Previous Years

Description: A story of girls confronting the reality of being pushed aside at times when they should be empowered by their own achievements.

SWO Connection: The director came from New Brunswick to study music at Western University in London, Ontario.

Description: My cousin Gerry was shot by a cop. In his own home. These are memories of Gerry's life juxtaposed against the authority that would be his eventual end.

SWO Connection: Both the artist and director are currently based in London, Ontario. Family film reels were screened and recaptured on Dundas Street.

Description: The struggle of mental health issues within a relationship and trying to cope.

SWO Connection: The whole crew, actors and locations were all filmed in London and Byron Ontario!

Description: “Happy” comments on the vain search for happiness in the world and encourages listeners to search for a true sense of purpose and meaning.

SWO Connection: The artists grew up near, and live in, London, Ontario. Their music has received acknowledgement from the Forest City London Music Awards.

Description: Based on the overwhelming feelings I had, and my racing mind, the goal of this video was to antidote a broken heart in free fall.

SWO Connection: The director grew up in Thamesford, Ontario and pursued film production at Niagara College.

Description: "This I Know" explores the concept of adolescent mental well being in the current modern setting.

SWO Connection: The director was born and raised in Sarnia Ontario, where he grew up with the artist behind the music of this video.

Description: This video is intended as both a portrait of singer-songwriter S.G. Sinnicks and a visual essay on the ideas of place, home, what we keep and what we leave behind.

SWO Connection: This video was entirely produced in Southern Ontario, and Director, Cinematographer & Editor Peter Riddihough lives and works in Hamilton.

Description: There are no quick fixes or escaping scars that run deep into the heart.

SWO Connection: Director was born and raised in London, Ontario

Description: A song about life milestones, timelines, and expectations, and how these predetermined societal expectations can come into conflict with your own sense of self.

SWO Connection: The artist/songwriter, Karen Emeny is a London, Ontario native. The director, Darryl Lahteenmaa, has lived in London since 1997.

Description: We are consumed by our social media personas and our real-world activities are constantly being mitigated, informed, and sometimes corrupted by our digital-world selves.

SWO Connection: The band members met at Fanshawe, many are London-born, and the track was recorded in London.

Description: This video is London’s response to COVID-19. It’s a multi-singer recording performed by all London artists and musicians and with special video appearances by front line workers.

SWO Connection: Anita and her partners, all from London, Ontario, built Forest City Fights Back - a new initiative that London can be proud of.

Description: Reunite' is about confronting your past.

SWO Connection: The Director has worked and lived in Southwestern Ontario for the majority of my life working mostly in London and Hamilton.

Description: A Toast' is the follow up to Nameless Friends' debut EP 'Mezzanine', a record on the grief process. This video declares that surviving is worth celebrating.

SWO Connection: Nameless Friends is a London, Ontario rock band. They perform regularly in London and have toured across Southwestern Ontario several times.

SWO Connection: I was born and raised in Aylmer, Ontario, just outside of London. I attended Fanshawe College and completed the two-year Film Studies program in 2016.

Description: An encouraging tale of a young woman who evaluates her problematic relationship with her significant other. Unfortunately, they can’t undo the past.

SWO Connection: Filmed in Kitchener-Waterloo, Artist (JoJo) is from KW. Director (Edward) is from London, ON. Art director Kristyn Watterworth is from Toronto.

Description: It's easy to fear the unknown, but the miracle of humanity is its ability to come together in times of need. The grim effects of COVID19 hit hard across the entire world and affects each of us individually. While capturing the eerie desolation the power of community and support for Frontline & Essential workers undeniably shined through.

SWO Connection: This film was shot in London, Ontario.

Run Time: 5:56 min

Description: As identical twin sound engineers Angel and Clément celebrate the opening of their new recording studio, one of the brothers makes a startling confession about a past relationship.

SWO Connection: Both the director (Josh Litman) and Sound Editor (Alex Di Carlo) are from London, Ontario. Alex still lives and works in London.

Description: A young Afghan immigrant named Mina (Ana Golja) gets her first job in a nursing home and meets Luis (Louis Gossett Jr.), a resident with dementia. She accidentally discovers music is a trigger for Luis’ memories, and starts using it as a tool to awaken him. Mina finds out Luis was a famous musician back in Cuba, and the two develop and unlikely friendship that re-ignites her own love of music and changes her life forever. Winner of the Whistler Film Festival Best Cinematograpy, Los Angelos Pan African Film Festival Audience Choice award and Davinci Film Festival Best Feature Film.

