KONELĪNE: Our Land Beautiful

still from konelīne: our land beautiful

More than 1,000 miles by road from Vancouver, British Columbia, or 130 miles east of Juneau, Alaska by air, the traditional lands of the Tahltan First Nation encompass the majestic Stikine River, ancient glaciers, tiny communities and magnificent vistas. Not a Western, but a Northern, Nettie Wild’s astonishing non-fiction film KONELĪNE: OUR LAND BEAUTIFUL transports […]

A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution

Still from Rustling Of Leaves

This film offers a remarkable behind-the-frontlines look at the aftermath of the anti-Marcos “Yellow Revolution” that brought Corazon Aquino to power in the Philippines in 1986. Shot over eight months, often in dangerous conditions, the film chronicles the three points of an often-violent political triangle: the legal left; the illegal, armed leftists of the New […]

Visión Nocturna (Night Shot)

Still from Vision Nocturna

Carolina Moscoso’s VISIÓN NOCTURNA (NIGHT SHOT) is an experimental film composed out of fragments shot over years as the Chilean director reckons with the trauma of her rape. Artistic cinematography and sound composition create a visceral experience as the emotional artifacts of Moscoso’s story collide with the systemic burden of a justice system that has ultimately failed to […]

Aswang

Still from aswang

ASWANG is a poetically composed inquisition into Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s reign of terror that unleashed death squads in a so-called “war on drugs”. Invoking the Filipino mythology of the aswang, or evil shape-shifting spirits, director Alyx Ayn G. Arumpac takes the viewer on a journey through the lower-income communities of Manila that were most […]

There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace

Still from There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE THIS PLACE, ANYPLACE looks at the transformation of a much-loved Toronto landmark, the Honest Ed’s block, through the stories of its community members who are forced to relocate when it is sold to a developer. Honest Ed’s, a discount store that opened in 1948 and served the neighbourhood’s working class families, […]

River Silence

Still from River Silence

Director Rogério Soares whisks audiences to a bend in the Xingu River to witness a state of affairs that one subject in the film aptly describes as “post-nature.” RIVER SILENCE is a bleak portrait of the area surrounding the Belo Monte Dam, which has displaced 40,000 people and all but annihilated the natural environment. Poverty […]

Faire-Part

Still from faire-part

Two Congolese and two Belgian filmmakers decided to film the explosion of political art in Kinshasa, in the process making a rare portrait of the country. What does it mean to collaborate on a film project when your partners come from the opposite side of colonial history? Who should the film be for? What is […]

COVER/AGE

Still from COVER/AGE

COVER/AGE examines the lack of healthcare access for undocumented immigrants in California, and how two undocumented individuals are advocating to fight this exclusion. One protagonist is Emma, an elderly Pilipina caregiver, who has spent over a decade providing care for others. Over the course of the film, we see Emma get ready early in the […]

Manic

Still from Manic

MANIC chronicles Montreal-based filmmaker Kalina Bertin’s struggle to make sense of the legacy of mental illness that is shaping her siblings’ lives. Convinced that her father holds a key piece of the puzzle, she sets out to find the truth about him, and discovers a man known alternately as a cult leader, a scam artist, […]

Documentary Futurism: The Next 150

How do we document that which has yet to occur? Cinema Politica’s Documentary Futurism: The Next 150 project seeks to usher in a new kind of filmmaking that brings actuality into conversation with speculation, and realism with the imaginary. Taking inspiration from Afrofuturism, Indigenous futurism, speculative fiction and non-fiction, these 15 films inaugurate a new […]

CODED BIAS discussion with Shalini Kantayya

Still from Coded Bias

Cinema Politica Concordia co-hosted a discussion with CODED BIAS director Shalini Kantayya about racial and gender discrimination that is coded into algorithmic technology …