PASSER
Enjoy this rich collection of NFB films that have been screened or honoured at the Toronto International Film Festival over the years.
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Modern GooseKarsten Wall 2022 22 minAble to navigate by reading the Earth’s magnetic field, at home on land, air and water, geese straddle the territory between ancient instincts and the contemporary world. Combining beauty, humour and profound empathy, director Karsten Wall’s exquisitely observed film essay embeds in the daily life of these iconic animals to reveal a deeper message of continuity and connection. -
4 North AJordan Canning et Howie Shia 2020 10 minA woman sits in a hospital room, alone with her dying father. As the din of hospital noises pushes her to confront her inevitable loss, she escapes into a series of lush childhood memories. 4 North A is a celebration of the fleeting joys of life and a bittersweet reminder that we don’t always get the closure we seek.
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To Kill a TigerNisha Pahuja 2022 2 h 5 minOn the night of a family wedding in a village in India, Ranjit’s 13-year-old daughter is abducted and sexually assaulted by three men. Ranjit takes on the fight of his life when he demands the men be brought to justice. With tremendous access to all facets of this story, To Kill a Tiger charts the emotional journey of an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary circumstances—a father whose love for his daughter forces a social reckoning that will reverberate for years to come.
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The Flying SailorAmanda Forbis et Wendy Tilby 2022 7 minTwo ships collide in a harbour, an explosion shatters a city, and a sailor is blasted skyward. With ears ringing, blood pulsing and guts heaving, he soars high above the mayhem and towards the great unknown. A bold blend of comedy, suspense and philosophy, The Flying Sailor is an exhilarating contemplation of the wonder and fragility of existence.
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Ever DeadlyChelsea McMullan et Tanya Tagaq 2022 1 h 29 minThis film discusses topics of trauma and abuse. Viewer discretion is advised.
Ever Deadly weaves concert footage with stunning sequences filmed on location in Nunavut, seamlessly bridging landscapes, stories and songs with pain, anger and triumph—all through the expressions of Tanya Tagaq, one of the most innovative musical performers of our time. -
The Colour of InkBrian D. Johnson 2022 1 h 49 minInk is our primal medium. It has always been with us, inscribing the evolution of humanity. The Colour of Ink uncovers the medium’s mystery and power through the eyes of Jason Logan, a visionary Toronto inkmaker. Working with ingredients foraged in the wild—weeds, berries, bark, flowers, rocks, rust—he makes ink from just about anything. Jason sends custom-made inks to an eclectic range of artists around the world, from a New Yorker cartoonist to a Japanese calligrapher. As the inks take on a life of their own, his playful alchemy paints a story of colour that reconnects us to the earth and returns us to a childlike sense of wonder.
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Le sujetPatrick Bouchard 2018 10 minUn animateur fouille son propre corps pour en extirper les souvenirs, les émotions et les angoisses qui viendront nourrir son œuvre. De la peau d’abord coupée au scalpel surgissent divers objets symboliques évoquant son passé. Arrivé au cœur après s’être fracassé les côtes, il parvient à identifier le poids dont il veut se délester.
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Animal BehaviourAlison Snowden et David Fine 2018 14 minDealing with what comes naturally isn’t easy, especially for animals.
In Animal Behaviour, the latest animated short from the Oscar®-winning team of Alison Snowden and David Fine (Bob’s Birthday), five animals meet regularly to discuss their inner angst in a group therapy session led by Dr. Clement, a canine psychotherapist. The group includes Lorraine, a leech who suffers from separation anxiety; Cheryl, a praying mantis who can’t seem to keep a man; Todd, a pig with an eating disorder; Jeffrey, a bird with guilt issues; and Linda, an obsessive-compulsive cat. -
Now Is the TimeChristopher Auchter 2019 16 minWhen internationally renowned Haida carver Robert Davidson was only 22 years old, he carved the first new totem pole on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii in almost a century. On the 50th anniversary of the pole’s raising, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter steps easily through history to revisit that day in August 1969, when the entire village of Old Massett gathered to celebrate the event that would signal the rebirth of the Haida spirit.
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Jordan River Anderson, The MessengerAlanis Obomsawin 2019 1 h 5 minAlanis Obomsawin's 52nd film tells the story of how the life of Jordan River Anderson initiated a battle for the right of First Nations and Inuit children to receive the same standard of social, health and educational services as the rest of the Canadian population.