SWO Connection: The Cuban was shot mostly in Brantford, Ontario.

Run Time: 1:49:00 min

Description: London artist Ron Benner takes us on a tour of his organic installation "As The Crow Flies" and explains its history, significance, and ongoing relevance. Joined by Andrew Kear, Head of Collections for Museum London, we peer into the inner workings of one of the most interesting and significant works in Museum London's collection, and gain a surprisingly intimate and candid understanding of the artist who created and maintains it.

SWO Connection: This short documentary was produced in London, ON by web.isod.es, a London-based digital story studio.

Run Time: 05:50 min

Description: With titles like Trip Dyck, Rod & Reel, and Handful, artist Donna Ibing’s penis paintings explore the use of humour as a method to investigate the male nude and the problem of the penis.

SWO Connection: Donna Ibing is a Hamilton-based artist and this film touches on her experiences with the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Burlington.

Run Time: 17:05 min

Description: There's No Place Like This Place, Anyplace looks at the transformation of a much-loved Toronto landmark, the Honest Ed's block, through the stories of its community members who are forced to relocate when it is sold to a developer. The film chronicles the evolution of their lives as they reconcile their history with the future, all while facing the biggest housing crisis the country has ever seen.

SWO Connection: Director Lulu Wei is from London, Ontario.

Run Time: 01:15:00 min

Description: Tattoo tells the story of Emma, a spunky teenager with a passion for anarchy and Karen, a hard-loving mother whose attempts at affection come across as stern and controlling. After an argument leads Emma to race out, with the help of her boyfriend, in the rebellious pursuit of getting a tattoo, Karen is forced to chase after her daughter for her well-being. What follows is a dramatic and high-stakes chase across town between mother and daughter.

SWO Connection: From New Hamburg, Ontario, Emma Lichti is the leading producer, and the film was shot and produced in Southern Ontario.

Run Time: 9:22 min

Description: Seeking Oblivion follows a young man struggling with depression following a suicide attempt. Is he the broken one, or do those around him need him more?

SWO Connection: Writer/director Brent Baird is a filmmaker born, raised, and still living in London Ontario.

Run Time: 1:26:50 min

Description: "A poetic narrative of a man reliving his most traumatic and cherished memories before death."

SWO Connection: This is a Sheridan College film, directed and produced by students from London and Mitchell, Ontario.

Run Time: 07:37 min

Description: "When a young First Nations client dies after being committed to police custody, social worker Stevie struggles to keep the troubled people she encounters away from the system she no longer trusts. Opening her East End Toronto home as a safe haven for people 'at risk' – George, an ex-con and chronic gambler, Tracy, a down and out musician, and Mina, a battered wife - Stevie tries to mend some broken lives, but she masks her own issues by burying herself in theirs. “I’d say get a life,” says her paramedic boyfriend Ben, “but you already have more than one!”

Stevie struggles as her personal issues intersect with the messy lives of her clients, while Ben, her former police detective colleague Gabe, and her co-worker, family lawyer Inez, all do their best to cope with Stevie's loving but conflicted interactions with the needy strangers in her midst.

Only when she defends Mina against her abusive husband Karl is Stevie confronted with the real dangers of crossing professional boundaries."

SWO Connection: The two actresses are from London, Ontario, and the Cinematographer is from St Catharines, Ontario.

Run Time: 1:40:43 min

Description: When hopeful dancer, Chelsea, lands the gig of her dreams, she rushes home to share the good news with her partner, Nick. When she gets home, Nick, greets her with big news of his own: his testicular cancer is back. His doctor advised that if they want to get pregnant, they have a small window, because, after the radiation, Nick, will be infertile. This means if Chelsea wants to have a child, she must turn down the gig, and get pregnant as soon as possible. Nick, for the first time in his life, is inspired to have a child, while Chelsea is paralyzed with indecision. The couple engage in a comedically heartbreaking conversation, as they wrestle with the impossible decision between letting her career soar or realizing his dreams of fatherhood.

SWO Connection: Our director, screenwriter and star Conor Casey studied in Hamilton for his undergraduate degree.

Run Time: 12:12 min

Description: When an uptight time-travelling obsessed young scientist is visited by his nihilistic future self, he's told that he needs to give up his dream of becoming the world's first time traveler, or else. But when he won't go along with the plan, it becomes a wicked battle of man versus himself - literally.

SWO Connection: Writer and director Jeremy Lalonde grew up in Caguya, Ontario, and graduated from Niagara College.

