The Hand That Feeds
At a popular bakery café, residents of New York’s Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. But behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery, and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick. Mild-mannered sandwich maker Mahoma López has never been […]
Surviving Progress
“Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.” Surviving Progress presents the story of human advancement as awe-inspiring and double-edged. It reveals the grave risk of running the 21st century’s software — our know-how — on the ancient hardware of our primate brain which hasn’t been upgraded in 50,000 years. With rich imagery and […]
The Road Forward
In this inspired musical documentary, writer/director Marie Clements connects the beginnings of Indian Nationalism in the 1930s with the powerful momentum of First Nations activism today. Interviews with key members of Canada’s oldest First Nations organizations, the Native Brotherhood and Native Sisterhood, reveal the starkly racist politics that inspired the movement as well as how […]
Returning Home
Canada’s Residential Schools are the legacy of a world where relationships are severed in the service of power and where people become detached from one another and the complex webs of interdependence. Among the Secwépemc in British Columbia, one such story is that of Phyllis Jack-Webstad, a residential school survivor whose experiences inspired the Orange […]
A Healthy Alternative Economic Model – a review of FOOD COOP
A zany new doc explores the inner workings of America’s biggest food cooperative.
Mars at Sunrise
Mars At Sunrise tells the story of a war waged on imagination. The film abstractly portrays the conflict between artists on either side of Israel’s militarized borders, and explores how a powerful creative mind survives, and even thrives, under pressure. When Azzadeh, a young Jewish American poet, travels to Israel to see the land and people […]
Conviction
Alarmed by the rising numbers of women in prison and inspired by the conviction of Senator Kim Pate, CONVICTION flips the narrative away from pop culture’s voyeuristic lens and hands it to the women who are being victimized, marginalized and criminalized in our society. Not another ‘broken prison’ film, Conviction is a ‘broken society’ film […]
RIDM 2019: ANOTHER WORD FOR LEARNING World Premiere
Cinema Politica is very excited to be premiering our newest distribution title, ANOTHER WORD FOR LEARNING!
Another Word For Learning
What does it mean to decolonize schooling, and to create environments of learning that challenge capitalist modes of education? Co-produced by Cinema Politica Productions and Wide Open Exposure, ANOTHER WORD FOR LEARNING examines the disconnect between the contemporary colonial educational system and Indigenous communities, in light of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the painful […]
FLOOD: THE OVERDOSE EPIDEMIC IN CANADA Screening
Ada for Mayor (Alcaldessa)
Ada Colau, a well known activist against evictions in Spain, decides to run for Mayor of Barcelona. Surrounded by a team with little experience in institutional politics, Ada speaks about her doubts and discoveries during this vertiginous journey. The film combines the enthusiastic construction of a new political movement with the inner struggle of someone […]
Ride for Promise
Former CFL prospect Curtis Carmichael embarks on a nation-wide adventure – cycling from Vancouver to Halifax – to challenge Canadians on their perceptions of racialized youth growing up in marginalized communities. RIDE FOR PROMISE follows an inspiring young man determined to flip the narrative on race, privilege and poverty.
The Kuchus of Uganda
Particularly inspiring in light of changes in the law that happened after this film was made, this is a documentary about SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda), a group of radical LGBT activists who risk their lives in order to push for queer rights. Piehl follows this brave group as they try to reason with medical academics […]
Burkinabè Rising
Burkinabè Rising showcases creative nonviolent resistance in Burkina Faso. A small, landlocked country in West Africa, Burkina Faso is home to a vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens, who provide an example of the type of political change that can be achieved when people come together. It is an inspiration, not only to the […]
Seven Winters in Tehran
The story of brave Iranian Reyhaneh Jabbari. At 19, Reyhaneh killed a man who threatened to rape her. Her death sentence can be revoked if the victim’s family forgives her. For Reyhaneh, it becomes a choice between her life and her values. Reyhaneh Jabbari’s life was changed forever when the man with whom she thought she […]
The Art of Resistance
Argentina’s troubled history, culminating in the major crisis of 2001, has seen the rise of a wave of original artistic and cultural expression. The documentary The Art of Resistance introduces us to several creators and artist collectives who use artistic expression as a means to deliver powerful social statements, explore unbridled creativity, and participate actively […]
