Portrait
Individuals. Beings made of flesh and blood who transcend the world and are transcended by it! Men, women, children, the elderly; people who dream, fulminate, provoke or contemplate, scrabble around and invent. All these individual consciousnesses, these unique and flamboyant destinies; this is the ideal material of the documentary genre.
618 products
Speakn' Trane
Subscription access
_Speakn’ Trane_ is a visual conversation that considers one of the great masterpieces of music through the eyes of its creator. Mirroring the dialogue at its core, it mixes 16mm film and digital images, performance and nature footage to illustrate the revolutionary themes and ideas that would combine to craft the album _A Love Supreme_: the generative practice of meditation, the creative potent...
Mat and Her Mates
Duration: 52 minutes
Subscription access
October 2018. Mat and her friends organize a self-gynecology workshop in their squat in Nantes. It's an opportunity for filmmaker Pauline Pénichout to paint a portrait of this young woman.
It Will Always End in the End
Duration: 32 minutes
Subscription access
Gabriel Drolet-Maguire, a queer fashion designer living in Montréal, takes us into their artistic world to speak about their HIV diagnosis and the process of acceptance that led them to reach out to the HIV-positive community. _It Will Always End in the End_ is a timely and hopeful look at past and present day HIV activism in Quebec.
The Horse Palace
Duration: 2h16
Subscription access
Amid the abandoned factories and crumbling buildings of Griffintown lies Montreal’s oldest stable, the last remnant of a bygone era. In this intriguing, anachronistic enclave, brushing up against modernity, time seems to have stood still. But ever since its aging owner decided to sell the property, the days of the Horse Palace are numbered…
Metro
Duration: 17 minutes
Subscription access
By taking a fresh look at the spaces that make it up and the life that inhabits it, _Metro_ observes the gestures, mechanics and underside of this monumental underground network that weaves the city together and irrigates it on a daily basis. From the roar of the ventilation system to the vast ceilings above, the film reveals a place of rare magnitude, with singular acoustics and a human presen...
Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
Duration: 53 minutesSubscription access
_Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine_ traces the life and work of a man who played an essential role in the history of cinema. This atypical filmmaker, steeped in both scientific research and avant-garde thinking, was close to Jean Vigo, Alexander Calder, Luis Buñuel, and Sergei M. Eisenstein. He was able to create a dialogue between two disciplines: art and science. Thanks to their a...
The Sea Horse
Subscription access
The seahorse is the only fish that moves vertically. It is also one of the few animals in which the male nourishes the eggs deposited by the female in his brood pouch and actually gives birth to the young. To film at the bottom of the Garonne estuary, the first mobile underwater camera was improvised. This film, accompanied by music from Darius Milhaud, shows with precision and humor the life o...
The Love Life of an Octopus
Subscription access
The fluid grace of an eight-armed embrace, the velvety gaze of an inscrutable eye… Painlevé creates a fascinating portrait of the octopus, a mysterious underwater creature, set to a soundtrack composed by Pierre Henry, one of the pioneers of electroacoustic music.
Shrimp Stories
Subscription access
_Shrimp Stories_ is a short documentary that closely examines the daily life of shrimp. Combining a scientific approach with a touch of humor, the film explores their feeding, digestion, grooming, molting, and reproduction, notably showing how females carry their eggs on their legs and the spectacular hatching of the larvae. It reveals, with wonder, the fragility and surprising complexity of th...
How Some Jellyfish Are Born
Subscription access
Filmed at the Marine Biology Station in Roscoff, on the northern coast of Bretagne, _How Some Jellyfish Are Born_ explores the formation of polyps, as well as the feeding and reproduction of four species of jellyfish. The transparency of their bodies reveals many details of their anatomy, while still holding other mysteries that the film invites us to discover…
If It Happens
Subscription access
Tomek, Marcel Łoziński's son, is 18 years old. Exactly 12 years ago, when he was 6, his father filmed him during a visit to a park in Warsaw. Tomek stopped near elderly people and, with childlike naivety, asked them about joy, loneliness, fear of death, dreams, love... On his birthday, Tomek returns to the garden of his childhood.
Up the River with Acid
Subscription access
_Up the River with Acid_ is an intimate, impressionistic documentary by Harald Hutter that unfolds over two days in the life of his father, Horst, a former professor whose daily life is profoundly disrupted by cognitive decline. Shot on 16 mm, the film gently observes gestures, silences, and perceptions as memory begins to fragment, while subtly sketching the deep bond that unites Horst and his...
