A filmmaker seeks to reconnect with her estranged Northern Irish father in Trouble. Mariah Garnett travels to Vienna to meet her father David, who she hasn’t seen since she was two years old. Growing up in Belfast at the height of The Troubles, David was the subject of a 1971 BBC news story, solely for…
A non-binary Swedish teen grows through their relationships and gender identity in Always Amber. Amber is a 17-year-old, who had a very close relationship with their best friend Sebastian, who helped Amber discover their a non-binary gender. However, Amber has a falling out with Sebastian following a love triangle and they are left alone to…
A college student is forced to become a confidential informant for law enforcement in The Dakota Entrapment Tapes. In May 2014, 20-year-old college student Andrew Sadek is reported missing and is found dead two months later. In the ensuing investigation, it is discovered that Andrew found himself in the middle of an aggressive war of…
“Canada’s First Terrorist” tells his side of the story in Eddy’s Kingdom. Eddy Haymour immigrated to Canada from Lebanon in the 1950s and found success as an entrepreneur. Acquiring Rattlesnake Island in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Eddy’s ultimate dream was to open a theme park called Moroccan Shadou. However, Eddy was accused of…
Ireland prepares for a referendum to repeal a controversial anti-abortion law in The 8th. In 1983, the people of Ireland voted to add the 8th Amendment to the constitution stating that the unborn have equal rights to life as its mother, which effectively makes abortion illegal in the country. 35 years later, activist Ailbhe Smyth leads…
The biases present in machine learning algorithms are examined in Coded Bias. While working on a project in the MIT Media Lab, computer scientist Joy Buolamwini discovered that facial-recognition software was unable to identify her face, as an African-American female, unless she put on a white mask. Upon further examination, Joy learns that the training…
An evangelical church in Toronto develops a connection with millennials in #Blessed. C3 is an Evangelical church that began in Australia and has grown to 500 churches around the world. The Toronto branch of C3 was formed by Pastor Sam and his wife Jenn in 2013 and over the last number of years the congregation has…
An Indian pop singer finds herself subject to a misogynistic backlash in Shut Up Sona. Sona Mohapatra is an Indian pop singer, who gets into trouble when she receives a letter accusing her of insulting Islamic Sufi practices by wearing “objectionable, body revealing, obscene apparels” in a music video of her singing an 800-year-old song…
Winner—Hot Docs Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary Those of Haitian descent within the Dominican Republic find themselves stripped of their citizenship in Stateless. Since colonial rule, there have been racial tensions between the nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, both of which share the island of Hispaniola. In 2013, the Dominican Constitutional Court…
A Filipino journalist faces immense backlash for herself and her outlet, in response to her criticism of the President of the Philippines in A Thousand Cuts. Maria Ressa is the co-founder of the Filipino news website Rappler which has been the victim of constant online harassment, as well as lawsuits and arrest warrants brought about by…
