Diversity and Inclusion

Love, Scott
Laura Marie Wayne 2018 1 h 16 min
While walking on the street one night in a small town in Canada, Scott Jones, a gay musician, is attacked and paralyzed from the waist down; what follows is a brave and fragile journey of healing and the transformation of a young man’s life. From the first raw moments in the hospital to a disquieting trip back to the place he was attacked, Scott is constantly faced with the choice of losing himself in waves of grief or embracing love over fear. Filmed over three years by Scott’s close friend, Love, Scott is an intimate and visually evocative window into queer experience, set against a stunning score by Sigur Rós.
The Amina Profile

Sophie Deraspe 2015 1 h 26 min
Part love story, part international thriller, and a gripping chronicle of an unprecedented media and sociological hoax, this feature documentary travels from San Francisco and Washington to Istanbul, Tel Aviv and Beirut in a quest to reveal the true identity of the person behind the popular blog A Gay Girl in Damascus. Who is this Syrian-American revolutionary who goes by the name of Amina Arraf? Not even Montrealer Sandra Bagaria, with whom Amina is carrying an online affair, seems to know for sure. As the Syrian uprising gains momentum, the blog attracts a huge following. But it’s Amina’s subsequent abduction that sparks an international outcry to free her. Telling a detective story that involves various intelligence agencies and top-tier global media, the film tells a thoroughly modern tale of technology, love and news-as-spectacle questions the ways in which people connect in today’s virtual world.
I Am Skylar
Rachel Bower 2019 15 min
I Am Skylar is the emotionally compelling story of an articulate 14-year-old girl who is thoughtfully defining her future and the woman she is to become. Surrounded by a family and a community who show her unconditional love as she follows her personal path, Skylar faces the complexities of being a transgender girl on the cusp of puberty with refreshing honesty and unshakeable dignity.
Angel Peacock
Peter Svatek 2019 24 min
Dawod is a 12 year old Yazidi boy. The Yazidi are a small Kurdish-speaking sect from northern Iraq that dates back to Mesopotamian times – who have been persecuted for almost as long. ISIS has been waging a campaign of genocide against them since 2014. Over 10,000 men have been killed. Thousands of women kidnapped, raped and trafficked. The survivors are in camps in Kurdistan and a lucky few have been brought to Germany and Canada. Dawod and his mother Naro were held captive by ISIS for months. They managed to escape by running through forests for 9 days and nights without food or water. They made it to one of the refugee camps and from there to Canada, arriving in London, Ontario in January 2018. This is the story of Dawod's arrival in and introduction to his new homeland and way of life.
Uyghurs: Prisoners of the Absurd

Patricio Henríquez 2014 1 h 38 min
This feature documentary recounts the incredible odyssey of 22 men from China’s persecuted Uyghur minority who were detained in Guantánamo as terrorists. These Turkic-speaking Muslims, persecuted by the authorities in Beijing, escaped to the Middle East where they were captured and sold as terrorists to the American forces. From northern China to Guantánamo, Cuba, this new documentary by Patricio Henríquez charts the incredible odyssey of three of these “prisoners of the absurd,” linked to worldwide terror networks through no fault of their own.
I Am Gay
Ajahnis Charley 2020 10 min
After working abroad for five years, filmmaker Ajahnis Charley returns home to Oshawa, Ontario, in the age of quarantine. In addition to reuniting with his family, he returns with a mission to share some deep personal truths. Surprising conversations ensue with his mother and three siblings creating, in this humorous and heart-wrenching story about our need to seek love and acceptance within our own families.
Alphée of the Stars (Short Version)
Hugo Latulippe 2013 52 min
Alphée has a rare genetic disorder that hampers her development. Yet she continues to defy medical expectations. When her parents intuitively reject the idea of placing her in a specialized classroom, they move their family to Europe for a year. Here, her father – filmmaker Hugo Latulippe – focuses on his fairy-like daughter's learning, in hopes of eventually integrating her into a regular classroom. This film is a moving declaration of love from a father to his daughter. It is also the story of a gamble: stealing away for a year in order to try and change the course of events. An intimate and revealing portrait, Alphée of the Stars puts the spotlight on a most unusual girl. With patience and tenderness, Latulippe – who believes in schools that embrace the diversity of humanity and do not discriminate – challenges our assumptions and reveals an unknown world that may have escaped us in our daily rush.
Beauty
Christina Willings 2018 23 min
Beauty explores the lives of five gender-creative kids, each uniquely engaged in shaping their own sense of what it means to be fully human. Whether it’s dealing with bullies, explaining themselves to their parents, or navigating the uncharted waters of relationships, Bex, Lili, Fox, Tru and Milo talk about their experiences and struggle to live in authenticity.
Standing on the Line
Paul Émile d'Entremont 2018 1 h 20 min
TRIGGER WARNING: This film contains the following subject matter: Suicide and self harm.

