A Fidai Film

Reel B75-92 shows scenes of orange-picking in Qalandia in 1957, which, according to the Hebrew description, are images of “terrorists”… They come from a collection of films and photos that were kept at the Palestine Research Centre in Beirut, until it was looted by the Israeli Army during the invasion of Southern Lebanon in 1982, […]

Crimes Without Honour

Still from Crimes Without Honours

Every winter in a Stockholm cemetery activists gather to honour Fadime, a Turkish immigrant to Sweden murdered by her father in 2002. Internationalizing the debate over cultural traditions that accept the use of violence to control women’s behaviour in Western immigrant communities, four extraordinary activists tell their personal stories of physical and emotional violence, and […]

First Peoples, First Screens 2

FIRST PEOPLES, FIRST SCREENS 2

First Peoples, First Screens 2 is the second instalment of a special Cinema Politica program that showcases Indigenous socially-engaged filmmaking from across Turtle Island, with a focus on the country known as Canada. Launched in February 2019 as a follow up to the 2016 program, this dynamic offering of animation, experimental, fiction and documentary works is divided into […]

Granny Power

Granny Power by Magnus Isacsson and Jocelyne Clarke

GRANNY POWER is a documentary about a very original activist movement – the Raging Grannies. Spanning 10 years, the film follows several passionate, activist grandmothers and their “gaggles” as they fight for peace, social justice and the environment. From Occupy Wall Street sites in Canada and the U.S., to demontrations against nuclear arms, the Montebello […]

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!

Guilda: Elle est bien dans ma peau

Still from Guilda Elle Est Bien Dans Ma Peau

There doesn’t seem to be enough epithets to describe Jean Guilda: comedian, singer, costume and make-up innovator, transvestite extraordinaire. It seems the best one, however, is the simplest: artist. Elegantly talented and altogether groundbreaking, Guilda – his stage name recalling his real last name, as well as Rita Hayworth’s portrayal of Gilda, that indomitable mame […]

Wal-Town: The Film

Still from Wal-Town

Six student activists. Thirty-six Canadian towns. One giant corporation. A daunting experiment in activism. A group of six university students, calling themselves Wal-Town, take to the Canadian highway over two summers. Armed with thousands of pamphlets and fliers—with one gonzo journalist along for the ride—they visit 36 of Canada’s more than 200 Wal-Mart stores with […]

In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland

As the U.S. planned to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in September 2021, Canadian-Afghan filmmaker and journalist Brishkay Ahmed was filming IN THE RUMBLING BELLY OF MOTHERLAND. Revealing the ongoing dangers for women reporters, and the extraordinary risks they take, this brave film provides an in-depth look into Zan TV, Kabul’s female-led news agency. A professional journalist herself, Ahmed documents both the harrowing and inspiring work […]

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 […]

The Kartemquin Collection

It all started in 1966 with a camera, a verite film, Home for Life, and three friends (Stan Karter, Jerry Temaner, and Gordon Quinn) coming together and deciding to take a risk to “try to make something happen.” And make something happen they did. The collective they formed has been home to over 200 filmmakers who […]

Khartoum

Still from Khartoum showing a tree in the Sudanese landscape, symbolizing resilience amid displacement and civil unrest.

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 […]