The Return
Premiered at Dok Leipzig in 2016, THE RETURN is an independent film produced in Turkey by Armenian director Hale Güzin Kızılaslan, reflecting on present-day Eastern Anatolia, or the Armenian Highlands—a region where Christian Armenians had historically lived alongside Muslim Kurds. Through scenes from the everyday life of present-day occupants, Kızılaslan unravels the generational memory of the Armenian […]
Land and Memory: From Gitksan Nation to Eastern Anatolia
Our On Demand titles this month feature two stories of displacement, settlement and generational memory in Nettie Wild’s BLOCKADE and Hale Güzin Kızılaslan’s THE RETURN.
CP ON DEMAND: Top 10 For 2020
Cinema Politica continues to bring you inspiring independent documentaries available through CP On Demand, and we’ve compiled a brief list of our top screened films this year from our streaming platforms!
Online Premiere of Phillip Pike’s OUR DANCE OF REVOLUTION
Cinema Politica is proud to present an exclusive online premiere of OUR DANCE OF REVOLUTION by director Phillip Pike, essential viewing on queer Black history and organizing in Canada.
The Māori-Made Collection
“How can we take that maverick yet fond friend of ours—the camera—into the Māori community and be confident it will act with dignity?” Barry Barclay, “Our Own Image”, 1990. Aotearoa, also known as New Zealand, has enjoyed ample screen time in Hollywood and mainstream cinema, but this powerful collection showcases an image of the “land […]
Discussion on Gentrification with Lulu Wei
Cinema Politica Concordia hosted a discussion on gentrification and displacement, urban redevelopment, and affordable housing with Lulu Wei, the director of THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE THIS PLACE, ANYPLACE.
Memories of Genocide in Burma and Indonesia
Denial, silence and memory bring together two of our On Demand films this month, depicting the stories of survivors who have overcome the most violent human rights atrocities in Burma and Indonesia.
SWEET CRUDE Released in Memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa
SWEET CRUDE is released in commemoration of author and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by hanging on November 10, 1995 …
Crude Gold Series: The Case of Eco Oro
This film is part of the CRUDE GOLD series. The Santurban paramo has become an example of community struggle to protect water sources successfully. Lawyers, community leaders and activists united to mobilized and demanded the protection of natural resources threatened by Vancouver-based Eco Oro projects. A palpable urgency surrounds this story because of the fragility […]
The Lesson of the Snail
Following the uprising of January 1, 1994, the Indigenous peoples of Chiapas in Mexico assessed their disaffection with the Mexican education system, describing it as a vector of poverty and injustice. Since then, the Zapatista resistance has remained one of the most intriguing organizations among contemporary international revolutionary struggles, pushing back against the margins of […]
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
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)
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
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
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
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 […]