. An alumnus of the Toronto International Film Festival's Talent Lab in 2007, Rankin completed his experimental drama, Hydro-Lévesque, in 2008 and Negativipeg in 2010.
  • ...And This Is My Garden

    Eleanor Woitowicz, and Bonnie Monias, both teachers at Mel Johnson School, in Wabowden, Northern Manitoba are literally breaking new ground in education and are growing a healthier community in the process. Over the past 4 years the teachers have established 58 small vegetable gardens right in their students' backyards.

    This documentary follows the teachers and their students for a season of seeding, planting, harvesting, preserving and ultimately celebration of the fruits of their labour at the school’s annual community harvest display and feast.
  • Hirsch

    Objects found by children in an attic tell the story of the father of Canadian theatre, John Hirsch. A ten year-old boy watching his friends and babysitter play video games and unearth Hirsch’s belongings listens to Hirsch’s deathbed interview on an old reel-to-reel player.

    As a teenaged World War II orphan, Hirsch came to Winnipeg from Europe, his only possession a suitcase puppet show. He became an agitator for culture on the Canadian prairies, co-founding the Manitoba Theatre Centre and going to direct on New York's Lincoln Center stage. He died in Toronto in 1989 at age 59 from complications due to AIDS.
  • Warchild

    Warchild is part of a trilogy of experimental documentaries done on students from South East Collegiate, a boarding school in Winnipeg for Aboriginal youth coming from Northern Manitoba.

    Recalling the esthetic of traditional Japanese cinema this short film portrays a young solitary figure seeking his place in society. His journey from the North to the city encapsulates his struggle to become a responsible adult and seek serenity.

    Biography

    Caroline Monnet (Algonquin/French), born in Ottawa, Canada, is a self-taught award winning filmmaker and artist. She completed a B.A in Communication and Sociology at the University of Ottawa and Granada, Spain. She uses video, photography, and installation to explore the dualities of her social, political, and spiritual identity, developing a critical framework influenced by history, community, and unconventional memory. Monnet’s work has been exhibited across Europe, Canada and the US. She is currently based in Winnipeg where she is an active member of ITWÉ, a trans-disciplinary collective dedicated to research, creation, production and education in the field of Aboriginal digital culture. 
  • Singh

    Singh is an intimate look into the morning of a Sikh priest.

  • Life From 95

    Created through the WITH ART program at the Winnipeg Ars Council Life From 95 is a poignant look at how music can provide hope to high risk refugee youth in the inner city.

    About the Film

    The WITH ART program matches artists with community groups to collaborate on art projects that explore ideas and issues and give voice to community. The resulting voices were literal, loud, clear and strong. The filmmakers worked with the youth of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba to create a hip hop video and a documentary of the process.

    IRCOM, located at 95 Ellen Street in downtown Winnipeg, is a transitional housing complex and delivers social and recreation programs to newly arrived refugees and immigrants to Canada. Over 250 new immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Korea, Liberia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan live at IRCOM and access their  programs – over half of whom are under the age of 18. Navigating their new environment is challenging and some youth become vulnerable to gang-related activities. The goal was to offer opportunities for more productive activities and creative growth.

    Watch the Live From 95 Music Video

  • Life From 95

    Created through the WITH ART program at the Winnipeg Ars Council Life From 95 is a poignant look at how music can provide hope to high risk refugee youth in the inner city.

    About the Film

    The WITH ART program matches artists with community groups to collaborate on art projects that explore ideas and issues and give voice to community. The resulting voices were literal, loud, clear and strong. The filmmakers worked with the youth of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba to create a hip hop video and a documentary of the process.

    IRCOM, located at 95 Ellen Street in downtown Winnipeg, is a transitional housing complex and delivers social and recreation programs to newly arrived refugees and immigrants to Canada. Over 250 new immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Korea, Liberia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan live at IRCOM and access their  programs – over half of whom are under the age of 18. Navigating their new environment is challenging and some youth become vulnerable to gang-related activities. The goal was to offer opportunities for more productive activities and creative growth.