Claude Gauvreau- Poète
Subscription access
The poet Claude Gauvreau, a towering figure of the spoken word, appears here in full command of his lyrical expression. During the Night of Poetry on March 27, 1970, he recites several of his poems, followed by excerpts from his famous work _La charge de l'orignal épormyable_, and finally takes part in a series of interviews. Released a few years after the poet’s tragic death, this moving portr...
Le 26 septembre à l'atelier
Subscription access
A brief slice of life with friends from the ZI workshop.
The Specter of Waves
Subscription access
Forced to protect themselves and flee from exposure to the electromagnetic waves and fields that surround us, François, Suzanne and Lorraine share with us the torments imposed by electrohypersensitivity. Through an intimate approach, _The Spectre of Waves_ sheds light on the humanity behind the taboos that accompany this often-misunderstood intolerance syndrome.
Stand Out of my Sunlight
Subscription access
Joseph is an elderly man living with Diogenes syndrome, a compulsive hoarding disorder that has left his apartment overflowing. For Messaline, who comes to help him clean, it becomes an opportunity to discover him in two ways: through their conversations, and through the objects he has accumulated—layered memories of a life lived in that apartment. This film, about memory, identity, and social ...
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Duration: 13 minutesSubscription access
_Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum_ is a first person autobiographical experimental film exploring the ramifications of the devastating breakup of a romantic relationship. A triptych of self-portraits — entire camera rolls, each subjected to different methods of intervention with the celluloid itself — are intercut with short excerpts of altered footage from a B movie trailer and punctu...
Chasing the Dazzling Light
Subscription access
Director Yaser Kassab followed in his father’s footsteps, emigrating from Syria to Europe as a young man, and, like his father, he also aspired to become a filmmaker. They now work together on this film remotely. From Syria, the father provides guidance to his son over the phone or via video calls, offering advice on future film projects and life in general—loving conversations punctuated by we...
My Two Voices
Subscription access
A poetic reflection on the fluid nature of identity, _My Two Voices_ focuses on Ana, Claudia, and Marinela, three Latin American women who share their intimate experiences of immigrating to Canada while reflecting on themes of violence, belonging, motherhood, and reconciliation.
Twice Colonized
Subscription access
Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. A member of a historically marginalized and oppressed community, Aaju’s heritage puts her in the unique position of someone who has been “twice colonized” – first by European settlers who arrived in the Arctic, and then by modern-day Canadian policies and institutions. But while launching an effort to establ...
Speakn' Trane
Subscription access
_Speakn’ Trane_ is a visual conversation that considers one of the great masterpieces of music through the eyes of its creator. Mirroring the dialogue at its core, it mixes 16mm film and digital images, performance and nature footage to illustrate the revolutionary themes and ideas that would combine to craft the album _A Love Supreme_: the generative practice of meditation, the creative potent...
Mat and Her Mates
Duration: 52 minutes
Subscription access
October 2018. Mat and her friends organize a self-gynecology workshop in their squat in Nantes. It's an opportunity for filmmaker Pauline Pénichout to paint a portrait of this young woman.
It Will Always End in the End
Duration: 32 minutes
Subscription access
Gabriel Drolet-Maguire, a queer fashion designer living in Montréal, takes us into their artistic world to speak about their HIV diagnosis and the process of acceptance that led them to reach out to the HIV-positive community. _It Will Always End in the End_ is a timely and hopeful look at past and present day HIV activism in Quebec.
The Horse Palace
Duration: 2h16
Subscription access
Amid the abandoned factories and crumbling buildings of Griffintown lies Montreal’s oldest stable, the last remnant of a bygone era. In this intriguing, anachronistic enclave, brushing up against modernity, time seems to have stood still. But ever since its aging owner decided to sell the property, the days of the Horse Palace are numbered…
Metro
Duration: 17 minutes
Subscription access
By taking a fresh look at the spaces that make it up and the life that inhabits it, _Metro_ observes the gestures, mechanics and underside of this monumental underground network that weaves the city together and irrigates it on a daily basis. From the roar of the ventilation system to the vast ceilings above, the film reveals a place of rare magnitude, with singular acoustics and a human presen...
Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine
Duration: 53 minutesSubscription access
_Jean Painlevé, fantaisie pour biologie marine_ traces the life and work of a man who played an essential role in the history of cinema. This atypical filmmaker, steeped in both scientific research and avant-garde thinking, was close to Jean Vigo, Alexander Calder, Luis Buñuel, and Sergei M. Eisenstein. He was able to create a dialogue between two disciplines: art and science. Thanks to their a...