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Highway to HeavenSandra Ignagni 2019 16 minThis short symphonic documentary offers a glimpse into the unique religious co-existence found along No. 5 Road in Richmond, British Columbia. Highway to Heaven takes audiences into many of the temples, mosques, and churches that call No. 5 home, revealing unity despite difference across these diverse cultural spaces. In a world struggling with religious violence and intolerance, filmmaker Sandra Ignagni has crafted a gentle portrait of a rare landscape using attentive imagery and an acoustic tapestry of prayer.
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ThreadsTorill Kove 2017 8 minIn her latest animated short, Academy Award®-winning director Torill Kove explores the beauty and complexity of parental love, the bonds that we form over time, and the ways in which they stretch and shape us.
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The Tesla World LightMatthew Rankin 2017 8 minNew York, 1905. Visionary inventor Nikola Tesla makes one last appeal to J.P. Morgan, his onetime benefactor. Inspired by real events, this electrifying short is a spectacular burst of image and sound that draws as much from the tradition of avant-garde cinema as it does from animated documentary.
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Our People Will Be HealedAlanis Obomsawin 2017 1 h 36 minOur People Will Be Healed, Alanis Obomsawin’s 50th film, reveals how a Cree community in Manitoba has been enriched through the power of education. The Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre in Norway House, north of Winnipeg, receives a level of funding that few other Indigenous institutions enjoy. Its teachers help their students to develop their abilities and their sense of pride.
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CharlesDominic-Étienne Simard 2017 10 minCharles knows he’s not like other kids. Every day at school, he’s reminded that his life isn’t like that of his classmates. Every day at home, he sees that he doesn’t receive the same care as other children in his neighbourhood. To dodge the unfairness and taunts, Charles imagines a peaceful haven peopled by good-hearted little frogs.
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What is Democracy?Astra Taylor 2018 1 h 47 minFeaturing a diverse cast—including celebrated philosophers, trauma surgeons, factory workers, refugees, and politicians—What Is Democracy? connects past and present, emotion and the intellect, the personal and the political, to provoke and inspire. If we want to live in democracy, we must first ask what the word even means.
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MobilizeCaroline Monnet 2015 3 minThis short film, crafted entirely out of NFB archival footage by First Nations filmmaker Caroline Monnet, takes us on an exhilarating journey from the Far North to the urban south, capturing the perpetual negotiation between the traditional and the modern by a people moving ever forward. Part of the Souvenir series, it's one of four films by First Nations filmmakers that address Indigenous identity and representation, reframing Canadian history through a contemporary lens.
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BAMHowie Shia 2015 5 minA modern adaptation of the myth of Hercules, BAM tells the story of a young boxer struggling to negotiate between his shy, bookish nature and a divinely violent temper. Where does this rage come from? Is it psychological or environmental - or is it something altogether more primordial?
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We Can't Make the Same Mistake TwiceAlanis Obomsawin 2016 2 h 42 minThe rights of First Nations children take centre stage in this monumental documentary. Following a historic court case filed by the Assembly of First Nations and the Child and Family Caring Society of Canada against the federal government, Alanis Obomsawin exposes generations of injustices endured by First Nations children living on reserves and their families. Through passionate testimony and unwavering conviction, frontline childcare workers and experts including Cindy Blackstock take part in a decade-long court battle to ensure these children receive the same level of care as other Canadian children. Their case against Canada is a stark reminder of the disparities that persist in First Nations communities and the urgent need for justice to be served.
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Blind VayshaTheodore Ushev 2016 8 minThis short film tells the story of Vaysha, a young girl born with one green eye and one brown eye. But colour isn’t the only thing that’s different about Vaysha’s gaze. While her left eye sees only the past; her right sees only the future. Like a terrible curse, Vaysha’s split vision prevents her from inhabiting the present. Blinded by what was and tormented by what will be, she remains trapped between two irreconcilable temporalities. “Blind Vaysha,” they called her.
In this metaphoric tale of timeless wisdom and beauty based on the eponymous short story by Georgi Gospodinov, filmmaker Theodore Ushev reminds us of the importance of keeping our sights on the present moment. -
Hand.Line.CodJustin Simms 2016 13 minSet in the coldest waters surrounding Newfoundland’s rugged Fogo Island, this short film follows a group of “people of the fish”—traditional fishers who catch cod live by hand, one at a time, by hook and line. Filmmaker Justin Simms takes viewers deep inside the world of these brave fishermen. Travel with them from the early morning hours, spend time on the ocean, and witness the intricacies of a 500-year-old tradition that’s making a comeback.
