Past Film Festivals
Enjoy browsing films from past festivals. Films are now offline, but you can see descriptions and some trailers.
33rd World Community Film Festival – Feb 2nd & 3rd, 2024.
A Hybrid Festival (in-person or virtual).
World Community Virtual Film Festival took place Feb. 15 – 18, 2024
Friday, February 2 – 730pm – Sid Williams Theatre
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Saturday, Feb. 3 – Sid Williams Theatre (SID)
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Saturday, Feb. 3 – Florence Filberg Rotary Room (FFR)
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Saturday, February 3 – 8pm – Sid Williams Theatre
2040 – 4:10 pm UNS 92 min.
2040 Saturday Films 4:10 UNS 92 min. 2019 LevelFILM Filmmaker: Damon Gameau Award-winning director Damon Gameau embarks on a journey to explore what the future would look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions to the climate crisis...
Assholes: A Theory – 4:15 pm FFR 81 min.
Assholes: A Theory Saturday Films 4:15 pm FFR 81 min. 2019 NFB Filmmaker: John Walker Some grapple with the challenge of treating other human beings decently. Others are just… assholes, claims Professor Aaron James in his New York Times bestselling book,...
Finding Solitude – 8:00 pm SID 22 min
Finding Solitude Closing Night 8:00 pm SID 22 min. 2019 www.findingsolitudefilm.com Filmmakers: Jaiden George & Tristan Hinder-Hohlweg Filmmakers attending. Finding Solitude is about saving the alpine, glaciers and forests on Vancouver Island....
From Seed to Seed – 8:00 pm SID 87 min.
From Seed to Seed Closing Night 8:00 SID 87 min. 2017 Bullfrog Films Filmmaker: Katharina Stieffenhofer In Southern Manitoba,Terry and Monique are pouring their hearts into a small, ecological farm. In love with the land, their methods are derived from...
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Family Films – 1:00pm Lower Sid
Family Films 1:00pm – 2:30pm Lower SID (Fountain Area) Leon in Wintertime 27 min. By Pierre-Luc Granjon & Pascal Le Notre In this puppet animation we meet Léon, an 8-year-old adopted bear suffering from an identity crisis. The distraught cub runs away from home...
Nae Pasaran! – 1:00 pm SID 96 min.
Nae Parsaran! Saturday Films 1:00 pm SID 96 min. 2018 Filmmaker: Felipe Bustos Sierra https://naepasaran.comNae Pasaran! reveals the incredible impact made by Scottish factory workers 40 years ago against the repressive dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In 1974,...
Five Acres – 11:30 am LNS 30 min.
Five Acres Saturday Films 11:30 am LNS 30 min. 2019 Manly Media Filmmakers: Paul Manly & Laurie Mac Millan Filmmaker attendingThe Five Acre Farm in the Harewood area of Nanaimo has a long history of producing local food. It's one of the last intact farms in...
Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees – 3:40 pm UNS 52 min.
Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees Saturday 3:40 pm UNS 52 min. Treespeak Films, 2018 Director: Jeff McKay We follow visionary scientist, conservationist and author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, on her journey to the most beautiful forests of the northern...
Being the Change: A New Kind of Climate Documentary – 3:40 pm LNS 58 min.
Being the Change: A New Kind of Climate Documentary Saturday 3:40 pm LNS 58 min. www.treehugger.com, 2018 Filmmakers: Mary Grandelis and Dave Davis Is it possible to move away from fossil fuels and live a more joyful life? That is the question NASA atmospheric...
The Radicals – 3:40 pm FFR 55 min.
The Radicals Saturday 3:40 pm FFR 55 min. www.theradicalsfilm.com, 2018 Filmmakers: Brian Hockenstein & Tamo Campos With breathtaking cinematography, The Radicals follows four snowboarders and surfers driven to become social and environmental stewards through...
Satan & Adam – 4:40 pm UNS 80 min.
Satan & Adam Saturday 4:40 pm UNS 80 min. Cargo Film and Releasing, 2018 Filmmaker: Scott Balcerek Sterling Magee experienced firsthand the music industry’s exploitation of black musicians. So he walked away to play music on the Harlem streets. Re-inventing...
Holly Near: Singing for Our Lives – 4:45 pm FFR 63 min.
