In A HARD NAME, we meet eight middle-aged ex-convicts, chosen at random, who are trying to stay out of prison, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Most have spent 30 to 40 years in and out of jail. Prison is what they know; they've learned how to survive there. Out here, it's a different story. As each of the characters in the film tries to adapt to life on the outside, they share their stories, reflect on their past, and explore the path that led them to prison in the first place.

Top Ten Audience Favourite - Hot Docs, 2009
Genie Award - Best Feature Length Documentary, 2010

Directed by Alan Zweig | 2009| 90 minutes

A Perfect Fake

The fantasy of creating life is as old as civilization. Myths and stories abound that speak to man’s desire to bring life to inanimate matter. Ovid, in the Metamorphosis, tells of the sculptor Pygmalion, a man who fell in love with his statue, the ‘ivory virgin’ Galatea.

A PERFECT FAKE is a 60-minute film that looks at the persistence of this myth in the modern world. The film takes us into the world of men who have chosen to reject the reality of human sexual companionship in order to pursue emotional and physical with a variety of erotic surrogates and simulations. The film looks at the emerging market for ‘hyper-realistic’ simulations of real women, through the lens of the emerging new world of computer-generated virtual pornography and erotica. The film also takes the viewer into the strange and disturbing world of men who have chosen to share their lives with life-size female ‘love dolls’. These dolls are companions, confidants and sexual partners, and to the men who own and love them, each ‘girl’ is as unique as a snowflake.

Directed b Marc deGuerre | 2005 | 60 minutes

Collection

Economically speaking, times have never been worse for many of us. Millions of people owe billions of dollars; bankruptcies and foreclosures are at all-time highs and unemployment is steadily rising. But there is one group that always does well in desperate times: collection agents

COLLECTION takes us inside the world of people who spend their days hassling the rest of us.

Meet Jason, a young ambitious collector who went into the business because he is eager to make his way up the corporate ladder and knows that, in collections, “turn over is fairly high”. For him, as for most of the collectors we meet, every day requires walking a tightrope between efficiency and brutality. “You gotta do what you gotta do to get the dollars in,” he says, “Hopefully without stepping on too many people’s toes.”

Then there is Deanna, a pleasant young woman who is starting to burn out after seven years of collecting. “I like helping people,” she says, improbably, adding that if she can help one client figure out a way to pay off debt, that makes up for the rest of the day, which is “95 per cent negative.”

On the other side of the calls – or, rather, hiding behind the answering machine – are people like Terry. She has three collection agencies harassing her for the $12,000 she owes in student loans which, unemployed, she has no hope of paying. To her, collection agents “must be fairly disturbed people”.

Funny, sad and sometimes infuriating, Collection is an inside look at the toll that our credit society extracts from people on both sides of the ledger.

Directed by Jody Shapiro | 1999 | 60 minutes

I, Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon, contrarian, misanthrope, naysayer, malcontent, dyspeptic, negative. The characters in I, Curmudgeon have at least one thing in common. At various points in their lives, someone has used one of the above words to describe them. And what have they done to deserve such labels?

Maybe it’s because, to paraphrase one of the characters in the film “It’s not all good” and they know it. To these people and people like them, it seems like everywhere they go, whether explicitly or implicitly, something is being celebrated. They don’t know what all the celebrating is about and sometimes they’re compelled to question it.

Then again maybe they’re a bunch of cranks and complainers. As another character in the film admits “I express dissatisfaction with some regularity and consistency”. And in the case of this character at least, he has no reason or desire to change.

Directed by Alan Zweig | 2004 | 94 minutes

Lovable

At some point, everyone has asked the question, why is it so hard to find love? In this final installment of the autobiographical trilogy that includes VINYL and I, CURMUDGEON, Alan Zweig reflects with disarming candor on why, if he longs for a partner and children, he is still single at mid-life. Through intimate, heartfelt and often hilarious interviews with a series of diverse, smart and attractive single women, Zweig explores yearnings for the romantic myths of our culture and the difficulty of finding and sustaining relationships. Some women have come to accept and prefer being alone, but many still dream of a future they can share. When his mother dies, the reality of dealing with such painful life experiences alone hits home. Rather than remaining the objective observer, Zweig approaches his female subjects as kindred spirits, sharing their vulnerability and openness. A perfect mixed tape of love songs provides the backdrop for this courageously candid look at love and longing.