In both amateur and professional sports, being gay remains taboo. For some athletes, the pressure to perform is compounded by the further strain of deciding whether or not to come out of the closet. They set out to overcome prejudice in the hopes of changing things for the athletes of tomorrow.
Have You Eaten?
Lina Li 2020 5 min
Living in downtown Toronto to attend school, Lina Li returns to the comfort of home in Thornhill and her mother's cooking. In this candid short, filmmaker Lina Li and her mother engage in an intimate conversation about immigration to Canada, misunderstandings, barriers to communicating, love and the taste of home.
Why Thee Wed?
Cal Garingan 2005 50 min
This documentary profiles the eight couples who challenged marriage laws in British Columbia in court until same-sex marriage was recognized in 2003. As controversy swirls around this issue worldwide, Why Thee Wed? offers surprising and diverse perspectives on what it means for gay and lesbian couples to walk down the aisle and to fight for the right to do so under the law.

Why Thee Wed? was produced as part of the Reel Diversity Competition for emerging filmmakers of colour.
Everything Will Be
Julia Kwan 2014 1 h 26 min
Julia Kwan’s feature-length documentary Everything Will Be captures a significant moment of time in Vancouver’s Chinatown, with the influx of condos and new, non-Chinese businesses. The film follows a year in the life of several Chinatown denizens, including a 90-year-old Chinese newspaper street vendor and a second-generation tea shop owner, as they navigate this community in flux.
Zero Degrees of Separation
Elle Flanders 2005 1 h 29 min
This feature documentary breaks with the sensationalistic media coverage of the Middle East by documenting the everyday lives of same-sex Palestinian-Israeli couples. Faced with the modern injustices of work visas, checkpoints, harassment and prejudices, these brave individuals resist oppression and take small steps each day to build a sense of peace, mutual respect and hope. Filmmaker Elle Flanders draws on her own story of growing up with Zionist grandparents who were intimately involved in the founding of the state of Israel. Their haunting archival home movies evoke an idealized Israel of the 1950s and summon larger questions about humanity, conflict and nationalist aspiration.
Jia
Weiye Su 2020 10 min
A young Chinese-Canadian couple is visiting family in Wuhan, epicentre of the virus, at the very moment the pandemic is declared. Interviewing his subjects in a novel socially distanced mode, director Weiye Su explores the culturally specific concept of Jia—an idea evoking family or home that acquires sharp new meaning during COVID times.
19 Days
Asha Siad & Roda Siad 2016 26 min
This short documentary follows several refugee families during their first 19 days in Canada, as they navigate an unfamiliar terrain that has suddenly become their home. Located in the quiet Calgary neighbourhood of Bridgeland, the Margaret Chisholm Resettlement Centre is the starting point for government-assisted refugees who arrive in the city. During the 19-day timeline established by the federal government, an initial assessment is done and refugees are assisted with everything from airport reception and orientation to referrals, documents, and counselling.
19 Days reveals the human side of the refugee resettlement process. A unique look at the global migration crisis and one particular stage of asylum, it lays plain the realities faced on the difficult road towards integration.
Staying Real - Teens Confront Sexual Stereotypes
Sophie Bissonnette 2010 24 min
A documentary geared to 11 to 13-year-olds in which preteens and teens discuss the adverse effects of the sexual stereotypes they're bombarded with. They talk about how hard it is to develop their own personality and make friends when they don’t conform to media and advertising images. Produced in collaboration with the Montreal Women’s Y as a follow-up to Sexy Inc.: Our Children Under Influence, and directed by award-winning filmmaker Sophie Bissonnette, this film is a great way to kick off a lively discussion.
Wards of the Crown
Andrée Cazabon 2005 42 min
This film examines the lives of 4 young people who grew up in the child welfare system. It is also a critical exposé of a system that couldn't meet their needs, as well as a stirring tribute to the strength, courage and resilience of these foster kids.
The Elder Project
Eva Colmers 2010 2 h 11 min
The Elder Project follows seven diverse seniors over two years and records their experiences through a series of short and candid episodic stories. As they face the possibility of increasing frailty and transitioning into more dependent-living scenarios, the elders talk of their concerns and eloquently express their desire to grow older with dignity and some control over their future.
Up Against the System
Terence Macartney-Filgate 1969 19 min
People on welfare are rarely heard. What do they go through? How do they feel? How do concerned social and welfare workers feel about the welfare system? What is welfare supposed to do? In this film, welfare recipients and social case workers talk about the problems of being "up against the system."
My Prairie Home
Chelsea McMullan 2013 1 h 16 min
In this feature documentary-musical by Chelsea McMullan, indie singer Rae Spoon takes us on a playful, meditative and at times melancholic journey. Set against majestic images of the infinite expanses of the Canadian Prairies, the film features Spoon crooning about their queer and musical coming of age. Interviews, performances and music sequences reveal Spoon’s inspiring process of building a life of their own, as a trans person and as a musician.