Holly Near: Singing for Our Lives Saturday 4:45 pm FFR 63 min. www.filmfreeway.com, 2018 Director: Jim Brown Singer, songwriter and social activist Holly Near has been performing for over 50 years and in the process created what Gloria Steinem called, “the first...
Gurrumul – Friday 7:30 pm SID – 100 min.
Gurrumul Opening Night 7:30 SID 100 min. Blue Ice Docs, 2018 Director: Paul Damien Williams Celebrated by audiences at home and abroad, indigenous artist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was one of the most important and acclaimed voices to ever come out of Australia....
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Haiti Betrayed – 12:55 pm FFR 90 min.
Haiti BetrayedSaturday 12:55 pm FFR 90 min. 2018 Director: Elaine BriereHaiti Betrayed is a point-of-view documentary revealing how Canada, in contravention of international law, allied with the US and France to overturn the democratically elected government in Haiti...
Defiant Lives – 1:00 pm UNS 85 min.
Defiant Lives Saturday 1:00 pm UNS 85 min. Women Make Movies, 2017 Filmmaker: Sarah BartonDefiant Lives is a triumphant film that traces the origins of the worldwide disability rights movement. It tells the stories of the extraordinary individuals who bravely put...
Fertile Ground: Brewing Change in Northwest India – 11:30 am UNS 5 min.
Fertile Ground: Brewing Change in Northwest India Saturday 11:30 am UNS 5 min. www.fertile-ground.org, 2018 Filmmakers: Tom & Amy Skelton Since 2003, Fertile Ground East/West Sustainability Network has provided educational and technical support to farmers and...
Children of Redress – 3:05 pm UNS – 18 min
Children of Redress Saturday 3:05 pm UNS 18 min. 2013 Director: Greg Masuda In 1942 the Canadian government ordered the uprooting of 22,000 men, women and children in one of the nation's largest and cruelest dispossession and dispersals ever. A generation later,...
The Hands That Feed Us – 3:05 pm FFR – 16 min
The Hands That Feed Us Saturday 3:05 FFR 16 min. 2017 Director: Devon CookeFirst and foremost, a farm is a business, but it takes more than just business sense to run a successful farm. Amara Farm succeeds because it’s a marriage. Love and dedication to the land, and...
A Silent Transformation – 3:25 pm FFR – 55 min
A Silent Transformation Saturday 3:25 pm FFR 55 min. Powerline Films, 2017 Filmmakers: Simon Brothers, Luke Mistruzzi, Anton Smolski, & Mark Preston This is a film about the transformative power of the co-operative enterprise model. The co-op...
The Right to Remain – 3:30 pm LNS – 45 min
The Right to Remain Saturday 3:30 pm LNS 45 min. 2015 Director: Greg MasudaThe Right To Remain is a look at Vancouver's Downtown Eastside residents and their fight to save their community from development. The documentary is told from a Japanese-Canadian perspective...
Rebels On Pointe – 4:30 pm UNS – 89 min
Rebels On Pointe Saturday 4:30 UNS 89 min. 2017 Director: Bobbi Jo Hart Exploring universal themes of identity, dreams and family, Rebels on Pointe celebrates the world famous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The notorious all-male, comic, drag ballet company...
Evolution of Organic – 4:30 pm FFR – 87 mins
Evolution of Organic Saturday 4:30 pm FFR 87 min. www.evolutionoforganic.com, 2017 Director: Mark KitchellThis is the story of organic agriculture, told by those who built the movement. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers reject chemical farming and set out to...
Dolores – 8:00 pm SID – 98 mins
Dolores Closing Night 8:00pm SID 98 min. PBS Distribution, 2017 Director: Peter Bratt Producer: Carlos Santana Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first US farm workers' union...
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Link Arms with Us – 12:30 pm UNS – 5 min
Link Arms with Us Saturday 12:30 UNS 5 min. Council of Canadians Comox Valley Chapter, 2017 Video footage by Clayoquot Action and Sea Wolf Adventures Post production: carswellfilm.ca In late August, 2017, First Nations leaders and members of the 'Namgis, Mamalilikala,...
Water Warriors – 12:35 pm UNS – 22 min
Water Warriors Saturday 12:35 pm UNS 22 min. Storyline Inc., 2017 Director: Michael Premo Water Warriors is the story of a community’s successful fight to protect their water from the oil and natural gas industry. In 2013, Texas-based SWN Resources arrived in New...