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The Weatherman and the ShadowboxerRandall Lloyd Okita 2014 9 minThis short animation presents the haunting story of two brothers who share the scars, though not the memories, of an untold history that has driven them to existential extremes. Combining high-speed camerawork, striking art direction and intricate animation sequences, acclaimed visual artist and filmmaker Randall Lloyd Okita crafts a poetic elegy to connectedness and survival.
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The Wanted 18Amer Shomali et Paul Cowan 2014 1 h 15 minThis feature film incorporates live action footage with animation to tell the curious story of 18 cows. Acquired by a Palestinian community in the late 1980s, the cows were a symbol of freedom and resistance, providing milk for the Palestinian residents of Beit Sahour so that they would not rely on Israeli producers. Soon the illegal cows, cherished by the Palestinians, were being sought by the Israeli army as a threat to security. With humour and passion, this film captures the spirit of the 1987 uprising through the personal experiences of those who lived it.
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Trick or Treaty?Alanis Obomsawin 2014 1 h 24 minCovering a vast swath of northern Ontario, Treaty No. 9 reflects the often contradictory interpretations of treaties between First Nations and the Crown. To the Canadian government, this treaty represents a surrendering of Indigenous sovereignty, while the descendants of the Cree signatories contend its original purpose to share the land and its resources has been misunderstood and not upheld. Enlightening as it is entertaining, Trick or Treaty? succinctly and powerfully portrays one community’s attempts to enforce their treaty rights and protect their lands, while also revealing the complexities of contemporary treaty agreements. Trick or Treaty? made history as the first film by an Indigenous filmmaker to be part of the Masters section at TIFF when it screened there in 2014.
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Me and My MoultonTorill Kove 2014 13 minWith a bright palette and witty dialogue, the film tells the charming story of a seven-year-old girl and her sisters, who ask for a bicycle knowing full well that their loving yet unconventional parents will likely disappoint them.
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CODADenis Poulin et Martine Époque 2014 11 minThis short animation draws on advanced digital technologies to offer a new vision of dance in cinema. With motion capture (MoCap) and particle processing, designers Denis Poulin and Martine Époque create virtual dancers free of their morphological appearance. In this balletic and hypnotic film, dynamic traces carry the motion of the real dancers behind the on-screen movements. Addressing environmental themes by way of metaphor, CODA is a fused universe where space and time collide, deploy, and dissolve. In this technically and formally innovative film, luminous bodies in the infinite space of the cosmos transform and evolve to the rhythms of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
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Rock the BoxKatherine Monk 2015 9 minCritic-turned-filmmaker Katherine Monk trains her lens on DJ Rhiannon Rozier in this short film about breaking the glass ceiling in a music industry dominated by men. The Vancouver-raised, university-educated Rozier was so intent on making a career in the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scene that she did something she never thought she’d do: she posed for Playboy.
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Quiet ZoneDavid Bryant et Karl Lemieux 2015 14 minCombining elements of documentary, film essay and experimental film, filmmakers Karl Lemieux and David Bryant (Godspeed You Black Emperor!) take us deep into the world of those who suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Stubbornly defying traditional genres, Quiet Zone weaves together an unusual story in which sound and image distort reality to make the distress of these “wave refugees” palpable.
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Ninth FloorMina Shum 2015 1 h 21 minDirector Mina Shum makes her foray into feature documentary by reopening the file on a watershed moment in Canadian race relations – the infamous Sir George Williams Riot. Over four decades after a group of Caribbean students accused their professor of racism, triggering an explosive student uprising, Shum locates the protagonists and listens as they set the record straight, trying to make peace with the past.
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BydloPatrick Bouchard 2012 8 minAn allegory of mankind heading for disaster, this animated short is a tragic vision inspired by the 4th movement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Drawing on the composer’s brilliant ability to evoke work and labour in his music, animator Patrick Bouchard brings earth to life through animated clay sculptures, creating a tactile nightmare in which man is his own slave driver.
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Subconscious PasswordChris Landreth 2013 10 minIn this short animation, Oscar®-winning director Chris Landreth uses a common social gaffe—forgetting somebody’s name—as the starting point for a mind-bending romp through the unconscious. Inspired by the classic TV game show Password, the film features a wealth of animated celebrity guests who try to prompt our beleaguered protagonist to remember his old pal's name. Finally, he realizes he must surrender to his predicament and jump head-first into his subconscious to find the answer.