Official selection at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
Minoru: Memory of Exile
Michael Fukushima 1992 18 min
The bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor thrust 9-year-old Minoru Fukushima into a world of racism so malevolent he would be forced to leave Canada, the land of his birth. Like thousands of other Japanese Canadians, Minoru and his family were branded as an enemy of Canada, dispatched to internment camps in British Columbia and finally deported to Japan. Directed by Michael Fukushima, Minoru's son, the film combines classical animation with archival material. The memories of the father are interspersed with the voice of the son, weaving a tale of a birthright lost and recovered.
The Boxing Girls of Kabul
Ariel Nasr 2011 52 min
In this feature documentary, a remarkable group of young Afghan women dream of representing their country as boxers at the 2012 Olympics, embarking on a journey of both personal and political transformation.
Ninth Floor
Mina Shum 2015 1 h 21 min
Director Mina Shum makes her foray into feature documentary by reopening the file on a watershed moment in Canadian race relations – the infamous Sir George Williams Riot. Over four decades after a group of Caribbean students accused their professor of racism, triggering an explosive student uprising, Shum locates the protagonists and listens as they set the record straight, trying to make peace with the past.
Window Horses

Ann Marie Fleming 2016 1 h 29 min
This feature-length animated film centres around the story of Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran. Rosie lives in Vancouver with her over-protective Chinese grandparents, and has never been anywhere on her own. But once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all of whom tell her stories about her past, the Iranian father she had assumed abandoned her, and about the nature of poetry itself. This is a film about love, finding your own path, and learning how to forgive.
Race Is a Four-Letter Word
Sobaz Benjamin 2006 55 min
In this personal documentary, director Sobaz Benjamin introduces us to an interesting group of people: a black woman who wants to be considered iconically Canadian, a white man who is culturally and psychologically black, and a black woman who decides to leave “Canada’s racial cold war.” He also exposes himself, a black man who grew up trying to bleach his skin. In the end, Race Is a Four-Letter Word teaches us that the soul has no colour. Yet, we also learn that race is a marathon we are all forced to run.
Who Gets In?
Barry Greenwald 1989 52 min
Who Gets In? explores the many questions raised by Canada's immigration policy in the face of one of the world's largest immigration movements. Shot in 1988 in Africa, Canada and Hong Kong, the film reveals first-hand what Canadian immigration officials are looking for in potential new Canadians, and the economic, social and political priorities orienting their choices.
One of Them
Elise Swerhone 2000 25 min
This short fictional film features high school seniors discovering and battling against homophobic discrimination and stereotypes. Jamie must face up to her own reactions as she realizes that her friend is gay and needs her support. Jamie's boyfriend must decide if he will support Jamie. One of Them focuses on homophobia and discrimination in a human rights context. The dramatization prompts viewers to examine their own responses and promote a safe school environment for all.
Mighty Jerome (Short Version)
Charles Officer 2010 52 min
In 1959, at just 19, Harry Jerome was Canada's most promising track and field star on his way to the Olympics in Rome. By 1962, after suffering a gruesome leg injury, there was every reason to think that his racing days were over. But Jerome was not just a champion on the track; he was doubly determined off it. And so began his climb to what his coach, Bill Bowerman, called "the greatest comeback in track and field history."

