films
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Daniel J. Clark | USA
97 min
Presented in partnership with Taste Real and Bread Bar
A documentary about people who think the Earth is flat. Yes, really.
Bobbi Jo Hart | CANADA
90 min
Presented in partnership with Taste Real , Guelph Dance, and Miijidaa
Following the Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the all-male, comic ballet company, Rebels on Pointe ultimately proves that a ballerina is not only a woman dancing -- but an act of rebellion in a tutu.
Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal & Nicholas de Pencier | CANADA
87 min, Presented by rare and Arts Everywhere Festival
A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky.
CANADA | USA
79 min
Co-presented by MT Space
Short, sweet, and strong, this series of short docs delves into the diverse experiences and influential stories of indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States.
Shift (Kelly Milner | CANADA)
Three Thousand (Asinnajaq | CANADA)
Turning Tables (Chrisann Hessing | CANADA)
Holy Angels (Jay Cardinal Villeneuve | CANADA)
dukʷibəɫ swatixʷtəd (Changer’s Land) (Tracy Rector | USA)
Laura Nix | USA
87 min
Meet passionate teenage innovators from around the globe who are creating cutting-edge solutions to confront the world’s environmental threats – found right in their own backyards – while navigating the doubts and insecurities that mark adolescence. Take a journey with these inspiring teens as they prepare their projects for the largest convening of high school scientists in the world, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
+ The Short Films
A collection of short films from Guelph’s DaVinci Program: An Environmental and Community Leadership Program.
Memory by Brennan Robinson and Alex Walmsley
Magnificent Ugly by Sequoia Kim and Emily Silk
Love by Carly Cantlon and Charlotte Colquhoun
Diego Pascal Panarello | ITALY/GERMANY
90 min, Presented by EXCLAIM! and in partnership with the Guelph Jazz Festival and International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
In this strange and beautiful film, a dumped, jobless musician returns home to Sicily looking for purpose. After a melodic vision of the mouth harp—one of the world's oldest instruments—he scours the Siberian wilderness to study under its master in this funny, fantastical midlife crisis.
EVENT: Mouth harp centered performance by Boing (Ben Grossman, Colin Couch, Jeff Wilson, and Michael Mucci) presented by International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.
Jenny Hellmann & Regina Mennig | GERMANY
93 min
***Canadian Premier***
Co-presented by JAYU: Human Rights Film Festival
Hilario and Catalina are among the most defenseless victims of the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-83). Both were taken from their families as babies in order to prevent them from growing up with their parents’ ideals. With their parents gone, their grandmothers fight to find their lost grandchildren and reunite them with their true identities. However, discovering their past is not without pain and complications, which these two survivors experience very differently in this compelling film.
CAN
65 min, Presented in partnership with Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice
FREE
This courageous collection of nine micro-documentaries explores body image and weight stigma in the realms of fertility, pregnancy, reproduction and parenting. These films grapple with stories about our bodies and minds, our appetites, and our relationships to reproduction.
Yana Winkler & Tina Brown | USA
86 min, Presented in partnership with Taste Real, the Guelph Black Heritage Society and Royal City Roller Derby
TICKETS
When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture and demand their right to roll.
CANADA
88 min
Co-presented by Art Not Shame
TICKETS
Short, sweet, and inspiring, this series of short docs explores how art impacts our lives and informs our relationships.
Why I’m Here (João França | CANADA)
Prince’s Tale (Jamie Miller | CANADA)
Coe Hill (Matt Greyson & Adam Crosby | CANADA)
The Song and the Sorrow (Millefiore Clarkes | CANADA)
Katrina Costello | IRELAND
75 min
In this bittersweet evocation of the end of an era, an Irish farmer/poet, deeply entwined with ancestral traditions and the natural world, must stand up for all that is sacred to him when the government threatens his way of life.
Various Countries
40 min
Ages 4-12, Presented by Trillium West
$5/$20 Family
Thoughtful and funny short animated films from Canada and around the world, paired with a series of mini docs made by local kid filmmakers.
Astra Taylor | CANADA
107 min, Co-presented with OPIRG
Featuring 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.
CAN | UK
86 min
Short, sweet, and thought provoking, this series of short docs explores questions of who we are, how we engage with our worlds, and where/when/how we feel like we belong.
Black Sheep (Ed Perkins | UK)
Suzanne Gauthier: One Thing Leads to Another (Ariella Pahlke | CANADA)
Salaam B’y (Amar Wala | CANADA)
Beauty (Christina Willings | CANADA)
Dana Nachman & Don Hardy | USA
81 min
Which puppy will have what it takes to become a guide dog for the blind? Follow five funny, fuzzy, roly-poly puppies from birth through training. The stakes are high and not every dog can make the cut. Only the pick of the litter will succeed!
Christina D. King & Elizabeth A. Castle | USA
64 min
Presented in partnership with The Wooly Pub
Following the story of Madonna Thunder Hawk and her decades fighting for Native rights both in the American Indian Movement of the 1970s and against the Dakota Access Pipeline with her daughter Marcy at her side. This film unveils not only a female perspective of history, but also examines the impact political struggles have on the children who bear witness.
+ The Short Film
Nuuca
An evocative meditation on Indigenous women’s integral connection to land and the ways in which the extractive industry’s rape of the earth is directly linked to the violence perpetrated against Indigenous women and girls.
Michelle Latimer ⋅ CANADA/USA ⋅
12 min
Friday November 2nd, 2018, 2pm-4pm
This session is free for Ed Video members and Guelph Film Festival Passholders
$30 for non-members (plus HST)
Producer Cora Atkinson will share experience from the making of the film “Don’t be Nice” (and other projects), with a particular focus on the role of the producer in navigating sensitive subject matter and working with subjects in the field.
Participants will be invited to discuss their own projects and work through their own challenges with Cora and the group.
This workshop is open to all skill-levels, but is primarily intended for those who have previous experience in documentary making (at any budget level).
Maya Annik Bedward | CANADA
11 min
Marvin came to Canada from Jamaica in the early 1950s. With no Black barbers in his neighbourhood, he endured many painful haircuts as a child. At 65, he still hates to get his haircut. A funny and refreshing take on the classic immigrant story, The Haircut is an exploration of assimilation and resistance through the portrait of one man's refusal to cut his hair.
Ben Garfield | USA
9 min
"I heard destiny calling... I was going to be a cheesemaker." When Oleg Sirota discovered his native Russia was banning all Western cheese imports, he quit his IT job in Moscow, sold his house and cars, took out a $100k loan and set about building a cheese factory in the snowy wilderness. "Russian Parmesan" was born.
Bry Webb | Canada
$5 or free with Festival Pass
In the summer of 2000, a young skateboarding musician captures his world on film with his pal’s Hi8. Years later, he digs the tapes out of storage and finds they’re just as weathered as him. A perceptive, contemplative exploration of youth, hope, and the way we see and hear the world around us.
Max Powers | USA
96 min, Presented in partnership with Guelph Spoken Word and as part of the 15th Canadian Festival of Spoken Word
A team made up of five African-American, Afro-Hispanic and queer poets in their 20s, prepares for the national championships, while being pushed to go deeper and brave their inner demons, buck societal expectations, and find their voice during the racially-charged summer of 2016.
Moving Histories, Neighbourhood Mysteries celebrates how stories build community and invite us to share the great things and strange tales about the places we call home.