Rock Demers

While visiting their grandparents in the Québec countryside, two children enter a fantasy kingdom and are confronted by evil forces.

As the Christmas holidays begin, a group of 10 war-obsessed kids have a wave of inspiration: What if they spend the next two weeks engaged in a simulated war, armed only with shields, wooden swords, snowballs, and a fierce sense of competition? With a bounty chest waiting for the winners, the two sides gradually grow in size, and the war grows in importance, taking over all aspects of their lives.

To amuse themselves during the winter school break, the kids in a small village decide to have a massive snowball fight. Luke and Sophie, both 11 years old, become the leaders of the opposing sides. Sophie and her cohort defend an elaborate snow fort against the assault of Luke’s horde. Whichever side occupies the fort at the end of the winter break, wins. But what starts out as pure youthful fun and enthusiasm deteriorates into a more serious conflict. Joy is restored when all the children decide to attack the fort rather than each other and happily destroy every last bit of the snow fort.

Jo, a talented young art student from Quebec, attracts the attention of a mysterious European art dealer who buys her drawings. When she later learns that the works are being sold as newly discovered drawings by Vincent van Gogh, she sets out to uncover the truth—traveling first to Amsterdam and ultimately to 19th-century Arles to confront the painter himself.

Madeline is 13 years old, as are her two friends, and nothing looks the same to her. Her sister is leaving to study medicine, and there's Freddy who's looking at her as no one has before. But she still doesn't want to become an adolescent. A tragic accident and the help of an eccentric aunt who just arrived in her life will help her to pass the barrier.

The adventures of Elvira, a 12-year-old girl obsessed with the sea who develops the ability to breathe underwater. Elvira and her dolphin friend Elvar meet a friendly whale, among other creatures, while back on land all is not as it should be.

Welcome to the world of stamps with Tommy Tricker and friends as they learn the magic of travelling through time and space for the mere price of the postage. Though of course, nothing is as easy as it seems as they soon learn when they try to rescue Charles Merriweather, a stamp traveller frozen in time since his last attempt at stamp- travelling, 65 years ago. But Charles turns out to be a girl, his sister Molly! And she is rapidly turning into an old woman. To find a cure, Tommy takes off in a race against the time that leads him and Molly to the exotic and magical South Pacific islands.

Two girl pen pals and a simple summer in the country. They befriend a woman rumored to be a witch, and end up as amateur detectives when her pet pig is stolen.

When the joker Tommy Tricker plays some practical jokes on some of his friends, his best friend Ralph, a stamp collector, discovers the secret of "stamp travel" to make him travel around the world on a stamp to bring back the mysterious Charles Merriweather, who never returned on a stamp for 75 years.

After her grandmother enters a nursing home, a spirited young orphan girl moves in with her rigid, Bach-obsessed uncle. Accompanied by her pet skunk, Broccoli, her energetic presence disrupts his strictly ordered routine, slowly softening his cold exterior and showing him the true meaning of family.

A 12-year boy feels left out by his classmates because he has no interest in athletics. He finally discovers his calling when his parents take him to a magic show. Picked by the magician to be his helper during a trick he is drawn into the world of magic and wants to learn more. He becomes proficient in tricks and also discovers his telekinetic powers. Unfortunately that further alienates him from his peers and his parents are afraid of his powers. Things change when a national emergency arises and the government asks him to help. After success he becomes a hero and is accepted by all. Written by Polish Cinema Database.

Just like every other summer, the children of two camp-sites play "war". But, this summer it takes an interesting turn.

Peanut butter is the secret ingredient for magic potions made by two friendly ghosts. Eleven-year-old Michael loses all of his hair when he gets a fright and uses the potion to get his hair back, but too much peanut butter causes things to get a bit hairy.

The first part of the block will be dedicated to the monograph Vojtěch Jasný: The Film Poet in Exile (2020) authored by the film historian Jiří Voráč. The monograph is centered on the legendary director’s life and career after his emigration to Western Europe and to the US after 1968, which have so far received little attention. In exile, Jasný established himself as a film director (he authored over thirty cinema and TV films and documentaries), stage director, photographer, and film studies lecturer. The first part will be followed by the screening of Jasný’s documentary Why Havel? co-produced by himself and Miloš Forman in Canada and Czechoslovakia in 1991. As remarkable as this reflection of the paradoxical transformation of a dissident into a president in the carnival-like atmosphere of the euphoric post-revolution period with the first question marks already appearing may be, it did not meet the expectations of the head of state.

A young woman, living with her parents and siblings on a remote farm in harsh, picturesque northern Québec, has three suitors: a steady and unimaginative farmer, Eutrope, the Americanized and wealthy Lorenzo, who has sought his fortune in Boston, and François Paradis, a rough and virile logger who captures her heart despite the warnings of her parents and the village priest. For a year, marked by seasonal change in an atmosphere charged with the strangeness of Indians and the demons of the woods, we see Maria at work and prayer, struggling with decisions, choosing to stay in Canada, in love with François, seeking to change his rough behaviors, and dealing with extraordinary loss.

One of Canada's most remarkable families works tirelessly to aid displaced persons and refugees during the Second World War.

A friendless youngster (Michael Caloz) asks a cat goddess to help his feline friend.

This award-winning film by André Melançon -- set on a ranch on the pampas of Argentina -- tells the story of three children spending a summer with their grandfather. The youngest, Felipe, makes friends with a puppy; his older brother, Daniel, breaks and train his first horse; their 13-year-old sister, Laura, struggles with the transition between childhood and growing up. The kids find it difficult to adapt to their proud and stubborn grandfather, and he learns that he has to change his ways and try to understand them as they all experience the joys and sorrows of growing up and growing old. ~ Alice Duncan, Rovi

A young girl and her new friend investigate a series of supernatural happenings in the Austrian children's film SUMMER WITH THE GHOSTS. Caroline departs from her home in Montreal to join her father a famous film director on the set of his latest film in Austria. When she arrives however she learns of a series of accidents and problems on the film set with everyone at odds to explain how they happened. Suspecting that someone means to sabotage the film she begins to investigate the ancient castle being used as the set. Along with her newfound friend Jakob she discovers that the film's difficulties may in fact have a supernatural cause.

Three children, Benoît, Charles and Marie, provide housekeeping services to creatively spend their time during the summer school vacations while making extra pocket money. Their small business becomes very successful in the neighborhood, but goes terribly wrong when jealousy, sabotage, fraud, and a failed love story begin.

Little Rehor isn't allowed to play with the other boys. His only friend is the girl next door, Luci. Rehor's father is doctor on a boat and he has sent Rehor a package with butterfly larvae. When they hatch he discover a fairy who can do magic tricks.

A young boy still recovering from his mother's recent death teams with his two best friends to turn a regular pooch into a stunt-performing super-dog in this affectionate comedy for the whole family. Losing a parent is never easy, but for 11 year old Daniel it's been especially hard; when his father dives into work in an attempt to keep his grief at bay, Daniel starts causing mischief around the neighborhood with his best friends William and Colin. When the kids catch wind of a canine.

A martian comes to a small town in Quebec and becomes friends with the town children. He gives them candy to get the children into his spacecraft. This alarms the parents but he wins them over and they have a great big Christmas party.

Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.