Through years of unparalleled political turbulence, racial conflict and his own personal challenges, Harry Jerome kept his head down and ran, displaying strength of character and willful perseverance every bit as impressive as his record-setting athleticism.

Filmmaker Charles Officer uses gorgeous monochrome imagery, impassioned interviews and astonishing archival footage to tell the runner's triumphant story, from his early days in North Vancouver, through his three Olympics and his unequalled streak of records, to his sudden and tragically premature death. Family, friends and teammates recall a man who forever changed the Canadian sports landscape and made an indelible mark upon the world.

Compelling, surprising and urgently paced, Mighty Jerome will electrify sports fans, history buffs and all those with an appreciation for tales of courage and redemption.
Invisible City
Hubert Davis 2009 1 h 15 min
Invisible City is a moving story of two boys from Regent Park crossing into adulthood – their mothers and mentors rooting for them to succeed; their environment and social pressures tempting them to make poor choices. Turning his camera on the often ignored inner city, Academy-award nominated director Hubert Davis sensitively depicts the disconnection of urban poverty and race from the mainstream.
Highway to Heaven
Sandra Ignagni 2019 16 min
This short symphonic documentary offers a glimpse into the unique religious co-existence found along No. 5 Road in Richmond, British Columbia. Highway to Heaven takes audiences into many of the temples, mosques, and churches that call No. 5 home, revealing unity despite difference across these diverse cultural spaces. In a world struggling with religious violence and intolerance, filmmaker Sandra Ignagni has crafted a gentle portrait of a rare landscape using attentive imagery and an acoustic tapestry of prayer.
Gender Matters: A Virtual Discussion on Violence Against Women
Dan Thornhill 2015 48 min
As part of the Young Women's National Leadership Summit, the YWCA and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) invited participants aged 17+ from across North America to take part in a conversation with three outstanding role models and leaders in the fight for women's rights. Focusing on the subject of gender-based violence, the panellists discussed the issues that women are facing today, and how we can work together to create a fairer and safer society for all.
A Family for Maria
Lina Gagnon 1992 5 min
An animated film for five- to eight-year-olds about international adoption and the difficulty of adapting to a new environment. The film also gives a glimpse into the problems of abandoned children in developing countries. In A Family for Maria/Une famille pour Maria, love triumphs over the insecurity of a little Latin American girl who finds a new family in North America.
Courage
Geoff Bowie 2011 52 min
In Toronto, Izabel, Bebeth, Natasha, Benoît, Grace and Jean, members of Ontario’s “working poor” directly affected by the economic crisis, agree to take part in group sessions organized by filmmaker Geoff Bowie. They talk about having to work multiple jobs to get by, describe the stress generated by financial vulnerability, and courageously explain their strategies for getting out of their difficult situation. Touching, insightful and full of hope, Courage is a participatory social-issues film that emphasizes the importance of mutual aid and succeeds admirably in condemning the taboo of poverty.
Colour Blind
Jinder Oujla-Chambers 1999 25 min
This film shows kids that being racist is not cool and that even subtle racism can explode into violence. Shot in Vancouver and Toronto schools, the film features teens from a variety of backgrounds. The students speak from personal experience, providing a startling look into the average high school--a place where the kids themselves create de facto segregation by hanging out only with others of the same colour.
Black History Month 2015 Virtual Classroom: The Power of Mentoring, Diversity and Dreaming Big
Dan Thornhill 2015 1 h 3 min
On February 19, 2015, the NFB, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and Heritage Toronto connected students from across Canada with four talented Black professionals for a one-of-a-kind virtual conversation. Streamed live from the Daniels Spectrum auditorium in the multicultural neighbourhood of Regent Park, Toronto, the virtual classroom explored the topic of achieving one’s career goals while giving back to the community. Featuring: TV anchor and three-time Olympian Rosey Edeh; Dr. Catherine Chandler-Crichlow, Executive Director of the Centre of Excellence in Financial Services Education; Layth Gafoor, sports and entertainment lawyer; and Dr. Teela Johnson, resident in family medicine. Discussion moderated by poet, playwright, and professor Dr. George Elliott Clarke. Special performances by Thompson Egbo-Egbo, Shawn Byfield, and Sean Mauricette, a.k.a. Subliminal.
Autism: The Road Back
Sharon Bartlett & Maria LeRose 2005 54 min
Autism: The Road Back charts the personal journey of three families with children who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. It talks to parents, service providers, and experts in the field about assessment, diagnoses, and options available for treatment, and provides guidance for families trying to navigate their way through the challenges of ASD in the first six years of their child's life.
Acadia Acadia ?!?
Michel Brault & Pierre Perrault 1971 1 h 57 min
In the late 1960s, with the triumph of bilingualism and biculturalism, New Brunswick's Université de Moncton became the setting for the awakening of Acadian nationalism after centuries of defeatism and resignation. Although 40% of the province's population spoke French, they had been unable to make their voices heard. The movement started with students-sit-ins, demonstrations against Parliament, run-ins with the police - and soon spread to a majority of Acadians. The film captures the behind-the-scenes action and the students' determination to bring about change. An invaluable document of the rebirth of a people. In French with English subtitles.
Hardwood

