Strand, Under the Dark Cloth

Acclaimed documentarian John Walker catches the legendary Cape Breton Miner’s singing group The Men of the Deeps just as the last mines on the island are shut down. Featuring ravishing cinematography of Cape Breton, and plenty of music, Men of the Deeps is a deeply touching portrait of a culture that still survives despite the ultimate end of an industry, and a tribute to the men and the songs that kept things moving on the Island for almost two hundred years.

Documentary about women in the film industry. Numerous notable actresses and female directors share their thoughts.

Something Dancing About Her is an affectionate portrait of Pegi Nicol MacLeod, a charismatic yet relatively unknown painter. Shedding fresh light on her place in Canadian art history, director Michael Ostroff chronicles the life of this remarkable creative spirit who threw herself into painting, left-wing politics and love affairs with equal enthusiasm.

American television programming dominates around the world at the expense of regional cultural voices.

Walker takes us on a personal journey into a world of myth and imagination that he learned from his grandmother. He travels from the Moors of Devon and the Highlands of Scotland to the brooding Celtic landscapes of Ireland and the intimate hills of Cape Breton, in his search of this potent “otherworld” of the imagination.

In the '60s, the Mushuau Innu had to abandon their 6,000-year nomadic culture and settle in Davis Inlet. Their relocation resulted in cultural collapse and widespread despair.

An intimate portrait of Jack Chambers, a major figure in the Canadian cultural landscape. This lyrical film includes the full range of his work from the age of thirteen until his death. The story is told in Chambers' own words through narration, and balanced by interviews with people who were close to Chambers at different times in his life.

A rare and unique assembly of some of the greatest drummers in the world. Explosive talent, passion, humour and irresistible personality come together in a magical setting when seven diverse drummers create a profound and unforgettable experience. You've never seen drummers like this before! Featuring Nasyr Abdul Al-Khabyyr, Dennis Chambers, Kenwood Dennard, Horacio "El-Negro" Hernadez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mike Mangini and Raul Rekow, the film engages us with the rich music styles and influences that are as dynamic as the performers themselves. We are lifted to another dimension as we connect to the powerful forces of nature embodied in the music of these master musicians. The creative and spiritual freedom of expression these artists display is overwhelming - from Latin rhythms to the wildly original compositions of Kenwood Dennard. Rock, jazz, Latin fusion, soul - these master drummers have backed up the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Carlos Santana and now - each other.

Making Overtures: The Story of a Community Orchestra is a 1985 Canadian short documentary film directed by Larry Weinstein. A small-town orchestra and choir are the focus of this loving and humorous portrait. The film unveils the musician's passion for performance, their imaginative fund-raising methods and collective will to survive. This film includes a colorful cast of characters ranging from students to seniors, from business executives to hog farmers. Holding it all together is the outrageously flamboyant conductor who inspires everyone with his endless enthusiasm. Making Overtures reveals how an entire community us enriched by its orchestra. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Some people grapple with the moral challenges of treating human beings decently. Others are just… assholes. Inspired by Aaron James’ New York Times bestseller of the same name, this documentary investigates the breeding grounds of contemporary ‘asshole culture’ — and locates signs of civility in an otherwise rude and nasty universe. Venturing into predominantly male domain, this film moves from Ivy League frat clubs to the bratty princedoms of Silicon Valley and the bear pits of international finance. Why do assholes thrive in certain environments? What explains their perverse appeal? And how do they keep getting elected?

In an increasingly urban nation, Canada’s national parks are a treasured escape into extraordinary beauty and rugged wilderness. If the Group of Seven were an introduction to the landscape’s majesty, National Parks Project is the next logical chapter. Fifty-two contemporary artists from across the country, whose talents are as diverse as the parks they set out to explore, used their surroundings as a source of inspiration to blend musical and cinematic skills into collaboratively crafted vignettes. Epic in its ambition to celebrate these locales during Parks Canada’s centennial year, this omnibus film resonates with the knowledge that our unprotected land is more vulnerable than ever. Including films by Zacharius Kunuk, Peter Lynch, Sturla Gunnarsson and John Walker, and music by Sarah Harmer, Sam Roberts, Cadence Weapon and The Besnard Lakes, among many others, National Parks Project is a one-of-a-kind documentary experience.

Jackie Burroughs stars as Maryse Holder, the ill-fated feminist author who met an untimely death in Acapulco. Her attitude of cultural and racial condescension toward Mexican men was to regard them as nothing more than beasts of burden for her own sexual pleasure, and her hedonistic pursuits of sex and drugs led to her death at the hands of one of her many boytoys.

In the 18th century, Moravian missionaries from eastern Europe settled among Inuit on the Labrador coast in eastern Canada. They came to preach Christianity and one of their tools was music. So began the remarkable tradition of sacred music in the northern Labrador communities.

With a unique blend of dramatic action and behind-the-scenes documentary footage, filmmaker John Walker shares the multi-layered story of British explorer Sir John Franklin and his crew of 128 men, who perished in the Arctic ice during an ill-fated attempt to discover the Northwest Passage, and John Rae, the Scottish doctor who in 1851, discovered their dismal fate. Rae's dark report, which described the crew’s madness and cannibalism, did not sit well with Sir John's widow, Lady Franklin, nor with many others in British society, including Charles Dickens. They waged a bitter public campaign to discredit Rae's version of events and mark an entire nation of northern Inuit with the label of murderous cannibals. A stunning face-to-face meeting between the great-great grandson of Charles Dickens and Tagak Curley, an honoured Inuit statesman who challenges the fraudulent history, vaults the story from the past into the present and we are witness to history in the making.

A look at the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s as experienced by filmmaker Donald McWilliams.

An impressionistic exploration of the spirit that informed the solitary life of one of Canada's most celebrated and irrepressible painters. Emily Carr began painting in an era when women didn't, at an age when most people shouldn't, traveling to remote locations that few professional adventurers chose to go. Not only did she adopt the painting techniques of modernism, when such ideas were considered dangerous, Carr chronicled the extraordinary art and culture of native peoples, who were invisible to the dominant culture.