Run Time: 95:00 min

Description: Business man awaiting subway train is accosted by stranger and is almost thrown onto tracks. A small group of bystanders gather around the fight and thru their watching convey disapproval and the attacker suddenly stops and runs away. As the train pulls in the bystanders enter the train leaving the bereft and stunned man on the platform

SWO Connection: Director Terence McGlade lives in Kitchener.

Run Time: 5:10 min

Description: While young and in her prime, Nadia decides to retire from pro swimming after the Olympic Games to escape a rigid life of sacrifice. After her very last race, Nadia drifts into nights of excess punctuated by episodes of self-doubt. But even this transitional numbness cannot conceal her true inner quest: defining her identity outside the world of elite sports.

SWO Connection: One of our FCFF French Film Day films

Description: After narrowly escaping a raging forest fire, Plume (moth), wakes up to the healing hands of a wandering beetle named Barley. Determined to get better, Plume sets off on his road to recovery with Barley by his side. As his wings start to show promise, he decides to test them out and, with a leap of faith, ends up crash landing. When Plume falls deep into despair, Barley reveals a secret from her past to show Plume that flowers can still grow from ashes.

SWO Connection: This film was created by students at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.

Run Time: 5:51 min

Description: Two girls grow up as best friends in an Innu community. While Mikuan has a loving family, Shaniss is picking up the pieces of her shattered childhood. As children, they promised each other to stick together no matter what. But as they're about to turn 17, their friendship is shaken when Mikuan falls for a white boy, and starts dreaming of leaving the reserve that's now too small for her dreams. This beautiful film was nominated for 3 Canadian Screen awards in 2020: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

SWO Connection: This is part of our French Day and Indigenous series

Run Time: 1:57:00 min

Description: A bunny witch attempts to get her vegetable themed broomstick to fly.

SWO Connection: This film was created by students at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.

Run Time: 03:21 min

Description: Embark on an immersive and nostalgic soundscape journey through the immigrant life of Little Red without ever leaving her house. Created in loving memory of Yuning Shi.

SWO Connection: Director Jacqueline Shi is a second-year Film Studies student at the University of Western Ontario.

Run Time: 07:47 min

Description: When his parents announce their divorce, 10-year-old Neil assumes he’s dreaming and recruits his best friend to help him wake up.

SWO Connection: The film is produced by Franci Dimitrovska, who grew up in London, Ontario.

Run Time: 13:19 min

Description: When 17-year-old Maddie attends public school for the first time, she discovers dark secrets about her father and must reconciler herself with the father she thought she knew, and the father he may actually be.

SWO Connection: Lead actor Tyler Parr is from Southwestern Ontario.

Run Time: 12:40 min

Description: "As 14-year-old Hollie sews her first dress with her mother, she faces the decision all Mennonite girls must make as they reach adulthood. Will she put on the dress and become a full member of the Mennonite church and assume her role as a mother, or will she join the wider world? At the Mennonite store, as Hollie sorts through the fabrics to look for colors and patterns that appeal to her sensibilities, her voiceover reveals - with a certain trepidation - the life that she envisions for herself. At home, Hollie spread out the fabric and pattern with her mother, to prepare for cutting of the shapes and panels that will form her first dress. Her mother Deborah recounts how different it was when grandma helped her cut and sew her first dress. Through the story of Hollie's first dress, the mother passes to daughter the family values and community traditions that shape the girls' anticipation of their future roles as wife and mother."

SWO Connection: This project is the story of Hollie, a 14-year-old Markham Mennonite girl from Elmira, Ontario.

Run Time: 24:43 min

Description: Description: Fraser, 17, is a shy and introverted only child, but he speaks volumes on the court through his passion for basketball. Fraser has a chance to prove himself when the coach catches him practicing after school hours.

SWO Connection: One of the actors resides in St. Catherines, Ontario, and several members of our crew reside in Southwestern Ontario.

Run Time: 16:00 min

Description: With the highest per capita risk of life changing injury or death, agricultural accidents make farming the most dangerous profession in the developed world. Every year more than 100 people on average die in agricultural related accidents in Canada, with machinery related injuries being the most common. A much higher rate of life altering injury occurs, but is commonly brushed aside as a natural part of the job. Small town Zurich native TJ Klopp comes from generations of farmers. As long as he can remember, all he's wanted to do is farm. After working on his family farm in his childhood and into his teen years, attending school for agricultural studies, and eventually purchasing a farm of his own, TJ has established a solid business. Just last fall during harvest, TJ was caught in an inadequately shielded PTO shaft, and his leg was broken - but he was extremely lucky, PTO shaft injuries often result in limb amputation and death. Although the road to recovery was long, his community and his family worked hard to help him keep his farm running, and he's made a full recovery. Every day since his accident last fall, TJ has continued to put his life put at risk to perform a job that we take for granted on a daily basis, working as a cash crop, cattle and pig farmer. He has a passion for locally produced products, and partners with many small businesses to put food on the tables of his community. ​After being seriously injured doing the thing that he loves, how has TJ's perspective changed? What changes has he made to make his farm safer for himself and his family?

