Norway: Quest for the Viking Spirit

1000 years ago Vikings set out from Norway striking fear across Europe. Yet today Norway is home to the Nobel Peace Center and an eco-friendly country. How did this progressive nation grow from its violent past? Quest for the Viking Spirit covers the length of Norway from the Arctic North to Oslo, Kirkenes and Lofotr. We sail the coast from Tromsø to Trondheim, Bergen, and the Sognefjord.

Herod the Great: The Child Murderer of Bethlehem

An account of the reign of Herod the Great, king of Judea under the rule of the Roman Empire, remembered for having ordered, according to the Gospel of Matthew, the murder of all male infants born in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus, an unproven event that is not mentioned by Titus Flavius Josephus, the main historian of that period.

The Honest Poet

Through a child's lens, The Honest Poet reveals a rarely seen side of Afghanistan, following 11-year-old Raheem on a journey through his country and into the homes and hearts of his people.

The Sweet Taste of Success

A transformative experience, this emotional documentary addresses some of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, reflecting on happiness, social connection, daily life, death, and aging, while exploring doubts about the "word of a thousand shades and somewhat perverse" concept of success. This film has the potential to change your life and your perspective on the true meaning of success. An intimate reflection on success, it features María Teresa Paniagua, a joyful and unique octogenarian Zarzuela singer. The documentary offers surprising insights from interviews with notable figures from the worlds of art, science, and intellectual thought, including actress Rossy de Palma, philosophers Fernando Savater and Javier Sádaba, tenor Plácido Domingo, monk Matthieu Ricard, psychiatrist Martin Seligman, Harvard professor Nancy Etcoff, and TED Talk speaker and writer Victor Küppers, among others. This documentary is a balm for the soul.

The World's Most Luxurious Prison

Former conservative Justice Secretary Ann Widdecombe visits a Norwegian prison that has been described as the most luxurious of its kind.

Communion

When adults are ineffectual, children have to grow up quickly. Ola is 14 and she takes care of her dysfunctional father, autistic brother and a mother who lives apart from them and is mainly heard the phone. Most of all she wants to reunite a family that simply doesn’t work — like a defective TV set. She lives in the hope of bringing her mother back home. Her 13 year old brother Nikodem’s Holy Communion is a pretext for the family to meet up. Ola is entirely responsible for preparing the perfect family celebration. “Communion” reveals the beauty of the rejected, the strength of the weak and the need for change when change seems impossible. This crash course in growing up teaches us that failure is not final. Especially when love is in question.

The Times That Are

Four years after Pour la suite du monde (1963), director Pierre Perrault asks Alexis Tremblay if he'll agree to travel with his wife Marie to the country of their ancestors, France. In a montage parallel, we follow them in France and listen to them talking to their friends about it.

3000 Miles

A group of professional skateboarders and their friends take part in the Gumball 3000 rally, an 8 day race around the world from London to Los Angeles.

Prehistoric Women

ORBIT: A Journey Around Earth in Real Time

A real-time reconstruction of time-lapse photographs taken on board the International Space Station by NASA’s Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit. The film is scored with musical selections from three albums by Phaeleh (producer Matt Preston): Lost Time, Illusion of the Tale, and Somnus. The music directly influenced the choice of material used in the film. The film's duration is approximately the length of time it takes ISS to orbit the Earth once: 92 minutes and 39 seconds. Meditate on the beauty of our planet.

King Håkon's Coronation

The coronation of King Håkon (Haakon VII) of Norway in 1905.

Bellini and Mantegna: Renaissance Rivals

The mysterious parallel story of Italian painters Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1431-1506) and Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435-1516), brothers-in-law, public rivals and masters of the early Renaissance.

The Beauty of Errors

A portrait of a relationship between three generations and how it shifts between the search for closeness, understanding and acceptance, as the teenage son steps closer to adulthood. The film continues to follow the lives of Tero and his son Henri, both previously featured in Kärkkäinen’s documentary The Living Room of a Nation.

Karenina & I

The actor Gøril Mauseth goes on a 11.000 kilometer travel with the Trans-Siberian to play Anna Karenina in a new language in Leo Tolstoj's Russia, discovering the language, and the reasons Tolstoj wrote what he wrote, changing her forever.

Elizabeth II, 70 ans de règne de secrets et de scandales

Elizabeth II has reigned over Great Britain for 70 years and is preparing to celebrate her platinum jubilee. Having become the heroine of one of the world's most watched television series during her lifetime, the Queen of England is the greatest star in history. At 96, the Queen is known to be in fragile health. With each new health scare, the world is in turmoil. Here is a portrait of this iconic figure of British royalty.

Anne'ye

Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen

Move over, King Tut: There's a new pharaoh on the scene. A team of top archaeologists and forensics experts revisits the story of Hatshepsut, the woman who snatched the throne dressed as a man and declared herself ruler. Despite her long and prosperous reign, her record was all but eradicated from Egyptian history in a mystery that has long puzzled scholars. But with the latest research effort captured in this program, history is about to change.

Biking Borders

Best friends Max and Nono bike from Berlin to Beijing, collecting donations to build a school for a unique fundraising adventure in this documentary.

Blekkmetal

Presented by Grimposium and Uneasy Sleeper. Blekkmetal is a documentary about the one-off 2015 festival celebrating the origins of Norwegian black metal. Featuring exclusive interviews and footage of Enslaved, Taake, Aeternus, Gehenna, Helheim, Old Funeral, Kampfar, Hades Almighty and Gaahls Wyrd performing classic and rare songs from their catalog, Blekkmetal features an all-Canadian production team including director David Hall (alumnus of Concordia University), metal studies scholars Vivek Venkatesh (Concordia University) and Jason Wallin (University of Alberta), and mobile media scholar Owen Chapman (Concordia University). Blekkmetal is co-produced by the festival’s organizers Ivar Bjørnson, Jannicke Wiese-Hansen and Kirsti Rosseland.

Just Shoot Me

The UN estimates street children worldwide at 150 million. In Latin America, they are 40 million. In Brazil, street boys and girls felt so enchanted by a camera that they took it as their own to express themselves and fight the silence.