Documentary

Short Films

Films

Shows

PUSH takes audiences into the inner world of the “Wheelie Peeps,” an unlikely group of friends and wheelchair users, bonded by their shared experience of navigating life on wheels.

Documentary | 2 seasons

Push

HEARTLAND is a sprawling multi-generational saga about a family getting through the highs and lows of life on a horse ranch, set against the stunning vistas of the foothills of Alberta.

Romance | 17 seasons

Heartland

Journey with the Fort McKay people to lands held sacred, as they walk the balance between the modern world, while honouring the teachings of their ancestors.

Documentary | 10 min

Spirit of a Nation: The Places We Belong

Hosted by Simu Liu, Canada’s Biggest Night in Music features the presentation of various JUNO Awards, and performances by some of Canada’s hottest artists.

Award shows | 94 min

The 2023 JUNO Awards

Recorded live in Edmonton, home of the 2023 Juno Awards, this concert series features performances by the best musical talent from across Alberta.

Concerts and performances | 1 season

CBC Music Presents: Road to the Junos

Four young adults struggle to deal with the consequences of their actions and how it affects their friends and families. A dark coming-of-age story about the slings and arrows of adulthood.

Drama | 108 min

Gregoire

When the Tribal Police are accused of corruption, the federal government takes over, and appoints a new Interim Police Chief, Sam Woodburn, who navigates politics and procedure in an unfamiliar world.

Drama | 1 season

Tribal

A graffiti-animated story of a modern-day warrior’s journey through the justice system to return to his son.

Drama | 7 min

Johnny Crow

An intimate portrait of LGBTQ2S+ pride and queer life in small towns, told through the stories of people from communities across Canada.

Documentary | 60 min

Small Town Pride

WITH WONDER is a documentary that tries to answer the question: can you be Christian and Queer?

Documentary | 75 min

With Wonder

A playful, meditative, and at times melancholic journey through indie singer Rae Spoon’s queer and musical coming of age.

Documentary | 76 min

My Prairie Home

Filmmaker Cheryl Foggo re-examines the story of John Ware, the Black cowboy who settled in Alberta, Canada, prior to the turn of the 20th century.

Documentary | 73 min

John Ware Reclaimed

Headbangers Terry and Dean explore the depths of friendship, and the art and science of drinking beer like a man.

Comedy | 80 min

Fubar

Director Michael Dowse's sequel to his heavy-metal comedy FUBAR picks up the story of Dean (Paul Spence) and Terry (Dave Lawrence) who take off on a road-trip looking for a paycheck and gigs. But when Terry meets a great woman and considers reordering his priorities, Dean refuses to give up his dreams of taking his band Night Seeker to the big time.

Comedy | 86 min

Fubar 2: Balls to the Wall

With the discovery of an ancient puzzle box that promises fortune if solved, RICKY and his friends begin an adventure to find their fortune and save the Music Learning Centre from being handed over a land developer.

Action and Adventure | 88 min

The Adventure Club

The Valley Below is a multi-narrative drama that chronicles the life of a small town in the badlands of Alberta over the course of one year.

Drama | 87 min

The Valley Below

Ana Fernanda Hernández Moya and her husband Kevin James Visser built a life between their two countries, Mexico and Canada. But when an earthquake devastated Hernández’s hometown of Jojutla in September 2017, she stayed for a year to help with relief efforts. She was joined by a passionate group of twenty-somethings, some of whom came home from greener pastures to help rebuild their town. Disappointed by the response of local and state authorities, Hernández agrees to run for local government with her longtime friend, activist Carlos Brito. Supported by local youth, they help create the independent party, Resurge. With Brito running for mayor and Hernández as his running mate, Resurge competes in the largest elections in the country’s history, as Mexicans hit the polls to vote for all levels of government. SHOOK is the story of a 28-year-old woman’s unlikely journey into local Mexican politics. Backed by a scrappy group of local youth and working on a shoestring budget, Hernández hits the streets with hand-painted signs. She and Brito are part of a wave of independent candidates across Mexico running on anti-corruption platforms. The country has no shortage of talented young people looking to make a difference, but in Mexico speaking out against violence and corruption can be a deadly proposition. Jojutla is a bucolic agricultural centre; it has also made headlines for mass graves, kidnappings, and narco-violence. Hernández’s husband Visser is fully aware of the dangers, and unlike her parents, he is encouraging his wife’s decision to run for politics. His local church in Edmonton has been raising money for Ana’s relief efforts since the earthquake. Visser stays in Alberta most of the year, working to support the couple, and visits Jojutla as often as he can. Depending on the outcome of the election, Visser may end up relocating to Mexico for good. SHOOK follows Hernández as she grapples with the challenge of fixing her broken town and piecing together her divided life.

