Darlene has made a momentous decision about her lengthy illness. Just as she and a very unusual in-home service converge, a frantic call from her strong-willed daughter threatens to derail her plans.
Just as the practice of footbinding was followed for centuries in China, the practice of wearing high heels has been promoted in the western world as a symbol of feminine beauty and desirability. But what happens to the body when they are worn?
Four teenagers share their experiences trying to cope with chronic pain. Their thoughts are intercut with performance by dancer Vanessa Goodman in this innovative collaboration between Dr. Leora Kuttner and choreographer Judith Marcuse. Animation of the Body-Self Neuromatrix illustrates the brain's central role in the process through different stages of healing.
Canada's universal health care system was the envy of the world. But today five million Canadians don't have a family doctor. How did we get here? And how do we get back to the level of primary health care that we believe is our right as Canadian citizens?
A documentary on drug facilitated sexual assault.
At just the age of 26, Vancouver filmmaker Jason DaSilva was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. First Steps is a short personal diary on film, documenting how his world changed over the first four years of this neurological disorder.
Different voices from diverse cultural backgrounds share life stories about paths travelled while navigating experiences of mental illness and comment on the need for a more holistic system of treatment.
Psychosis: an illness that is apparently incurable, a diagnosis that literally turns the lives of those involved upside-down. For the first time ever, the afflicted author and director Gamma Bak dares to make an autobiographical film dealing with the various stages of her illness.
Health Care 911 introduces some of the 8,000 medically trained immigrants unable to practice in Canada despite a critical shortage of doctors across the country.
This documentary, directed by Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson, profiles young people whose parents and grandparents attended government-initiated, church-run, Indian Residential Schools.
In 2004, visual artists joe average & jamie griffiths entered into a creative therapeutic photography process, to allow joe to explore his experience of living and coping with Lipoatrophy caused by antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS.
In this short drama, a 10-year-old boy facing a terminal illness works to help his father move beyond grief and loss.
Facially different David Roche and his lovely wife Marlena Blavin share their stories with a spellbound middle-school audience.
Marianne Matters is a documentary about a 51 year old woman who has schizophrenia. Without the help of her sister, she would have fallen through the cracks of society a long time ago.
Mary was an artist and teacher who lived for 12 years with a condition doctors called “palliative.” She recorded the process to share what she learned about the difference between the agony of death and the art of dying--a gift to those who live with terminal illness and loved ones who remain.
This exploration of what role race plays in medicine addresses timely concerns with the multiracial community becoming one of the fastest growing demographics in North America. Being mixed race is no longer just about identity--it can be a matter of life and death.
Examines the general sense of "dis-ease" in society and the increasing normalcy of hating ourselves. Three women use film to move away from the self-destructive practices of disordered eating toward those that are self-creating.
Examines the general sense of "dis-ease" in society and the increasing normalcy of hating ourselves. Three women use film to move away from the self-destructive practices of disordered eating toward those that are self-creating.
In this personal and endearing film, a prolific and brilliant animator reveals his battles with bipolar disorder to lay the path for a new understanding of this condition. His son, a clinical psychologist, adds his own comments, from the perspective of a family member.
Polio Hunters follows a two-week polio virus immunization campaign in the province of Uttar Pradesh located in Northern India. The campaign was conducted in 2005 by Toronto's Dr. Yakub Vaid for the World Health Organization.
In reaction to the recent rise of aboriginal children taken into government care, Project Eagle Feather: When They Took The Children reveals the previously untold stories of First Nations' experiences growing up in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
A frontline glimpse into the amazing approach and dedication of two nurses working in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Canada's poorest postal code.
This final work by Vancouver film and video artist Saralee James documents an unusual friendship between the artist and a homeless man in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Tending Toward Silence weaves a story of three different moments: time in the hospital, a summer spent collecting rocks and another reality, both mysterious and sustaining.