SWO Connection: The film’s subject lives an hour north of London, Ontario, and much of the crew is from Southwestern Ontario.

Run Time: 05:52 min

Description: "A true story of friendship between Dan Edwards and Zach Androschuk in the aftermath of a freak accident that left Dan paralyzed from the neck down. Dan Edwards and Zach Androschuk, the stars of this short documentary are both natives of Sarnia, Ontario, where the film is set. Director, Alex ""Cosmo"" Lutz, was also born and raised in Sarnia. He graduated from Fanshawe College's Advanced Filmmaking program in 2020. Producer Renat Absalyamov and director of photography Aniket Sawant, as well as the rest of the film's crew, are also Fanshawe graduates from the AFM, APP and Visual Effects programs. The original score was written by Luke Van Bakel, of Fanshawe’s APP program."

SWO Connection: Director Alex "Cosmo" Lutz was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario.

Run Time: 12:08 min

Description: "Featuring an intercontinental cast of best-selling authors, climate scientists and master flatualists, Who Farted? suggests that understanding our place in nature is essential to our continued existence as a species. If we can’t deal with our own flatulence, how can we hope to comprehend the looming climate catastrophe? While watching his twelve-year-old daughter’s school science project, Albert Nerenberg has a life-altering experience. The children describe how cow flatulence plays an outsized role in greenhouse gas generation. As the methane contained in bovine farts combines with CO2 pouring out of the world’s factories, automobiles and airplanes, it seems we are farting ourselves to oblivion. A frightened student, voice quavering, asks if farts will kill us all. Albert, shaken by his daughter’s revelations, sets out to discover the truth — a decision reinforced after Albert personally witnesses climate disaster in his own neighbourhood. Are farts malevolent? Disgusting? Beneficial? Hilarious? What exactly is a fart? And how much does animal flatulence truly contribute to runaway climate change? From antiquity’s first fart joke to the ubiquitous whoopee cushion, the act of flatus both amuses and dismays... and now may contribute to civilization’s demise. Who Farted? is a frightening, illuminating, and funny journey through the absurd reality of 21st Century human survival. Albert explores flatulence with best-selling authors Guilia Enders (Gut); Dani Rabaiotti (Does it Fart?); and the notorious Professor of Disgust, David Pizarro. He learns from leading climate scientists, including Europe’s Dr. Mojib Latif (Climate Change: The Point of No Return) and human extinction predictor Guy McPherson (Going Dark). He encounters climate change crusader Al Gore, and consults fart liberationist Mathew Silver. He visits animal scientists on two continents and discovers the truth about cow farts. At last, after a pivotal encounter at the World Farting Championships in Northern Finland with the world’s most flatulent man, Britain’s Mr. Methane, Albert believes he has found a path to staving off climate disaster. A collaboration between acclaimed Canadian documentary filmmakers Nik Sheehan (FLicKeR, No Sad Songs) and Albert Nerenberg (You are What you Act, Laughology), Who Farted? is the world’s first climate change documentary comedy — and hopefully not its last."

SWO Connection: Who Farted? was filmed in Toronto, Kingston, and Hamilton.

Run Time: 78:00 min

Description: After losing someone close to her, Aria, a professional musician, can’t seem to write songs anymore, though she has a lot to say. On the brink of throwing in the towel, she decides to give it one last try by going around the city, looking for inspiration and reigniting her creativity. Throughout the film, Aria is constantly haunted by memories of her past and tries to rewrite the way she thought they ought to have been. It is a story of regret, redemption and revelation through following a passion- music.

SWO Connection: The film was shot in London Ontario Canada. A few local businesses are featured and mentioned in the credits.

Run Time: 16:09 min

Description: Will visits his girlfriend, Emily, over 5 weekends. Emily's currently in school in another city and she lives with her kind of ex Aaron. Problems develop as the three try and figure out their relationship with each other.

SWO Connection: Brendan Hiles (Writer/Director), Ryan Haines (production team), Mauricio Blanco (production team), Andrew Dodd (cast), Adam Galloway (cast) are all Fanshawe College Alumni.

