Neighbors in My Backyard

Dr. Bashir Hamed, a Syrian doctor with battle-tested skills in emergency medicine, makes the difficult decision to flee his country and build a new life in Canada with his younger sister Amira. Bash works to navigate a new environment after earning a coveted residency in the Emergency Department of one of the best hospitals in Toronto, York Memorial.

While young and in her prime, Nadia decides to retire from pro swimming after the Olympic Games; to escape a rigid life of sacrifice. After her very last race, Nadia drifts into nights of excess punctuated by episodes of self-doubt. But even this transitional numbness cannot conceal her true inner quest: defining her identity outside the world of elite sports.

Trump’s declarations concerning Israel and a Palestinian immigrant’s uncle’s medical diagnosis conspire to throw the latter into crisis, push him into provocative encounters, and jeopardize his relationship.

Margot, 60 years old., lives in a remote country house and takes care of her autistic son, Marc-André. The sudden disappearance of the dog disrupts their quiet life on the frozen lake in Northern Quebec.

To support his mother in Mexico, Angel, a nude dancer, turns the web into his new stage.

Finding community via his gay rugby league, Jamaican-born Desmond navigates life, love, and identity as an immigrant living in Munich, Germany.

In the heart of a popular neighbourhood of Montreal, Fissure is the portrait of Father Robert and his coordinator Jenny who carry the last church in the neighbourhood at arm's length. Set against a backdrop of religious decline, this short documentary testifies to what goes through us when our world collapses.

Under Dorchester Square in Montreal lies the cemetery where 55,000 people were buried in the 19th century. The square is still at the heart of social conflicts in Quebec, 150 years later.

Following the publication of an announcement on the social networks inviting all interested canadian women (actresses, dancers and lovers of cinema) to present for a casting (without specifying neither age nor physical traits), in order to play the role of a veiled woman in a short film in preparation. 11 women were interviewed and each in turn had entered a proximate place with a complex subject such as the veiled female figure and the veil. the two casting sessions don't try to understand or find answers to questions related to this subject but it will help us in our research on this topic and in the collection of data and testimonials. Everything goes through a veil, bodies and looks. After the audition, we decided to turn the rushes into a short documentary.

Arab LGBT individuals send Helem Montreal the Migrant Mixtape, a series of recorded letters. They are asking for support to seek asylum in Canada in order to escape persecution and homophobic violence in their country of origin. One of them, Adib Mardini, having managed to become a refugee in Canada, tells us about the process that changed his life.

As the world learns to live again in the midst of the pandemic, for many Arabic-speaking LGBTQ+ people living in Montreal, this is just a period of time like any other. When you’ve fled homophobic violence in your home country and endured a painful migratory journey, or you still face social prejudices stemming from intercultural and intergenerational conflicts, surviving social isolation is nothing new.