• A Perfect 14 
• Are You My Mommy
• Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes)
• Bunny Man
• C Sharp and D Suspended
• Carving Landscapes
• Chasing the Sublime
• Check
• Clinch
• Counterfei Kunkoo

• Dear Hatetts
• Dust in the Sky
• ÉG/(I)
• Fat Hiking Club
• Girl in the Galactic Sun
• Good Girls Don’t
• Hearth
• I’d Never Bother Another       Chicken Again
• La Quinceañera
• Lab Rat
• Laundry Day
• Marziyeh
• Media Luna

• Miracle
• My Boy
• Nîsowak
• OChiSkwaCho
• Once There Was a Winter
• Period Piece
• She Is The Ocean
• Sonder
• Statistics
• Tayybeh
• Thank You For The Rain
• The Apartment

• The Day I Lost My Shadow
• The Egg and The Thieving Pie
• The Feminist
• The True History of Billie The Kid
• The Warrior Queen of Jhansi
• This Changes Everything
• Tina
• Tshweesh
• Turning Tables
• Warrior Women
• Wild
• Work

A Perfect 14 

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

A Perfect 14 explores the world of plus-size models fighting to reshape the fashion industry and the beauty standards of society. The film follows the journeys of models Elly Mayday (Canada), Kerosene Deluxe (Netherlands) and Laura Wells (Australia) as they struggle against our culture's distorted perception of body image. A Perfect 14 questions fashion industry leaders and pioneers and holds them accountable for their responsibility in size-based segregation. 

The film’s director, Giovanna Morales Vargas, producer, James O’Brien, and subject, Kerosene Deluxe will be in attendance for a post screening Q&A.

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Are You My Mommy

Screening time: 

While filming his latest blockbuster, Hero, a famous action star, is badly wounded. To the rescue comes Heroine, but Hero is confused by this utterly average, late-40s woman, not the young heroine he imagined, and resists her efforts to save him. As the bad guys close in, we learn that both Heroine and the movie aren’t quite what they seem to be.

Performers Paula Jean Dixon and Neil Napier will be in attendance for a post screening Q&A.

Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes)

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Accompanied by 10,000-year-old shapeshifter and friend known as Sabe, Biidaaban sets out on a mission to reclaim the ceremonial harvesting of sap from maple trees in an unwelcoming suburban neighbourhood of Ontario. Driven by the words of Anishinaabe writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Amanda Strong’s mesmerizing stop motion animation intricately weaves together multiple worlds through time and space, calling for a rebellion. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Bunny Man

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Over a meal at a Chinese restaurant, four Taiwanese friends discuss the differences between FOB (fresh off the boat) and CBC (Canadian born Chinese). The conversation takes a bizarre turn when a mysterious Bunny mascot enters. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

C Sharp and D Suspended

Screening time: 

Margaret receives a 24-hour pass from the prison in which she is incarcerated to attend her grandson’s performance as a classical guitarist. The two share a deep bond and enjoy each other’s company. When Daniel presents her with a difficult choice, they discover that they have different ideas of freedom.

Carving Landscapes

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Atypical for her time, Mary Vaux defies gender roles, mountain weather and traditions to spark the first glaciological study in North America. Re-visiting the glacier over five decades, the documentary portrays her strength perseverance as well as the beauty of the Illecillewaet Glacier, here in our own backyard.

Filmmaker in attendance.

Chasing the Sublime

Screening time: 

A mesmeric look at open water long distance swimming – the physicality, the beauty, the accomplishment - from the perspective of two women who swim together.

Check

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

A woman's thoughts become obsessive, dark, and all-consuming, threatening to overtake her unless she can find a way to accept them.

Filmmaker in attendance.

Clinch

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Clinch explores the connection between Shawna and Rudy, two professional boxers. As they train together, they fall in love and develop a tender romance that forms a sharp contrast to their competitive relationship in the ring. Will the sport that brought them together be their demise?

Filmmaker in attendance. 

