Original and touching, this National Film Board animated short expresses, through the art of graffiti, an urban reality too often ignored. Beautiful and simple, the director shows us how little we pay attention to the writing on the wall, to the people who call out for help, and to our environment in general.

The film takes a close look at a small native community called Sheshatshiu. For thousands of years, the Innus lived as nomads, getting everything they needed from the land they so cherished. In the 1960s, Canadian government policies forced them to settle in sedentary communities in Quebec and Labrador. Being Innu takes us through honest and emotional testimonials, highlighting, among other things, the difficulty teenagers have in integrating the ancestral ways of their elders into everyday life. What does it mean for them to be Innu today? This community is in crisis and through numerous interviews with elders, teenagers, and teachers we understand how the love of the land and the native language is the foundation of their culture and its survival. Amidst the immense challenges such as poverty, drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, suicide and violence, there is hope for the next generations. It is not a flattering portrait, but it is an important one. Parallels can undoubtedly be made with other aboriginal communities across the world, who must also defend their traditional way of living in the midst of modern society.

In Montreal, the Main Deli Steak House has been spicing, curing and pickling home styled meat for decades. For over thirty years, dedicated immigrant staff and Quebecers have been producing and enjoying a food introduced to the urban setting by the Jewish émigrés who originally settled Boulevard St. Laurent at the turn of the last century. Birth of the Smoked Meat is a tale of enduring tastes in a constantly evolving urban setting...

Water will be a source of global conflict, as oil is now. Based on the groundbreaking book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, the film makes the case against commodification, proclaiming water as a precious public resource to be protected for eternity. With dwindling clean water supplies, conflicts are already developing between corporations, private investors, government interests and the human race that needs water to survive. Narrated by Malcolm McDowell, Blue Gold is a powerful exploration of existing water wars and a direct warning of what is to come. (Director and one of authors will be in attendance.)

BOOMrang is a magnificently shot Iranian short film about a special little boy on a beach, fishing in a very different way. We do not see his face, but get an overwhelming sense of what he is about and is going through.

A personal, intimate Super 8 documentary about family and fur-trapping. Pat Bradford shows his life in the forests of Saskatchewan through contemplation and in silence, all while teaching and sharing his experience with his daughter and granddaughter....

In Edinburgh, Scotland mentally challenged adults run an artisanal bread bakery. They are involved in every facet of the business from baking to distribution. Breadmakers is a celebration of a collective enterprise and productivity among those who, until recently, were considered unfit for human labour. It gives a new twist to earning one’s daily bread.