Freedom Summer
At Black Lives Matter Toronto’s Freedom School, 13-year-old Moon learns to be a leader while Rihanna, who is seven, discovers that being Black is indeed beautiful. Modeled after the Black Panther Party for Self Defence’s Oakland Community School, Toront’s Freedom School is a three-week summer program that intervenes in anti-Black racism in the Canadian educational system […]
Marathon
The companion film to its breakout counterpart BLACK BODIES, this stunning short provokes (metaphoric) consideration of running a marathon you can’t afford to lose. After dealing with a high-profile incident of racial bias in California this past year Kelly Fyffe-Marshall was compelled to turn to art for healing as a way to work through the trauma. […]
Bonum
After they cycle through two steps back and one step forward again, the dangers of complacency are revealed and the reward that is nestled in perseverance is imagined. Conceivably this is the taste of BONUM. Calgary-born dancer Sabrina Naz Comanescu enthralls audiences with her choreography for video — artistically shot by Aran Wilkinson-Blanc — making dance accessible as a […]
The Shirley Card
Gesturing to the racial bias behind Kodak’s mid-century skin-tone “Shirley cards,” Sonya Mwambu brings deeply textured layers of Black artistry, history and the racial politics of popular culture. Initially optimized for white skin through the 1970s, Shirley cards eventually began to be produced with a wider range of skin tones in the late 20th century. […]
Tesfaye
TESFAYE (Hope)is a 30-minute experimental documentary film based on the extraordinary life of an Ethiopian refugee, rescued from the sea in Madagascar and now living in Canada. Shot in Ethiopia and Canada, the film recounts the life of Tesfaye – caught between a nostalgia for his home country and the possibility of a better life […]
Sira
Director Rolla Tahir’s debut short film SIRA is an experimental essay that traces the exodus of a Sudanese family from Kuwait as a result of the Iraqi invasion. Excavated footage disrupts constructed memories as a mother recounts the evacuation, marring the bliss of her new family. In this unique commission by Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, […]
Heartbreak
Conceived and produced in response to the call for the inaugural #TIFFxInstagram Shorts Festival, HEARTBREAK is a poetic moment paused for Black motherhood, for Black bodies and Black resilience. The 60 second film is a tribute to black women and the difficulty of raising Black children (particularly boys) in our society. The idea for the film […]
Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old, and So Was the Nakba
A Palestinian grandmother returns to her hometown Haifa through Google Streetview, today, the only way she can see Palestine. In this experimental short film, filmmaker Razan AlSalah channels glitch aesthetics and digital erasure in a subversion of the physical borders and checkpoints imposed by the Israeli occupation.
Canada Park
Surreal imagery from Google Maps, Wikipedia and 20th century colonial photography are combined in this experimental film essay on the erasure of Palestinian history and presence. CANADA PARK uncovers the territory of Imwas, a village cited in the Old Testament that was razed by the Israeli Defence Forces and replaced by Canada Park. Transporting the […]
Something From There
SOMETHING FROM THERE is a reflection on the substance of our original lands. How does connection to land change after uprooting and in diaspora? How does matter come to embody our memories and defy official histories? This short film considers the complicated implications of fighting to belong to a land after displacement.
Zinco
ZINCO is an urban chronicle of the construction material used in building Palestinian refugee homes in Al Talbieh Camp in Jordan. By retracing the transformations of habitats from tents of canvas to buildings of reinforced concrete, the film looks for visible evidence of displacement and reflects on the universal need for a home. An Arabic […]
Recording: Ethiopia Then and Now – Tamara Dawit and Special Guests
By unpacking family and national history, ETHIOPIA THEN AND NOW explored the responsibility of narrative construction in documentary film, literary writing, journalism, and historical scholarship.
Ethiopia Then and Now – Tamara Dawit and Special Guests
Join us for a live-stream conversation with director Tamara Dawit (FINDING SALLY), Elleni Centime Zeleke (Columbia University) and Rebecca Fisseha (Daughters of Silence), and Hannah Giorgis (The Atlantic).
Community Screening
Screen a Distribution Film Our mandate is to diversify the screening experience and showcase stories and perspectives from the margins while providing exposure and securing returns for our filmmakers, as well as to sustain audience engagement beyond the viewing experience. In addition to educational licenses, our Distribution films are available for community screenings. Community Screening […]
Ariel Nasr’s THE MOSQUE: A COMMUNITY’S STRUGGLE
As we commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting, we can turn to documentary film as a powerful medium of remembrance and dialogue. THE MOSQUE: A COMMUNITY’S STRUGGLE by filmmaker Ariel Nasr offers a vital glimpse at the resilience of a Muslim community in Ste-Foy, Québec in the aftermath of January 29th, 2017 when […]
Local Membership
The Cinema Politica Network is made up of semi-autonomous film exhibition sites that, in a nod to the spirit of union organizing and community building, we call Locals. Since 2003, we have had over 100 Locals from all over the world organizing community screening series and micro-festivals. Our current film catalogue offers locals the opportunity […]