Counterfeit Kunkoo

Screening time: 

In this award-winning short film, based on the experience of the filmmaker’s mother, Smita leaves an abusive husband only to discover that marriage is pre-requisite to functioning in Mumbai’s middle class and misogynist society.

Dear Hatetts

Screening time: 

There is a long and tragic history of women not being believed when they tell the truth about their lives, especially about the lives of their bodies. Dear Hatetts is an intimate take on that injustice, so intimate, the filmmaker even takes us inside her own body. Told in the form of a letter to a family, it is accompanied by documentary images from the filmmaker’s life.

Dust in the Sky

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

A short animation about Life, who crafts beautiful creations with love and care, and Death, who repeatedly takes them away. When Life convinces Death to leave, she discovers an important truth.

Filmmaker in attendance.

ÉG/(I)

Screening time: 

A young trans person living in a small town travels to the city searching for the freedom to be themself. Made in collaboration with Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir, whose story inspired the film.

Director: Vala Ómarsdóttir & Hallfríður Þóra Tryggvadóttir; Producer: Hallfríður Þóra Tryggvadóttir & Vala Ómarsdóttir; Writer: Vala Ómarsdóttir & Hallfríður Þóra Tryggvadóttir; Editor: Vigdís Eva Steinþórsdóttir; Cinematographer: Erla Hrund Halldórsdóttir; Performers: Snæfríður Ingvarsdóttir, María Thelma Smáradóttir, Kristbjörg Kjeld, Elva Ósk Ólafsdóttir; Composer: Jófríður Ákadóttir

Fat Hiking Club

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

A woman seeks to make the outdoors more accessible for fat people – just as they are and without shame. Armed with her slogan “Trails Not Scales”, she soon finds herself hosting events all over North America. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Girl in the Galactic Sun

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

The Gemini are a genderless alien species who have discovered they’ll become extinct if they don’t find a way to reproduce. After years of searching, they encounter humans and their reproductive method. This, in addition to their Gemini similarities, has brought them hope. However, the female metamorphosis from Gemini to human causes an unexpected difficulty.

Filmmaker in attendance.

Good Girls Don’t

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

A comedic short film about a Filipina-Canadian girl who defies her mother’s warning that she will turn into a boy if she plays basketball. (Spoiler Alter: She doesn’t!)

Filmmaker in attendance.

Hearth

Screening time: 

A tension filled drama that follows Emillie as she returns home after renting her house to strangers. Will she discover what actually happened during her absence?

I’d Never Bother Another Chicken Again

Screening time: 

This is a bold and provocative film that reveals the profound remorse of man while he speaks of a childhood memory.

La Quinceañera

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Alejandra’s life is about to change forever on the night of her quinceañera, a coming of age ceremony held on a girl's fifteenth birthday. In this daring revenge tale, a young girl will learn the limits of resilience and strength as she is thrust into the most extraordinary of situations over the course of 24 hours. The director has been praised for innovative work in the horror genre and this work reflects her recognizable style of Tex-Mex grit with a touch of grindhouse and gore.

Filmmaker in attendance.

Lab Rat

Screening time: 

In the near future, a group of scientists trapped in a room learn that one of them is an A.I.. They cannot escape until they figure out who it is.

Laundry Day

Screening time: 

A bittersweet story about a dream that JJ's late grandmother had when she was a young woman, proving that dreams sometimes have a deeper meaning than simply hanging laundry. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Marziyeh

Screening time: 

Marziyeh and her husband drive to the wake of a relative. She prepares her appearance to meet the satisfaction of her strict religious family. During the wake, Marziyeh’s husband, who is in the men’s only section, learns that Marziyeh has described a dream that is taken seriously as an omen by the deceased’s family.

Media Luna

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

A woman narrates a mythical story of abuse. As she describes the romance between the Sun and the Moon and its violent turn, she recounts the tragic fate of countless women around the world. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Miracle

Screening time: 

Shortly after the fall of communism in Lithuania in 1992, Irena, the manager of a model swine farm of the Soviet era, makes every effort to adapt it to the new capitalist system. The very demonstrative arrival of Bernardas, an American businessman with orange hair, is perceived by Irena, as the answer to all her prayers. But as pigs are slaughtered, the animated rescuer with pockets filled with dollars reveals interests much less noble. Irena must look elsewhere to find the hope she needs to survive.