Run Time: 80:00 min

Description: A funeral march transforms into a circ

SWO Connection: This is a graduation film for Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.

Run Time: 01:30 min

Description: The cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge have public art programs with many installed works to explore, but how often do we really experience them? We see illicit visual art all around our city streets, but what do we know about it? Do we really need art? Should public funds be invested this way? Does street/graffiti art even have a place in our cities? StreetSauce makes a strong case for the importance of public art by shining a light on current works in progress, characters, storylines and artists in Waterloo Region. What does the future hold for our, sometimes controversial, public art scene?

SWO Connection: This film focuses on Waterloo, Ontario.

Run Time: 24:59 min

Description: Female musical artist, lemin., explores the struggles of balancing the ever clashing world of art and capitalism. lemin. shares her experiences with social media, being a female artist and rediscovering herself in a high pressure industry.

SWO Connection: The subject and director are from London, Ontario, and the student film crew attended Fanshawe College.

Run Time: 12:26 min

Description: "When May Cohen entered medical school in Toronto in the 1950s, practising medicine was a male preserve. Very few women thought of becoming doctors; fewer still imagined both having a career and also having children. Now, more than half the medical students in Canada are women. (But this gender change has by no means yet reached all echelons of the medical profession.) May’s parents were Jewish émigrés to Canada from Eastern Europe in the 1920s. Her social consciousness arose in large part from their intense progressive political engagement and activism, and she soon stood out as an extraordinarily accomplished and influential family physician with broad Canadian and international impact. In the 1970’s, May became a passionate campaigner for the pro-choice and women’s rights movements. She and her husband Gerry were pioneers in teaching medical students and family physicians about healthy sexual practices and eliminating sexual taboos and gender stereotyping. She established and led the renowned McMaster University Women’s Health Office and spearheaded broad acceptance of the notion that gender is a key determinant of individual and societal health. May advocated powerfully for the meaningful inclusion of women’s health in medical school curricula, LGBT rights, and for the equitable involvement of women doctors throughout the health sector. Even now in her eighties she is still sought after as a distinguished speaker at medical events. May and Gerry raised three children. They also welcomed literally thousands of medical students and young physicians into their home over the years, as an unusual act of fellowship, inspiration and role-modelling. Dr. May Cohen’s impacts as a physician, women’s health advocate, agent of social change, citizen and mother simply cannot be overstated. Dr. May Cohen has demonstrated that it is possible for women to balance professional, family and personal interests — and change the world."

SWO Connection: The filmmakers are family physicians who live and work in Hamilton at McMaster University, and in London at Western University.

Run Time: 47:23 min

Description: "A solitary gardener seeks to grow the perfect rose to place on his wife’s grave. This film was shot in Florence Ontario, and stars London-based actor John Gerry, was directed by London-born filmmaker Matthew Downs, and shot by Tillsonburg-born cinematographer Emily Debackere"

SWO Connection: The film stars London theatre icon, John Gerry in the leading role. It’s shot in Florence, Ontario and directed by Matthew Downs, born and raised in London.

Run Time: 10:41 min

Description: Following the death of her mother, Abby (Tuppence Middleton), a troubled young woman with a checkered past, returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls and the dilapidated motel her family used to run. While there, she finds herself drawn once again into a mystery that has haunted her since childhood: what happened to the young boy she saw being violently abducted in the woods twenty-five years ago? As Abby sets out to find out the truth, she must confront both a shocking, long-buried conspiracy that runs as deep as the falls themselves as well as her own inner demons. Bristling with an air of surreal menace, this mood-drenched thrilleris a tantalizing psychological puzzle box that unfolds in the hallucinatory realm between reality and perception. With David Cronenberg.

SWO Connection: The writer is from Niagara Falls in Southwestenr Ontario, and the film is set there.

Run Time: 100:00 min

Description: At a loss for communication, a young man accompanies his stoic traditional Chinese father-in-law to visit a loved one’s grave.

SWO Connection: The Director Alice Il Shin and co-writer Ian Hynd are living in London, Ontario.

Run Time: 08:45 min

Description: Phil Demers is a part-time mailman and ex-trainer at MarineLand, the iconic amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. With 27,000 followers on Twitter, he’s been named on the Jimmy Kimmel show, testified before the Canadian Senate, and is being sued for $1.5 million for plotting to steal a walrus.

SWO Connection: The film takes place in Niagara Falls.

