Wet Earth and Warm People

This documentary by Michael Rubbo (Waiting for Fidel) offers candid glimpses of Indonesia and its people. Filming in and around the capital of Jakarta, the cameras follow where chance leads, capturing the flavour of life in this fertile crescent of tropical islands. Throughout the film, the focus is on a society caught between the past and the conflicting options for the future - to change or not to change from long-established patterns of life to ones more influenced by western technology.

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.

Beautiful Lennard Island

Digging in the Dirt

A documentary about the psychological costs of working in Alberta's oil sands and the mental health crisis that's been ignored for a decade.

Salvage

With a massive, unrestricted salvage area, the Yellowknife dump is one of the last and largest open dumps in North America. People from all walks of life go there, to search for everything from tools to clothes to home décor. This documentary follows a group of passionate salvagers over five years as the dump evolves and eventually succumbs to the inexorable efforts of city bureaucrats to subject it to sensible regulations and controls.

City on Fire

Comedian James Mullinger discovers vibrancy and growth in his new home town of Saint John, New Brunswick.

Twisted

In Thorold, Ontario in the summer of 1996, a movie legend was made when a real-life tornado hit a drive-in theatre during a screening of Twister. But how much truth really lies inside this tale of life (or weather) imitating art?

Dief!

This documentary short is a portrait of Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and 13th prime minister of Canada, John George Diefenbaker (1895-1979). Diefenbaker's political career spanned 6 decades. When he died in 1979, his state funeral and final train trip west became more a celebration of life than a victory for death.

The Sterilization of Leilani Muir

The life and times of Leilani Muir, the first person to file a lawsuit against the Alberta provincial government for wrongful sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta.

Straight Up: Helicopters in Action

Straight Up: Helicopters in Action will take audiences on a series of aerial adventures. Fly along with skilled helicopter crews as they carry out sea and mountain rescues, apprehend drug smugglers, repair high voltage lines, save endangered animals, deliver humanitarian aid, and undertake a reconnaissance mission. Learn how helicopters are flown.

Yukon Old, Yukon New

The old spirit of the Yukon returns as Dawson City prepares for its Discovery Day celebrations. Witness a round of nostalgic scenes: a main street parade, refurbished saloons, the can-can. Time recedes as the film explores the hazardous mountain passes and the golden creek of Eldorado.

Moving Day

Moving Day tells the story of the people who were left outside – quite literally – during a global pandemic. With the rise of Covid-19, shelters closed, jobs were lost, and homelessness in "Victoria B.C." (unceded L'kwungen Territories), swelled. A community formed in the city’s biggest park and as they learn of an ambitious plan to house everyone by March 31, 2021, uncertainty in the park, and in their lives mounts.

Fur Trade

This short film from 1946 presents an outline of the fur trade's history and the commercial use of fur in Canada. A thirst for fur by the kings and courts of the Old World positioned the fur trade as part of the country's industrial economy. Fur farming and conservation became increasingly important, although the lonely life of the trapper remained the same. This film offers a view of both.

Picture of Light

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

Canada Vignette: Erik Davidson - Mechanic

A short film in the Canada Vignette series. A cinematic portrait of a blind auto mechanic.

K'i Tah Amongst the Birch

Filmmaker/activist Melaw Nakehk’o has spent the pandemic with her family at a remote land camp in the Northwest Territories, “getting wood, listening to the wind, staying warm and dry, and watching the sun move across the sky.” In documenting camp life—activities like making fish leather and scraping moose hide—she anchors the COVID experience in a specific time and place.

Thursday

Thursday shot from filmmaker Galen Johnson's high-rise apartment during COVID-19 “lockdown” in Winnipeg, captures people going about their daily routines in the city's eerily empty streets, yards and parking lots, on their balconies and on the riverbanks. The extreme distance and the diminutive scale of humans is paired with sound close-ups—a combination that embodies the strange, heightened intensity of feeling of the time, knowing an era-defining tragedy is happening yet being so physically removed.

Orphaned

Through the eyes of ex-engineer, now filmmaker Gillian McKercher, Orphaned explores the huge task of cleaning up thousands of idle oil and gas wells in the prairies before it's too late.

British Columbia: Canada's Olympic Wilderness

Graham Bell and Ed Leigh journey southwards through the frozen province of British Columbia, Canada, towards the home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. En route, they travel through remote communities cut off from civilisation through the winter, learning how the locals survive off the land. Leigh and Bell experience this harsh life for themselves alongside miners, loggers and hunters, and find out what it is like to function and work in such harsh conditions. Their journey ends with a gruelling trek on foot through the spectacular Coast Range Mountains into Whistler, one of the Olympic venues.

Fort Worth Flyover

A short IMAX film created for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, designed to simulate flying in a helicopter over Fort Worth, Texas. The film was traditionally shown before each Omni Theater feature, in part to acclimatize new viewers to the IMAX dome format, before being superseded in 1992.