Curating this programme is a yearly struggle in the best way. Narrowing a selection of the best Canadian shorts to a feature length means we always omit some tremendous work. But I think this line-up represents some of the best short form work that the country has to offer. New voices, established auteurs, across almost every genre. Filmmakers who are creating exciting work that can’t wait to share with our audiences.  – Christian Kelley, programmer

 

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TOGETHER – directed by Albert Shin

Two anonymous strangers meet in a motel room by the sea.

 

MIMINIE – directed by Simon Laganiere

Bonus, a clumsy and reckless father, has custody of his young son for the day. Abated by his recent breakup, he notices that the child is developing a beautiful relationship with his ex-girlfriend’s new lover. Afraid that he is being replaced, he decides to dazzle him with a father-son moment tinged with magic.

 

LAVENDERIA – directed by Roger Galvez

A young Salvadoran family spends an evening cleaning a dry cleaners. 

 

LOLOS (Boobs) – directed by Marie Valade

Boobs is both a comic and dark journey that explores a woman’s love-hate relationship for her body and her femininity. 

 

TIBBITS HILL – directed by Edith Jorisch

What if the wind had spoken the language of children …What would be its voice? Tibbits Hill tells the story of migrating children that have found refuge from war in an abandoned school, protected from the horrifying whistling of the wind. When one of them disappears, they decide to break the silence and reunite to commemorate the loss.

 

BIRDIE – directed by Alexandre Lefebvre

During his golf game, Marcel finally gathers his courage and invites Joanne, the 9th hole canteen chef, on a romantic date. Far from thinking that his action would create this kind of shockwave. 18 holes. 431 miles. 2 golf bags. 1 reunited love.

 

ANGAKUSAJAUJUQ: THE SHAMAN’S APPRENTICE – directed by Zacharias Kunuk

A young shaman must face her first test-a trip underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill.

 

BHAI – directed by Hamza Bangash

The gulf of understanding between two brothers widens amid the bustle of Karachi on Pakistan’s Independence Day.

 

DEFUND – directed by Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah and Araya Mengesha

Starring in and directing their own razor-sharp script, the Toronto team of Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah and Araya Mengesha play twins trying to navigate their own, and each other’s, complex responses to both the lockdown and the fight for racial justice during the long hot summer of 2020.

 

TRAIN STATION – directed by Lyanna Patrick

In this beautifully animated documentary short, filmmaker Lyana Patrick narrates her family’s powerful story of love and survival at Lejac Indian Residential School.

This year’s second Canadian Shorts program celebrates innovative voices with a particular focus on authentic stories whose directors’ forms transcend the barriers of genres and conventional storytelling techniques.

 

Three pieces of our eight-films program fall under the fiction category, the rest of our shorts can be classified as animation, documentary, or hybrid films, which exploit the capacity of multiple genres to tell their unique stories. The themes encompass several topics, such as: adolescent sexuality, single mothers, seniors’ loneliness, patriarchy, the consequences of war on children, family coherence, and the urban indigenous youth’s pride of their aboriginal identity. Although most of the films use film and video cameras, the program includes films that are made—partially or entirely—with cell phone cameras, asserting the fact that many stories can still be told despite the lack of resources and funding.

 

In the 98-minutes program, our varied Canadian filmmakers guide us in a journey through Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, where we learn about the issues that inspired their stories and see how they were able to bring them into life despite the fierce challenges that strike independent filmmaking in our days. This program stands as one of the manifestations of the creativity and richness of the diverse community.

– Ahmed I. Nour, programmer

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AMANI – directed by Alliah Fafin

In this tale, halfway between reality and fantasy, a mysterious narrator tells us the story of Amani, a young boy passionate about dance. Amani’s innocence and joie de vivre open the narrator’s eyes to the humanity he had never really cared about before. But as the night begins to rumble, Amani’s joie de vivre disappears to give way to his pain, which echoes in the silence of the plain.

 

L’ABATTU DES VENTS – directed by Félix-Antoine Garneau-Chouinard

Alone on a secluded island, a lighthouse keeper is a prisoner of his own madness.

 

BABUSHKA – directed by Kristina Wagenbauer

A Canadian director visits her grandmother in Russia after 25 years of separation. Travelling through family memories and those of a country, this rollercoaster of emotions invites us into an intimate space for reconciliation.

 

FORGOTTEN – directed Mawrgan Shaw

Offering a window into the isolation the elderly face when living alone. Drawn using traditional and digital media, the film presents and explores one person’s loneliness, sorrow, and deteriorating grip on reality.

 

PREMIUM PORNOGRAPHY – directed by  Simon Ruscinski

Edgar Lewis is in trouble. He is caught masturbating in class and is expelled. After a month of serious reflection, he creates a multimedia presentation to send to the school board to prove he’s mentally and physically fit to return to school.

 

THE WITCH HUNT – directed by David Sanchez

Being a single mother of four is a full-time job, especially when you become unhoused. Between waiting for the next social welfare cheque and meetings with the child protective services worker, there’s not much else left to do to maintain one’s dignity but resist.

 

THE FUTURE INNU – directed by  Stephane Nepton

An ode to the land in relation to the creator’s double identity as an urban Indigenous person. A story that is both personal and poetic.

 

THE UNTOUCHABLE – directed by Avazeh Shahnavaz

A young woman named Yassi stands in the middle of a highway desperately screaming. For over an hour she’s been looking for someone, jumping in front of cars and holding up traffic. Sergeant Jabbari arrives on the scene to arrest her, yet ironically, the Sharia law has placed him in a helpless position with many witnesses using their phones to record a situation that only gets worse.

Watch the Canadian Shorts and then vote for your favourite. The winner will be announced at our Awards Show on March 12.