Run Time: 88:00 min

Description: "A “documentary film crew” captures history unfolding, as a disgraced, but kind-hearted fertility specialist, Dr. William Han, tries to restart his career, embarking on a breakthrough medical trial in which four women will give birth to kittens!!!
Joan is in it for the money, trying desperately to pay law-school tuition, while her hippie-artist mother begs Joan to surrender to the arts. Sylvia, a working mom, can’t wait to surprise her kids by bringing home a furry pet that her husband isn’t allergic to. Maria and her fiancé, Jennifer, want to start a non-traditional family and put the money towards their wedding. And Rose…. Well, she just loves cats sooo damn much!
The cat-pregnancies must remain under-wraps for the duration of the medical trial, no easy feat considering the four kitty-mammas must hide their symptoms from their families and the world. But when William teams up with a savvy veterinarian from his past, Dr. Theresa Mackenzie, keeping the trial discrete becomes all but impossible. Her jealous ex-husband, Darryl, starts stalking the clinic, hell-bent on exposing the trial and ruining Dr. Han’s life… again.
Now, William must open up about his past, come clean about his feelings for Theresa and enlist the help of the four kitty-mammas if he wants to bring the world’s first truly hypo-allergenic cats into the word."

SWO Connection: Director Dennis Nicholson and Sound Designer Peter Hushca graduated from the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology here in London.

Run Time: 93:00 min

Description: A Single Mom and her teenage daughter communicate with sticky notes. A Single Mom is a drama short film which features exceptional relationship between a single mother and her teenaged daughter.

SWO Connection: One of the main actors is a Southwestern Ontario resident.

Run Time: 07:30 min

Description: A small family cooks a surprise pancake breakfast for their unsuspecting dad.

SWO Connection: This is a graduation film for Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.

Run Time: 01:26 min

Description: Breaking Up for the Modern Girl is an anthropological satire of heartbreak in the modern age. Young love/loss from a deadly female vantage point.

SWO Connection: This film was painstakingly edited by the incomparable Matthew Downs, hailing from London, Ontario.

Run Time: 08:15 min

Description: Five Indigenous women filmmakers from across Canada challenge one another to make a film under a set of restrictions tailored to each filmmaker.
Roberta (Film #1): Housewife and grandmother Roberta struggles to fit the conformist society she lives in and turns to amphetamines and booze to cure her boredom.
Skyworld (Film #2): A broken-hearted woman moves home to rebuild her life and give her young son roots through language and family.
BIHTTOŠ (REBEL) (Film #3): Bihttoš is an unconventional documentary that explores the complex relationship between a father and daughter. Through animation, reenactments, and archival photos,
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers delves into the dissolution of her parents' somewhat mythic love story and how it relates to the dissolution of her relationship with her father.
INTEMPERANCE (Film #4): In 1850, George Copway was the first Indian to publish a history of his nation, the Ojibway. Intemperance is a satire that brings to life a morally complex story of his people living in changing times.
AVILIAQ (ENTWINED) (Film #5): Set in a 1950's Inuit community, Aviliaq tells the story of two Inuit lesbians struggling to stay together in a new world run by outsiders.

Run Time: 73:00 min

Description: After obtaining a magical crayon that will turn the things they draw into reality, two sisters play a game of keep away while travelling through the magical worlds they create.

SWO Connection: This is a graduation film for Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.

Run Time: 02:57 min

Description: In 1998 Jaan Poldaas was an established minimalist and conceptual artist throughout Canada, with a celebrated career spanning three decades. One year later, Jaan vanished from the art world.
Guided by the charismatic artist himself, Jaan Poldaas: New Work unearths the reasons behind Poldaas’ puzzling departure and follows his triumphant return to painting with his most ambitious and important work yet.
The director of Jaan Poldaas: New Work, Patrick Barfoot's connection to Southwestern Ontario and London run deep. He grew up in Owen Sound, and would visit his mother's family in London often. It was in London where I completed my undergraduate's degree and where I fell in love with filmmaking. Also, Derrick O'Toole, producer, though currently based in Toronto, was born and raised in London.

SWO Connection: Director Patrick Barfoot spent 5 years at Western University and now returns to London, Ontario to settle.

Run Time: 27:00 min

Description: The city is a canvas in Cité Mémoire providing 20 story high backgrounds for the world famous projections on the walls of Old Montreal. Characters from the past emerge nightly from the bricks and stones creating visual poetry that has captured millions of spectators from around the globe. Into the Light takes us behind the scenes to discover how the walls whisper to us through cinematic projections that reimagine Canadian history.

SWO Connection: Janice Zolf is from London.

