STORY TO ACTION is our newest program, and includes training and mentorship to support five Canadian documentary filmmaking teams to create strategies, build partnerships and organize screenings designed to educate and expand audience understanding of the social and environmental issues featured in their films.
KALINGA (CARE)
At the age of six, director Kent Donguines’ mother left him and his family in the Philippines to become a nanny overseas. Now, his film Kalinga (Care) shares the stories of several Filipina caregivers and nannies in Vancouver, bearing witness to their sacrifices as they struggle to reunite with their children and families and mapping out the emotional landscapes of migrant labour.
MR. JANE AND FINCH
Winston LaRose is an 80-year-old activist and community leader running for a Toronto city council seat. In Mr. Jane and Finch, he fights to keep his disintegrating team together, inspire a non-voting demographic, and empower the people of his beloved Jane and Finch community to take charge of their wards and ridings, and reject the leadership of politicians who have no understanding of the needs and values of the constituencies they govern.
WHAT ABOUT OUR FUTURE?
The “Sustainabiliteens” brought 150,000 people to the streets of Vancouver to march against climate destruction. This inspiring group of teenagers voice their fears about the alarming future they are posed to inherit, and attempt something many adults won't: to do something about it. This film asks young people to recognize how powerful their voices are, what they can accomplish, and paints in bold letters on a marching banner: what about our future?
KIMMAPIIYIPITSSINI: THE MEANING OF EMPATHY
Contextualized in the historical and lived trauma of settler colonialism, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy draws a connecting line between the impacts of colonialism on Blackfoot land and people and the ongoing substance-use crisis. By questioning abstinence-only treatment, and showing the lives saved through harm-reduction models, the film asks the audience to have love and hope for those who are marginalized by addiction and racism.
NO VISIBLE TRAUMA
In the midst of a global uprising against police violence and systemic racism, No Visible Trauma is a searing investigation of the deeply troubled Calgary Police Service, which shot and killed more people than the New York or Chicago police departments in 2018. From the kidnapping and beating of a young African immigrant, to the fatal shooting of an unarmed man during a “wellness check”, the film exposes police brutality and a justice system that refuses to hold officers accountable.
