Moira Simpson

Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh puts a human face on a national tragedy: the murders and disappearances of an estimated 500 Aboriginal women in Canada over the past 30 years. Explores the deep historical, social, and economic factors that contribute to this epidemic of violence against Native women.

Five women are black belts in karate, which to them is more than self-defense, it's a philosophy for life.

The nation, the country, where do we belong in it? In this film through conversation and poetry two poets meet for the telling and the listening. Adrienne Rich is a distinguished American feminist poet, and author of numerous books of prose, poetry, essays and speeches. Dionne Brand is a Trinidadian-Canadian femininst poet, writer and filmmaker. Incisive and inquisitive, the two women meet to discuss the world as they each see it. Claiming any subject, they talk about events as they see them, analytic, contemplative, honest and open ended. Topics include political issues, feminism, racism and lesbianism, among others. The viewer is invited into the exchange by the familiar images of two women talking intimately around a kitchen table, in corridors, or casually outdoors in the United States, Tobago and Canada. Shot in black and white and in colour, the conversation takes us over the territories of their poetry.

This feature documentary is an inquiry into Canada's economic troubles of the 1970 and '80s. The film summarizes the facts at hand, including some pre-NAFTA speculation about economic dependency on the United States. At roughly thirty percent, the Canada of a few decades ago was more foreign-owned than any other country in the world. Still, however, a great and stubborn national pride in our cultural and social idiosyncrasies persists, resulting in the confidence to look elsewhere besides the United States for economic alliances and models. This episode is the fifth and last part of the series Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada.

This documentary features Black women active in politics as well as community, labour and feminist organizing. They share their insights and personal testimonies on the double legacy of racism and sexism, linking their personal struggles with the ongoing battle to end systemic discrimination and violence against women and people of colour.

This film illustrates the struggles of Canadian prairies women to achieve a more just and humane society within the farm movement and at large. During the early 1900s, women on the prairies looked for ways to overcome their isolation. Out of the resulting farm women's organizations grew a group of women possessing remarkable intellectual abilities, social and cultural awareness, and advanced worldviews.

In the dying days of apartheid, three generations of women in a village in South Africa came together to create a community garden. They called it “the thinking garden” – hleketani in the local xiTsonga language – a place where women gather to think about how to effect change. Twenty-five years later the garden is still going strong, providing fresh vegetables and new opportunities for local people while helping to confront the ravages of climate change, poverty, and HIV/AIDS in a community pushed to the edge.

The women who seek help at Aurora House share a common illness: they are physically and psychologically dependent on alcohol, prescription drugs, street drugs, or a combination of these. This documentary focuses on the lives of five women at various stages of their rehabilitation. In the supportive and healing atmosphere of women helping other women, they are confronting the issues and feelings they had previously drunk or drugged out of consciousness.

This film explores the physical and emotional changes associated with puberty. Imaginative, animated sequences illustrate the amazing physical changes the body undergoes. Myths are dispelled and youngsters are encouraged to feel pride in themselves and their emerging sexuality.

A documentary of the process behind installing the Marker of Change Women's Monument in Downtown Vancouver.

Ruth's addiction to drugs and alcohol began when she was fourteen years old. They provided her with instant relief from painful memories of childhood physical, mental and sexual abuse, and from her work as a prostitute. After eighteen years of addiction, Ruth knew that in order to survive she'd have to quit. In desperation she contacted Alcoholics Anonymous, and through them and other support groups learned that change was possible. In this first-person account, Ruth describes her struggle to stay off drugs and alcohol and her determination to take responsibility for her own life. This is one of a series of films about women recovering from drug and/or alcohol dependency. The related film Turnaround: A Story of Recovery describes a program Ruth participated in earlier in her recovery at Aurora House in Vancouver.