S1.E4 ∙ Episode #1.4

Mother+Son+Machine is a first hand look at the relationship between mother, son, and the world of video gaming. This work specifically explores issues of relationships and technology and how the everyday can be leveraged into a larger view and cultural critique of our contemporary society. The creator is interested in how the hierarchy of power and knowledge is mediated through the computer and how those who choose to use it at their primary tool of both knowledge and entertainment are potentially affected.

A documentary about the introduction of a technique called 'mindfulness' in six schools in Oakland, California, to help students overcome very difficult personal, academic, and athletic challenges. The film follows the fascinating stories of five kids, ages 11 to 18, and a high school varsity basketball team, as they tackle highly charged problems involving physical violence or psychological devastation including rape, gender preference issues, the death of a parent, a suicide attempt, and betrayal and team fragmentation. Using mindfulness, the characters in the film manage to rise above adversity and achieve personal milestones that will serve them well throughout their lives.

'NUTSHIMIT - on the land' tells the present-day story of one of the last semi-nomadic hunting people of Canada, the Mushuau Innu of Labrador. The Mushuau Innu themselves commissioned the film for their children and coming generations of Innu to create a visual legacy of their continuing life on the land., which they call Nutshimit. The Innu teenagers Becca, Sage, Todd and Pinip are staying at different hunting camps with their families. Their adventures and conversations with their grandparents weave an intimate and profound portrait of a people whose survival, history and worldview is intertwined with the land, the animals, the plants and the spirit world. Only between the lines, the presence of another, a threatening society becomes tangible.

The journey and quest of a family in their on going effort to care for their autistic daughter. Rich with the natural beauty of both French and American countryside, the viewer is gently carried into a sensory world from which to observe this challenging reality. Despite frustration and inner upheaval faced everyday, an environment of love and acceptance evolves. And with it, a remarkable appreciation of Manon and the opportunity she offers to understand life, and the nature of our human condition.

What do today's teenage girls and young women think about growing up in an age where their self-esteem is often at the mercy of the media, technology and friends? How do they handle the constant pressure to be popular? Where do they turn for support? These are just the few of the issues addressed by Yellow Roses. Yellow Roses weaves together sound bites taken from hours of interviews with young women from various areas of the United States. The result is an honest, humorous, gritty and sometimes shocking look into the everyday lives of ordinary girls. Yellow Roses doesn't just focus attention on the often troubling dilemmas that confront today's young women. It also communicates that they are loved and accepted, just as they are.

HOME OUT OF NOTHING traces the experiences of three women immigrants to Canada coming from very different parts of the world, including the filmmaker's transition from her Russian homeland to Canada in the early 1990's. Unable to leave Russia legally her husband defected in 1991 and Marina was able to follow three years later. Reflecting on the adjustments made by immigrants and how they overcome the shock of fundamental differences in cultural assumptions and values, the film follows their successes and regrets in a strange land with candour and honesty.