Run Time: 44:31 min

Description: Unbound Revival provides a glimpse into the Fanshawe Fashion Design class of 2020 as they transformed their educational experience into a poetic, refashioned runway experience.

SWO Connection: This is a film about Fanshawe College’s students and faculty.

Run Time: 15:00 min

Description: As Mitzi Bearclaw turns 25 years-old, she is faced with a tragic decision – stay in the big city to pursue her dream of designing hats or leave her boyfriend and return home to her isolated reserve to help care for her sick mother. Loyal to her family, Mitzi reluctantly returns to Owl Island to find that not much has changed. Her confidence and modern style clash with the sleepy, slow-paced island; the bullies are the same; the handsome Honeyboy is still running the water taxi; and Mitzi’s mother is still as bitter and unloving as ever. She’s also reunited with her spiritual friends, Faith, Hope, and Charity who guide her as she navigates a year of anger, loss and love. Mitzi is soon surprised to find comfort in being home and starts to question her destiny.

Description: One day, a shy boy named Carl wins the biggest prize of his life from a mysterious old lady.

SWO Connection: This is a graduation film for Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.

Run Time: 02:14 min

Description: INHALE documents the emotional journey of the Chappell family and how their daughter’s struggle with Cystic Fibrosis have helped them to live in the moment. Cystic fibrosis is a fatal genetic disease affecting over 70,000 children and young adults worldwide. At present, there is no cure.

SWO Connection: The family was from London, Ontario, and moved St Thomas.

Run Time: 09:14 min

Description: A short meditative documentary about the legacy of Kingston’s Prison for Women told through the women of the P4W Memorial Collective.

SWO Connection: The cinematographer and her family are from London, Ontario.

Run Time: 22:29 min

Description: Mr. Emancipation is the story of Walter L Perry’s determination to put on a celebration that would transcend divisions of race and class. He staged an Emancipation Day festival that was where everyone wanted to be. Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr, Jesse Owens all headed there because, as civil rights activist Dick Gregory said ""The largest Juneteenth celebration was not in America, it was in Windsor, Canada.”
A celebration of ending slavery sounds grim.
What Walter Perry organized was the exact opposite of grim. For him the Emancipation Weekend was a celebration of life and escape from reality.
In the mid-twentieth century, Windsor and Detroit were far from models of harmonious integration. There was blatant discrimination and segregated communities on both sides of the border. But somehow, in the midst of racial tension and fear, all differences were put aside once a year, and black culture was celebrated by everyone.
Imagine a miles-long parade. The smell of soul food. Whirling carnival rides. There was live music, talent shows and even the Miss Sepia beauty pageant (the first international beauty pageant for Black women).
At its peak the event doubled the City of Windsor's population of 100,000.
From 1936 until 1967, that's how Walter Perry celebrated freedom. Perry and his celebration got caught up in the overheated racial politics of the day, sabotage and race riots of 1967 in Detroit. His event never recovered that year and shortly after Walter Perry died…. but the spirit of Mister. Emanciaption still lives on.

SWO Connection: Writer/ director Preston Chase was born and raised in Windsor Ontario, and footage of Southwestern Ontario towns are used in the film.

Run Time: 61:00 min

Description: My Waking Nightmare is a horror-inspired miniature documentary about Becca Serena: a young woman whose life has been irreversibly altered by chronic insomnia. Blending documentary realism with terrifying surrealism, the film visualizes Becca's struggles against sleepless nights, terrible nightmares and mental health crises in vivid detail; only to prove her strength in overcoming these issues as the film progresses. The short documentary chronicles Becca's personal journey through terror and triumph, whilst drawing attention to the severity of insomnia as a whole.

SWO Connection: The director and featured subject of this documentary short are both graduates of Western University in London, Ontario.

Run Time: 04:59 min

Description: Pedro Opeka declined an opportunity to play professional soccer in his native Buenos Aires. He chose instead to become a missionary and live in one of the poorest countries in the world. The son of a bricklayer, he convinced destitute families living in Madagascar’s largest landfill that he could teach them how to build their own houses and, in the process, build their dignity. After 30 years of construction, fighting increasing poverty and political instability, Opeka has created a highly functional city within this dysfunctional African nation. His mission is to prepare the children he saves to one day save their own country.

SWO Connection: Director Cam Cowan was born in Petrolia, Ontario and spent his early years in London, Ontario.

Run Time: 89:00 min

Description: While trying to navigate life as he enters his 30s, Ryan slips further into loneliness. A chance meeting with a friend's boyfriend, Sam, changes that trajectory, and as they grow closer, Ryan must come to terms with who he is, and what that means for him and the life he's been living.