Hubert Davis 2004 29 min
Hardwood is a personal journey by director Hubert Davis, the son of former Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis, who explores how his father's decisions affected his life and those of his extended family. Elegantly structured into three chapters entitled "love," "recollection" and "redemption," Davis uses personal interviews, archival footage and home movies to delve into his father's past in the hope of finding a new direction for his own.
At its core, Hardwood is about the power of redemption and the healing of the bonds between fathers and sons.
Unarmed Verses
Charles Officer 2016 1 h 25 min
This feature documentary presents a thoughtful and vivid portrait of a community facing imposed relocation. At the centre of the story is a remarkably astute and luminous 12-year-old black girl whose poignant observations about life, the soul, and the power of art give voice to those rarely heard in society. Unarmed Verses is a cinematic rendering of our universal need for self-expression and belonging.
Things Arab Men Say
Nisreen Baker 2016 52 min
This documentary paints a picture of Arab men that is vastly different from what we’re accustomed to. In this antidote to mainstream-media depictions of Arabs as terrorists and extremists, we get to meet Jay, Ghassan and their friends, who gather at Jamal’s Eden Barber Shop to discuss politics, religion and family over a cut and a shave. Often funny, sometimes sad, this engaging film documents the challenges these men face integrating into Canadian life while preserving their identity and culture.
John and Michael
Shira Avni 2004 10 min
This animated short pays tribute to two men with Down syndrome who shared an intimate and profoundly loving relationship that deeply affected the filmmaker. Narrator Brian Davis brings the characters to life with great sensitivity.
We Regret to Inform You...
Eva Colmers & Heidi Janz 2015 11 min
In a check-box society that functions by dividing us into neatly-defined categories, where does someone with a strong mind and a weak body fit in? Dr. Heidi Janz - award-winning playwright, accomplished academic, and self-described ‘crip’ – has a curious problem. Despite her obvious physical limitations she is denied financial assistance from government programmes because of her “productive” mind. Following Heidi through her everyday life, with all its unique responsibilities, opportunities, and challenges, We Regret to Inform You... offers an unsentimental, and unapologetic, look at what it means to be both “disabled” and “productive”.
Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada
Karen Cho 2012 1 h 27 min
Feminism has shaped the society we live in. But just how far has it brought us, and how relevant is it today? This feature documentary zeroes in on key concerns such as violence against women, access to abortion, and universal childcare, asking how much progress we have truly made on these issues. Rich with archival material and startling contemporary stories, Status Quo? uncovers answers that are provocative and at times shocking.
The Basketball Game
Hart Snider 2011 5 min
This animated short tells the story of an epic basketball game between kids attending Jewish camp and students of a notorious local Holocaust denier. Nine-year-old Hart is attending Jewish summer camp for the first time. He is both curious and afraid. What awaits him on the basketball court?
Lights for Gita
Michel Vo 2001 7 min
This animated short, based on the book by Rachna Gilmore, is the story of Gita, an 8-year-old girl who can't wait to celebrate Divali - the Hindu festival of lights - in her new home in Canada. But it's nothing like New Delhi, where she comes from. The weather is cold and grey and a terrible ice storm cuts off the power, ruining her plans for a party. Obviously, a Divali celebration now is impossible. Or is it? As Gita experiences the glittering beauty of the icy streets outside, the traditional festival of lights comes alive in a sparkling new way.