The Silent Land – 11:40 am SID – 75 min
The Silent Land Saturday 11:40 am SID 75 min. 2017 Director: Jan Van den Berg In Cambodia, more and more fertile land is being taken over by large-scale farming industries while small-scale farmers are fighting to keep ownership of their land in order to maintain...
Tracing Roots – 2:25 pm FFR – 35 min.
Tracing Roots Saturday 2:20PM FFR 35 min. New Day Films, 2014 Director: Ellen Frankenstein Tracing Roots is a portrait of an artist and a mystery. The film follows master weaver and Haida elder Delores Churchill on a journey to understand the origins of a...
How I Got Over – 3:05 pm LNS – 87 min.
How I Got Over Saturday 3:05PM LNS 87 min. McNabb/ Connolly, 2014 Director: Nicole Boxer How I Got Over is an intimate profile of 15 formerly homeless and incarcerated African-American women that dramatically reveals the social causes of their plight and how...
Atlantic – 3:15 pm SID – 75 min.
Atlantic Saturday 3:15PM SID 75 min. www.theatlanticstream.com, 2016 Director: Risteárd Ó Domhnaill Narrator: Brendan Gleeson Atlantic follows the fortunes of three small fishing communities in Ireland, Norway and Newfoundland, united and divided by the...
Driving With Selvi – 3:15 pm UNS – 74 min.
Driving With Selvi Saturday 3:15PM UNS 74 min. Eyesfull Productions, 2015 Filmmaker: Elisa Paloschi Selvi, like so many girls living within India’s patriarchal culture, is forced to marry at a young age, only to find herself in a violent and abusive marriage....
Wheel of Life – 3:15 pm FFR – 15 min.
Wheel of Life Saturday 3:15PM FFR 15 min. Patchwork Films, 2015 Director: Ken Schneider Meet El Oso (the Bear), one of the founders of Casino, the Cuban dance that launched salsa. A simple man whose joie de vivre is a delight, Oso travels through his Havana regaling...
Havana Curveball – 3:35 pm FFR – 56 min.
Havana Curveball Saturday 3:35PM FFR 56 min. Patchwork Films, 2015 Director: Ken Schneider Havana Curveball is a heart-warming coming-of-age story about Mica, an ordinary American teenager who faces extraordinary challenges when he sets his heart on donating...
The Babushkas of Chernobyl – 4:40 pm UNS – 96 min.
The Babushkas of Chernobyl Saturday 4:40PM UNS 96 min. thebabushkasofchernobyl.com, 2015 Director: Holly Morris In the radioactive Dead Zone surrounding Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4, a defiant community of women scratches out an existence on some of the most toxic...
Prison Dogs – 4:40 pm FFR – 72 min.
Prison Dogs Saturday 4:40PM FFR 72 min. Journeyman Pictures, 2016 Directors: Perri Peltz and Geeta Gandbhir “Puppies Behind Bars” is a remarkable program that sees New York convicts raise and train service dogs for up to three years. The inmates live with the...
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We Regret to Inform You – 12:10 pm FFR – 11 min.
We Regret to Inform You Saturday 12:10PM FFR 11 min. NFB, 2016 Filmmakers: Eva Colmers & Heidi Janz In a check-box society that functions by dividing us into neatly-defined categories, where does someone with a strong mind and a weak body fit in? Dr. Heidi...
The Sea Between Us – 12:15 pm LNS – 30 min.
The Sea Between Us Saturday 12:15PM LNS The Sea Between Us 22 min, 2016 Refuge 8 min, 2016 Filmmaker: Caoimhe Butterly The Sea Between Us was filmed in early 2016. These are the stories of some of the women, men and children who have made the perilous sea...
The Brainwashing of My Dad – 10:00 am FFR – 90 min.
The Brainwashing of My Dad Saturday 10:00AM FFR 90 min. www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com, 2016 Filmmaker: Jen Senko As filmmaker, Jen Senko, tries to understand the transformation of her father from a non political, life-long US Democrat to an angry right-wing...
We Call Them Intruders – 3:10pm 56min. FFR
We Call Them Intruders Saturday 3:10pm FFR 56 min. 2015 Cinécoop Productions wecallthemintruders.wordpress.com Filmmakers: Susi Porter-Bopp & Tamara Herman How well do you know your money? Two Vancouver-based filmmakers trace their investments to Canadian...
