Silvicola Opens in Theatres March 22

Faller harvesting a large fir tree on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Cinema Politica is proud to present SILVICOLA, the award-winning feature documentary by Jean-Philippe Marquis – opening in theatres March 22!

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 […]

Anarchronicles: Chronicles of a Libertarian Movement

Still from Anarchronicles

This feature documentary relates the experience of various militant anarchists from Quebec, who represent different sides of this political movement. Drawing from more than 40 hours of interviews, countless manifestations, and numerous libertarian initiatives, this film strives to be  a tool for popular education, which will de-mystify the chaotic and violent labels which are too […]

Dragged

Still from DRAGGED

DRAGGED explores the wonderfully weird world of Montreal drag. The project focuses on the lack of female-bodied visibility in the mainstream portrayal of drag, namely RuPaul’s Drag Race. It consists of 10 interviews with a diverse cross-section of this community in Montreal. The film premiered on August 30th, 2019 in Montreal also in collaboration with […]

The Encampments

A protester raises their fist at Columbia University during the Gaza solidarity encampments, featured in The Encampments documentary.

Few documentaries are more timely than this fast-tracked account of the Gaza protests at Columbia which inspired a wave of support across North American campuses. At the centre of this story is grad student activist Mahmoud Kahlil, who hit the headlines just last month after he was detained by ICE and who is (at time […]

Kettle

Still from Kettle

“Kettling” is a police tactic used to control large crowds during protests. Officers surround the crowd from all sides, pushing them together into a smaller area. In many cases an individual’s only means of exiting the kettle is through arrest. Set against the backdrop of the Toronto G20 in 2010—where the largest mass arrest in […]

Preempting Dissent

Still from Preempting Dissent

The creative commons documentary PREEMPTING DISSENT builds upon the book of the same name written by Greg Elmer and Andy Opel. The film is a culmination of a collaborative process of soliciting, collecting and editing video, still images, and creative commons music files from people around the world. Preempting Dissent interrogates the expansion of the so-called “Miami-Model” of […]

Palestine is Still the Issue

Still from Palestine is Still The Issue

In 1977, the award-winning journalist and film-maker, John Pilger, made a documentary called Palestine Is Still The Issue (1977). He told how almost a million Palestinians had been forced off their land in 1948, and again in 1967. In this in-depth documentary, he has returned to the West Bank of the Jordan and Gaza, and […]

Borderless

Still from Borderless

My film tells the story of undocumented workers in Canada who take the low-paying jobs that Canadians refuse to. They sew clothes in Montreal, clean high rises in Vancouver and build houses in Toronto. Their low wages subsidize our first world economy. Using silhouetted interviews and stylized imagery shot on Super 8 and mini-dv, Borderless […]

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 […]

Honey at the Top

Still from Honey At The Top

HONEY AT THE TOP is a film about the Sengwer forest people of the Cherangani Hills, Kenya, being evicted from their ancestral land in the name of conservation. Facing international pressure from organisations like the World Bank, a corrupt Kenya Forest Service who are burning their houses, and attempts to turn the forest into a […]

Mama Colonel

Still from Mama Colonel

Colonel Honorine, more commonly known as “Mama Colonel”, works for the Congolese police force and heads the unit for the protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. Having worked for 15 years in Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she learns she is transferred to Kisangani. There, she […]

A Red Girl’s Reasoning

Still from A RED GIRL'S REASONING

After the Canadian legal system fails to serve justice for the survivor of a brutal, racially-driven sexual assault, an Indigenous woman becomes a motorcycle-riding, ass-kicking vigilante who takes on the attackers of other women who’ve suffered the same fate. A RED GIRL’S REASONING is a no-holds-barred, neo-noir thriller featuring a formidable female vigilante who seeks […]

The Cancer Journals Revisited

Still from The Cancer Journals Revisited

THE CANCER JOURNALS REVISITED is prompted by the question of what it means to re-visit and re-vision Black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde’s classic 1980 memoir of her breast cancer experience today. At the invitation of filmmaker Lana Lin, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, twenty-seven writers, artists, activists, health care advocates, and […]

Sgaawaay K’uuna [Edge of the Knife]

Still from Sgaawaay K'uuna [Edge of the Knife]

The first feature film made entirely in the Haida language — a critically endangered language spoken fluently by fewer than 20 people — EDGE OF THE KNIFE is set in 19th century Haida Gwaii. At a seasonal fishing camp two families endure conflict between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiits’ii causes […]