Part of the Talespinners collection, which uses vibrant animation to bring popular children’s stories from a wide range of cultural communities to the screen.
Black Soul
Martine Chartrand 2000 9 min
Martine Chartrand’s animated short dives into the heart of Black culture with an exhilarating trip though history. Watch as a young boy traces his roots through the stories his grandmother shares with him about the events that shaped their cultural heritage.
Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives
Aerlyn Weissman & Lynne Fernie 1992 1 h 24 min
This feature documentary delves into the rich history of Canadian queer women’s experiences in the mid-20th century. Compelling, often hilarious and always rebellious, the women interviewed in this film recount stories about their search for the places where openly gay women gathered in urban centres. Contemporary interviews, archival footage, and a stylized fictional narrative based on the pulp novels of the 1950s are woven throughout this simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and empowering film. Forbidden Love brings an important and empowering history of lesbian sexuality in Canada out of the closet.
Flawed
Andrea Dorfman 2010 12 min
Flawed is nothing less than a beautiful gift from Andrea Dorfman's vivid imagination, a charming little film about very big ideas. Dorfman has the uncanny ability to transform the intensely personal into the wisely universal. She deftly traces her encounter with a potential romantic partner, questioning her attraction and the uneasy possibility of love. But, ultimately, Flawed is less about whether girl can get along with boy than whether girl can accept herself, imperfections and all.

This film is both an exquisite tribute to the art of animation and a loving homage to storyboarding, a time-honoured way of rendering scenes while pointing the way to the dramatic arc of the tale.
Namrata
Shazia Javed 2009 9 min
This short documentary tells the intensely personal story of Namrata Gill – one of the many real-life inspirations for Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth – in her own words. After six years, Gill courageously leaves an abusive relationship and launches a surprising new career.
Last Chance
Paul Émile d'Entremont 2012 1 h 24 min
This feature documentary tells the stories of 5 asylum seekers who flee their native countries to escape homophobic violence. They face hurdles integrating into Canada, fear deportation and anxiously await a decision that will change their lives forever.
Tying Your Own Shoes
Shira Avni 2009 16 min
This short animated documentary offers an intimate glimpse into the exceptional mindsets and emotional lives of four adult artists with Down Syndrome. An artful, four-way essay about ability, film explores how it feels to be a little bit unusual.

