Sol
Solomon Tapatsiaq Uyarasuk was a charismatic young Inuk – an amateur acrobat, musician and poet. A beautiful soul, tormented by his people’s lot, who died far too young. This film is a stirring tribute to the young man. Starting with a celebration of Sol’s life, which ended suddenly in an RCMP holding cell under suspicious circumstances, […]
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 […]
Defensora
Defensora is a documentary about a Mayan Q’eqchi’ resistance against mining in Guatemala. The story is set along the shores of Lake Izabal in the community of El Estor where a nickel mining company has operated for over 50 years. Tensions run high against a backdrop of pro and anti-mining camps, violence and forced evictions. […]
Surviving Progress
“Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.” Surviving Progress presents the story of human advancement as awe-inspiring and double-edged. It reveals the grave risk of running the 21st century’s software — our know-how — on the ancient hardware of our primate brain which hasn’t been upgraded in 50,000 years. With rich imagery and […]
Innocence
The Commons
February 08, 2016 – May 31, 2016 For the last decade (2003-2013) Cinema Politica has built a strong reputation for connecting audiences to important, under-represented, independent film and video. While the films we program tend to focus on issues, topics and subjects that revolve around social justice, identity and the environment, we have decided to seek […]
Invasion & The Klabona Keepers
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Naila and the Uprising
When a nation-wide uprising breaks out in 1987, a woman in Gaza must make a choice between love, family and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three, joining a clandestine network of women in a movement that forces the world to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination for the first time. The film revolves around the […]
Cinema Politica Presents Queer Cinema For Palestine
Cinema Politica is delighted to co-present the latest edition of Queer Cinema For Palestine: a program of short films at the intersection of queerness and Palestinian resistance. This eclectic slate of titles includes everything from hand-drawn avant-garde works to internet archive collages.
Khartoum
In 2022, four Sudanese filmmakers, along with a British director-writer, began filming the lives and dreams of five very different citizens in Khartoum: Street boy LOKAIN (12) and his best friend WILSON (11) embark on a mission in Khartoum’s rubbish dumps to buy two beautiful shirts. KHADMALLAH (28) a single mum and tea vendor engages […]
CP Concordia Launches its Winter Program
If there was ever a time to fight for what is right, including against those on the right, it is now. With the gilded ascent of trolls, neo-fascists and the broligarchy, the world is on a political precipice.
Cinema Politica Versions
Launched in 2012, Cinema Politica has teamed up with professional translators and language students to offer French and English versions of single-language films and videos, facilitating greater exposure of and access to art works made in one of Canada’s two official languages.
Earth Day 2025: The Politics of Ecology
As Earth Day arrives, we’ve curated a pertinent eco-trio of two new acquisitions (Tamo Campos’ THE KLABONA KEEPERS and Cyrus Sutton’s ISLAND EARTH) and one featured classic (Keri Pickett’s FIRST DAUGHTER AND THE BLACK SNAKE).
