Directing
Cathy and Martin Ward, a stereotypical North American suburban couple, fight for years to adopt five siblings from a remote Ukrainian orphanage. When they finally succeed, a new drama unfolds. A sensitive and emotional oldest girl Yuliya, who is eighteen, finds it unbearable to accept that the younger siblings don't need her care and protection any more. She forms much stronger bond with her adoptive father Martin than with Cathy, her adoptive mother, and rebels against suburban values. Yuliya's struggle to find her place in a new family becomes an ultimate test of her adoptive parents' ability to love unconditionally.'
This documentary gives the viewer full access to three families headed by gay fathers.
In a small Ukrainian town, Olga Nenya, raises 16 black orphans amidst a population of Slavic blue-eyed blondes. Their stories expose the harsh realities of growing up as a bi-racial child in Eastern Europe.
For many young Canadians in the 2000s, Fort McMurray was El Dorado. Dubbed “Fort McMoney” by detractors and admirers alike, the city and its vast oil sands projects offered lucrative employment to thousands of fortune seekers who came from across Canada and around the world. Julia Ivanova’s documentary follows seven such dreamers, arriving from places as far flung as Sudan and Lebanon, as they pursue their dreams amidst a time of great uncertainty in the oil market.
Twelve years ago, three gay fathers, two lesbian mothers and five children let the camera into their lives and shared their stories of adoption, co-parenting and surrogacy. These three very personal stories were filmed just several years after same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada. The camera returns to three families in 2018, in an attempt to find unbiased answers to questions that continue to be relevant: To what extent the upbringing in non-traditional families impacts a child? Have societal outlooks on non-traditional family structures changed in Canada since 2003?
What happens when two North-American couples travel to a remote orphanage in a small Russian town?
On the dating tour to Odesa, Ukraine, ten North American and European men have 10 days to find a partner for the rest of their lives. After the intoxication of the tour is over, only one couple will stay together.