The Sea Horse
Subscription access
The seahorse is the only fish that moves vertically. It is also one of the few animals in which the male nourishes the eggs deposited by the female in his brood pouch and actually gives birth to the young. To film at the bottom of the Garonne estuary, the first mobile underwater camera was improvised. This film, accompanied by music from Darius Milhaud, shows with precision and humor the life o...
The Love Life of an Octopus
Subscription access
The fluid grace of an eight-armed embrace, the velvety gaze of an inscrutable eye… Painlevé creates a fascinating portrait of the octopus, a mysterious underwater creature, set to a soundtrack composed by Pierre Henry, one of the pioneers of electroacoustic music.
Shrimp Stories
Subscription access
_Shrimp Stories_ is a short documentary that closely examines the daily life of shrimp. Combining a scientific approach with a touch of humor, the film explores their feeding, digestion, grooming, molting, and reproduction, notably showing how females carry their eggs on their legs and the spectacular hatching of the larvae. It reveals, with wonder, the fragility and surprising complexity of th...
How Some Jellyfish Are Born
Subscription access
Filmed at the Marine Biology Station in Roscoff, on the northern coast of Bretagne, _How Some Jellyfish Are Born_ explores the formation of polyps, as well as the feeding and reproduction of four species of jellyfish. The transparency of their bodies reveals many details of their anatomy, while still holding other mysteries that the film invites us to discover…
If It Happens
Subscription access
Tomek, Marcel Łoziński's son, is 18 years old. Exactly 12 years ago, when he was 6, his father filmed him during a visit to a park in Warsaw. Tomek stopped near elderly people and, with childlike naivety, asked them about joy, loneliness, fear of death, dreams, love... On his birthday, Tomek returns to the garden of his childhood.
Up the River with Acid
Subscription access
_Up the River with Acid_ is an intimate, impressionistic documentary by Harald Hutter that unfolds over two days in the life of his father, Horst, a former professor whose daily life is profoundly disrupted by cognitive decline. Shot on 16 mm, the film gently observes gestures, silences, and perceptions as memory begins to fragment, while subtly sketching the deep bond that unites Horst and his...
Claude Gauvreau- Poète
Subscription access
The poet Claude Gauvreau, a towering figure of the spoken word, appears here in full command of his lyrical expression. During the Night of Poetry on March 27, 1970, he recites several of his poems, followed by excerpts from his famous work _La charge de l'orignal épormyable_, and finally takes part in a series of interviews. Released a few years after the poet’s tragic death, this moving portr...
Le 26 septembre à l'atelier
Subscription access
A brief slice of life with friends from the ZI workshop.
The Specter of Waves
Subscription access
Forced to protect themselves and flee from exposure to the electromagnetic waves and fields that surround us, François, Suzanne and Lorraine share with us the torments imposed by electrohypersensitivity. Through an intimate approach, _The Spectre of Waves_ sheds light on the humanity behind the taboos that accompany this often-misunderstood intolerance syndrome.
Stand Out of my Sunlight
Subscription access
Joseph is an elderly man living with Diogenes syndrome, a compulsive hoarding disorder that has left his apartment overflowing. For Messaline, who comes to help him clean, it becomes an opportunity to discover him in two ways: through their conversations, and through the objects he has accumulated—layered memories of a life lived in that apartment. This film, about memory, identity, and social ...
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum
Duration: 13 minutesSubscription access
_Auto Portrait / Self Portrait Post Partum_ is a first person autobiographical experimental film exploring the ramifications of the devastating breakup of a romantic relationship. A triptych of self-portraits — entire camera rolls, each subjected to different methods of intervention with the celluloid itself — are intercut with short excerpts of altered footage from a B movie trailer and punctu...
Chasing the Dazzling Light
Subscription access
Director Yaser Kassab followed in his father’s footsteps, emigrating from Syria to Europe as a young man, and, like his father, he also aspired to become a filmmaker. They now work together on this film remotely. From Syria, the father provides guidance to his son over the phone or via video calls, offering advice on future film projects and life in general—loving conversations punctuated by we...
My Two Voices
Subscription access
A poetic reflection on the fluid nature of identity, _My Two Voices_ focuses on Ana, Claudia, and Marinela, three Latin American women who share their intimate experiences of immigrating to Canada while reflecting on themes of violence, belonging, motherhood, and reconciliation.
Twice Colonized
Subscription access
Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. A member of a historically marginalized and oppressed community, Aaju’s heritage puts her in the unique position of someone who has been “twice colonized” – first by European settlers who arrived in the Arctic, and then by modern-day Canadian policies and institutions. But while launching an effort to establ...