Knitting Nannas – 3:50pm 22min. LNS
Knitting Nannas Saturday 3:50pm LNS 22 min 2013 Frogmouth Films www.knitting-nannas.com Director: Rani Brown Knitting Nannas Against Gas is a group of sweet ladies who ‘protest’ by unfolding some lawn chairs, popping the kettle on and knitting. The KNAGs, who...
Lowdown Tracks – 4:20pm 86min. SID
Lowdown Tracks Saturday 4:20pm SID 86 min. 2015 McNabb/ Connolly www.lowdowntracks.com Director: Shelley Saywell Music is an expression of the spirit for everyone. But for some who survive on the periphery of society, it can also be a life-saving coping...
Landfill Harmonic – 4:25pm 85min. UNS
Landfill Harmonic Saturday 4:25pm UNS 85 min. 2015 The Film Collaborative www.landfillharmonicmovie.com Director: Graham Townsley Landfill Harmonic follows the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a Paraguayan musical youth group of kids that live next to one of...
ĀINA – 8:00pm 23min. SID
ĀINA Closing Night – 8:00 pm SID 23 min. 2015 Living Ancestors Directors: Dave Mossop & Josh Thome ĀINA (pronounced "eye-nah") means “that which feeds us” in the Hawaiian language. Some of the world's largest chemical companies use the island of Kaua`i as...
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World – 8:00pm 75min. SID
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World Closing Night 8:00pm SID 75 min. 2015 Shore Films Director: Charles Wilkinson Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World focuses on life on the archipelago along the northern B.C. coast. It tells the story of the people and the...
How to Change the World – Opening Night 7:30pm 110min. SID
How To Change the World Opening Night 7:30pm SID 110 min. Kinosmith, 2015 www.jerryrothwell.com Director: Jerry Rothwell Greenpeace was founded on tight knit, passionate relationships forged in Vancouver in the early 1970s. Together these pioneers created a...
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Little Moccasins – 12:30pm 10min. UNS
Little Moccasins Saturday 12:30pm UNS 10 min. 2014 Ken Matheson Productions Little Moccasins is about young students honouring First Nations children who died and were buried in unmarked graves while attending the Dunbow Indian Residential School near Calgary...
Hishuk-ish t’sawalk (Everything is One) – 12:45pm 15min. UNS
Hishuk-ish t'sawalk (Everything is One) Saturday 12:45pm UNS 15 min. 2013 Writer/ Producer: Drew Burke Filming and Editing: Mark Wyatt Our coast is one of the most beautiful places in the world, but decades of destructive logging, mining and development...
The Hand That Feeds -11:40am 84min. LNS
The Hand That Feeds Saturday 11:40am LNS 84 min. 2014 McNabb Connolly thehandthatfeedsfilm.com Filmmaker: Robin Blotnick At a popular bakery café, residents of New York's Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. Behind the...
4:35pm UNS – 74 min. Just Eat It
4:35pm Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story - 74 min. - UNS Peg Leg Films Filmmakers: Grant Baldwin and Jenny Rustmeyer We all love food, so how could we possibly be throwing away nearly half of it? Filmmakers Jen and...
4:35pm SID – 78min. Alive Inside
4:35pm SID - 78min. Alive Inside www.filmsalescorp.com Director Michael Rossato-Bennett Alive Inside is a joyous cinematic exploration of music’s capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity....
8:00pm SID – 88 min. DamNation
Closing Night 8:00pm DamNation - 88 min. - SID IndieCan Directors: Travis Rummel & Ben Knight This powerful film odyssey across the US explores the sea change in attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future...
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11:45am UNS – 53 min. Bringing it Home
11:45am Bringing it Home - 53 min. - UNS McNabb/Connolly Directors: Linda Booker & Blaire Johnson A father’s search to find the healthiest building materials leads him to the completion of the first hemp house in the US. ...
1:00pm SID – 88 min. Open Sesame
1pm Open Sesame; the Story of Seeds - 88 min. - SID Director: M Sean Kaminsky One of the world’s most precious resources is at risk. Seeds are essential to life, providing the basis for everything from fabric to...
10:00am LNS – 83 min. American Revolutionary
10am American Revolutionary - 83 min. - LNS Good Docs Director: Grace Lee Grace Lee Boggs is a 99-year-old Chinese American writer, activist, and philosopher. Rooted for more than 70 years in the African American movement, she has devoted her...