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Ninth Floor
documentary feature
February, 1969. Two years after Expo 67 and its sixty-plus national pavilions, public figures were taking turns declaring that Quebec was a fine example of a society open to different cultures from all over the world. And yet, an incident on the Sir George Williams campus of Concordia University casts a shadow over the official discourse on the wonders of diversity. Six Black students complained that they were not being treated as equals to their white colleagues. Showing the identical work that had received lower grades, the target of their criticism was biology professor Perry Anderson. The confrontation led to a sit-in in the university’s computer centre, lasting fourteen days before ending in chaos and the arrest of ninety-seven demonstrators. Four and a half decades later, Canadian filmmaker Mina Shum looks back on these less than glorious events that helped shape the student movement. Successfully alternating between archival footage revealing the tense atmosphere of the conflict and testimonials from several participants, she has created a remarkable documentary that underscores the essential role of civil disobedience at time when administrative decisions and political power were being questioned for the first time.
director, writer: Mina Shum
producer: Selwyn Jacob
picture & story editor, creative director for post: Carmen Pollard
cinematography: John Price
original score: Brent Belke
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Selected Festivals: Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, FIN Atlantic International Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Trinidad + Tobago Film Festival
Dirt
documentary feature
This feature documentary is an exploration of the concept of dirt and impurity. From the slums of Kolkata to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to a barbecue joint in Central Texas, Dirt digs deep into the webs of meaning and feeling attached to that deceptively simple 4-letter word. An odyssey into all things unclean, the film features animation to make Hieronymus Bosch blush and music from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
director, writer: Meghna Haldar
producer: Tracey Friesen
editor, graphic design: Carmen Pollard
cinematography: P.J. Raval
original score: Clinker
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Selected Festivals: DOXA Documentary Film Festival
Cry Rock
documentary short
The wild beauty of the Bella Coola Valley blends with vivid watercolor animation illuminating the role of the Nuxalk oral tradition and the intersection of story, place and culture.
director, writer, producer: Banchi Hanuse
animation: Jay White
cinematography: Sylvaine Dufaux
editors: Carmen Pollard, Erin Cumming
original score: Joelysa Pankanea
Produced by Smayaykila Films.
Selected Festivals: Vancouver International Film Festival, Yorkton Film Festival, American Indian Film Festival, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Fargo Film Festival
Snare
experimental short
Spare and visually arresting, with a haunting soundtrack, SNARE is a performance-based piece that captures the brutality of violence against aboriginal women, as well as the possibility of healing and grace.
director, writer: Lisa Jackson
producers: Ki White, Lisa Jackson
cinematography: Andrew Coppin
editor: Carmen Pollard
Produced by Lisa Jackson.
Selected Festivals: Dawson City International Short Film Festival, Edmonton Film Festival, NW Filmmakers Festival, imagineNATIVE 2014 Ontario Film & Video Tour
Citizen Sam
documentary feature
This feature documentary is a portrait of Sam Sullivan, a quadriplegic city councillor running for Vancouver mayor. Blending the rough and tumble of the campaign with intimate moments from Sullivan's daily life, the film is an unflinching portrait of the one-of-a-kind politician.
director, writer, cinematography: Joe Moulins
producer: Tracey Freisen
picture & story editor, graphic design: Carmen Pollard
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Selected Festivals: Whistler Film Festival
Planet Hunters
documentary hour — CBC Nature of Things
Planet Hunters follows astrophysicists at the forefront of the search for Earth’s twin.
director, writer: Jerry Thompson
producer: Terence McKeown
editor, graphic design: Carmen Pollard
Produced by Lightship Entertainment in association with CBC.
Playing God with Planet Earth
documentary hour — CBC Doc Zone
Can scientists roll back the effects of global warming? Geoengineering schemes — like spraying acid in the sky to block out the sun — may rehabilitate the climate. Or trigger planetary disaster.
director, writer: Jerry Thompson
producers: Terence McKeown, Bette Thompson
editor, animation supervisor: Carmen Pollard
Produced by Lightship Entertainment in association with CBC.
100 Mile Challenge
documentary Series
An experiment in food consumption that has the residents of Mission, B.C., only eating foods that come from within 100 miles of their homes over a span of 100 days.
director: Eddie O
producers: David Paperny, Cal Shumiatcher
editors: Carmen Pollard, Patrick Carroll
Produced by Paperny Entertainment in association with Food Network Canada.