Fly on the Wall: Canada’s Residential School Legacy(2021)

The Sacred Sundance: The Transfer of a Ceremony(en)

This feature-length documentary chronicles the Sundance ceremony brought to Eastern Canada by William Nevin of the Elsipogtog First Nation of the Mi'kmaq. Nevin learned from Elder Keith Chiefmoon of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. Under the July sky, participants in the Sundance ceremony go four days without food or water. Then they will pierce the flesh of their chests in an offering to the Creator. This event marks a transmission of culture and a link to the warrior traditions of the past.

When the Mountains Tremble(es)

A documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with first hand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú.

Wilderness: The Last Stand(en)

A look at the mandate and performance of the U.S. Forest Service in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. Through interviews with Forest Service employees, loggers, environmentalists, scientists and politicians, we discover the ever-widening impact of current policy on the human and wildlife communities that depend upon the National Forests for survival. In 1905 the National Forest system was created to protect the remainder of the great woodland ecosystems that once covered America. Yet each year, more and more of these public forests have been sacrificed in the name of commerce. Everyone talks about finding the balance between preserving jobs and protecting the environment, but solutions are long in coming. While we debate, American taxpayers subsidize forest destruction to the tune of 300 million dollars each year.

Miwene(es)

Steeped in the long oral tradition of Waorani storytelling, Gange Yeti shares her own coming-of-age story as a young Waorani woman living deep within the Amazon rainforest. Following Gange and her community for over 11 years, the film captures her transition from a quiet teenager into a confident young mother at a critical turning point for her culture and rainforest. As the granddaughter of one of the last Waorani elders that lived in complete isolation before outside contact, Gange is determined to capture her grandmother’s unique experience while she still can -- balancing school, motherhood, and tradition along the way.

White Earth(en)

An oil boom has drawn thousands to America’s Northern Plains in search of work. Against the backdrop of a cruel North Dakota winter, the stories of three children and an immigrant mother intertwine among themes of innocence, home, and the American Dream.

The Catastrophe Garden(en)

It is a daring idea: to grow food from old mattresses in a desolate camp at the edge of a war zone. When a refugee scientist meets two quirky professors, they must confront their own catastrophes - and make a garden grow. Short film now streaming on Waterbear.com.

Denial(en)

Every day our changing climate pushes us closer to an environmental catastrophe, but for most the problem is easy to ignore. David Hallquist, a Vermont utility executive, has made it his mission to take on one of the largest contributors of this global crisis-our electric grid. But when his son Derek tries to tell his father's story, the film is soon derailed by a staggering family secret, one that forces Derek and David to turn their attention toward a much more personal struggle, one that can no longer be ignored. - Written by Aaron Woolf

Voices From the Landscape(en)

This docucumentary by John Brett conveys the impressions of cultural loss felt by an elderly Acadian man living on the south shore of Nova Scotia after his homestead has been deserted.

Tar Creek(en)

Tar Creek is an environmentally devastated area in northeastern Oklahoma with acidic creeks, stratospheric lead poisoning and enormous sinkholes. Nearly 30 years after being designated as a Superfund cleanup program, residents are still struggling.

Is the Crown at war with us?(en)

In the summer of 2000, federal fishery officers appeared to wage war on the Mi'gmaq fishermen of Burnt Church, New Brunswick. Why would officials of the Canadian government attack citizens for exercising rights that had been affirmed by the highest court in the land? Alanis Obomsawin casts her nets into history to provide a context for the events on Miramichi Bay.

Apocalypse, Man(en)

Most people were first exposed to Michael C. Ruppert through the 2009 documentary, Collapse, directed by Chris Smith. Apocalypse, Man is an intimate portrait of a man convinced of the imminent collapse of the world, but with answers to how the human spirit can survive the impending apocalypse.

Lakota Nation vs. United States(en)

Poet Layli Long Soldier crafts a searing portrait of her Oyate’s connection to the Black Hills, through first contact and broken treaties to the promise of the Land Back movement, in this lyrical testament to resilience of a nation.

Habilito: Debt for Life(es)

Documents the conflicts and tensions that arise between highland migrants and Mosetenes, members of an indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon. It focuses particularly on a system of debt peonage known locally as ‘habilito’. This system is used throughout the Bolivian lowlands, and much of the rest of the Amazon basin, to secure labor in remote areas.

Träume der Lausitz(de)

The Engine Inside(en)

Six individuals from diverse backgrounds embrace cycling as a way to overcome daunting personal and systemic challenges. Through these struggles, bicycles have the potential to transform lives and contribute to a better world.

Baraka(en)

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film(en)

The film follows Postcommodity, an interdisciplinary arts collective comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martinez and Kade L. Twist, who put land art in a tribal context. The group bring together a community to construct the Repellent Fence, a two-mile long ephemeral monument “stitching” together the US and Mexico.

Plains: Testimony of an Ethnocide(en)

A documentary on the massacre of Planas in the Colombian east plains in 1970. An Indigenous community formed a cooperative to defend their rights from settlers and colonists, but the government organized a military operation to protect the latter and foreign companies.

Cacu: A Change for Life(es)

Five fishermen from Manresa, a poor neighborhood to the West of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, learn from marine biologist Omar Shamir Reynoso's one-of-a-kind plan to protect nesting sea turtles.

Writing the Land(en)

In this short documentary, a Musqueam elder rediscovers his Native language and traditions in the city of Vancouver, in the vicinity of which the Musqueam people have lived for thousands of years. Writing the Land captures the ever-changing nature of a modern city - the glass and steel towers cut against the sky, grass, trees and a sudden flash of birds in flight and the enduring power of language to shape perception and create memory.