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ImpromptuBruce Alcock 2013 10 minCe court métrage d'animation évoque le pouvoir rédempteur de la nourriture, du vin, de la musique et de l’amour selon la perspective de l’humain moderne. Alors qu’il prépare un autre repas gastronomique à l’intention de sa jeune famille, Chuck reçoit un appel quelque peu effervescent de sa conjointe, lui annonçant qu’elle vient d’inviter un groupe de collègues à la maison pour célébrer une victoire remportée au travail. À mesure qu’avance la soirée, les festivités se mettent à déraper lentement, mais sûrement, jusqu’à ce que tout semble rentrer dans l’ordre comme par enchantement.
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Hi-Ho Mistahey!Alanis Obomsawin 2013 1 h 39 minIn this feature-length documentary, Alanis Obomsawin tells the story of Shannen’s Dream, a national campaign to provide equitable access to education in safe and suitable schools for First Nations children. Strong participation in this initiative eventually brings Shannen's Dream all the way to the United Nations in Geneva.
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Gloria VictoriaTheodore Ushev 2012 6 minGloria Victoria unfolds on the still-smouldering rubble of a furious 20th century, propelled by the exalting “invasion” theme from Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony (No. 7). Resembling a military march with bolero overtones, the music sweeps over imagery of combat fronts and massacres, leading us from Dresden to Guernica, from the Spanish Civil War to star wars. It is at once a symphony that serves the war machine, that stirs the masses, and art that mourns the dead, voices its outrage and calls for peace.
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The End of PinkyClaire Blanchet 2013 8 minThis short animation adapted from a short story by Heather O’Neill, who also narrates the film, follows three fallen angels seeking companionship in Montreal’s red-light district. The survivor of traumatic childhood experiences, Johnny is a handsome thief who finds himself drawn to Mia’s fragile beauty. Both have a soft spot for Johnny’s best friend and partner in crime, Pinky. But when one of Pinky’s endearing quirks sets off a tragicomic chain of events, Johnny plots his revenge with methodical detachment. Peopled with characters living on the margins of society, this film casts light on the frailty of human relationships. The film features hand-drawn pencil and pastel animation rendered in stereoscopic 3D.
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Pink Ribbons Inc.Léa Pool 2011 1 h 37 minPink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labeled a "dream cause," has been hijacked by a shiny, pink story of success.
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ORAPhilippe Baylaucq 2011 15 minORA is a stunning meeting between the artistic worlds of choreographer José Navas and filmmaker Philippe Baylaucq. It is the first film to use 3D thermal imaging, producing visuals like none that have ever been seen before: the luminous variations of body heat seen on skin, bodies emitting a multitude of colours, a space filled with movement that transforms itself.
Warning: Although this film was shot in 3D, the streaming and downloadable versions are available in 2D only. -
Stories We TellSarah Polley 2012 1 h 48 minThis feature documentary is an inspired, genre-twisting film directed by Oscar®-nominee Sarah Polley. Polley's playful investigation into the elusive truth buried within the contradictions of a family of storytellers paints a touching and intriguing portrait of a complex network of relatives, friends, and strangers.
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Let the Daylight into the SwampJeffrey St. Jules 2012 36 minIn this experimental short, filmmaker Jeffrey St. Jules reconstructs the story of his grandparents and their rugged frontier existence in the logging towns of Northern Ontario. A blend of fiction and documentary, the film stitches together a fractured family history that is filled with both the joie de vivre and hardships reflective of Franco-Ontarian life.
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The TrenchesClaude Cloutier 2010 5 minThis animated short by Claude Cloutier is a pictorial account of an attack on Canadian soldiers during WWI. On the edge of the battlefield, recruits are dreading the order to attack. At the signal, a young soldier leaps into a hell of fire and blood where the earth engulfs both the living and the dead. Blending archival images and Cloutier’s hypnotizing brushstroke, the film is a dazzling illustration of the futility of war.
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Lipsett DiariesTheodore Ushev 2010 14 minThis animated short by Theodore Ushev depicts the maelstrom of anguish that tormented Arthur Lipsett, a famed Canadian experimental filmmaker who died at the age of 49. His descent into depression and madness is explored through a series of images as well as sounds taken from Lipsett's own work.