Documentary | 29 min

Shook

Take an intimate verité visit to a fascinating and little-known world: the dangerous and high-stakes game of Indian Relay. In Blackfoot country, they call the Indian Relay “North America’s original extreme sport.” Jockeys bareback gallop their horses around a track, jumping off one and on to another in a chaotic melee of horses and handlers at “the exchange.” Accidents happen. Simply finishing a race demands masterful skill and courage. Siksika horseman Allison RedCrow dreams of bringing a team to the “greatest outdoor show on Earth” – the Calgary Stampede – so he and his people can show the world their unparalleled skill on horseback. Our cameras follow Allison and his new jockey, Cody BigTobacco, over the course of a year as they assemble a team of horses, train them for the relay race and finally make their debut at the Calgary Stampede. Their team, Old Sun, will face the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy, many of them veteran competitors from Montana. Fast Horse puts the audience on the back of a galloping horse, an exhilarating POV experience that captures the thrill and risk of this white-knuckle sport. But our cameras also capture the touching bond Cody and Allison have with their horses. Witness, with intimate proximity, the committed effort these majestic animals demand from their riders and handlers. We see the horses accept their role and learn the complex movements of the race. And through this process, we come to understand and respect the skills of horsemanship, which have been passed down for generations and remain intact. With a heart-pumping climax, experience the final race at the Calgary Stampede from Cody’s own perspective. And just as promised, learn just how unpredictable and dangerous the Indian Relay can be.

Documentary | 13 min

Fast Horse

The story of former hockey player Ryan Straschnitzkis' courageous battle to recover from injuries suffered in a horrible crash last April. He and his fellow Humboldt Bronco players were on the team bus when it collided with a semi at a rural intersection, leaving a community mourning.

News | 22 min

The National in Depth: Ryan's Story

Midfield Mobile Home Park is in a prime Calgary location, a 17-acre inner-city site located at the one of the busiest sections of the city - where the TransCanada Highway meets the city’s main freeway. For more than four decades, residents saw the city grow up around them, yet the community remained mostly unchanged. Neighbours helped neighbours, gardens were planted, children were raised. Midfield was a small town within a big city. In 2014, residents received an eviction notice: the park was to be be closed on September 30th, 2017. The date was set for the final battle in a war that had been raging for twenty years. The City of Calgary cites crumbling infrastructure for the closure. Sewer pipes were placed under the homes in 1968; time and a lack of maintenance have taken their toll. The City has stated it would be too costly to conduct the repairs. Residents of Midfield aren’t buying it. With homes in the surrounding communities selling for millions of dollars and an aggressive redevelopment plan for the area already approved by City Council, the residents of Midfield Mobile Home Park believe they are sitting on land so valuable, it must come at the cost of their home and their community. Rudy Prediger, an 83 year-old former long-haul trucker, is not a man who is afraid of a fight. More than half of Midfield’s residents are like Rudy: elderly, poor, with no other place to go. The $10,000 dollar “transitional allowance” the city is offering doesn’t come close to even a down payment in Calgary’s frantic real estate market, and most of the mobile homes are too old to move. A previous plan to build a park on the eastern boundary of the city has disappeared, and no other mobile home parks are taking new units. Rudy digs in for a fight, using local media and community support to launch a last-ditch effort to save a home he has lived in for 47 years. As the eviction date nears, Rudy risks everything to protect what he holds most dear.