SWO Connection: Writer/director Mark Weeden grew up in Cambridge, Ontario and attended Wilfrid Laurier University.

Run Time: 107:00 min

Description: This story encapsulates the figurative and literal end of summer. Carefree youth spent getting up to consequence free shenanigans ends at a certain point and like how Labour Day brings about the end of summer the feeling that summer brings as a teenager eventually ends. Mel and James tries to keep it alive for one more night knowing that this life won't last. Shot in Grand Bend by a Grand Bend native.

SWO Connection: Direcotr Tyson Breuer is from Grand Bend, Ontario, and the film is alos set in Grand Bend.

Run Time: 08:00 min

Description: From The Vine is the story of a downtrodden CEO experiencing a moral crisis that travels back to Italy to recalibrate his moral compass. He discovers new life by reviving his Nonno's old vineyard, offering the small town of Acerenza a sustainable future and reconnecting with his family in the process. Combining magic realism and Italian neorealism, and set against the backdrop of wine country Italy, the film is about finding your roots in your family when you're at the bottom of the barrel.

SWO Connection: Ken Cancellara, the writer of the book the film is based on, spent many years in Collingwood, Ontario.

Run Time: 94:00 min

Description: Two different women are subjected to the uncompromising subversions of the male gaze. The Male Gaze explores the female perspective on a culture that is created and perpetuated by the male gaze. Their experience is revealed through a phone message confessional. The confessions give insight into a females emotional state and reveal what it means to experience a lonely and subtle form of harassment.

SWO Connection: The director/writer is from London, Ontario, and the cast and crew are all students at Fanshawe College.

Run Time: 11:02 min

Description: Four notorious thieves wake up in a fortified warehouse and are forced by a cunning master thief to plan and commit an extraordinary diamond heist.

SWO Connection: Writer Geoff Hart is a London local, and director Jesse Ikeman graduated from the Ivey Business School of Western University.

Run Time: 78:00 min

Description: When the Philadelphia public-school system began losing almost all the funding for its music-education programs in 2007, thousands of instruments in need of repair were forced into retirement, and community members moved to action. In this triumphant new documentary by Hamilton Filmmaker, Charlie Tyrell, we are introduced to a few of the innovators, educators, volunteers, advocates, and musicians behind Symphony for a Broken Orchestra, a music and art project begun in 2017 that raised awareness for the issue, helping to get those broken instruments back into Philadelphia students' hands. Symphony for a Broken Orchestra was originally created and commissioned by Temple Contemporary at Temple University, USA. Original support for Symphony for a Broken Orchestra was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.

SWO Connection: Part of the film was shot in Hamilton, Ontario. Director Charlie Tyrell is from Ancaster, Ontario.

Run Time: 11:49 min

Description: Three young Cuban baseball players leave their families and risk exile to train in Central America and chase their dreams of playing in the Major Leagues.

SWO Connection: Director-producer Sami Khan was born in Sarnia, Ontario

Run Time: 1:24:00 min

Description: "The Thing of Feathers’ is a documentary about a group of ambitious and resilient refugee women here in London, Ontario. Most of these women left their homes and families behind in Syria and Iraq and fled the war zone to come and have a second shot at a better life in Canada and a local business that is helping them achieve their dreams. Their stories are empowering.
At the end of the day, this is a story about hope. Hope, the one thing that gives them the power to keep going.
“Because “Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all -...” - Emily Dickinson"

SWO Connection: This was filmed in London Ontario Canada by a crew of comprising of film students from Fanshawe College's Advanced Filmmaking program.

Run Time: 14:32 min

Description: Beatriz gets a second chance after failing in almost every aspect of her life while working as a substitute psychologist in her eccentric aunt's school. Funny enough, this school used to be her family's estate.

SWO Connection: The Columbian Population in SWO is large

Run Time: 90:00 min

Description: Midland Motel Room 77' tells the tale of reincarnate lovers on the run after robbing a bank. We are thrust into their journey as they make their escape to Northern Ontario.

SWO Connection: The Bawaadan Collective lives, work, and are community members of Southern Ontario. Our membership stretches from Ottawa, to Tkaronto, Neyaashiinigmiing, and Hamilton.

Description: Aspiring inventor Flint Lockwood develops a machine that converts water into food. After the machine gains sentience, Flint must destroy his creation in order to save the world.

SWO Connection: Kris Pearn was the Head of Story on this. He grew up in the London Region and attended Sheridan College's Animation program This is Kris's first Major film and he went on to director Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and the Willoughbys.

Run Time: 90 min

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