"In each of my previous two autobiographical documentaries, I’ve gone out into the world to essentially compare my experiences with those of others and see what I can learn from them. But that’s never been more true than in the case of this film. I have lots of experiences, lots of stories. I’ve talked about these things a lot. And yet there’s no subject where I’m more aware that I know nothing".
Alan Zweig

Directed by Alan Zweig | 2006 | 94 minutes

After the Haida were forced, by disease, to abandon some 35 of their ancient villages, their islands became a paradise for the relic hunters of the early 20th century, greedy for the totem poles and masks that were – and are – desired by museums all over the world.

Unbeknownst to the Haida, these adventurers also dug up graves and looted mortuary poles, taking away hundreds of skeletons to be used in a bizarre and ultimately futile scientific quest. Not until the early 1990s did the young people of Haida Gwaii learn that the remains of their ancestors – along with more than 100,000 from other tribes -- were in museum basements. When they found this out, they decided to do something about it.

Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii follows the Haida through a fascinating process of relearning their culture and an incredible journey which takes them to Chicago and, ultimately, to a reconciliation with the descendents of the scientists who robbed the islands’ graves a century ago.

Best Direction in a Documenatry Program, 2005 Gemini Awards
Best History Documentary Program, 2005 Gemini Awards
Gold Ribbon Award, Canadian Association of Broadcasters - Aboriginal Programming
Grand Prix Rigoberta Menchu, Montreal First People's Festival

Directed by Kevin McMahon | 2004 | 86 minutes

The Falls

This evocative, slyly subversive tour of McMahon's hometown of Niagara Falls established his poetic, lyrical approach to the essay film, as well as his penchant for exploring Canadian culture from a playfully intellectual perspective.

“Visually beautiful... this film has it all. THE FALLS communicates the grandeur of the tumbling tonnes of water by bathing the eyeballs in soaking, wide-screen splendour... The film intermarries the naturally sacred and the unnaturally profane with breathtaking dexterity...THE FALLS has brilliantly framed Niagara Falls as the picture of a civilization.”
Jay Scott, The Globe and Mail

Directed by Kevin McMahon | 1991 | 89 minutes

Winner of the Special Jury Prize - Canadian Feature at Hot Docs, WATERLIFE follows the epic cascade of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. From the icy cliffs of Lake Superior to the ornate fountains of Chicago to the sewers of Windsor, this feature-length documentary tells the story of the last great supply of fresh water on Earth.

The source of drinking water, fish and emotional sustenance for 35 million people, the Great Lakes are under assault by toxins, sewage, invasive species, dropping water levels and profound apathy. Some scientists believe the lakes are on the verge of ecological collapse.

Narrated by Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip, Waterlife features music by Sam Roberts, Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ros, Robbie Robertson and Brian Eno.

Directed by Kevin McMahon | 2009 | 109 minutes

Working Over Time

Canadian historians pride themselves on being friends of the little people. Unlike the Great Man histories of our colonial parent and imperial neighbour, the key events in our past are often depicted from the point of view of regular folk caught up in the vast winds of change. Ah, but there’s the rub: the real point of these tales are the momentous events and the stories are typically about humble folk who achieve greatness by rising above their circumstances.

But what about those who built this country by spending whole lives up to their neck in circumstances? What about those who had no war to ennoble them nor period of starvation to later romanticize, but who merely toiled through grime and privation day in and day out to lay the foundation upon which our sophisticated modern society was built? What about the shovellers and cutters; the muck scrapers and disembowellers; the tanners, herders, log-drivers and blood-letters? Ought not they be remembered too?

Directed by David New and Brenda Kovrig | 2008 | 4 Episodes x 60 minutes