Documentary | 25 min

Eviction Notice

Alexander began growing his hair soon after his father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Four years later, he decides that it’s time to cut and donate his hair. Reflecting on the past and present, Alex reveals that he’s nervous about letting go of something he’s become so comfortable with. His long hair started as a contest between friends, a bet about who could grow it the longest. Alexander’s hair is now long enough to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society. But before Alex cuts off all his hair, he wants to have a little fun. He decides to have his hair braided at Bea’s Braiding, a local salon. After a few hours in the chair, he finds that the braids actually suit him. He shows off his new look in a photo shoot organized by his girlfriend and family; it’s a chance for Alex to express his old self and document his long hair one last time. There’s only one person who can cut Alex’s hair: Jerome Pinsonneault. Jerome occupies a special place in the family; he had cut Alex’s father’s hair for over 30 years. Jerome generously offers to cut Alex’s hair and shape what’s left into a new doo. For Alexander, his hair represents grief, death, love and family. Confronting his own inner struggles to let it all go symbolizes the end of a long grieving process and opens up a new chapter in his life.

Biography | 7 min

For Dad, With Love

A point-of-view documentary featuring Métis elder Harvey Sykes, who has been battling the city of Fort McMurray over the rights to his land for his entire life.

Biography | 8 min

The Unmoveable Harvey Sykes

Peace River Rising offers an intimate view of the connection between violence against Indigenous women and violence against the land. In this short documentary we see Fort St. John, B.C. and the breathtaking surroundings of the Peace River region through the eyes of Helen Knott, a Dane-Zaa/Nehiyaw social worker, poet, and activist. Helen takes us through the dramatic changes she’s witnessed in her home territory. Woodlands she explored as a child have disappeared to make way for pipelines and housing developments to accommodate the influx of transient workers. Contamination from industrial endeavors has turned traditional activities - like berry picking - into potential hazards. Helen explores the dangers of these industrial expansions, bringing to light the fact that Fort St. John, now primarily an oil and gas town, has a per capita crime rate that is nearly double that of Vancouver. On the streets of Fort St. John, Helen and a fellow lifetime resident reflect on the overwhelming ratio of men to women in their city: what was once a city of familiar faces is now overrun with strangers who have minimal personal attachment to the area. Helen shares personal stories about the violence she’s encountered, and her beliefs about how important it is to give voice to these experiences. She leaves us with a deeper perspective into why she does the work she does - and her hopes for a new world.

Peace River Rising

In a dark room seventy pairs of beady eyes stare back at you from behind illuminated glass boxes.The eyes belong to the taxidermized gophers populating the dioramas of the Torrington Gopher Hole Museum. The Museum was opened in 1996 in the rural hamlet of Torrington, Alberta (pop. 200). The gophers are lovingly costumed and arranged in dioramas as members of the community. In the diner they pick over fries. In the church a deacon quietly dozes through the sermon, unaware of an ascending angel hovering in the rafters. Curator Dianne Kurta has been the museum's one steadfast caregiver for its 20 year history. Initially convinced that the stuffed gopher scheme sounded a little nuts, she soon found it gave her a sense of purpose, a connection with her hometown.  In retirement Dianne became a daily fixture at the museum. Recently her health has started to deteriorate. Slowly she acknowledges a day is coming when she can no longer be of service to the museum. Can one survive without the other? This unflinching portrait looks at absurdity and sincerity as intertwined necessities of life. Long-time citizens tell their own stories of Torrington, depicted in tableau by the dioramas preserving them for the ages. Their weathered faces and world-wearied voices cannot hide the struggles of life forgotten by the ascending development of oil-rich Alberta. A layer cake of comedy, pathos, irony, and empathy, World Famous Gopher Hole Museum is a journey into the human desire to validate one’s own history.

Documentary | 14 min

World Famous Gopher Hole Museum

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