Love in the Time of Fentanyl

members view a mural of an angel during a scene from Love in the Time of Fentanyl, a documentary about frontline harm reduction workers in Vancouver.

Set in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL is an intimate, observational look beyond the stigma of injection drug users, revealing the courage of those facing terrible tragedy in a neighbourhood often referred to as ground zero of the overdose crisis. As the number of overdose deaths in Vancouver reaches an all […]

Powerlands

Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a young Navajo filmmaker, investigates displacement of Indigenous people and devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. She travels to La Guajira region in rural Colombia, the Tampakan region of the Philippines, the Tehuantepec Isthmus of Mexico, and the […]

Black Ice

Black Ice film still

This incisive, urgent documentary examines the role of Black players in Canadian hockey, from pre-NHL contributions to the game to the struggles against racism that continue to this day. Directed by Oscar nominee Hubert Davis (Hardwood) and executive produced by LeBron James, Drake, and Maverick Carter, Black Ice is a sobering survey of systemic marginalization within […]

Our Bodies Are Your Battlefields

In an Argentina divided between a deep conservatism and an unprecedented momentum in feminism, the film delves into the political journey and intimate lives of Claudia and Violeta. The fight they lead with their comrades against patriarchal violence is visceral and embodied. Convinced of their role at the center of an ongoing revolution that intersects […]

Your Home For Independent Political Cinema

Cinema Politica brings social justice programming from around the world into your home and on to your devices. Our roster features the work of fierce filmmakers whose stories confront and challenge the status quo.

Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence

Sinixt matriarch Marilyn James. Photo Credit: Louis Bockner

BEYOND EXTINCTION: SINIXT RESURGENCE documents three decades of Indigenous struggle by the Sinixt people whose traditional territories are divided by the border between Southwest British Columbia and the USA. To tell a complex story never told, and investigate how the Canadian government declared the Sinixt people to be “extinct”, the film weaves together contemporary interviews, […]

Bank Job

This mischievous feature documentary led by artist/filmmaker team Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell, instigates and follows a community coming together to make their own currency, opening a bank in order to examine how money and debt is created in our economy and to ask important questions about how the system of money creation might be […]

I Didn’t See You There

In a reflection of an unmarked storefront is a grayish silhouette of a man using an electric wheelchair. Behind the man is a spectacular red and yellow circus tent. Image credit: Reid Davenport

As a visibly disabled person, filmmaker Reid Davenport sets out to make a film about how he sees the world, from either his wheelchair or his two feet, without having to be seen himself. The unexpected arrival of a circus tent outside his apartment in Oakland, CA leads him to consider the history and legacy […]

Into the Weeds

INTO THE WEEDS follows groundskeeper Dewayne “Lee” Johnson and his fight for justice against Monsanto (now Bayer). Johnson’s case was the first to go to trial in a series of lawsuits involving tens of thousands of plaintiffs claiming Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup, or its industrial counterpart Ranger Pro, contributed to their cancer. The film follows […]

Primera

Over the course of a year, PRIMERA chronicles the social uprising that evolved into a nation-wide movement, beginning with the student takeover of Santiago’s metro system and ending with the historic plebiscite that paved the way for the writing of a new constitution. The film offers an immersive look at the year-long process through the […]

Coextinction

After a mother orca carries her dead calf for 17 days, two filmmakers spring into action, joining Indigenous leaders and scientists making a final attempt to save the last 73 Southern Resident orcas from extinction. Coextinction takes audiences deep into the oceans and forests of the Pacific Northwest, connecting ecosystem collapse, centuries of injustice against […]

Jozi Gold

The mines of Johannesburg have produced a third of all the gold mined in human history. But now the gold is running out, the mines are falling apart and the city must confront an environmental nightmare: Tons of radioactive waste that pollute the air and turn water into poison. Glamorous grandmother Mariette Liefferink is on […]

Daughter of a Lost Bird

Daughter of a Lost Bird - Featured image

“Lost birds” – a term for Native children adopted out of their tribal communities. Right after the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 became the law of the land, Kendra Mylnechuk Potter was adopted into a white family and raised with no knowledge of her Native parentage. This beautiful and intimate film follows Kendra on […]

Innocence

Award-winning and Oscar-nominated director Guy Davidi (5 BROKEN CAMERAS) focuses on his country’s military industrial-cultural complex to reveal a searing and devastating story of war, propaganda, and a society that normalizes the corruption of childhood in the service of state violence. While exposing the workings of Israel’s recruitment and training machine, Davidi deftly stitches the […]

The Territory

The Territory featured image

Cinematographer turned director Alex Pritz partnered with the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people of Brazil to craft a three-year-long chronicle of the fight to protect their land against government-backed farmers. The result is a beautifully shot study of resistance showcasing Indigenous youth harnessing the power of technology to amplify their voices. Set against the backdrop of Bolsonaro’s […]