    Watch the Live From 95 Music Video

  • Baggage

    What percentage of Americans pretend to be Canadian while traveling abroad?
  • Grounds for a Movement: A Look at Fair Trade Coffee
    Our culture has formed a romantic attachment with a cup of coffee. We drink 2.25 billion cups per day. The grounds of the coffee industry, the side we are not supposed to see, has typically taken advantage of the workers in most of the developing nations that rely on coffee as a primary export. Fairly traded coffee, an alternative that is gaining support in the mainstream, offers a tangible way for the western world to act globally with minimal effort. Local and international companies dealing in the marketing of coffee have realized the trend towards a politically correct cup of coffee; satisfying the consumer's thirst for a fair cup of coffee has real benefits for the farmers of coffee around the world.
  • Reel Tangata Films presents DNT
    While in New Zealand, Director Darryl Nepinak brings back a short documentary about 5 young men living in the slums of Gisborne, New Zealand’s east coast.  Hip hop group Dee En Tee (Defining Natural Talent) tell the ins and outs of a hip hop groups’ dreams of becoming a success.  They share their stories about the difficulties of growing up in the ‘hood,’ teaching the younger brothers to stay positive and to avoid getting involved with the notorious gangs in New Zealand.  See how a group can send a message through their emotional music.  What inspires them?  Who helped them?  This is a great chance to listen and hear about life from our indigenous brothers of New Zealand.  This documentary tells what they have to say from their views of the world.
  • Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight
    A one-hour biographical documentary on the cult director¹s (Guy Maddin) life and work.
  • Wanderlust 2: Thunder on the Track
    Inspired by 1990s Stock Car crash videos, this micro-documentary gives a glance into the sensational Saskatchewan Lawnmower Racing Circuit. In the hallowed Winnipeg tradition of image degradation, this work demeans cinematic imagery into a bygone videoscopic era of the movies. VHS nostalgia!
  • Conversations
    Both a tender portrait of the filmmaker's grandfather and a remarkable look at hopes and fears of any person growing older.
  • 504938C
    This film is about rebirth - a young man coming to grips with his past and trying to change the future. This film takes place mostly in his jail cell as he burns Indian medicine for strength. While the medicine burns and smoke comes up from a wooden smudge bowl he reflects on his past. As he leaves prison, and the experience of rebirth, he has to decide between his family and his gang life.     
  • Blind Dog Bluesday
    Blind Dog Bluesday is a loving portrait of blues rock artists, Ken Crook, lead singer for both the bands Mudbelly and Blind Dog. Every Tuesday, every Bluesday, Ken heads up the blues jam at the Windsor Hotel, a century old hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Blinded by Marfan Syndrome (which afflicted actor John Ritter) Ken's deep love for the blues and gentle nature keep his spirit high. The film features interviews with Ken's friends and family, and hangs out behind the scenes at Ken's House Party, a visit by Charlie Chaplin, and features smoking live performances of classics such as Stormy Monday, Roadhouse Blues and Sweet Home Chicago. As Ken's wife, Barb says, "Every day is an adventure with Ken, You just never know what's going to happen!"
  • Bannock
    Darryl Nepinak documents his mother as she teaches him and shares stories of how she learned how to make Bannock. A step by step way of teaching others about what is Bannock and how to make it.
  • TOURISMTORONTO (A Hay Seed in Hogtown)
    TOURISMTORONTO is a Super 8 one take experiment shot with the intentions of generating audio from the film by capturing geometric imagery (shot frame by frame) and lights utilizing a long exposure.
  • Fish + Loaf
    Fervent and reverent, David and Kim have a couple of passions: wrestling and God. Fish + Loaf presents their take on how these seemingly incongruous interests can “tag-team” together to help spread the gospel.
  • Journey my Heart
    An inside look at how one jingle dress dancer physically and mentally prepares for competition pow-wows.
  • Behind the Wheel
    Cam MacLachlan tracked down his late father’s, one of a kind 1958 Austin Healey Bug Eyed Sprite and lovingly restored it to the eyebrow- raising drag car it once was.
  • Mémére Métisse
    For over sixty years, Cecile St. Amant has been keeping a deep secret – she is Métis. Cecile's granddaughter, Janelle sets out to understand her Mémère's denial and playfully plots her own mission to open her Mémère's eyes to the richness of their heritage. As the two faceoff in a battle of the wills, Janelle soon realizes that her Mémère will not be easily convinced that being Métis is something to be proud of. In this heart-warming and extraordinary journey, Janelle's mischievous and persistent prodding of her grandmother reveals a generation's legacy of shame and the profound courage of the human spirit to overcome it.
  • My Indian Bum
    The film is a humorous examination of how we all fall victim to racial prejudice sometimes…
  • Death By Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets
    Peppered with action-packed cameos by Winnipeg All-Stars Dale Hawerchuk, Burton Cummings, Teemu Selanne, Billy Van and a recent interview with the man who sent the Jets straight into the jaws of death by throwing a cataclysmic box of popcorn onto the ice in Game 6 of the 1990 playoff series, Death by Popcorn follows the ill-fated Jets through their many travails with arch-enemies Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers, soul-crushing NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and many other agents of Winnipeg annihilation. Sadness on ice.
  • What Comes Between
    What Comes Between is an examination of personal memory and loss rooted in the filmmaker's birthplace – Chile – and her departure from that country long ago. The work is a collage film created with found footage from personal and historic sources, and original hand printed and tinted footage.
  • Chile: A History in Exile
    Having traveled back to Chile in 1995, filmmaker Cecilia Araneda was shocked to discover Pinochet supporters even among her own extended family. Shaken out of her naïve belief that everybody knew the horrors of Chile's military regime, Chile: A History in Exile is Araneda's very personal response to those who would argue that the events of September 11, 1973 were the best thing that ever happened to Chile.
  • In A Common Cause

