Docs For Schools Focus: Home

In the spring of 2005, acclaimed National Geographic photographer James Balog was dispatched to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images that tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. At the time, Balog was skeptical. Even if human-caused climate change is real, can we correct it? But what he saw on that first trip was too compelling to dispute. Balog had to act and so created the Extreme Ice Survey, a multi-year project that would, through time-lapse photography, document dramatic changes to numerous glaciers around the world. With stunning cinematography and access to never before seen areas of the Arctic, Chasing Ice documents Balog's incredible journey to provide incontrovertible proof—at great risk to his own health—that our planet is in crisis and what we do to it matters.

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This timely and inspirational documentary chronicles legendary writer and urban activist Jane Jacobs’ battle to save historic NYC neighbourhoods from the draconian redevelopment plans of ruthless power broker Robert Moses in the 1960s. Has anything changed? We can look at this film as a precursor to the many realities experienced today in the fight to save communities.

The film’s director Cazhhmere was born in Canada—it is her home. Her ancestors were among the first black settlers to come to Canada where generations of her family have weaved themselves into the fabric of this country. Yet despite a deep history, Cazhhmere is constantly asked where she if from. The film helps us to reflect on our own internal biases towards Canadian ancestry.

Explores what it’s like living as a Muslim woman in Quebec City, one year after one of Canada’s worst terrorist attacks—the deadly shooting at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec (CCIQ) on January 29, 2017. The attack claimed the lives of six worshippers and injured 19 others, forever altering the complex relationship between Quebec’s Muslim community and the predominantly white, Catholic population of the city. Some Muslims, many of whom established themselves in the city decades ago, refuse to abandon their homes and their community. Others are making the difficult choice to leave the city they call home; to move to places where they will feel safer and more accepted.

With average real estate prices nearing $900,000 in a city where minimum wage is less than $13 per hour, home ownership isn’t even a dream for many in Vancouver. For years, Canada’s national news has fixated on this specific market, trying to explain the dramatic value escalation that appears to be a bubble that won’t burst. Foreign ownership, lack of supply, greed and an inactive government have all been blamed. The things that make a city livable also make it desirable, and developers and investors prey upon those qualities in a free market that caters to the highest bidder. Director Charles Wilkinson (director of Haida Gwaii: On The Edge of the World Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature 2015) moves beyond statistics and square footage to the people directly affected—including those with property and those without—in this candid and human portrayal of a city that continues to rise yet cannot meet demand.