Directions for Beginners: North, South, East, West

Atrabilis

Papa Mau: The Wayfinder

A documentary that takes a retrospective look at the influence of Mau Piailug, a native from the tiny Micronesian atoll of Satawal, in reviving the art of non-instrument navigation in Polynesia. Relying solely on his knowledge of celestial bodies, oceanic currents, and natural markers, Mau guided the traditional sailing canoe Hokulea on a 1976 voyaging to Tahiti, a journey not completed in more than 600 years. For Native Hawaiians, this expedition signaled an exodus from the cultural doldrums of the previous century. Sail along on this remarkable journey and share Mau's story of reinvigoration, reconciliation, and redemption of a people as the master wayfinder and teacher that breathed life back into the sails Polynesia's voyaging tradition.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Captain Jack Sparrow’s got a blood debt to pay: he owes his soul to the legendary Davy Jones, ghastly Ruler of the Ocean Depths. To escape eternal servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman, ever-crafty Jack must track down the still-beating heart of Jones. But he won’t do it alone: Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are drawn back into another one of his perilous quests—assuming they can evade execution for aiding a pirate.

The Golden Compass

In a parallel universe, after overhearing a shocking secret, precocious orphan Lyra Belacqua trades her carefree existence roaming the halls of Jordan College for an otherworldly adventure in the far North, unaware that it's part of her destiny.

True North

A girl in a mechanics workshop meets a submarine captain who owns a magical compass. The compass is not functioning, so he asks her to fix it. It turns out that the compass has showed him the way to the treasure he sought the whole time.

Horizon Line

A couple flying on a small plane to attend a tropical island wedding must fight for their lives after their pilot suffers a heart attack.

Threshold

A man living alone in a basement begins receiving messages from a typewriter that types by itself. As strange sounds come from upstairs, he becomes increasingly fixated on a compass that never changes direction, a key, and a cat he can't fully understand.

Donner

After the death of his mother, little Julius throws himself into a fantasy world. He travels with his teddy bear Max to the northern lights - a dream that is supposed to take him back to his deceased mother. The two will never reach their destination. They get caught in a heavy storm that brings them back to reality and forces Julius to face a difficult farewell.

Gala

Abenteuer Anthroposophie

Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger

The story of a young boy forced to spend all five years of his short life in hospital while the federal and provincial governments argued over which was responsible for his care, as well as the long struggle of Indigenous activists to force the Canadian government to enforce “Jordan’s Principle” — the promise that no First Nations children would experience inequitable access to government-funded services again.

Looking for Lincoln

Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s quest to piece together Lincoln's complex life takes him from Illinois to Gettysburg to Washington, D.C. and face-to-face with people who live with Lincoln every day -- relic hunters, re-enactors and others for whom the study of Lincoln is a passion.

Letters to a Father

The author's personal confession. This essay film about the relationship between father and son is filmed exclusively in 16mm film in Prague, Slovenia, India, England and France. An important component of Brajnik's film narration is the musical composition and accompanying voiceover of the artist's alter ego.

No Crying at the Dinner Table

Filmmaker Carol Nguyen interviews her own family to craft an emotionally complex and meticulously composed portrait of intergenerational trauma, grief, and secrets in this cathartic documentary about things left unsaid.

Now Is the Time

When internationally renowned Haida carver Robert Davidson was only 22 years old, he carved the first new totem pole on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii in almost a century. On the 50th anniversary of the pole’s raising, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter steps easily through history to revisit that day in August 1969, when the entire village of Old Massett gathered to celebrate the event that would signal the rebirth of the Haida spirit.

My Therapist Said, I am Full of Sadness

Monica scours archive material for answers to the question of how queer life in Berlin and the wish to be accepted by their Christian-Indonesian parents can be reconciled.

Forbidden Forest

Two very different men are brought together by New Brunswick's decision to hand the management of millions of acres of Crown land to six multinationals. One man is an Acadian woodlot owner retired after nearly 40 years in a pulp mill; the other is a painter and winemaker with homes in France and New Brunswick. They travel to Finland to urge officials at one of the largest licence holders of New Brunswick Crown lands to practise responsible forestry, then go head-to-head with the provincial government to secure a new community-based forestry policy that is environmentally sustainable and produces more jobs than the highly mechanized techniques used today.

How 'Jaws' Changed the World

A look at the classic film Jaws and what happened in the swell after the movie.

The Glass Ark

The undertaking of an enthusiastic group of scientists to transform an indoor cycle racing-track built for the 1968 Montréal Olympics into an ecological park. The Biodôme of Montréal contains 4 ecosystems of the 3 Americas, from the Tropical Forrest to the Polar World, from the Laurentian Forrest to the St-Lawrence Marine Environment.

Columbus in America

Filmmaker Paul Puglisi traveled across the US to make sense of the controversy surrounding of one of America's most enduring symbols - Christopher Columbus. Conversations with cultural leaders, historians, activists, authors and educators bring to life the perspectives that molded a 15th century sailor into a genocidal conqueror, a messenger of Christ, a cultural icon and a patriotic hero in a land he never knew existed.