    At the start of the Second World War, the British Government looked to the Dominions for air training help.  Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King believed training would be the most essential military action that Canada could undertake.  It was an opportunity for Canada to make a significant commitment to the Allied war effort.

    The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan trained 131,553 aircrew.  Hear the story from the veterans and civilians who paticipated from it`s conception trough the implementation of the plan.  This documentary has exclusive inerviews with Canadian, British, Australian, New Zealand, and German Vetrans.  New footage and archival photos from the people who experience the joy and the pain of being a part of the greatest Air force achievement in the history of Canada.
  • Cattle Call
    Cattle Call is a high-speed animated documentary about the art of livestock auctioneering. Structured around the mesmerizing talents of 2007 Manitoba /Saskatchewan Auctioneer Champion, Tim Dowler, and using a variety of classic and avant-garde animation techniques (including stop-motion, cut-outs, open-exposures, hole-punching and rubbing lettraset directly on the celluloid) filmmakers Maryniuk and Rankin have tried to create images as dazzlingly abstract, absurd and adrenalizing as the incredible language of auctioneering itself. It is their hope that the film will induce near-bovine levels of dumbfoundedness in all those who gaze upon it.
  • A Quiet Moment with Richard
    A Quiet Moment with Richard spends a peaceful, nocturnal drive with Richard Kellie, writer, filmmaker, and taxi cab driver. Richard recounts an intense evening in Amsterdam while driving the vacant streets of Winnipeg.
  • Canadian Booty
    Booty what does it really mean, are they only mere cheeks on our lower backside or more? This revealing documentary gives you the straight hard facts about booty. Starting from what a monstrous effect that Booty had on two World War two veterans to what the youth of today think about Booty. You will be touched, bedazzled, confused, horny, and a bit sleepy all at the same time upon viewing CANADIAN BOOTY!
  • Downsampling Perception
    A documentary about Crash Test Dummies drummer Mitch Dorge and his transition from large-scale to up close and personal with his innovative and inspiring performance, 'In Your Face and Interactive'. You'll watch as Mitch tries to find answers to difficult life questions on-stage, while coping with the same issues in real life. How can we focus our energy and find our place in the world? Shouldn't we at least take the chance to chase a dream? Possible answers lie in music and anyone who has ever hummed a tune or danced to a beat can relate to Mitch's ideas.
  • Journey to Flood Ditch
    When engineers built a giant moat around the city of Winnipeg half a century ago, they were creating a marvel of flood control engineering. This is the amazing story of how the flood ditch came to be.John, Kyle, and Matthew all live in Winnipeg, enjoying the protection of the flood ditch. On one fortuitous day, the three lads were in possession of free 35mm film stock (10years old) and a camera. They lacked a story, and Matthew forgot to bring the light meter. Armed only with their wits, they made this film.
  • October Country
    In the middle of a dark October evening, four friends are ghost hunting near Woodridge, Manitoba, a community reknowned for its haunted train tracks. A detour down a deserted gravel road brings the four of them to a mysterious cemetery. The unanticipated setting causes a frantic reaction in the car. Much screaming, pleading and struggling ensues.
  • Carlo
    Since retiring as a master wood carver, Carlo Fusetti has carved a gift, an inheritance for his granddaughter. But now his health keeps him from his work. A moving lyrical film about an artist facing mortality.
  • Death, The Impossible Game
  • Dog Stories
    Dog Stories reveals as much about the people telling the stories as the dogs they are describing. The dog owners are more honest about their feelings about a dog than almost any other aspect of their lives, and in the process they reveal a lot about themselves.
