加拿大

Saltspring Island: close to a city, but full of magical, almost untouched places. A small town with a Saturday market. And in the middle of the island… trees, lots of trees. When chainsaws begin ripping through the early morning silence of Saltspring, residents confront logging trucks and face the threat of prison terms to stop land developers from logging this West Coast paradise. The award-winning director of Margaret’s Museum, Mort Ransen, turns his camera on his own community to document the conflict between residents determined to protect their island, and the developers, defending their rights as landowners.

Is the Crown at war with us? is a powerful and painstakingly researched look at the conflict over fishing rights between the Mi’gmaq people of Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church), New Brunswick and their non-Native neighbours. The Mi’gmaq had been fishing the waters of Miramichi Bay since time immemorial, and their right to do so had been upheld in a landmark 1999 Supreme Court decision. But when the people of Esgenoopetitj tried to exercise their long-standing treaty rights, they found themselves under attack by non-Native commercial fishermen, and harassed by officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Is the Crown at war with us? offers a persuasive defence of the Mi’gmaq position and a gripping portrait of a community under siege.

Chichester’s Choice follows filmmaker, Simonee as she investigates the life of her homeless father, Edgar Chichester who abandoned her at six years old. Twenty-three years later, Simonee journeys to the streets of Guyana and Brazil to find and reunite with her father in the hopes of forgiving and understanding him while coming to terms with who she is. It is a raw and personal coming of age film that touches on the universal issues of homelessness, alcoholism and abandonment.