My Boy

Screening time: 

As he takes part in his brother’s bachelor party, Louis (17) is confronted by this ritual that both celebrates and denigrates commitment and masculinity. 

Nîsowak

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

After the sudden and mysterious death of her father, Mêkwan, a young Indigenous woman, discovers that the ancient power of shapeshifting has been transferred to her. She must master it in order to save her bloodline from “The Whip Man” a creepy hunter whose ultimate goal is to eliminate her kind. New to shapeshifting, Mêkwan must choose - Fight or Flight! Nîsowak is a drama full of action and elements of a graphic novel style.

Filmmaker in attendance.

OChiSkwaCho

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Ochiskwacho is a sacred being, known to many Indigenous people as a spiritual messenger. Kokoom, an elderly (spiritually ailing) two-spirit woman has to decide whether to stay with her grandchildren or follow the Ochiskwacho. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Once There Was a Winter

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

This dramatic thriller portrays a young woman, Lady, dangerously treading the delicate line between defiance and disappearance. Working in the frigid and desolate North has its challenges so when an invitation for drinks with new friends in a cozy cabin is presented, Lady readily accepts. Unknowingly she becomes the pawn in a game fueled by isolation, loss and jealousy.

Filmmaker in attendance.

Period Piece

Screening time: 

A dark comedy about a bartender who, fed-up by the harassment she must endure, delivers a surprising piece of performance art during a stand-up night at the bar.

She Is The Ocean

Free Screening

Screening time: 

She is the Ocean examines nine extraordinary women from the four corners of the globe. Starting with three women who engage in the thrill of ocean sports, to a famed scientist who plunges into the deepest depths on the edge of human survival, to a cliff diver who is hailed as “The bravest woman in Germany” the film captures the one thing they all share in common: a profound love for the Sea.

Filmmaker in attendance.

Sonder

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Aveline, a young competitive aerial silk artist, struggles to return to her sport and everyday life after a devastating freak accident. Longing for companionship, she turns to an online dating app, methodically tracking her chemistry with each candidate. She meets an equally lonely stranger, and an unexpected journey begins.

Filmmaker in attendance.

Statistics

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

Two unsuspecting Indigenous women are harassed by two men who fetishize them based on stereotypes and cultural appropriation. They manage to escape but the justice system fails them. Months later, when one of the women decides to take justice into her own hands, she turns up missing and becomes another number in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women crisis. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Tayybeh

LOCAL FILMMAKER

Screening time: 

“Tayybeh” is an Arabic word meaning both ‘kind’ and ‘delicious’. The word embodies the spirit of the Tayybeh catering company – a group of female Syrian refugees who support their new lives in Vancouver by cooking Syrian food for the community. This short documentary is an intimate portrait of the struggles and triumphs of the women of Tayybeh, as they learn to navigate life in Canada while grappling with the grief and loss of leaving their homeland. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Thank You For The Rain

Screening time: 

A Kenyan farmer, Kisilu, struggles to adapt his farming methods to an ever changing climate. The film captures his hope and despair as his ongoing struggle leads him to become a community leader and a climate change activist on the global stage. The film addresses a range of issues linked to climate change, including climate justice, urbanization gender equality, education, access to water, climate refugees and adaptation.

The Apartment

Screening time: 

Between tension and tenderness, a mother and her two children make the best of their somewhat disappointing new apartment.

The Day I Lost My Shadow

Screening time: 

In Syria, 2012, during the coldest winter the country has witnessed, Sana tries to create a normal life for her son and to ignore the conflicts raging around her. She dreams of making a hot meal but has no cooking fuel. She takes a day off from her job to search for a gas cylinder and suddenly finds herself stuck in the besieged area. It is then that she discovers what it means to lose your shadow.

