Andrea Dorfman

After her boyfriend leaves town, Justine, depressed and unfulfilled, picks up her neglected guitar which takes her on a journey that gets her heart beating for the first time in years.

Flawed is nothing less than a beautiful gift from Andrea Dorfman's vivid imagination, a charming little film about very big ideas. Dorfman has the uncanny ability to transform the intensely personal into the wisely universal. She deftly traces her encounter with a potential romantic partner, questioning her attraction and the uneasy possibility of love. But, ultimately, Flawed is less about whether girl can get along with boy than whether girl can accept herself, imperfections and all. This film is both an exquisite tribute to the art of animation and a loving homage to storyboarding, a time-honoured way of rendering scenes while pointing the way to the dramatic arc of the tale. (NFB)

Hairy Legs, an animated short film, documents a 13-year-old girl’s small yet life-changing act of rebellion on the road to womanhood and feminism. Deciding not to shave her legs led filmmaker Andrea Dorfman to question and ultimately defy society’s expectations. With charm, warmth and humour, Hairy Legs captures the universality of girls exploring gender, curiosity and freedom as they evolve from spending exuberant, carefree days on their bicycles to facing and defying stereotypes.

A taut drama set in a travelling pickup truck about an all-female love triangle, Swerve is an unsettling examination of contemporary love and friendship.

The year I turned nine I became pathologically afraid that my parents would die. I stopped letting them leave the house at night, even for a walk around the block. I'd call them repeatedly at restaurants if they tried to go out for dinner and once threatened to kill myself if anything happened to them. That's when they sent me to a psychiatrist. This is the story of the year I was nine.

Love That Boy is the story of Phoebe, a socially inept overachiever, unrecognized in a world run by C students. Phoebe’s life is totally dominated by her “To Do Before Graduation” list. When Phoebe’s best friend Robyn dumps Phoebe two weeks before college graduation, Robyn points out that Phoebe’s list is missing one essential thing - a boyfriend. Not wanting to be alone at graduation, the most important day of her life, Phoebe begins an ill-fated quest to find a boyfriend. After the demise of her first relationship - her “boyfriend” didn’t even know that they were going out - Phoebe inadvertently falls in love. The only problem is, he’s fourteen.

After her partner breaks up with her on her 39th birthday, Gaby tackles her fears of loneliness as well as preconceptions of what it means for a woman to be single.

Heirloom is a stop motion journey through a papery land... from lost love to found freedom. Every once in a while I hear a song that stops me in my tracks. This was the case when I heard Heirloom by Kim Harris. It moved to tears. It created a flurry of images in my mind. Two years later, I finally had some time to manifest those images. It's a celebration of Kim's song and also of the power of collaboration because we're so much better together than alone.