A Canadian history of Black filmmaking – Three key artists

In celebration of Black History Month, the National Film Board is shining a spotlight on three crucial artists that brought Black stories and perspectives to the big screen in the 1970s and 1980s. Claire Prieto, Roger McTair, and Jennifer Hodge de Silva all made their mark on Canadian cinema as leading directorial figures, putting a…

Rap and Reindeer at EUFF online – A documentary about Indigenous people in Finland through the self-discovery journey of a young rapper

Inspired by the connection between Sámi people, an Indigenous and often-marginalized people of Scandinavia, and their land, known as ‘Sápmi’ or sometimes ‘Lapland,’ Petteri Saario produced Rap and Reindeer, a documentary that follows the life of an 18-year-old Sámi rapper Mihkku Laiti. The film aims to take the audience on a journey with Laiti as…

White Noise: a dinner to remember

What kind of stories are people drawn to? Are they ones about hope, change, spiritual connections? Or are they the kind that make people laugh out loud or hold their head in between their hands asthey cringe? Taran Kootenhayoo’s White Noise is all of these things. “All of the stories that I tell are those on the…

Violation: Seamless blend of genres

Violation is a suspenseful revenge film that never strays too far from its emotional core and centers around how difficult it can be to talk with those who you are supposed to be the most intimate, be it siblings or life partners. Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s debut feature film has been available to watch…

MENA Film Festival explores the many facets of the Middle East

Showcasing 23 films from 15 countries, the second edition of Vancouver’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Film Festival launched Nov. 20 virtually and runs till Nov. 27. Arman Kazemi, of Persian heritage, founded the festival last year with a group of like-minded people after seeing a lack of centralized representation of Persian or Middle…

How acupuncture reached the Black community

The DOXA Documentary Film Festival offers over 40 films you can view from the comfort of your living room until June 26. One of them is Dope is Death, a story decades old yet strikingly prescient, directed by Montreal-based filmmaker Mia Donovan. The film examines racial politics and activism in 1970s New York City through the…

A Dog’s Life: A philosophical tale

Marona’s Fantastic Tale, the latest animated feature film from director Anca Damian, will have its Canadian premiere at SPARK Animation 2019. The event, one of Canada’s leading animation festivals, will gather top animators from around the world in Vancouver (Oct. 24–27) for films, talks, panels and workshops led by distinguished filmmakers. Originally formed in 2008,…

Sunnie James D’Souza: a portrait

A move to the mountains! Coming to Vancouver brought some life lessons for Sunnie James D’Souza, a 31-year-old actor of Indian descent born and raised in Toronto. The actor, known for the films Calcutta Taxi (2012), Zoo (2015), and Shadowhunters (2016), has been living in Vancouver for the past three years, having moved here because he saw a greater amount of opportunity…

Generating ‘Air’ in film

Chinese aesthetics, Daoism and the concept of incorporating ‘air’ in film will be deconstructed in the talk How to Generate Air in a Film: Lessons from Fei Mu’s Chinese Aesthetics by Siying Duan, a Ph.D. in Art Theory. Generating “air” is a unique concept developed by one of China’s greatest film Directors, Fei Mu, which Duan will…

One Girl, a film about beauty and diversity

The 21st annual Reel to Real Film Festival for Youth presents culturally diverse films and documentaries, aiming to expose youth to new ideas and cultural perspectives. One Girl, a documentary offering a glimpse into the life of five girls from five different counties, fits exactly this aim. “I wanted to show how diverse and beautiful the…