In her follow-up to her award-winning film, John and Michael, filmmaker Shira Avni pursues a deeper understanding of esteem and disability by inviting Petra, Matthew, Daninah, and Katherine to consider their pasts, relationships and ambitions.
From Sherbrooke to Brooks - Inside a Migration Corridor
Roger Parent 2016 1 h 7 min
This documentary travels the migration corridor forged between Sherbrooke, Quebec, and the town of Brooks, Alberta, by French-speaking Africans. Most have come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, some by way of refugee camps in Uganda and Tanzania. Unable to find employment in Quebec, they travelled out West. An interweaving of personal stories and the filmmaker’s own trips back and forth through the corridor offer an honest look at how much work is yet to be done to successfully integrate these newcomers.
Bittersweet Blues
Stéphanie David 2015 24 min
This short documentary links family memories to the evolution of Acadian French. Bittersweet Blues reveals the dilemma that Acadians face: do they adopt normative French in order to be better understood, or proudly continue to use their own language, which reflects the colourful flavour of their own authentic culture?

This film was made as part of the Tremplin program, in collaboration with Radio-Canada.
The Colour of Beauty
Elizabeth St. Philip 2010 16 min
Renee Thompson is trying to make it as a top fashion model in New York. She's got the looks, the walk and the drive. But she’s a black model in a world where white women represent the standard of beauty. Agencies rarely hire black models. And when they do, they want them to look “like white girls dipped in chocolate.”

The Colour of Beauty is a shocking short documentary that examines racism in the fashion industry. Is a black model less attractive to designers, casting directors and consumers? What is the colour of beauty?
Open Secrets
José Torrealba 2003 52 min
This provocative documentary uncovers a lost chapter in Canadian military history: how the Armed Forces dealt with homosexual behaviour among soldiers, during and after World War II. More than 60 years later, a group of five veterans, barely adults when they enlisted, break the silence to talk about how homosexual behaviour "was even more unmentionable than cancer." Yet amidst the brutality of war, instances of sexual awakening among soldiers and officers were occuring. Initially, the Army overlooked it, but as the war advanced, they began to crack down: military tribunals, threats of imprisonment, discharge and public exposure. After the war, officers accused of homosexuality were discharged. Back home in Canada, reputations and careers were ruined. For the young men who had served their country with valour, this final chapter was often too much to bear. Based on the book Courting Homosexuals in the Military by Paul Jackson.
Journey to Justice
Roger McTair 2000 47 min
This documentary pays tribute to a group of Canadians who took racism to court. They are Canada's unsung heroes in the fight for Black civil rights. Focusing on the 1930s to the 1950s, this film documents the struggle of 6 people who refused to accept inequality. Featured here, among others, are Viola Desmond, a woman who insisted on keeping her seat at the Roseland movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1946 rather than moving to the section normally reserved for the city's Black population, and Fred Christie, who took his case to the Supreme Court after being denied service at a Montreal tavern in 1936. These brave pioneers helped secure justice for all Canadians. Their stories deserve to be told.
Big Mouth
Andrea Dorfman 2012 8 min
This animated short tells the story of Trudy, a little girl who is equal parts truthful and rude. A bright-minded and quick-witted child, Trudy has an unfiltered and deeply curious way of looking at the world. Here, events force her to question what it means to speak the truth, and comes to understand how our differences make us unique.
Between: Living in the Hyphen
Anne Marie Nakagawa 2005 43 min
Anne Marie Nakagawa's documentary examines what it means to have a background of mixed ancestries that cannot be easily categorized. By focusing on 7 Canadians who have one parent from a European background and one of a visible minority, she attempts to get at the root of what it means to be multi-ethnic in a world that wants each person to fit into a single category.

Finding a satisfactory frame of reference in our 'multicultural utopia' turns out to be more complex than one might think. Between: Living in the Hyphen offers a provocative glimpse of what the future holds: a departure from hyphenated names towards a celebration of fluidity and being mixed.
Joe
Jill Haras 2002 8 min
This animated short tells the story of Seraphim "Joe" Fortes, one of Vancouver's most beloved citizens. Born in the West Indies, Joe Fortes swam in English Bay for over than 30 years. A self-appointed lifeguard at first, he became so famous that the city of Vancouver finally rewarded him with a salary for doing what he loved best. He taught thousands of people to swim and saved over a hundred lives. Yet there were some who did not respect him because of his skin colour. Through his determination, kindness and love for children, Joe helped shift attitudes.

Diversity and Inclusion

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