Winter in Québec. Blinding snow. Freezing fingers. Endless complaining. Why endure wind chill factors and six hours of daylight when you can escape to a dream vacation in the sun at an all-inclusive resort? The warm, turquoise ocean of Cuba is just a plane ride away. By putting to the test the tenacious paradigm of salutary tourism, Playa Coloniale is a grinding look at an industry that, along with its users, rarely questions itself.
The ruggedly beautiful Fogo Island lies off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. In this remote corner of Canada, traces of Elizabethan English and Old Irish dialects may still be heard, and remnants of ancient folk customs shape the lives of its inhabitants. However, in recent years, economic hardship has taken a toll, forcing many to leave. Homes once full of fiddle music, are now decaying, becoming part of the tundra landscape.
The ruggedly beautiful Fogo Island lies off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. In this remote corner of Canada, traces of Elizabethan English and Old Irish dialects may still be heard, and remnants of ancient folk customs shape the lives of its inhabitants. However, in recent years, economic hardship has taken a toll, forcing many to leave. Homes once full of fiddle music, are now decaying, becoming part of the tundra landscape.
Pachuca, 1956. Brothers Arturo and Gustavo Martínez leave their hometown in central Mexico with the desire to cross the continent on bicycles. Eighty-two days and 5,600 km later, they arrive in Toronto, not knowing that this journey will change the entire route of their lives. Ever since director Andrea Martínez Crowther can remember, stories of her father and uncle’s trip have formed part of her family’s folklore. Over half a century later, Arturo and Gustavo - now in their 70s - retrace that epic path, in an exploration of memory, the cycles of life and the unavoidable passage of time.
This grassroots documentary follows a year in the life of twelve residents of Vancouver’s Downtown eastside community as they become involved with SOLeFood, a social enterprise that provides agricultural employment and training opportunities in urban farming for inner-city residents. Through interviews with the participants and project organizers, and with a strong composition of images and exploratory sounds, the director creates an emotional and truthful diary of the life and death struggles and triumphs of the first urban farming team in the Downtown eastside.
With its six Miss Universe and six Miss World titles, Venezuela is the hands-down global beauty pageant champion. After oil, pageants are the country’s second most important industry. even though 80% of the population lives below the poverty line, many women spend a fortune on their appearance, and across the country the pursuit of a modelling career and the Miss Venezuela crown is followed with near-religious fervour. exploring the backstage world of the beauty industry, this investigative documentary seeks to find out: Is beauty manufactured at whatever the cost in Venezuela?
Filmed in the remote fishing village of Juan Antonio, Cuba just weeks before a hurricane swept the site off the face of the earth, El árbol de las fresas is a mesmerizing cinematic poem that tests the boundaries between anthropology, documentary, and reverie. The villagers’ ingeniousness and resilience, as well as their playful and irreverent relationship with the filmmaker, transform a sensitive portrait of the unique Taíno-Spanish culture into a reflection on documentary filmmaking itself and on humanity at the edge of time.