  • Havakeen Lunch
    After eighteen years of operating the favourite lunch counter in Manitoba's Interlake region, Ellen and Martin Kihn have retired. A poignant look at the last day, The Kihns, their friends and their customers, demanding rural life and the place the disappearing institution of the country cafe plays in these people's lives. A tribute to the cafes found in small towns.
  • Hunters and Gatherers
    Hunters and Gatherers is a documentary about collectors of objects and icons which reflect the values, desires and nightmares of self and society. Channel surf through the collector landscape!
  • It's A Hobby for Harvey
    This light and humourous vignette takes Harvey Pollack from his Winnipeg Law offices to the stage of the Centennial Concert Hall, performing with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. The film showcases his unique talent and points out some of the more offbeat aspects of his pucker power.
  • Live Studio Sound
    Live Studio Sound is a portrayal of a group of people taping the soundtrack to an animated film. The film is Ed Ackerman's riotous companion piece to Sarah's Dream. We discover how the unusual sound effects are created and see how applying the sound track is the last step in completing a film.
  • Question of Reality
    What happens when a filmmaker is confronted by a psychic in a donut shop? A film that is alternately 'poignant and hilarious...', according to film reviewer, Randall King, and 'mesmerizing' praises Radio City CBC. A chance encounter at a Tim Horton's in downtown Winnipeg brought Barry Gibson and psychic, David Pandorra together. Pandorra, looking for an audience for his demonstrations, found in Gibson a skeptic about psychic phenomenon but a believer in the pursuit of a dream.The film is virtually a frantic monologue as Pandora along with his agent, Otto Schmidt, attempt to desmonstrate the reality of psychic phenomenon. Success and failure at cards and umbers, and a link to ufo's unscore a desperation to be as successful and famous as Uri Geller. Gibson shows the audience a warm and humourous account of life in pursuit of a dream that keeps Pandorra on the move.
  • Serious About McIntosh
    Diana McIntosh is a unique, multimedia composer/performer who brings out the bizarre and humorous side of life through her eclectic music.
  • So Far From Home
    Exiled Chilean folk singer Hugo Torres has a Canadian wife and family, but struggles to keep the Chilean cause alive and swears he will return.
  • The Historical Dramatic Comedy of Punch and Judy
    A film about the Manitoba Puppet Theatre's production of the classic puppet play. We follow the puppeteers from setup through performance and after, for a peek at the effort and ingenuity that go into this show.
  • The Montefiore Club
    In 1948, a group of men - some of the brightest lights from Winnipeg's Jewish community such as Max Freed, Lefty Akman, Sid Halter, and Manny Nozick to name a few - got together to start a gambling and social club...The Montefiore Club. Over the years though, it became much more than that. For the next fifty years, the Montefiore Club became a site of great friendship and a source of tremendous philanthropic generosity. In this film, Saul Henteleff explores the history, the characters, and the social contributions of The Montefiore Club to Winnipeg's Jewish community and the city-at-large.
  • Triptophonic
    In July and August of 2002, an unknown band named Guerilla Funk Monster tool tothe road to promote their debut double CD release. Triptophonic follows the band as they make their way across the beautiful landscape of Canada grinding out their original brand of funk rock in small clubs from Victoria, BC to St. John's, Newfoundland. The reality of life on the road for an unknown indie band is the focus of this compelling, comic and informative documentary. Skate punks, a dancing vagrant, a rapping street urchin, and a fire eating chef are just a few of the interesting characters that they meet along the way.
