This documentary follows filmmaker Nicole Giguere and her adopted Chinese daughter Alice, as they and many of their friends face the challenges of living in North America within a hybrid family.
Second-generation Caribbean Canadian Karen Chapman undergoes a cultural transformation into a carnival masquerader at Toronto’s Caribana Parade. On this colourful journey, she discovers her Afro and Indo-Caribbean heritage while asking, “Can you call a place home if you have never been there?”
Stories of early 20th century Sikh and Chinese immigrants who built first a cement plant, and then the Butchart Gardens, enriches the history of Vancouver Island, while illustrating the harsh impact Canada's restrictive immigration laws had on those communities.
This documentary, released for distribution in November 2000, delves into the history of the Chinese workers without whom Canada's national railway could never have been realized.
The Canneries is a historical exploration of the salmon canning industry along the coast of British Columbia.
A Day of Thanksgiving explores this holiday's history, visiting ancient harvest festivals around the world, through European immigration to North America and Thanksgiving as it exists today.
Distant Sounds profiles Qiu Xia He, a Chinese-born pipa musician who lives in Vancouver.
Filmmaker Xia Tong explores the loneliness and turmoil that often mark the transition to a new country.
Filmmaker Ling Chiu tells the sweet, complex and near-tragic tale of one Chinese immigrant family and their brush with disaster and fortune.
A community of Syrian women hold a dinner for the homeless in Saint John, New Brunswick as a gesture of gratitude for what Canada and the community have offered them as refugees.
Teens from diverse cultural backgrounds share their struggles to balance the two worlds of traditional, cultural values at home and the popularized western culture they experience with friends and in school. Wayson Choy adds his comments.
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.
In this short drama, a young boy in a Japanese Canadian internment camp comes to understand how sharing something beautiful can help another to cling to hope in the darkest moments.
The Last Chinese Laundry relates the story of the Chinese in Newfoundland since their first arrival in 1895. Forced to leave their wives and children behind in China, the men endured both loneliness and prejudice as they toiled for a meagre living in the hand laundries of St. John's.
With a critical eye, Lest We Forget looks at the issues of race, human rights and homeland security post-911 in the United States and Canada.
Made in China tells the story of several remarkable children from China between the ages of five and thirteen who make three regions of Canada-British Columbia, Québec, and Newfoundland-their new home.
Jacqueline Levitin, filmmaker and professor in Film and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University travels to China to seek out traces of her family's past.
New Frames was created with active participation of young immigrant and refugee men to shed perspectives on mental health and well being as they seek a better life in a new country. In a time where the world is witnessing the largest displacements of people since the Second World War, this uniquely collaborative work gives voice to those not often listened to, encouraging conversations on topics stigmatized for far too long.
Goanese girls Reshma and Olivia grow up at opposite ends of the earth-India and Canada-but their daily rituals hold more than one surprising similarity.
A Latin American family is celebrating the birthday of their youngest child, until they get rudely interrupted by two immigration officers.
This documentary follows ex-pat American Andy Stringfellow, who left behind the rich African-American culture of the rural south where he was raised, to move to Canada. Thirty years later, the only black man in a white town, he offers a frank, complex view into the experience of being an outsider.
Ulysse, Maya, Adam, Barbara and Thomas are the Fictional characters of this film built with true stories. Quebecers of various ethnic backgrounds tell their sense of Quebec identity.
Outspoken and unconventional, Lee Cohen is a high-profile advocate for asylum seekers. For over 20 years, this dedicated Halifax lawyer has been the constant watchdog of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, an increasingly secretive entity in the wake of 9/11. Cohen continually drags closed-door refugee hearings into the public eye, as he does with the two talked-about cases at the center of this documentary.
Enter the eclectic world of Roger Ing, a prolific Canadian artist, philanthropist, and former ower/operator of the New Utopia Café in Regina, a place where magical moments happened and a legend was created.
This charming short documentary compares a routine day for two nine-year-old Iraqi boys--one living in Baghdad and the other born and raised on Long Island.