The Sisters of Gion

A French artist struggling to put the finishing touches on his masterpiece finds his concentration repeatedly broken by the unusual sounds emanating from his neighbor's apartment in this black comedy from Ann Marie Fleming. Immediately discharged from the hospital following her hastily executed brain surgery, Elizabeth Murray wanders the streets in a curious haze, her personality visibly affected by the botched cerebral procedure. Upon spotting the man of her dreams wandering along the beach in a similarly confused manner, Elizabeth lovingly brings the disoriented man back to her apartment in hopes of nursing him back to health. Following an allergic reaction to her environment that forces Elizabeth to wrap her entire apartment in plastic, a bloody mishap with her new beau quickly spirals into a murderous, and quite noisy, rampage of good intentions gone horribly awry.

In this animated short, a young girl and her father move from China to Canada, bringing only their Chinese violin along for the journey. As they face the challenge of starting fresh in a new place, the music of the violin connects them to the life they left behind and guides the girl towards a musical future.

A young Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian parents travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival.

Long Tack Sam was an internationally renowned Chinese acrobat and magician. He overcame isolation, poverty, cultural and linguistic barriers, extreme racism and world wars to become one of the most successful vaudeville acts of his time. His showmanship was unrivalled, yet he refused to appear in movies because of the way Chinese were portrayed at the time. A celebration of the spirit of Long Tack Sam's magic and art, this richly textured first person road movie is an exhilarating testament to his legacy and a prismatic tour through the 20th Century. It all begins in a small village in China... https://www.nfb.ca/film/the_magical_life_of_long_tack_sam/

An enigmatic Japanese woman, abandoned by her wealthy Chinese husband in a remote Pacific Northwest village, becomes entwined in the lives of two rugged locals.

Ileana Pietrobruno's triumph of mid-vaginal modernism masterfully confronts the surreal nature of societal attitudes towards the female body. Beautifully shot at Riverview Hospital (formerly an insane asylum), the film follows the journey of Scheherazade, a young model attempting to insulate herself from paternalistic and sinister medicalization throught the re-telling of tabloid tales. Replete with lesbians, anorexics, necrophillic undertones and a deluge of menstrual blood, Pietrobruno's febrile fable contains enough raw passion to ignite the sensibilities of even the most faded feminists.

A super low-budget, drag king, pirate movie shot on miniDV. Pirates capture a naïve Butch and promise him that if he can find the Queen’s stolen treasure, they will be give him his heart’s desire—the seductive femme Claudia. Soon Butch is sailing on treacherous seas, swept away by dangerous desires where tops are bottomed, pirate captains are seduced by tranny sailors and cross-dressing femmes pack a wallop. With the help of the mysterious Easy and the infamous pirate Captain Candy, can Butch find the treasure in time to restore the natural attraction between butch and femme? Decidedly tongue-in-cheek, this clever tale uses a pastiche of pillaged imagery to lead us into the uncharted oceans of dyke desire. A sweetly perverse fable for drag kings, gender-benders and those who adore them. Music by Amon Tobin

A lesbian couple contemplating marriage and a family with a gay teen son taking in an unexpected visitor from the past find their lives not so far apart.

A man obsessed with prostitutes discovers that love is a lot more expensive than sex. A peek into the world of prostitution from the client's point of view.

In a world of fixed positions and prescribed roles, expanding the definition of gender requires the courage to dive deep into understanding and acceptance. Written and directed by Christina Willings, Beauty explores the lives of five gender-creative kids, each uniquely engaged in shaping their ideas of what it means to be fully human. Claiming your own sense of gender when everything around you insists that you comply and conform can be challenging, and sometimes scary—but family and friends are there to help. Free-flowing animated elements, ranging from images of octopuses to astronauts, draw together the kids’ shared experiences in beautifully rendered fantasias that celebrate the power of imagination and the flourishing force of self-determination. Playful, goofy, loving and brave, each of these remarkable young people—including Ladner, B.C.’s transgender advocate Tru Wilson—have found their own way to break free and show the world what it really means to be your true self.

"The director of the underground feature 'Cat Swallows Parakeet And Speaks!' turns their eye for stunning metaphoric imagery to the myth of Narcissus." -Out On Screen Festival

captive animals, captive people

This animated short looks at the building of Canada's transcontinental railroad with wit and whimsy. Engine 371 illustrates the struggle humans have with nature and how this fundamental tension united a country.

Documentary about the Holy Angels Residential School in Alberta, where hundreds of First Nations children were imprisoned.

A loose retelling of the play 'Ivona, Princess of Burgundia' (1938) by Witold Gombrowicz.