Toronto Short Films
Toronto Short Films
My Name is Kahentiiosta, Alanis Obomsawin, 28',
QUE
Kahentiiosta, one of the Mohawk women who defended their land against Canadian
Army assault in 1990, was arrested and separated from her son. The story
of one woman's journey after the barricades came down.
Al Tasmim, Selwyn Jacob, 22', AB
Selwyn Jacob's Al Tasmim upends hoary pioneer mythology with a revealing
document of the Edmonton Muslim community's struggle to save the Al-Rashid
Mosque, the first mosque built in Canada.
Reconstruction, Laurence Green, 20',
QUE
This experimental autobiographical work searches through evidence of Green's
seemingly typical, white, middle-class sixties childhood to comprehend the
pain of betrayal by his parents, and the loss of his sister.
Making Change, Colina Phillips, 18', ON
An aspiring Black musician trapped in a frustrating circle of arduous mining
work to support his family in 1936 Nova Scotia, finally accepts his destiny
and makes a dramatic change.
The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today, Maryse Frigon,
6', QUE
A solitary swimmer basks in a play of light, colour, and shadow.
The People in the House, Louise Bourque, 22',
QUE
This exploration of a family in crisis questions the role of religious devotion
in the perpetuation of dysfunction. The film portrays a claustrophobic universe
in which memory, fantasy, and dream collide.
Closet Case, Wrik Mead, 3', ON
In this figure of speech made literal, a human figure tries to escape the
confines of the closet.
ab(NORMAL), Isabelle Auger, Wrik Mead, 22', ON
Through four pixilated sketches, the film traces the relationship spectrum
from paranoid avoidance to smothering and overwhelming attention.
Last and First Seconds of a Century, AndrÇ
êlias AboujaoudÇ, 17', QUE
A family tries to stay together in a war-torn landscape, in this rhythmic
search for a lost childhood amidst the ruins of war.
Douglas Coupland: Close Personal Friend, Jennifer
Cowan, 25', ON
The man who invented Generation X is put on the hot seat. This snappy documentary
encapsulates Coupland's thinking through imagery of the late twentieth century.
Prey, Helen Lee, 16', ON
The luminous Sandra Oh stars as a hip adventurous daughter of a hardworking,
pious Korean grocery store owner, plagued by petty thefts. Full of flash
and fantasy, Prey is a truly fun film that ends with a bang.
Book of Knives, Kim Derko, 27', ON
Tracy Wright stars as Iris, a woman who has murdered her plastic surgeon.
Her interrogation links seven psychiatric case histories dating from 1905
to the present, offering the complex, unique perspective of women as the
subject of medical investigation.
The Lion and the Lamb, Luc Beauchamp, 8', QUE
Breathtakingly shot in black and white, under the shadow of towering buildings,
the paths of pedestrians cross and time seems to have stopped.
Greentide, Steven Wendland, 10', BC
An evening's bath inspires a child's escalating fantasy where swimming pools
atop skyscrapers are transformed by computer animation into green waterfalls
in the urban sky.
Thomas, Keith Behrman, 14', BC
A Saskatchewan farm family, unable to share the grief that unites them,
waits in a winter storm for the doctor to retrieve the body of young Thomas
who has passed away in the night.
Pleasure Film (Ahmed's Story), Ann Marie Fleming,
7', ON
A modern morality play featuring a droll monologue by Valerie Buhagiar,
intercut with the grooving chords of bass player Howard Sephyr.
The Trunk, Anita McGee, 6', NF
A young woman rummages through her mother's trunk to reveal the story of
her birth, betrayal and abandonment.
Pearl Mad, Alina Martiros, 8', ON
Director Alina Martiros has fun with the Queen Bee Syndrome, turning the
sexual tables on modern reproductive technologies.
Use Once and Destroy, John L'êcuyer, 12',
ON
Red Theo, Nice Guy Nelson, and Brenda are faces from an ex-junkie's past,
whose stories are linked by a voice-over with a poetic sense of urgency
reminiscent of Dylan Thomas.
Odilon Redon, Guy Maddin, 10', MB
Nineteenth century French Symbolist painter Odilon Redon meets Guy Maddin
in this tribute by Canada's filmmaker of the fantastic to Europe's weaver
of dreams.
Secrets, Mark Williams, 13', ON
This portrayal of friendship between two young girls demonstrates that intimacy
and trust can only be won through the revelation of truths, and that childhood
is not always carefree.
Cramps, Penny Gay, 5', ON
A film about memory, grandfathers, and menstrual cramps.
Picoti, Picota, Manon Briand, 10', QUE
A young girl passes through a rural landscape whose peace is disrupted by
the brutal reality she finds at home. Picoti, Picota, a children's rhyming
game, exposes the forces that obliterate childhood.
Curtain, Mark Morgenstern, Stephanie Morgenstern,
12', QUE
Claire, an actor, arrives minutes before she is to appear on stage. Reeling
from a bad break-up, she recounts the fear and euphoria of the long past
opening night, that like her romance, had seemed so full of promise.
Why I'll Never Trust You (In 200 Words or Less),
Cassandra Nicolaou, 10', ON
On a hot summer's day, two lovers, Rebecca and Claire are in bed together.
As the afternoon progresses, Rebecca tries to make a call -- one which reveals
that all is not as it seems.
The Feeler, Colleen Murphy, 25', ON
Lena comes to read to the blind and isolated Danny. Relieved and intrigued
that Danny cannot see her, Lena allows herself to get carried away.
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