  • You Laugh Like A Duck
    A film of great warmth and insight, this co-production between the Winnipeg Film Group and the Atlantic Filmmaker's Co-operative explores the lives of a number of children in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  • Actor, The
    A charming portrait of Ken D'Cruz, a baby photographer who dreams of acting.
  • Amazing Creation of Al Simmons, The
    An in depth look at Winnipeg's most enterprising children's entertainer, Al Simmons, modern high vaudevillian and cowboy hero. A film about an artist with a pioneer spirit and an infectious nature appreciated by both young an old.
  • Bread and Freedom
    It was the beginning of the changing of the world. Bread and Freedom is a film about the dramatic rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland. Director Rysard Hunka both shows the historical roots of the movement and captures the spirit of the time when reform in the Soviet Bloc began.
  • Concertante: Arnold Spohr and the Winnipeg Ballet
    A documentary portrait of Arnold Spohr, the legendary artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, which has grown under his leadership from a small regional western Canadian company to international acclaim.
  • From the Other Side
    The epidemic of homelessness in Canada's most cosmopolitan city is insightfully documented in this film.
  • Guys Without An Attitude
    Personal view of a group of film and video makers under odd conditions. German director Sissy Schneider spent six months with the world famous Winnipeg Film Group. This is her expose.
  • Horsewoman
    The riders we meet face a dangerous sport with courage. They discuss their relationships with their horses with honesty and humour.
  • Kelekis: Fifty Years in the Chips
    A documentary portrait of a Greek family and their legendary restaurant in Winnipeg's North End. For 50 years the name Kelekis has been synonymous with chips and hotdogs. Lank's film affectionately looks at the 50th Anniversary of the place where fries and hotdogs with the works have delighted generations of patrons.
  • Le Metif Enrage
    A film that reveals the vitality, colour, talent and fury in Western Canada?s oldest and largest French city. In a devilish mood, St. Boniface poet George Morrisette uses a hometown fiddle competition to recite a poem about Franco-Manitobans and the Metis French. The audience turns against him and we witness a dramatic confrontation.
  • Many Face(t)s of Jerry Bone, The
    This film is an entertaining and informative look at Winnipeg artist Jerry Bone who uses his own art to explain his concepts of space and dimension.
  • People in Black
    Spread across the grasslands of Canada?s three prairie provinces and five American States are the people in black (Hutterites).
  • Price of Daily Bread, The
    This film offers an extraordinary and beautiful view of the land that grows the wheat, and a portrait of a way of life under economic siege.

    Anthony Nahuliak, his wife and daughter, farm near Hodgson in the manitoba Interlake, on land that has been in the family for generations. Now they must sell their farmequipment, house, and land to pay bank aurally registers an acute sense of loss. This movie seems amoung Paskievich's harshest yet most tender because it so succinctly narrates the very act of displacement.
  • Taking a Walk With Dad
    A unique film told by three generations. When Shereen Jerrett's father Jerry was a boy, his father filmed Jerry's life. Now Shereen has re-edited the film, adding a voice-over by Jerry. The result holds the subtle shades of family relationships. The father's work is of its own time, the son is looking back with hindsight, and the granddaughter adds her own perspective.
  • Winter Roads
    When muskeg is frozen and there are 24 inches of clear ice on the rivers, the winter roads that service communities along Lake Winnipeg open. From construction to the first day the isolated communities see the trucks rolling in, this documentary is a celebration of winter life.