The Egg and The Thieving Pie

Screening time: 

Community Police Officer, Shona, finds herself battling the call of the ocean when investigating the theft of a precious egg. Whilst interviewing the local residents she comes face-to-face with their animalistic traits and becomes entangled in a series of surreal exchanges.

Filmmaker in attendance.

The Feminist

Free Screening

Screening time: 

Gudrun Schyman has been one of the most influential Swedish politicians of the past decades. From humble beginnings in a blue-collar family grappling with her father’s alcoholism she rose to lead the Leftist party to record election results but then was publicly shamed for her own struggles with addiction. Overcoming her demons, she found Europe’s first feminist party and has remained fiercely, unapologetically feminist, constantly working to raise the bar for equality in Sweden and internationally. 

Followed by a discussion with the film’s producer, Helene Granqvist as well as local documentary film director Moira Simpson and screenwriter and WIFTV’s First President, Peggy Thompson.

The True History of Billie The Kid

Wednesday, March 6, 8:30 pm

Billie pays a visit to her ageing father in jail. While he reminisces about her childhood, it becomes clear that she doesn’t remember it in quite the same way. It wasn’t the safe and happy place he describes and where was he when she most needed his protection?  Will this visit bring reconciliation…or revenge?

The Warrior Queen of Jhansi

This epic dramatic narrative is set in India in 1850. Ruled by the British and the pernicious East India Company, discontent and rebellion stir amongst the Indian people. In the province of Jhansi, the Rani seeks peaceful solutions, but to no avail. As the British grow more aggressive, she has no choice but to fight for her kingdom becoming a powerful symbol of resistance. Gathering alliances, she must lead her people into a battle that will ultimately change the shape of history.

Filmmaker in attendance. 

Website

This Changes Everything - Special Presentation with the DGC

Screening time: 

This documentary film examines the systemic sexism in Hollywood. Weaving interviews with some of the industry’s leading voices, including Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Yara Shahidi and Sandra Oh, it takes an incisive look behind and in front of the camera. The film exposes the historical and empirical evidence and the systemic forces that foster gender discrimination and reinforce disparities in our culture.

The film is followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Amanda Coles (Arts and Cultural Management and Employment Relations, Deakin University) with special guests Tom Donahue (director, This Changes Everything) and others to be announced.

Credits: 

Tina

Screening time: 

A fantastical drama about Tina, a woman who tries alternative therapy to develop a stronger sense of self. But then, she starts hearing and seeing things - and being followed by an Indian Classical Dancer. Is this therapy really helping?

Filmmaker in attendance.

Tshweesh

Friday, March 8th, 8:30 pm

The day of the World Cup - satellite dishes, antennae and wires clutter the rooftops where children play, laundry is hung, lovers tryst and an old couple sips their coffee. A woman walks through the streets. But there is a disruption in the audio visual signals. The game is cut out. The still of the hot summer’s day is torn apart by an air attack – another interruption to be absorbed, another minor irritation to resist as Beirut refuses to have its’ spirit quashed.

Turning Tables

Screening time: 

Joshua DePerry, also known as Classic Roots, is a Toronto-based music producer and performer pioneering “PowWow Techno.” Redefining what it means to be urban and Indigenous, he prepares to start the next chapter of his life as an artist and educator in the world's techno capital: Berlin. 

Filmmaker in attendance.

Warrior Women

Tuesday, March 5, 7:00 pm 

Warrior Women tells a story about Madonna Thunder Hawk, a leader in the American Indian Movement who cultivated a group of activist children - including her daughter Marcy - into the "We Will Remember" Survival Group as an alternative to government-run boarding schools. With Marcy now a mother herself, both women fight against the environmental devastation of the Dakota Access Pipeline and for indigenous cultural values.

Warrior Women's Elizabeth Castle and Marcella Gilberta will be in attendance.

Wild

Screening time: 

It’s the summer of 1937. Something is living in the cornfield. Young Ida doesn’t know what it is, but it seems to understand her better than anyone else on her uncle’s farm.

Work

Screening time: 

Two sex workers in Toronto share experiences relating to race, gender, and emotional labour in their profession.